A field guide to locksport
How locks open.
The legal hobby of understanding mechanical locks by taking them apart, defeating them, and rebuilding them. Learn every major class — from the humble wafer to a genuine Abloy disc-detainer — and the technique that opens each one.
Six mechanisms. One skill.
Every lock here is built around the same idea — a moving part that blocks a plug from turning until the right input aligns it. What differs is the mechanism.
Pin-Tumbler Door Lock
The residential deadbolt and the canonical locksport lock. Five or six spring-loaded pin stacks; single-pin picking here is the skill everything else builds on.
Learn moreSpool / Security-Pin Padlock
Security pins fake you out with false sets. Reading counter-rotation is the whole game.
Learn moreDimple Lock
Pin-tumbler cousin read through dimpled keys. Tight tolerances, weak feedback.
Learn moreWafer Lock
Flat wafers in place of pin stacks. Loose tolerances make these an excellent first lock.
Learn moreTubular Lock
Pins arranged in a ring. Needs its own dedicated pick — nothing else reaches the pins.
Learn moreDisc-Detainer / Abloy
No springs, no pins — rotating discs and a sidebar. Genuine Abloy is very hard.
Learn moreStart here
The pin-tumbler.
One rotating plug, five spring-loaded pin stacks, and a shear line. Master single-pin picking here and every other lock is a variation on the theme.
Only locks you own.
Locksport is a legal, respected hobby with one non-negotiable rule: pick only what you own or have explicit written permission to open, and never a lock in use. Everything here assumes you follow the code.