Lockpicking is one of those topics that is frequently misunderstood. Those who’ve taken the time to learn lockpicking for escape and evasion know that it changes how they look at the barriers we face every day. When you understand how to pick a basic pin-and-tumbler lock, you know that the things we take for granted as “secure” are anything but. Your average padlock is VERY easy to pick open (and there are a few ways to circumvent padlocks without picking that I won’t cover in this article). Understanding how vulnerable these locks are is a very important step toward being more prepared for the dangerous urban landscapes the modern prepared individual must face.
But I said lockpicking is misunderstood. That’s because people either think of it as something only criminals would need to do (because they ignore the escape and evasion angle) or they think of it as something from television and the movies (such as when Samuel L. Jackson sticks the pliers of his multitool into the ignition of a car and magically starts the vehicle). Real lockpicking is simply understanding that if you can line the pins up inside a lock, you can make the lock turn. Once you have some practice doing that, with a few basic lockpicking tools you can remove any locked barrier that might stand between you and freedom.
Imagine you’re running from a flash mob or riot and you encounter a locked fence you can’t climb. If you have some basic lockpicking tools on you, you might be able to pick that lock and make short work of the barrier. There are kits on the market designed for everyday carry that fit into tiny packages no larger than a stick of lip balm (sometimes smaller). There are also wallet cards of lockpicking tools that you can buy and carry with you for emergencies.
The basic method for picking a pin-and-tumbler lock requires two tools: A torsion wrench for turning the lock (the same way you would turn it if if using a key) and a rake or other tool for manipulating the pins from inside the keyway (where the key would normally go to use the lock). In the transparent lock below (which is great for practicing lockpicking) you can actually see how the pins have to line up for the lock to work.
Each pin is broken up into two pieces inside a spring-loaded channel in the lock. The teeth of the key are at varying heights, corresponding to where those segments in the pins are. Inserting the key in the lock lines up all the pins so the break between them forms a straight line, allowing the lock to turn. To simulate the presence of a key with your lockpicking tool, you apply pressure with the torsion wrench as if you are trying to turn the “key” while you move the rake in and out of the keyway to get the pins to line up.
Obviously, this is much easier to do when you can see the pins (which is why the transparent lock makes a good practice tool). As you practice, though, you’ll be able to pick locks without seeing the pins. It’s really just a matter of persistence because it’s mostly luck to get the pins lined up at once. The more you try, the greater your chances of popping the lock open.
But let’s say that you didn’t have a lockpicking set with you. What would do then if you needed to pick a lock in an emergency? Well, if you carry a Swiss Army Knife, and plenty of prepared people do, you have an additional lockpicking option.
That option is the tweezers that most of these knives have built into them. Victorinox Swiss Army Knives have great tweezers that are made to a high standard of quality. You can remove them from the body of the knife (and you can buy replacements if you lose these little tweezers, which I have done repeatedly).
The thing about these tweezers, though, is that while they are well made, they’re easy to pull apart with your hands. If you can find something to bend the metal against, you can turn the tweezers from a Swiss Army Knife into an impromptu lockpicking tool. This was something I had never considered until I saw it done on Youtube.
I used one of my backup pairs of tweezers to produce this set of lockpicking tools:
If you do the same, I recommend using the half of the tweezers with the plastic handle as your “rake,” so you can get as much length as possible out of it. The torsion wrench is less important; it just has to give you enough leverage to turn the “key.” It’s not terribly comfortable to press against the edge of a thin piece of metal like this, but I didn’t try to twist its orientation to make it more comfortable because I wasn’t sure how much torque the metal could take without snapping.
To my surprise, though, these tools were enough to pop my practice lock. It took a little doing, even with the clear plastic lock to allow me to see the pins. This is because a completely flat piece of metal is not an ideal rake. You really want something a little irregular so that moving it in and out of the keyway bumps the pins up and down, giving you a better chance to line them up. Still, I was able to use half of the tweezers to move the pins and, with some doing, I was able to pop the lock.
As “proof of concept,” this experiment was a valuable one. I already carry a Swiss Army Knife every day and, if you don’t, you may want to consider adding it to your EDC. They don’t add a lot of size or weight, but they have many extremely useful utility tools. I now know that in addition to my screwdrivers, scissors, awl, and other “SAK” tools, I also have an emergency lockpicking kit, too.