I have never carried any real lock defeat gear in my EDC. I just didn’t see the need. In the few short months I’ve worked part-time at EMS I’ve had the need to bypass some locks to get to patients. This has caused me to reconsider my position. Now I carry a minimalist EDC lockpick kit for such emergencies. Today I’ll talk about what’s in that kit, and how it might apply to you.
How to Shim a Door…and Protect Yours
Today I am going to present two techniques, one offensive and one defensive. The first is how to shim a door using the ol’ “credit card trick.” The second is how to protect your doors from being shimmed.
Common Lock Nomenclature: Lock Cylinders
A few weeks ago I wrote an article discussing the nomenclature of a key. Today I am going to discuss some basic lock nomenclature, and look at various lock form-factors. In future posts discussing protection measures for your locks (and possibly some defeats) it is important to have a reference for various nomenclatures used.
How To Build a Lock Library
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.
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.
Deadbolt Security I: Forced Entry Resistance
In my last post on physical security I talked about improving the security of your locking knobset. This time I am going to talk about the real workhorse of personnel door security: the deadbolt. I will talk about what to look for if you are looking for new deadbolt, as well enhancing deadbolt security on locks you already own/have installed .
Common Lock Nomenclature: Key Anatomy
Today I’m going to post on some common key anatomy and nomenclature. I understand that this isn’t incredibly riveting information to most of you. For those of you with an interest in locks and lock defeat, however, this is very important groundwork. This post should serve as a useful reference for some of those future posts, as well as posts on securing your locks from various defeats.
Don’t Post Photos of Your Keys!
Few among us would knowingly hand out copies of our keys to strangers. Many of us do, however, provide strangers with all the necessary information to generate a working copy of our key(s). Within two minutes of scanning this site I found at least half a dozen unredacted photos of common, residential keys – bad business. A few weeks ago I told you I would explain why posting pictures of your keys is a bad idea. Here it is.
My Generalist Lockpicking Kit
Today I’m going to talk about my generalist lockpicking kit. This kit is something seldom seen. Rather than a locksport kit, this is a functional kit. It’s designed to open – not pick – real-world locks in my AO.
The Mul-T-Lock High Security Lock
This post will examine and explain the Mul-T-Lock high security lock. Besides the Medeco, this is one of the most popular high-security locks on the US market. If you live in a major metropolitan area in North American, you probably walk by these on a daily basis. If you’re looking to improve the lock on your home, you could do a lot worse than one of these.