Lock Pick Set

A lock pick set is a curated collection of precision hand tools designed to manipulate the internal components of a lock cylinder and achieve an open state without the original key. These tools have been refined over more than a century of locksmithing practice, and today a professional lock pick set represents the foundation of non-destructive entry work — the controlled, measured approach a trained technician uses before considering any form of drilling or forced access. Understanding what a picking set contains, how each piece functions, and when its use is appropriate helps property owners, facility managers, and curious individuals appreciate both the skill involved and the responsibility that comes with owning such tools.

Across the United States and Canada, licensed locksmiths carry a lock pick kit as a standard part of their vehicle inventory. Regulations governing possession and use vary by state and province — some jurisdictions treat a pick set as a controlled implement, legal only for credentialed professionals or individuals with documented lawful purpose. For that reason, this article approaches the lock pick set strictly from a professional service and security-awareness perspective, explaining what the tools are, the contexts in which trained technicians deploy them, and why the nuances of picking matter to anyone responsible for securing a home, business, or fleet of vehicles.

What Is a Lock Pick Set

Plain Language Definition

A lock pick set — also called a lock pick kit, picking set, or pick set — is an assortment of slender metal tools engineered to interact with the internal mechanism of a lock cylinder. Most sets are built around two functional categories: picks and tension tools.

Picks are thin, shaped rods — typically hardened stainless steel — whose tips are contoured into profiles such as the short hook, medium hook, city rake, snake rake (S-rake), Bogota rake, half-diamond, and offset diamond. Each profile is suited to a different manipulation strategy or lock geometry. A short hook lets a technician set one pin stack at a time using single-pin picking (SPP), the most precise picking method. Rake profiles like the city or Bogota are swept or rocked back and forth to jostle multiple pin stacks simultaneously, a faster but less surgical technique called raking.

Tension tools — commonly called tension wrenches or turning tools — apply controlled rotational pressure to the lock’s plug (the rotating cylinder core). Without this rotational load, manipulated pins would simply fall back into their resting position. The tension wrench exploits a manufacturing tolerance gap in the cylinder: as each pin stack reaches the shear line, the slight rotation caused by tension holds it in place. Tension tools come in top-of-keyway (TOK) and bottom-of-keyway (BOK) variants, in light, medium, and heavy tension strengths, and in specialty profiles for automotive and high-security cylinders.

A complete professional lock pick kit typically contains 15 to 40 individual pieces: a range of hook picks in multiple sizes, several rake profiles, a full complement of tension wrenches, a plug follower or two, and sometimes a key extractor. High-end sets add wafer picks for filing-cabinet and desk locks, disc-detainer picks for round-key systems, and dimple picks for European-market cylinders. All pieces in a quality picking set are cut from hardened tool steel (typically 0.025-inch or 0.025-inch stock) and finished to tight tolerances so they flex under load without snapping.

A beginner lock pick set is a smaller subset — often five to eight pieces — that includes one hook, one or two rakes, and two tension wrenches. These entry-level kits allow a new technician to practice the fundamentals of single-pin picking and raking on transparent training cylinders before advancing to a broader professional lock pick kit with specialty profiles for high-security or automotive applications.

Where It Is Used

Professional picks see deployment across a wide range of real-world scenarios. The most common is residential lockout service: a homeowner is locked out of their primary entry-door lock, the key is inside, and a technician uses a hook pick with a tension wrench to open the cylinder in place — no damage to the door, the frame, or the lock hardware. Because the primary entry-door lock is often a standard pin-tumbler deadbolt, it is well within the capability of a practiced picking technique.

In commercial facilities, office doors, server room entries, storage cages, and filing cabinets all present pin-tumbler or wafer cylinders that respond to a pick set. A property manager who has lost the only key to an older filing cabinet will often find that a technician with the right pick and tension tool can open the drawer in minutes rather than hours.

Automotive work represents another major area. Many older vehicles use wafer-tumbler ignition and door cylinders; a pick set fitted with automotive-gauge tension tools and wafer picks allows non-destructive entry. Newer vehicles with high-security laser-cut (Tibbe, sidewinder) or dimple keys require specialty picks or decoder tools that are sold as dedicated sub-kits within the broader lock pick kit ecosystem.

High-security cylinders — Medeco locks, Mul-T-Lock lock products, ASSA Abloy, Abloy Protec — are engineered to resist picking through features like sidebar mechanisms, rotating pins, false gates, and hardened steel inserts. Locksmiths working on these locks rely on impressioning, decoding, or bypass techniques rather than standard pick profiles, though advanced picking sets do include specialty tools designed for sidebar-style cylinders.

Institutional and hospitality environments — hotels, hospitals, and university housing — often run master-key systems with dozens of cylinders. A technician auditing or servicing such a system may use a pick set to verify cylinder integrity or address a lockout without pulling the entire cylinder from the door.

Lock picking competitions and sport picking (known as locksport) represent a non-professional context in which enthusiasts use the same picking set tools for recreational skill-building. This hobby community has contributed significantly to open-source knowledge about cylinder vulnerabilities and has influenced manufacturers to improve security tolerances in mainstream hardware.

Security and Service Considerations

Common Problems

When a technician arrives at a job with a lock pick kit, several conditions can complicate the picking process or create downstream service issues.

Worn or damaged cylinders. A pin-tumbler cylinder that has seen years of use may have worn key pins, loose plug tolerances, or debris accumulation from graphite lubricant buildup. These conditions create unpredictable feedback during single-pin picking — pins may feel set when they are not, or the plug may rotate unexpectedly. A skilled technician adjusts tension and pick angle in response, but a badly worn cylinder may require replacement regardless of whether picking succeeds.

Broken keys in the keyway. A fragment of a broken key sitting in the keyway can physically block pick and tension tool insertion. Attempting to use pick set tools before removing the fragment with a key extractor risks driving the fragment deeper into the cylinder. The correct sequence is always to attempt extraction first.

Anti-pick security pins. Many mid-grade and high-security cylinders contain spool pins, serrated pins, mushroom pins, or T-pins in place of standard driver pins. These specially shaped driver pins create a false set — the plug rotates slightly as if open, then stops. A technician using a pick set on a cylinder with security pins must recognize the false set, reduce tension slightly, and continue setting pins individually. Raking techniques are significantly less effective against security pins, which is why single-pin picking with a quality pick set remains the preferred method for serious work.

Sidebar and secondary locking elements. Cylinders with sidebar mechanisms (Medeco, certain Schlage Primus, ASSA Twin, Mul-T-Lock Interactive) require that a separate set of rotating or angled pins align in addition to the primary shear line. Standard pick set profiles cannot address these simultaneously; they require sidebar-specific pick tools or dedicated decoding equipment.

Frozen or corroded cylinders. Exterior locks exposed to weather may have corroded pin stacks or a plug that binds from ice or rust. Applying heavy tension wrench pressure to force a frozen cylinder can shear the plug or damage the cam. Penetrating lubricant applied before picking is the appropriate first step, but it also reduces the tactile feedback that makes picking effective.

Incorrect tension. Over-tensioning is the single most common picking error, whether by a beginner or an out-of-practice professional. Too much tension causes multiple pins to bind simultaneously, turning what should be a controlled shear-line alignment into a chaotic stack. The result is slow progress, potential pin damage, and in rare cases a broken tension wrench tip lodged in the keyway. Proper technique uses the lightest tension that still produces a detectable set.

Legal and liability exposure. A property owner should always confirm that any technician using a lock pick kit on their property can produce a state or provincial license, a business ID, and ideally a work order documenting the service address. Possession of a professional lock pick set without licensure is a criminal offense in several states (Virginia, Ohio, Nevada, and others) and Canadian provinces. Reputable firms carry proof of authorization on every call.

Related Locksmith Work

A lock pick set is one instrument in a broader toolkit. Understanding adjacent techniques clarifies when picking is the right choice and when another approach is warranted.

Bump keys. A bump key is a specially cut key blank that, when struck with a mallet, momentarily bounces the pin stacks across the shear line. Bump keying is faster than picking on simple pin-tumbler cylinders but less precise, produces more noise and vibration, and is ineffective against security pins and high-security cylinders. Most professional locksmiths carry both a pick set and a bump key collection, selecting based on cylinder type.

Impressioning. Impressioning involves inserting a blank key, applying rotational pressure, and marking where binding pins make contact, then filing the blank incrementally until it functions as a working key. This process produces a usable key rather than simply an open lock. It is preferred when a permanent key is needed and the lock is too complex for standard picking.

Decoding. Decoding tools — including plug followers, caliper gauges, and optical decoders — read the existing key cuts from the cylinder without picking it open. Technicians use decoding after picking to identify the bitting (the pattern of cuts) so a duplicate key can be cut.

Drilling. When a cylinder resists non-destructive methods — whether due to high-security anti-drill features, severe corrosion, or a seized plug — controlled drilling through the shear line is the fallback. Drilling destroys the cylinder and necessitates hardware replacement. A full-featured pick set is always attempted first precisely to avoid this outcome.

Key extraction. Key extractors are sometimes packaged alongside a pick set and share the same slim steel stock. They are purpose-built to hook or grip broken key fragments inside the keyway and pull them clear. This is a distinct task from picking, though both share the same careful, low-force philosophy.

Bypass tools. Some lock designs — certain knob-lock latches, spring bolts, locker locks, and padlocks — can be bypassed with a shim, a loid (credit-card-style tool), or a specialized bypass device rather than picked at the cylinder. Bypass tools are not part of a standard pick set but appear alongside it in a comprehensive field kit.

High-security cylinder replacement. When a property has experienced a security breach, a lost master key, or has outdated hardware that a pick set opens too easily, the appropriate long-term response is cylinder rekeying or full lock replacement with a higher-security product. A picking demonstration — showing how quickly a standard cylinder falls to a simple rake — is sometimes the most persuasive evidence for an upgrade conversation.

When to Call a Locksmith

A lock pick set in the hands of a trained, licensed technician is a precision service instrument — appropriate, controlled, and far less disruptive than forced entry. The following situations call for a professional rather than a DIY approach.

Call a locksmith when you are locked out of a residence, vehicle, or commercial facility and cannot locate a spare key. Attempting to pick an unfamiliar cylinder without proper pick set technique risks jamming pins, snapping a tension wrench tip in the keyway, or inadvertently damaging the plug — all of which can raise the eventual service cost substantially.

Call a locksmith when a key has broken inside a cylinder. As noted above, attempting to use makeshift tools before a proper key extractor will typically worsen the situation and may require full cylinder replacement.

Call a locksmith when an existing lock opens too easily to a bump key or basic rake from a low-cost picking set — a fact you may have discovered through a locksport demonstration or a security audit. That ease of opening is evidence the hardware needs replacement or an upgrade to a security-pin cylinder.

Call a locksmith when re-keying an office or home after a lease turnover, a lost key incident, or a security concern. A technician will assess whether the existing cylinders are pick-resistant, replace worn hardware, and document the new key control policy — all steps that a pick set alone cannot accomplish.

Low Rate Locksmith provides 24/7 mobile locksmith work throughout the United States and Canada. Technicians carry a full professional lock pick kit and the supporting tools to handle residential, commercial, and automotive lockouts without unnecessary damage. To reach a licensed technician any time of day, call (833) 439-8636.

Related reading: Tension Wrench and Lock Picking.

Related guides and references: Residential Tension Wrench, Broken Tap Extractor, Key Decoder, Lock Bumping Awareness, Rekeying Kit, Bump Keys.