.:: Keypicking :: Anything And Everything For Locksmiths, Hobbyist Lock Pickers, Locksport, Lock Picking, lockpicks, cutaways and Security. Simply The Best Lockpicking Forum Around!

Hi there ! i would love to see a lever lock (5 lever/6 ) picked without expensive or specialised tools , is it possible ?

You might have wanted to post this int he Lever Lock section. Not so much as a request, but maybe as a little bit of guidance. Like, "Hey, does anyone have experience in *blank*?"

That way we can find your post and have all that in the sections o people can easily find it and learn as well.

Ok... topic moved

You can pick pretty much any lever lock with wires but the skill to do so varies lock to lock.

Is there any chance of a broad explanation with video accompanyment ?

Heres my mate teaching how to pick era locks...

Very nicely done there! He was using the Ajam curtain pick wasn't he? With the Invincible pick wire of course. One of my homebrew curtain picks looks a bit like those, made from an allan key. My allan key versions aren't quite as nice tho!!

I like the 'decoding', it makes picking the ERA Invincible a hell of a lot easier to pick knowing about the belly positions. I take it the high lifts are done first so that you don't catch the anti pick notches?

I just made my own Invincible pick wires actually. I got the inspiration from looking at Chris Belchers' beautifully made ones when I went to the locksmith's exhibition. You gotta get them so the angle is a little more acute than 45 degrees but not much aint ya? So you can get behind and under the low levers. Your mate made it look a lot easier than it really is in that vid! Have you seen Chris Belchers' Invincible wires? His are so nicely made, there's a lovely bit of a curve filed out instead of just angling the wire back a little more. Very nice indeed, that man makes some lovely tools.

has anyone got a link to some photo's or technicial drawings for these tools?

I can take some pics of mine if you want but they're actually not that complex. The pick body itself is just designed to turn the curtain and hold the pick wire steady, there are different body styles but they all do the same thing. You can turn the curtain with a properly filed down key or even a basic L wire with a short upstand... and the pick wire is just a standard wire with a kink in it so it can sit flat under the levers. Commercial curtain picks are only expensive cos of the machining that goes into em... they're easier and nicer to use than wires because you've got better control of the pick wire, that's about it... and if you were using a pick body made from an old key you wouldn't even have that problem.

In some respects using just wires is actually easier cos getting under low levers isn't an issue... and some locks won't actually pick without the use of wire for tension because the levers don't bind properly unless you apply pressure on them from the back (as is the case with the 3G110).

As for non-curtain, you can just use wires with straight bends. There are different ones for tension depending on whether you're picking from the bolt side or lever side, same for overlifters... but standard pick wires are just an L shape. The upstand height needs to be right for the lock in question but you only need a few sizes... and if you lift aswell as turn then you can actually use just the one.

Hope this helps. I'm by no means an expert on these as I only got into levers very recently... so most of what I'm telling you here is just repeated from outside sources and not my own experience... but it all comes from guys who really know their stuff.

Soloman, thanks for the post, a pic would be really helpful man

Here's my collection. The pick wires aint included but there's a youtube vid showing u how to make them. Just piano wire and 2 x 90 degree bends. You'll need a vice, wire and a hammer.


They are 2 x 5 gauge and 2 x 7 gauge tensioners there. You'll probably have to file the business end of the pick wire so it's nice and flat and smooth but if u try hard it really aint so tricky. Lots cheaper than buying a machined set.

Sweet! shame i just quit my job, was a machinist and had access to a fully kitted out shop, manual and CNC, could have made a full set of the dogs nuts tools! O well, thinking of buying a little hobby lathe, mill and grinder next time i got a grand to blow, but in the mean time looks like i can get by with some basic hand tools.

Nice homebrews mate, if I knew how simple they were I would've had a bash instead of buying a set lol... oh well

Dopug, hopefully this explains for you... first of all this is a curtain:



The curtain is what throws the bolt, unlike standard lever locks where the bolt is thrown by the key itself. So instead of tensioning the bolt directly with a wire, you simply turn the curtain. As you can see though, it leaves very little room for a wire:



So the wire needs to be kinked, like this:



Here you can see the curtain is turned... the wire is sitting in the groove of the pick body and the kink allows it to reach around the curtain and rest nicely underneath the levers:



Pretty self explanitory from there, I think.

Sol, that picture explanation is one of the best I've seen, very simple and straight forward. Nice man.

great pics sol I've just started with lever locks and have made various wires from bike spokes and piano wire. I've also got the RB triple pick set that I'm struggling with at the moment.....And then "morticepicker" made me a homebrew pick and things started to fall into place. a great learning curve and when they open its a buzz..got a few on my youtube channel and 11 mortice lever locks in my to-do box...a whole different ball game