There is a ton of material out there about lockpicking and how to get good at it. There isn’t a whole lot of material about actually building a collection of locks with which to practice. As someone who has been very good at lockpicking and taught it for a living for five years I can tell you: having access to a large number of locks is essential. Today I’m going to talk about how to build a lock library that supports learning and progress.
Know a Knot! Directional Figure Eight
In this installment of Know A Knot we’re going to talk about a knot that kicked my butt for a long time. It’s a middle-of-the-line loop called the directional figure eight.
Security Sunday: Weekly Gear Maintenance
All of us have a lot of crap to do. Aside from getting dinner on the table every night, there are all these periodic tasks, like changing smoke detector batteries, paying taxes, backing up our computers, getting oil changes, etc. Most of us are probably tracking most of that stuff mentally. I have been looking for a way to make some of this stuff easier to track, and I’ve found a pretty decent solution: “Security Sunday” (you don’t have to call it that – I just needed a title for this article).
Lock Safari: Dublin, Ireland
Last year I had the opportunity to spend some time in Belfast, Dublin, and Cork. Unfortunately, most of my time was spent in Dublin – my least favorite of the three. Recently I was reviewing my photos from that trip and realized how many noteworthy locks I actually found there. This will probably only be of interest to the lock nerds. If you aren’t you can still get something out of this: most American locks are junk compared to the locks used by the rest of the world.
My Favorite Books Part 2
At the time of writing restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic are easing in many areas. Still, I hope many of you are finding some time to read some books. If you’re looking for something to read, I am going to offer some of my favorite books, and I’ll keep this series going, hopefully well into the future.
Life is General. Embrace the Coyote.
I was recently a guest on Matt Robertson’s excellent Everyday Marksman Podcast. The first question Matt asked me hinted at something. He wanted to know how I got into writing about the stuff I write about which amounts to, well, little bit of everything. The answer I wish I had given him? Life is general!
Patreon Benefit: Extra Writing
This week I spent several hours answering reader emails. I’m not complaining – I am extremely flattered that some of you care about my opinion enough to actually ask, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I make every effort to respond to everyone who writes in. I realized halfway through writing my fifth or sixth 1,000+ word reply this week that if one person has the question, multiple people could probably benefit from the answer. Which leads me to the point of this post…
High-Security Mechanical Locks
Outside of a very few specialized fields high-security locks are almost totally unknown. Even in the field of locksmithing where high-security locks are known, they are often misunderstood. Today I am going to offer you a primer on the fascinating world of high-security mechanical locks, the security benefits they offer, and what they can’t do for you.
Know a Knot! The Retrace Figure 8
In this installment of Know-a-Knot we are going to build on a knot we already know: the Figure Eight Loop. The Figure Eight has many variations, and this isn’t the last version of the Figure Eight that I will show you. This week is kind of special because we are actually going to learn two knots: the Figure of Eight, and the Retrace Figure Eight.
Homestead One-Year Progress Report
Last week I gave you guys some insight into what I looked for when I purchased my home and land. Today I’m going to give you a progress report on what I’ve done in the roughly one year since moving there.