A little while after having my picks delivered, I mentioned my very undeveloped interest to a friend who was then generous enough to lend me a loose door lock she had used to practice lock picking in high school. It is a simple 5 pin ‘Kwickset’ lock with normal pins which I can now consistently pick. I’m considering buying some pins designed to make picking more difficult, or maybe a totally new lock. I’ll probably go to a locksmith in my neighbourhood in the UK (I wonder what their policies are on selling to someone learning to pick) but I’m also considering buying a ‘training lock’ such as the one sold at learnlockpicking.com.

The pictured lock is a 4 pin masterlock rip-off I bought from CVS in Rhode Island thinking it would be a nice and simple lock to start practising with. I was very wrong. The keyhole is significantly smaller than a door lock’s making it trickier to pick without a small tension wrench. I recently came back to it and picked it four times but either I’ve totally lost the knack or I changed something inside because I’ve been trying for a fifth to no avail for a good frustrated few hours. I feel a bit silly for symbolically throwing the keys away now.

I try no to make practicing my only activity in one time. I pick whilst watching TV (the freedom of the first week of holiday has allowed me watch the first season of Castle in 3 days), in the movies (I saw Star Trek again tonight, with the family. It still rocked.) and in transit on the tube. I also took the lock picks through the TSA checkpoint at Boston Logan with no issues and practiced on my flight home from college.

I did some research into the legalities of owning picks before I bought them and had them shipped to Rhode Island. The laws in the US appear to vary by state. Some may require a license as a lock smith to facilitate the carrying of picks outside of the home. Overall it appeared to be fine to own picks and use them on ones own locks or with consent. It is naturally unanimously illegal to use them on someone else’s locks without their knowledge as it is breaking and entering. (The laws tie it very nicely with lock picker’s ethics as touted by lock picking forum members.) The UK’s laws make carrying lock picks punishable by up to five years in jail if police can prove one’s intent to use them illegally. I figure the carrying of a practice lock, being a college student, being a member of hobbyist forums, having written this blog post and not being very good all make it unlikely that I could encounter trouble in this manner. Then again if some police in the UK do not even know the regulations regarding photography, there’s probably a fair chance that some are ignorant about these more obscure laws too. (Damn, there went any protection this post gave me :/). Note, my research consisted of following Wikipedia references, so do your own if you are taking up picking.

I’ve been asked a few times already why I am even remotely interested in picking. Some people have understandably assumed that I must have aspirations of breaking into places using these potential skills. Not everyone really understand any level of the hacker mentality. Maybe one day I’ll write a blog post on it; it certainly deserves one. For now I’ll just make a comparison to fencing. Just because I think it is fun to be able to compete with a sword does not mean I’m actually training to duel. The comparison has inadequacies but overall I think it rings true.