Swift | Silent | Deadly


Locks & Lock Defeat


The Minimalist EDC Lockpick Kit

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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