Lord Emeritus of Keypicking HallisChalmers
Posts: 2070
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:46 pm
Location: Hell
Key Retaining vs Non-Retaining
What makes a key retaining lock different than a non-retaining lock?
Please don’t give me the smart-ass - ”Well one lock retains the key, dummy, and the other one doesn’t” - answer.
What I’m looking for is a brief technical description as to how the two systems differ mechanically.
The other question: Are key-retaining locks inherently harder to pick?
I know that probably 70% of the difficulty in picking a lock has to do with the types of pins, (i.e. mushrooms, spools, serrated, hybrids, etc.) and the skill of the lock picker, but does the fact that a lock is key retaining add to the difficulty factor – even slightly?
In my limited experience, it seems to make no difference. But I’m just wondering if the experts out there with actual work experience can shed some light on this.