(dramatic music) - [Terry] Hi, my name is Terry,
and this is the first video of many videos on how to pick locks. Now, this is basically
aimed for locksmiths, not for lock sport. But what we'll talk
about is the difference, right now, is locksmiths have
a certain amount of time, we're for-profit, we have
to pick open the lock in a set period of time,
and if we can't pick it, then we have to use
other methods of entry. And that could be slipping the lock, finding the fault in it, up to and including drilling the lock. And there's no shame, for a locksmith, to drill a lock if he's been
practicing how to pick locks, you know, not every lock is pickable in a certain amount of time. Then we have, on the other extreme, what I call government lock picking. There's no budget or time
when that lock has to be open. That is basically covert and overt methods of opening a lock, and
there is no time limit. And then the other extreme is lock sport, and I absolutely love lock sport, learn a lot of things off them. But again, it's different. How they're going about
picking locks is not, you know, they're in it for fun, they can have all sorts of different tools or specialized tools meant
just for that one lock. And lock sport is great, I love it, I think all locksmiths should
be involved in lock sport, it's just too much fun. But, on that extreme, they're
doing it for pleasure, they're doing it for fun,
they're not doing it for money, they have one way of sort
of getting through it. So they wanna pick the
lock, with special picks or regular picks, and
get through that lock. This series is more
geared for the locksmiths that have to pick the
locks and have to open it. I've been doing this for a long time, and I've been teaching a lot of people. I think I made this when
I was about 11 years old. It used to have a safe dial in there. I didn't have this method, I sort of evolved into this method, but what I used to do
is have a lot of locks. And what I've found is if you take a lock out of a box or bag, and
you pick it in your hand, you're not really learning how to do it for when you get out onto the
job and into the real world. So you may be a great lock picker when you're holding the
lock, but the bottom line is, you get to put your whole body into it, and that is a really good
advantage that lock sport has, because your whole body is sort of moving and getting into it and you
get a good feel for the lock. When the lock is on the
door, or the padlock's locked on the hasp on a wall,
basically I'm talking about it's a door lock, it's on the cabinet or whatever, it's fixed. I'm a firm believer picks have to be made in North America, or Germany. There may be other European
countries, probably England, but right now, North America. The US makes some of the
best lock picks in the world, but they are geared for
North American-made locks. We have a lot of off-shore
stuff from China, I don't like them. The quality is not there. These things are crappy,
they bend, they break. They look really cool for the beginner, you know, there's all
sorts of fun-looking picks and everything, but no. Don't buy anything
off-shore, Chinese-made, now I'm talking the regular lock picks. We all know Lishi is made in China, and it's a phenomenal product. Beginners get a little bit
too hung up on the picks, and the style, and all
these different menageries. It's kinda cool to have, I
love opening up the picks, this is just a set I grabbed. You know, I have a nice
collection of picks, and you'll see them over
this series, what I have, and whatever, but when
I'm teaching beginners, and I have another video on this as well, but I'm gonna go over it again here, the three most important
picks for beginners, not advanced, and not as you move along, but start with the basics. And the basics can be
called is the diamond pick, the rake or the snake, and the hook. Now I find for beginners,
the rake is a great pick to start with, and most people
who win the competitions or some of the best lock
pickers, actually use a hook. And I have my favorites, but
when I'm teaching beginners, you start with the basics, and at least start with these three picks. The hook, the diamond, and
the rake, or the snake. And again, this is a HP set, there's other sets, the Peterson sets. Handles is whatever you want. Now these are good for beginners, some people have nice fancy wooden ones, some people have nothing,
these are good beginner picks. These are tension wrenches, you can call them whatever you want. My granddad called them tension wrenches, my dad and my uncle called
them tension wrenches, and it's for turning. Just for turning, not
for opening the lock, use a screwdriver, but
the tension wrenches. And these are probably the most important part of your lock pick kit. It's just for beginners,
I like the flexible one, it's just spring steel, and then I like the rigid or the firm one. Tension is the most important
thing for picking a lock. It's probably the most important part. And don't believe anything you've read that says tension doesn't
matter and all this other stuff. I can't believe I read that
in several lock picking books that tension doesn't matter. Tension is the most important. And again, for beginners,
we don't worry which way we're picking the lock, all
we wanna do for starters is get the feel and how we pick it. I consider three methods
of picking the locks. The first method is raking, the second method is
called the French method or the feel method, of course
the French like to call it the feel method, but
it's really called SPP. And SPP stands for single pin picking. And single pin picking is
the most effective way. The method I like, we'll
call it the Terry method, or the method that I find
most effective for me, that I've evolved, I
find sometimes the locks are just ready to be opened. So what I do is I apply light tension, I rake it a couple times, and sometimes the lock just opens. So I start right off, apply tension, rake it a couple times, and it pops open. If it doesn't pop open, I'll let go to make sure I hear click, click, click, or feel it that I've actually
been picking a few pins. I'll apply light tension,
I'll rake it a couple times, and I'll show you the methods, and then I'll go in and I'll do SPP. The three methods of picking a lock. Raking, which is great for
beginners to get the feel for it. Single pin picking, which
takes a while to develop, and the rake and feel
method is what I use. I rake it, and then I
feel, then I do the SPP. That's the three major
methods to pick a lock, and we'll go into the techniques
for each method right now. I hope you enjoyed watching this video. Subscribe to my channel,
also visit my website and you can see what
online locksmith training I have for beginners,
intermediate, and advanced, as well as my covert methods of entry and my non-destructive methods of entry. (dramatic whooshing)
