There is a strange satisfaction that comes with using everyday items such as bobby pins to pick locks. A satisfaction that brings with it a level of confidence that screams to the heavens, “I am the master of my destiny, let no door, padlock, nor any such annoyance stand in my way for I am a Lock picker, master of pins and destroyer of the feeble concept of security.” If you too would like to scream these words into the night and learn how to pick a lock with a bobby pin then keep reading as this guide is for you. If you are looking for a complete guide to lock picking, check out our comprehensive beginners guide to lock picking! However if picking locks with bobby pins is what you are here for, continue on! Before we get started let’s clear up a common question that many of you reading may have. Is it difficult to pick a lock with a bobby pin? Not at all! Lock picking is not a difficult skill to acquire if you understand the basic concepts behind it and how locks themselves work. That is the aim of this guide, to give you a basic understanding of lock picking. To grant you the knowledge and skills to not only succeed but to do so gracefully. For the purpose of simplicity, this guide will be broken into three short sections: Crafting Our Bobby Pin Lock Picks How a Lock Works How to Pick a Lock With A Bobby Pin 1. Crafting Our Bobby Pin Lock Picks Our first order of business is crafting our tools. Accomplishing the goal of picking a lock will require two things, a pick, and a tension wrench. The purpose of the pick, as we will see later, is to push a series of pins up and out-of-the-way so that they no longer block the lock’s plug from rotating. The tension wrench, on the other hand, is used to apply rotational torque to the lock, just as a key would. The purpose of each tool will make more sense once we understand how exactly a lock works, so until then let’s get to bending some bobby pins. Note: While lock picking can be accomplished by means of a couple bobby pins, having the right tools will exponentially increase your success in both picking locks and developing your skills. A basic set of lock picks is a relatively low-cost investment and will include all the tools you need. A fantastic and cheap starter set for any beginner is SouthOrds 8 Piece Lock Pick Set! SouthOrd 8 Piece Lock Pick Set CHECK IT OUT! However, if you wish to proceed MacGyver style, continue reading. Bobby Pin Lock Pick Forming our bobby pin lock pick is a very short and simple task. The first thing we have to do is remove the rounded tip from the straight side of the bobby pin. This can be accomplished easily by using fingernails, pliers, or even your teeth. Once the rubber end if off we can begin making our bends. Start by pulling the bobby pin apart and roughly straightening it as such. Next, stick the straight end of the bobby pin about one centimeter, or about 1/3 of an inch, into the keyhole of your lock and apply enough pressure to bend the end of the pin into a hook. The result should look something similar to this. Now that we have our completed lock pick, let’s move on to forging our tension wrench. Bobby Pin Tension Wrench The tension wrench has the very uncomplicated shape of an “L” and this makes forming it as simple as a single bend. Start by placing the closed end of the bobby pin about an inch into your locks keyhole and firming apply pressure downward until you bend the pin 90 degrees. That’s all there is to it. We may now have a usable set of lock picking tools, but before we can attempt to pick any locks it is important to first understand how exactly a pin and tumbler locking mechanism works. 2. How a Lock Works For the purpose of this guide, we will subtly cover the basic concepts of pin and tumbler lock picking. These types of locks are the most common utilized lock today. A basic pin and tumbler lock is composed of five main components: the plug, driver pins, key pins, springs, and a housing to hold everything together. While all of this has its importance, our main concern is that of the “shear line.” This line is the physical gap that separates the plug from the housing and, by means of the pins, is the reason why a lock won’t turn without the appropriate key. When the correct key is placed into the lock, it pushes the key pins flush with the shear line and as a result, the driver pins are forced out of the plug. When the difference between the key pins and driver pins is exactly the same as the shear line, we can then rotate the plug and disengage the lock. This can be better understood by the animation below. So as we can see, the objective of lock picking is to mimic the key by means of pushing the pins flush with the shear line, thus allowing us to rotate and disengage the lock. But a question remains: How do we keep the pins from falling back into the plug when we remove the pressure of the pick? The answer: torque. When we apply rotational tension to the plug, by means of the tension wrench, we force the pins to bind between the housing and the plug. To fully understand why this is important we need to first take a step back and look at the plug itself. The Plug: Manufacturing Flaws A simple reality is nothing is ever produced without its flaws. There is always going to be some error involved, some tolerance to flaws given. It is this tolerance in production flaws that allows us to manipulate locks and can determine the quality of the lock. Let’s take a look. During the production of [...]
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