ERSI meeting in Bologna Italy

[femurat]

Today I attended my first ersi meeting http://www.ersi.it/convegno2017.html
It's the Italian association of locksmiths.

I participated in all the three opening competitions. This is the picture of the first lock I opened.

20170421_164703.jpg

I got the second place in manual picking of padlocks and cylinders in less than 4 minutes.

Then got the first place in the quick picking competition, 1 minute to open a lock or a padlock of our choice. Then we swapped the locks and so on.

Then got the first place in the freestyle opening, 4 minutes to open locks and padlocks with whatever you want. Picks, rakes, bump keys, pick guns, electric pick gun etc. I always used my homemade picks.

It was very exciting. Now I'm happy and exhausted.

Cheers

[ratlock]

Well done on the quick picking.

[femurat]

This is the moment the competition was about to start. There the conference room was still empty and we already got the black envelop with our first lock. After the first minutes it was full of people and someone was standing around the chairs.
Here are some pictures of locks I opened in the first competition. After these I stopped taking pictures but I didn't stop opening locks















And here are some pictures of the sponsors area, it was way bigger than this, with electronic and mechanical combined with electronic, and auto locks. There were some picks for many different locks and auto opening tools makers. I only took pictures of some mechanical locks.

















Cheers

[mastersmith]

Wow, this resembles a trade show! I wish my locksmith meetings in Ohio looked like this. We would probably have more participation! Oh well, maybe one day. Thanks for the post!

[huxleypig]

Good work Fem, I always believed in you! Next time a clean sweep of 1st's would be nice.

Some real lock porn there. Looks like a blast.

[femurat]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Hux, I thought I would have been kicked out of the competition in the first round. I was a bit nervous at the beginning and tired towards the end. Next year I'll try harder

Here is the second price, a pickset and a book





And here is the first price: pliers, a half round swiss #2 cut file, a magnifying glass with a led light (I pictured only one prize because they were identical) alongside with my pass and a keyring



I had a couple blanks I thought were the correct ones for a padlock I got without a key. I tried to impression one of them but failed





I took the second blank I had and tried again. I found out that the key was too long and was impossible to turn it because its tip got caught by something at the end of the keyway.
So I took a similar blank and filed it down to fit both the height and the depth of the keyway



And this time it went better



So I examined the second attempt I made and decided to file out the key tip and finish impressioning it. Got two working keys



And here is a lock a very nice guy in the competition gave me as a gift



Cheers

[femurat]

Last month I went to 2018 meeting, it was great, like last year. There was only one competition, the manual picking.
The competition was about to start and I already had the first lock in front of me, inside its sealed envelope.



Here are the locks I opened during the first 10 rounds of 4 minutes each: 9 open out of 10 locks. I'm always a bit nervous at the beginning and failed the first one.












And here are the two that I should have opened during the finals. I only got one open.



I had fun and got the second place again. And the same guy got the first place again by opening both of them in less than 4 minutes.
This is the prize I got: a very cool flashlight



While I was there I saw many cool locks, old and new. For example this masterpiece



and this cool multlock





This year many people recognized me from last year meeting, I enjoyed the event even more.

Cheers

[Oldfast]

Femurat!! How exciting?! Congrats for sure. Well deserved too... a LOT of hours of practice went into that. Thanks for all the photos too. Very interesting. I would probably fall to pieces picking 'under pressure' with everyone watching like that, lol. No doubt this was a wonderful experience for you. Very happy for ya!!

[femurat]

Indeed, it was a wonderful experience!

Cheers

[selim]

Congrets. man, at least you took part in the compition. I always freeze up when people are watching. Very nice pictures too. One question tho. is that your vice on the board, or was it provided ? I'm going to make one like it, I like it
Tom

[femurat]

Thank you for the compliments, Tom.

I bolted the red vice to a piece of wood years ago and I use it almost every day. I file picks in grooves I cut in the wood and use the small vice when needed. It's very handy.

Cheers