Anti-pick pins
How to defeat anti-hook pins!
Many buy crocheting kits and try it eagerly but in reality it is not always so simple…
First of all, we recommend that you read the article on the art of lockpicking if you have not already done so, in order to understand the principle and the habits to take. Thus, you can open some toys easily, but quickly others will offer you more resistance by the presence of anti-hook pins. We will explain how they work and how to defeat them for the most common ones.
The main anti-hook pins:
The reel.
One of the most common pins, the “coil” (commonly called “diabolo” because of its shape) is found in many cylinders and padlocks, its presence is easily identifiable. When it comes into play, it gets in the way of the rotor and causes a characteristic rotation of it. When attempting to place this pin at the break line, the rotor will tend to return to its original position, a sign that the coil is straightening to slide into the stator well.
The reel can take a wide variety of shapes that will change the feedback it offers during picking.
The notch.
As common as the coil, the notch can be found alone or accompanied by other A/C pin shapes to vary and complicate returns when picking. Besides, we can quite imagine reels with false notches, which makes our challenges even more interesting! The notches of this pin make its placement more subtle because you can never know how many “clicks” there will be, it is usually recommended a light workout so as not to block it.
The number of notches and their depth are very variable from one brand to another, which makes the return of each pin unique.
The fungus.
An anti-hook pin that is much less encountered in current toys, replaced by the famous reel easier to machine. Due to its shape, this pin will give rise to a rotation of the stator as for a coil, but it will be necessary to lower it completely before feeling a more frank return of the rotor.
The Untouchable
The untouchable pin is a simple pin whose length means that it is already placed at the break line. Pressing it a little is like blocking it between rotor and stator and thus makes picking more difficult. Using more curved square brackets works around the problem. Very effective in the penultimate position, this active pin prohibits the percussion technique.
The telescopic.
The two-part pin, the so-called “telescopic” pin, is becoming more and more common in “high security” toys because it makes picking more difficult and also prevents the method of “percussion” the pins. The effectiveness of this pin comes from the fact that its outer part blocks the rotor while its inner part is free and in contact with the spring. This gives the impression that this pin does not block the rotor and becomes complicated to detect. If by chance we place the outer part, the interior will in turn block the rotor. We can then imagine all kinds of interactions with other anti-hook pins.
The little extra:
Familiarize yourself with toys of less security before moving on to more difficult models, the detection of anti-hooks will help you recognize the models that are accessible to you and little by little you will learn to target your goals.
A good way to master a toy is to hook it in 2 directions, several times, and be able to recognize the types of pins it contains. You can also use cylinders with cut-away view to more easily associate the feeling of the different pin shapes.
Some brands of toys may also use pins of singular shapes, such as notched coils, anti-printing pins …
To go further:
In addition to the classic anti-hook pins, there are so-called “passive” safety that we do not detail here to leave you surprised…
This is for example the case of “bi-axial” pins that must be placed on 2 axes before allowing a sidebar to rotate the rotor. This sidebar will sometimes itself be held by a piece to detect the presence of the key, and there the picking becomes sporty !
