HOW TO PICK A DOOR LOCK

Have you ever been caught in a tight situation? Do you constantly find yourself on the wrong side of doors? Be it a Schlage Deadbolt or a domestic brand of locking doorknobs, you can easily find ways around these pesky items.

Insert the tension wrench into the lower portion of the keyhole. It should slide in easily.

Turn the tension wrench in the direction necessary to unlock the lock and hold it there. This is the direction in which you would normally turn the key.

Insert the pick into the top portion of the keyhole. You will be able to feel the individual pins of the lock with the pick's end. Most standard door locks have four or five pins.

Lock Picking Tools

So grab a couple – the standard size. Forget the girly ones that are a novelty item. Bog standard office ones will do.

Step One: Half straighten out one of the paperclips. Find something heavy (if you’re away from the nearest tool shed for e.g.) like a small rock. If at home, just use a hammer … forget the rock. Flatten the straight end of the paperclip. It’s fairly easy to do, more so with a hammer. You now have a lock pick.

Step Two: Fully straighten the second paperclip out. Make a 90º bend, about a third of the way up, creating an ‘L’ shape. This is your tension wrench. And you are now ... equipped.

Get yourself a secondhand lock, or a cheap padlock.

You want a Yale style keyway. Avoid anything off a car or other vehicle, since they are generally wafer locks. If you are in the UK, avoid getting a lever lock, you want either a rim cylinder, or a euro cylinder.

To start off, get the cheapest and loosest, most rubbish lock you can. This will make your first attempts far more likely to work.

Suitable ones are shown below (but some of these are very hard to pick!)

The first is a System Vario A from EVVA. You don't want to start on this, but it shows the shape of a euro style lock cylinder. I'll be showing you one of these today.

Now, insert the pick into the top of the keyhole, called the shear line. The shear line is made up of pins that match up to the low grooves on the key to that lock. Insert the straight paper clip into the top of the keyhole, against the pins in the shear line.

When you insert your pick paper clip into the top of the keyhole, you should be able to feel the pins push up as you rake across them. At the same time as you quickly pull the pick paper clip out, raking it upward against the pins, apply slight tension to the end of the tension wrench paper clip. You'll be applying tension either clockwise or counter-clockwise, in the same direction that you usually turn your key in order to open the lock. When the combination of tension you apply to the pick and the tension wrench paper clips is exactly right — voilà! The door should be unlocked, and you should be inside enjoying a celebratory beer.

Most of these door knobs come with a small key that fits through the hole on the outside. Even though it is called a key, it's more like a flathead screwdriver, though a very small one at that. Insert the key and jiggle it around to fit in the notch on the other side. Once it catches then turn it to unlock your door.

After tenision tool is in place it is time to insert the pick. With the pick facing down push it all the way in the lock unstil it stops. You are now at the back of the lock. With very slight pressure gentle press down on the pick and pull it back toward you. Remove the pick from the lock, rotate it so that it is now facing the top of the lock. Reinsert the pick to rear of the lock. Apply slight pressure upward and gently rake the pick back towards you. If done properly the inner plug of the lock will rotate counter clockwise and the door will unlock. If door does not unlock, without releasing tenision repeat step four.