Lockpicking

My way into Locksports

My lockpicking journey began, as so many do, with the purchase of a 10€ Ali Express picking kit. When it arrived I tried my luck on randomised locks I had at home. As it turns out, this is absolutely not a good way to learn lockpicking, but only one thing: frustrating It doesn't work and you don't know why. So I did what every good hacker does.
I tried harder
I told myself that it's a skill you don't need anyway, that it's no fun, the digital world has much more appealing challenges and I wouldn't have time to reach a level where my skills would be useful without investing thousands of hours anyway.
But of course I could if I wanted to.
Just like I could have become a doctor, if i really wanted to.
So I let the self-deception win and pursued the subject of lockpicking rather passively for a few years. Here and there the Lockpicking Lawyer, Lock Noob and McNally appeared in my feed, but I could never bring myself to start.

Where should you start?
Don't I need a proper collection of locks first?
Are my cheap Asian lock picks even good enough to pick something?
Until about around 2023, that was exactly where I was. I always had my pickset in my bagpack. Just in case you might need it after all.
Until one fateful holiday.
As a family, we had a wonderful holiday flat with several saunas, included within the flat. At least that was the implication within the flats description.
What was not in the description of the flat was that the sauna should cost extra. We only found this out when we were faced with the following:

Here should be a picture of an overpriced sauna!

8€ for 3 hours?
With 3 Saunas in total, running at the same time, heating time, thats 6 hours per sauna, totaling in 48€.
A fair price for it, if you know about it upfront.
A bit much if you assume that it is included in the price.
...
See the little Lock there?
Cheap Eurolock-style lock. Both my brother and I had a lockpicking set from the Asian online shop with us. A little playing around and trying out what I've read online, a bit of raking from my brother and shortly afterwards, we had opened the locks and nobody had to pay extra for the sauna sessions.

While I disapprove of using lockpicking for illegal activities, I disapprove even more of squeezing a few extra euros out of a four-figure rent for a week, without it being communicated transparently.

Why am I talking about how we picked some cheap lock in some small holiday flat in Germany? Because that sparked it. The spark of actually opening a lock without having a key for it. Overcoming a security system. The same spark that got me hooked on hacking IT systems back then.
So I bought the first lock that came along that wasn't too expensive.

‘Lockpicking Lawyer always makes it look so easy, even with the high security locks...then I'll probably manage a small one. If it's cheap, it will be easy.’.

Here should be a picture of an ABUS Silver Rock!

It wasn't and i didn't.
Worse.
I destroyed one of my asian picks in the process.
So I did what every good beginner does.
I bought expensive tools because I'm sure it's just the cheap alibaba lockpicks. With good tools I certainly have more skill and am good at this new hobby which I have hardly practiced yet!
I didn't.
So I realized that it is NOT just a bit of trial and error that leads to the goal. And that it's NOT the tool that's getting me nowhere. So the only thing that remained was that my approach of “Oh, some random lock will do it lol” might not be the smartest way to go.
No shit sherlock.

So i started looking for resources on how others do it and learned Lockpicking. I stumbled upon the subreddit r/lockpicking and found “how to start” guides.
Through this I found lpubelts.com, which has locks organized by belt color. From white, to yellow, to orange, to green and so on, all the way to black.
This way i learned, that the Silver Rock lock from earlier is actually an orange ranked lock. Just like the fact that aluminum locks have significantly less feedback than brass locks, making it not a great beginner lock.

Learnings

First of all: To try it all out, 10€ Alibaba lock picks are enough. Better picks don't make you a better picker. After trying out that you enjoy it, it makes sense to invest in a good set from a reputable manufacturer.

Secondly: DO NOT BUY RANDOM LOCKS.
At least not as long as you are still at the beginning of lockpicking. You can't judge a lock from the outside.
Does it have security pins?
How difficult is the lock to pick?
As a beginner, you should be able to answer these questions if you want to learn how to pick. Otherwise it can and will get frustrating very fast.

Thirdly: Videos are great. But it's worth nothing without practice. Just like with any other skill, practicing and trying out is the only way to be able to apply the theory. Create periods of time in which you can simply practise and integrate it into your everyday life. For me, it's long meetings at work and evenings in front of the TV, watching series, streams or YouTube videos.

What to expect


As the question of how quickly you can reach what level comes up from time to time: It depends.
My failed attempts, which I have described here, took place over a period of around 8 months. A little on/off, tried every now and then, but never really actively pursued it.
I've been actively pursuing it since mid-2024, so in about half a year. In that six months, I've managed to get to what I think is a reasonable level. I pick a lot of green level locks relatively confidently and am currently working on my first blue lock (Paclock 90A-Pro).
In my opinion, you can get to a level where you can pick most padlocks within 3-4 months if you just practise in front of the TV in the evenings.

To summarize:

- 10€ alibaba pickset is enough to try out.
- Go for yellow brass locks to start with. (Burgwächter 405/40 is great as a starting point)
- Incorporate it into your daily routine if you don't do anything else with your hands or would be distracted by your cell phone.
- Just have fun, don't do anything illegal and take advantage of the resources in the community.