We’ve all considered lock picking at some stage, often when we’ve lost the key or locked ourselves out someplace. So here are a couple of ways you can make your own lock picks, both the traditional type, and using a computer hard drive!!

Firstly there’s a 24 minute instructional video on YouTube which gives you a detailed tutorial on making your own lock picks. Have a look on YouTube for “lock picking” and related keywords, as there are plenty of videos to help you pick locks using simple devices.

Secondly is the article that shows you how to pick locks with a hard drive, a mouse, and also a network card. The article takes you through a variation of a lock pick gun which exploits vibration to open a lock. Cool huh?

The EZ Snap Lock Pick Gun was designed for law enforcement officers in the US so that they could pick locks without spending significant time learning how to pick locks.

The lock pick gun uses a sharp and fast motion to force the pins up into the lock. With traditional lock picking, you force each individual pin up into the lock. Therefore the lock pick gun adds a little brute force and removes some of the fine skill when lock picking. You still need some skill to use the lock pick gun, but it simplifies things a great deal!

The snap gun is a great tool for law enforcement, property managers, storage unit owners, school caretakers or anyone who needs to open up tumbler locks without a key (and legally of course!).

This fantastic little Wallet Lock Pick Set is ideal for carrying lock picking gear with you at all times. The wallet is made from soft leather, with space for credit cards, ID cards, pictures and of course, money! The lock picks are hidden from view using the picture tab, so you can be more discrete with what you are carrying. However, I imagine airports will not allow you to take this on to the plane, particularly in the US!

The lock pick kit comes with 4 lock picks, 1 extractor tool, and 2 tension wrench tools. The Tradenet UK site has lots of training resources to get you started. It’s definitely worth having a look around on the site, simply because its so interesting!

Locksport International have released a simple and visual guide to lock picking, which I thoroughly recommend. And its free too! If you fancied having a go at picking locks, now’s the best time to have a go.

Have you wanted to pick locks? You see it in all the films, and it only takes 5 seconds and a couple of paper clips… yeah, right. When you try it for yourself, you quickly realise that its much harder than that!

I bought a lock picking practice board just like the one of the left, and a set of lock picks. It took me 2 weeks with about 15 minutes practice a day, but I found that I could rake the lock (which has 5 pins), and pick it! The actual picking process involves pushing each individual pin inside the lock until it catches inside the barrel, where you can then turn the tension wrench and open the lock.

Raking is a faster process which can be likened to a kind of brute force technique, but is very effective. What you are doing is trying to push all of the pins up so that they stick, as you rapidly move the rake tool back and forth inside the lock.

If you want to try your hand at lock picking, I strongly recommend a company called Tradenet UK as they have many lock picking tools, training kits and instructional resources to buy at surprisingly low prices. If you’ve always fancied a bit of lock picking, why not get it out of your system, and try it! Sure, its really cool to be able to pick a lock, but there have been 2 separate occasions where it actually came in useful!