Chapter 4 - Advanced training: Learning some additional skills

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of some of the basic styles of pick-resistant designs that manufacturers seek to introduce in certain products. These solutions for making locks slightly more secure are popular due to their low relative cost and the fact that suppliers rarely have to retool their whole factory or change their overall product design to make use of them. Pick-resistant pins like spooled, mushroomed, and serrated drivers are common in medium-grade products available on store shelves. Higher quality locks take this type of engineering a step further, with fancier designs and sometimes additional milling inside the pin chambers within the plug. The simplest and the most common means for making a traditional pin tumbler lock more resistant to picking attempts is the inclusion of pick-resistant pins when the lock is being assembled. By changing the milled shape of some of the pins within a lock, it is possible to frustrate the normal methods of pin movement associated with lockpicking. This is a popular option for companies with established production lines and a number of models of lock already on the market, as it does not require a major overhaul of their existing factory machining and equipment assembly processes.