Don't repeat my mistakes...
I believe that there isn't enough time in one's life to make all the mistakes yourself, so here are some of mine, so you don't have to repeat them...
Mistake number one: buy the first nice set of picks you see.
I bought a really nice Southord's kit, that isn't bad, but because the most of locks available here are the euro profiles with relatively tight keyways, it is not very usable in those. If I did just a few minutes long research, I'd buy a set with the slim profiles and my picking would be much more pleasant. In case you are really cash limited, you can buy just a couple of hooks (for some reason the half diamond never really worked for me) for a few bucks, make a wiper insert tensioner and start picking.
Mistake number two: going to a shop, ask for the cheapest lock and use it for training.
The lock I got was a cheap FAB cylinder (pretty good for the money though), but it had quite a nasty biting (pin 2 highest cut, and the next two pins quite low) and also three spools. I cut it in two and re-pinned it starting with two pins and going from there, but it wasn't very pleasant...
This time around I decided to invest into real training locks (Sparrows progressive set, one standard cut-away and the re-pinning set) and it is so much better for learning. Even if you are cash-limited, just the standard cut-away is a tremendous investment, that will save you a lot of frustration; combined with the re-pinning set, the lock can "grow" with you and provide you with more and more challenges, as needed
Mistake number three: using the deepest hook I can cram into the keyway.
Sometimes, when the biting on the key is looking really nasty, I'm tempted to use the deeper hooks from my collection. Yes, they allow me to avoid oversetting the high cut pins, but maneuvering with them in the lock can be quite hard. Some time ago I saw a video on a youtube, where the guy got the core out, sticked the pins into it (pins side up of course) and tried different picks to see, which ones allowed to set the pins without oversetting the others. Boy was I surprised to try it on my training locks and seeing, that where I used really deep hooks/deforest diamond, I could use the shallow hook too (after a bit of trying). So the lesson here is - don't overestimate the enemy...
Mistake number four: not trying out a prybar tensioners sooner.
In the new pick set I got, there are some prybar tensioners; so far I only used the wiper insert ones, just dremel-ed to allow for the pins side tensioning (I really hate the top/bottom of the keyway terminology, as here, most of the locks have pins on the lower side). So I did try them and suddenly some locks, that were giving me a lots of problems, are not that bad anymore.
Tensioner is really as important as the pick, and I think that many newbies don't really appreciate that (I did not).
Mistake number five: re-pinning locks with a normal tweezers.
While it is possible (been there, done that), it is also very frustrating - pins flying everywhere... When I finally got to modifying my old tweezers to wrap around the pin, the difference was unbelievable - what was frustrating several minuts experience, is now absolutely no problem. And with the nice tweezers from the re-pinning kit, it is even better. One sidenote though - when modifying the tweezers yourself, don't go fully around the pin, leave a small gap in front, so the core/follower can catch the pin, without interfering with the tweezers (it is really obvious, but for some reason I didn't do it the first time).
Anyway, I hope it might help some newbies not to re-do my mistakes and maybe the old timers will have a good laugh...
Kind regards,
Michal