Customer Reviews

The Complete Guide to Lock Picking

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the foreword, the author promises to teach you everything you need to learn to get started in locksmithing -- and he delivers! He describes picking and other bypass strategies for all the major varieties of keyed locks, plus numerous variations. Great for budding locksmiths, curious hobbyists, and people who want to know how that burglar managed to get into their houses.

The only complaint I can make about this book is that it's steep reading. Eddie's instructions are very compact -- maybe a little too compact. I can't stand overkill, but I think this may have been underkill. You really have to have an actual lock and tools in front of you in order to follow what he says. Perhaps more text and/or more numerous, better detailed, fully captioned diagrams would help.

The text covers a lot of useful and practical info, and it's worth reading just for that. But, the pictures are very simplistic line drawings that simply don't show enough detail in many cases.

For amateurs who are just interested in lock picking as a past time, this book is pretty good as it covers the normal locks that you will encounter in everyday life- pin tumblers, wafers and others, just the normal ones though.

the only thing bad about this book is that the information is too compact, sometimes even lacking in diagrams, but if u are one who are good at picturing with words, then this book is for you. it is scary to open the book with the pages filled with words!

just note that this book was printed in 1991 (or for some other reasons), do not expect paragraphing like the modern books.

key to lockpicking: patience, patience and more patience. it took me a week to open my first pin tumbler lock! and it only has 3 pins! adjust the torque wrench and ur pick.

I wouldn't get this book.....too expensive for its length, poor illustrations.

A friend of mine came over and managed to open my front door within ten minutes of his arrival. I was impressed. He said he'd started out with this little book and I paged through his well read copy before getting my own. I haven't managed to open a lock yet, but as Eddie advises, I haven't given up. I think it takes a certain mind set, and I'm working on it. Usually this kind of thing bores me, but Eddie the Wire (what a name!) writes in a way that keeps my interest going and I know I'm going to get it eventually. The Loompanics site has a lot of books like this or call 8003802230.

Good information and illustrations. The author has lots of experience and understands the challenges facing beginners.

In fact, it's like a manual for some very complicated electronics. Not very reader-friendly, but after reading it, I was confident I hotbox any thing short of a safe, and even then maybe. Of course, I think the big thing missing from a book like this is practice exercises, which I'm not sure how those would be integrated, but there does come a time when you've got to put it all together. Maybe this guy should sell the book with a series of locks to practice on, which is probably not all that practical as some of those locks cost a pretty penny. Still, can't complain when someone obviously knows what they're talking about, so 3 stars for deep thorough information with two stars taken away for extremely poor writing.

I would recommend this book very strongly to the beginner lock picker, a great book in explaining the basic art.

This is a good book for a begginer but not for the hardcore locksmith

I would recommend this book very strongly to the beginner lock picker, a great book in explaining the basic art.