Lock Picking is BRILLIANT!

Lock Picking is brilliant! It really is. There was a time when I didn't know how to pick locks and it didn't feel that good. I remember wanting to, I remember thinking about it, but I couldn't do it. And even though I had an understanding of how it worked, not being able to do it was very frustrating. Why wouldn't you want to be able to pick locks? I can't understand that. The feeling I get when I open a new lock - even now, decades after the first, is incredible, I feel like I've cracked a puzzle that existed to do two things: 1 - lock a door, 2 - Require a key to open it. And without using a key I managed to open the door. Cool, eh? An old man once said to me - with a certain amount of enviable conceit - 'Lock Pickers walk through walls'. Don't we just.

Locks are the fruit of the tree that is physical security. These things are DESIGNED to withstand our attacks. They have loads of different techniques to prevent us from doing our thing. They have the keyway, wards, spool and mushroom pins, they have sidebars and pins in pins (PINS IN PINS!!!) they have magnetic pins and they have dimple pins. The people who make lever locks literally put a curtain in the way of the levers. A CURTAIN!!! We got round it, lol, we made picks that creep under the curtain. We made picks to deal with sidebars, we learned techniques to deal with security pins. We bumped, raked, picked, shook, and impressioned them. We used foil, rubber, light and magnets to solve these endless puzzles. They sold you a lock to protect your possessions and family and with a bit of mica we opened it without a whisper. With every lock picked, with every video uploaded to the public realm we said 'Your locks don’t work' and they upped their game. We did it again and they upped their game again. With every lock picked we improved security. If it wasn't for the likes of us we'd be locking our doors with wooden pegs.

We opened a lock with a paperclip. We opened our bicycle locks with a pen or a bit of cardboard. The Kaba Simplex, at over £100 a pop was opened with a magnet. Era called its new mortice lock a 'Fortress' and we opened it with two bits of wire. Medico threw the book at the lock with almost every possible security device present in their 'biaxial' lock. We bumped it.

Lock Picking is the stuff of dreams and opens a portal between the two worlds. The look of amazement on a person’s face when the lock open against all the odds is remarkable, it's like a child seeing a magician, it's like a wizard casting spells, it acquires a new relevance when they realise how much they invest in these items, how much they rely on them to protect them. When the light go off it's a lock that divides you, your family and your possessions from the world. When it melts in the hands of a lock picker it’s time to think again, it’s time to be honest about the situation. Can this be true? Is it a trick? Surely you can't open a lock like that?

The locks will keep coming, the pickers will keep picking. It's the most amazing skill to pick a lock, it’s intriguing, it's amazing, and it’s something that will fill you with joy and amazement again and again! Anyone can learn to pick locks, anyone can be part of the movement. You get some picks, you get some locks and you start transforming yourself into something wonderful, someone extraordinary. 

Would you like to pick locks? Why wouldn't you? It's brilliant.