Lock picking

Go to ebay, maybe? Look under Victorian antiques, pins, pocket watches, instruments such as this or what a male would carry etc..

We had to call a locksmith to open up an antique trunk once. (We thought the key had been accidentally locked inside.) I don't know how he managed, but he did it somehow. Perhaps you could ask a local locksmith and ask about his experiences.

Is this you over at http://www.antique-locks.com in the forums? If not, check out that site.

an old door

our neighbor was a locksmith. i was refinishing an old door and wanted to buy a new lock. he talked me out of it because he said old locks were harder to pick. we had a long talk about locks and the subject was a lot more complex than i had ever thought. i didn't take notes but wish now i had. i wonder if you could dream up some excuse--a small job or something, so you could visit a lock shop and get the smith talking. my locksmith worked for beer. --s6 ps--i have a character who is an exterminator because one of my husbands friends was one. he would tell bug horror stories whenever we went out. not that i enjoyed them, but one day i realized that i knew so much about vermin and venom that i might as well use the knowledge.

I love that lock picking is a fact in the real world. It's almost too good to be true. And yet it's all true. You really can do it with to little strips of metal!

I'd find a nice old locksmith and ask him. That's the fun of being a writer, isn't it?

He needs to fashion a small L in a piece of metal, unless he can locate such from a stiff enough piece of wood or bone about. Perhpas there's an exposed stay from a garment there or a tie clasp, a piece of his pen or his pipe cleaning set is in his pocket. If he uses her hat pin, he'll have to bend it, so he'll probably steal it so it's not discovered damaged. Other than the L, the difficulty is gripping the extended piece in his fingers, bt it's do-able.

From a locksmith

I am a licensed locksmith in the state of Texas with about 35 year experience.

Those old locks were very simple things indeed. Most of them you could close the lid and it would lock automaticly.. This is called a spring latch. Those you could open just by pusing the latch back with out a key. Like credit carding an old house lock. The jewlrey chest the latch goes side to side. You man could use the hairpin or any thin metal that is tough enough to push the latch to the side and open it right up. These locks are difficult to pick through the key hole but it can be done. To pick the lock through the key hole he would have to bend the hair pin in to an L with a short leg to get into the lock.. My first lock picks were hair pins and paper clips. I have picked many a lock with them.. If i can be more help drop me a line.

Mitch

I also agree with the old locks are more complex then people think they look simple enough but the little nothces on the keys need to be in the right spot and not off my a whole lot . The one good thing about the old ones is that they dont have some of the newer features like "pins" on the sides of the locks as well as the ones on the top . some even have "pins" that rotate as they are raised up by the key .

Locks and locksmithing

Hello folks,

A friend of mine, who is a locksmith, once told me that 'locks are for honest people.' To prove this he bet me a cup of coffee that he could open my store's door faster with a lockpick than I could with a key. I lost.

Something else he told me as well. Why try a complicated remedy when a simple one will do? Once he had a job opening an old steamer trunk. He told his customer he could take twenty minutes to pick the lock or twenty seconds to pop the hasp with a flat edged screwdriver. Actually it took a lot less than twenty seconds

Using a shem to pop the latch on a jewelry box would be much quicker than trying to pick the lock and it probably wouldn't do that much damage either. That's why the most sophisticated lock will not stop a determined thief. I suppose that's why they call a brick through a plate glass window 'a universal key.'

Glen T. Brock

Glen T. Brock said:

Hello folks,

A friend of mine, who is a locksmith, once told me that 'locks are for honest people.' To prove this he bet me a cup of coffee that he could open my store's door faster with a lockpick than I could with a key. I lost.

Click to expand...

Same is true with slim-jims and car doors. When I used to work for the police department, I used to have to get into a lot of locked cars - and with some practice, I got into most cars and some faster than people with a key.