Impressioning a key for an Ingersoll 6 padlock

January 10th, 2025

This keyless padlock was sent to me by a friend as an impressioning challenge a while ago. At LockCon 2024 I was able to get some fitting blanks from a friend, so I could finally get to work. Below you can read about my experience with impressioning a key for this lock.

First two attempts

Starting out I approached the impressioning like I would with a pin tumbler cylinder, by preparing the blank. Since the blanks were steel, I didn’t need to remove any plating, but the surface was very rough so I made it smooth (a mistake, but more about that later).

Tried to figure out the spacing, but it was difficult to see so I tried to get some marks. The first mark was not difficult to find, because the levers bite in the edge of the blank. Marks stayed on the edge, but switched sides from time to time. As cuts got deeper, marks started to get wider and cover more of the surface of the edge.

From time to time marks reappeared on levers I worked on earlier, I think this might be caused by the shape of the levers. I remember from picking other locks with a similar mechanism (Miwa U9, PR) that before getting them open I spent some time tapping multiple levers to set them again. So I took the reappearing marks as a clue that I was getting closer to opening.

I decided to stop my first attempt after working on several levers like this for quite some time without feeling I was getting closer to opening the lock, so I decided I must have filed too deep somewhere earlier. When I tried to figure out the spacing earlier, I removed some material on the first cut on the left and I suspected that might have been too much.

I started the second attempt by preparing the blank again, but didn’t try to find the spacing. Instead I use the key from my first attempt as a reference to make some guiding marks on the side with a marker. Most of that second attempt went like the first, and when I decided to take a break I was looking at two near identical attempts.

Time to think

With only one blank left I decided to take some time to work on other projects and think about possible mistakes I had made in the first two tries.

A conversation with someone about the blanks used in the SSdeV impressioning competition at the Wendt Hausmesse earlier this year finally put me in the right direction. During that competition, in the final round we had to try to make keys for several different cylinder models. Obtaining blanks for some of those had turned to be difficult so on those we had to use universal blanks. One of the downsides we encountered was that sometimes preparing the blank like we were used to, left us with a blank already below the zero cut height. Since I already suspected there could be zero cuts on Ingersoll keys, could it be that I had been setting myself up for failure by preparing the blanks?

Third attempt

Feeling motivated again, I decided to clamp up that final blank. Not having prepared the blank, I took my time finding the first mark. It was a pretty clear “bite”, but before I started filing I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss any other obvious marks. After this the impressioning was very similar to the previous two attempts. I just had to remind myself to check if new levers started to make marks from time to time. And of course the biggest difference was the key finally turning. I did encounter an unexpected surprise though: the key turned freely but I was unable to remove it.

Open! But the key is stuck…

Troubleshooting

After some online research and asking around, I managed to remove the shackle from the padlock, so I was able to remove the core and find out what prevented the key from being removed. My initial thought was canyoning, even though I kept an eye out for that during the impressioning. The real cause was totally different, and not really something I could have prevented. The key wasn’t perfect, but had allowed the gates to align just enough for the sidebar to drop in under tension. After that though, It was stuck so tight that the sidebar springs were too weak to lift the sidebar out again. 

Obvious damage to the sidebar where it was forced in a gate. Also note the shallower traces caused by pushing the bar against the levers during the impressioning process

Conclusion

I think the only thing that might have prevented this from happening is having a list of all possible cut depths and making sure to file exactly to those depths on the exact right location of the blank. Should I ever try this again, obtaining a list of the cut depths and making some sort of jig or guide to help with the spacing would help out a lot.

Henri/Greenish

Gates where aligned just enough for the sidebar to drop in
From left to right: first attempt, second attempt, final working key

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Dutch open lockpicking 2024 at LockCon

December 4th, 2024

The Dutch open lockpicking is one of the largest lockpicking competitions of its kind. In several rounds with ever more complicated locks the participants attempt to open the locks as quickly as possible to secure their place in the finals.

The qualifier consisted of six tables with ten participants at each table. In ten rounds of five minutes each, the participants decided who continued into the quarter-finals. The best three of each table, eighteen in total, continued. From there, more difficult locks were introduced. The competition went from eighteen to nine to three participants. The complete rule set can be viewed at https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4652

For the five minute locks we had a wide selection consisting of, Eras, Destil, Kibb, Yale, Mastermate, Dom, Basi, Nemef, and several others. For the fifteen minute rounds we introduced more difficult locks, including Winkhaus, CES 1SB, Gege ANS2, DOM Plura, DOM Sigma, Oxloc, and more.

While we cannot make guarantees, we strive for consistency.
You’ll very likely encounter the same or similar locks in the next competitions at LockCon.

The final score of the Dutch open lockpicking at LockCon 2024.
Dutch open lockpicking 2024 at LockCon. Henri (3rd), Nitiflor (1st), Walter (2nd)

Nitiflor won the competition by opening the most locks in the finals. He won the Multipick Elite Locknoob set with 39-pieces. Walter placed second and picked the Multipick Quick easy pro key duplication kit as his prize. Henri received a Sparrows Kirigami lockpick set as the third place winner. These prices were kindly sponsored by Multipick and Sparrows.

We are hosting a lockpicking competition like this one almost every year, and we hope to see you at the next one.

Scores of the half finals for inspiration

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Dutch open impressioning 2024 at LockCon

December 4th, 2024

The Dutch open impressioning is traditionally the first of the large competitions at LockCon. The challenge in impressioning is to make a working key by reading the feedback from the lock and adjusting the key accordingly. Eventually the lock opens, and the opening time is registered. The most consistent and fastest impressioners get to attempt another six locks in the finals. This year, 40 people joined the competition. The complete rule set can be viewed at https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4652

For this years competition, two locks were to be opened in the qualifier. This was a little confusing for some, but the effect was clear. By opening more locks, we have effectively reduced the luck factor and rate the participants on their skill. All twelve finalists opened both the qualifier locks.

Dutch open impressioning 2024 at LockCon. A Finale: Torsten (3rd), Jos (1st), Lasse (2nd)

Jos won the competition by opening the most locks in the fastest time. He picked the Multipick Kronos electropick. Lasse won second place and received the Multipick Quick easy pro key duplication kit. Torsten placed third and chose a Mulipick cutaway training lock as his price. These prices were kindly sponsored by Multipick.

Dutch open impressioning 2024 at LockCon. B Finale: Rubberbanned (3rd), Cocolitos (2nd), Oli (1st)

The B finals in Impressioning was win by Oli, who received the new Multipick advanced Sandman lockpick set. The second prize in this final went to Cocolitos, who picked a Multipick triple gauge lockpick set. Rubberbanned received third place and won a Multipick cutaway training lock. These prices were kindly sponsored by Multipick.

We are looking forward to organizing the next impressioning competition at the next LockCon. In the meantime, SSDeV will hopefully organize an event as well.

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Toool NL competition

December 4th, 2024

In the Toool NL competition, the Toool members compete by picking a selection of locks during Toool meetings. This year was the 19th Toool competition, with 45 meetups and at least a hundred hours to attempt these locks. However, only the quickest opening time for each competitor counted.

The points are assigned by opening times, where the quickest opening gets ten points, the second-quickest gets nine points, and so on. Sometimes points are shared when several people have the same opening time, or opened the lock within five seconds. (We count these as the same opening time, as we have a lockpicking competition and not a stopwatch operating competition.) The full breakdown of the competitions, locks, statistics, and the rules in Dutch can be found on. https://toool.nl/competitie/

The competition went strong, from the first meetup after LockCon already many competitive times were set. More locks were opened every meetup, and the opening times were significantly reduced. The locks which were predicted to be difficult were not, while difficult locks were underestimated. The competition remained close until the end. The analysis on lock difficulty is found at https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4684.

Screenshot of the competition score. https://toool.nl/competitie2024/
Tom (3rd), Walter (1st), Henri (2nd)

Walter won the competition and received a Multipick Ares Disc detainer lockpick. Henri, with second place, chose the new Multipick Elite dimple picks community edition. Tom, who place third, won the Sparrows Vorax set. These prices were kindly sponsored by Multipick and Sparrows.

The next competition has started. Do you want to join this one as well? Become a member, and join us at the Toool meetups in Amsterdam and Eindhoven. May the best picker win. https://toool.nl/competitie2025/

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Toool NL competition 2024 – analysis

November 20th, 2024

The 19th Toool NL competition is concluded (https://toool.nl/competitie/). The Toool members worked on lockpicking a set of 27 locks over a period of one year, and registered the quickest opening times. The full competition details can be found on https://toool.nl/competitie2024/.

Before we started picking, Walter asked the Toool members to make a guess on the best opening times for each lock. With this data he expected to see which locks are perceived to be difficult, but were not, or vice versa. Four lockpickers made their guess, and we analyzed the data.

Please note, the final opening times are heavily skewed in favor of short opening times, as the locks are picked several times at the Toool meetups and only the lowest time counts. A lock may be opened in 15 minutes during the first attempt, but during several meetups the final opening time can be reduced to five seconds. Many of the locks in the competitions are perfectly suitable locks, and us opening a similar lock in five seconds, shouldn’t be the reason to replace yours.

We found this data isn’t easy to visualize in a single graph, as each lock is unique. We chose to break down the analysis results and report on the five most underestimated locks and the five most overestimated locks.

CylinderBrandFastestLockpicker 1Lockpicker 2Lockpicker 3Lockpicker 4
T1906Abus E6066.5074.00630.005.0020.00
T1907GTV36.435.00940.0030.0015.00
T1910EVVA39.00420.00304.0060.0015.00
T1915Mul-T-Lock Classic216.04360.00312.00120.0045.00
T1924Sargent27.64150.00925.005.005.00
Underestimated locks from the Toool NL competition 2024
CylinderBrandFastestLockpicker 1Lockpicker 2Lockpicker 3Lockpicker 4
T1913DOM iX 5KG47.41240.00985.00120.00200.00
T1916ISEO8.31180.00781.0060.0025.00
T1918ASSA 5005.00120.00610.00180.0045.00
T1919Best SFIC5.00240.00558.00180.0020.00
T1926Medeco Biaxial5.00132.00121.00600.00180.00
Overestimated locks from the Toool NL competition 2024

It is quite interesting that only a few locks were underestimated, while most locks were overestimated. Several of the underestimated locks have a tight keyway, but this in itself is not a guarantee for the lock to be difficult. For example, it’s common for the old Evva to be full of standard pins. The biggest surprice is the Sargent lock, which is much better quality than they are usually given credit for.

On the overestimated side, we have locks which are usually quite secure. The Medeco has good tolerances, and the SFIC rely heavily on their double shearline for security. While the Assa 500 and DOM IX are well-made locks from Europe. However, with the right tools and techniques, they just opened without too much difficulty. (The Medeco was raked several times.)

This analysis and report may not have solved the mystery of why some locks are easy, and other locks are difficult, but it was interesting to analyze these nonetheless. We will not take guesses for the 20th Toool competition, but do take a look. https://toool.nl/competitie2025/ We chose to save all the keys of this new competition, which enables us to see if the bitting is what makes the difference after the competition concludes.

Posted in Lockpicking, Locks, General, Gatherings | 1 Comment »

The LockCon LockQuiz

November 1st, 2024

For this years’ LockCon, I decided to not do a lecture about a lock-related subject, but to organise a lock-themed pubquiz, the “LockQuiz”. I like the old-skool quizzen where you work together in teams and write down your answers on paper. Modern app-based quizzen have their own charm, but that was not what I was going for. When I play a quiz, I like questions where teamwork leads to the correct answer.

So I went about to see if I could come up with enough locksport-related questions and categories. I ended up with 68 questions in 6 rounds. In round 1, I showed lock cylinders and padlocks, with the brand name removed and the teams had to tell the brand. In round 2, lock-related books were shown, with one word (partially) blurred, the question was what the word was. Round 3 was another picture round with pictures of tools, where the question was which toolmaker the tool was from. After a small break, we continued with round 4, in which I asked for names of movies in which something lock(picking) related was shown. Round 5 showed keyways, asking for the brand and model, and round 6 was a music round, showing clips that had something to do with locks as well. Requested was the name of the artist.

I got very good feedback and everybody seemed to really enjoy the quiz. I have made generic pubquizzes before and know that the biggest pitfall is to make them too hard, which is no fun for the people doing the quiz. That is why I included answer sheets for the (rather difficult) movie and music rounds, that showed the number of letters in the answer and also had some letters filled out in advance.

The quiz had a clear winner, which was good, as I had not thought of a tie-breaker question. In the end, 77% of the questions were answered correctly, which is wonderful, as that was what I sort of aimed for, but it was hard for me to know how difficult it would be in advance. The lock brands round turned out to be the easiest, the music round the hardest, but even that round had 74% correct answers, thanks to the answer sheets.

If anybody wants me to do the quiz elsewhere, contact me. Obviously, the people at LockCon already know the answers. Or, if you have suggestions for other topics for rounds, or questions, I’d be interested in those as well. And finally, if you’ve made pictures of me presenting, I’d love to have a copy as well.

And again, congratulations to Team Baguette, who won!

Walter.

Posted in Locks, General, LockCon, Conference | No Comments »

LockCon 2024 Schedule

September 21st, 2024

Tickets to LockCon are still available as of 20th of September. We will close the registration on the 25th of September. Please see ‘LockCon 2024 registration is open!’ for more information. https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4627

Hi Everyone, we are hoping you are doing well! With this blog, we like to show you this program we have created for LockCon 2024. It’s a great mix of the competition you expect, and loads of new and exciting content.

Thursday is the first day of the event, we will use this day for catching up as well as building up the conference room. The cadence of the rest of the event is talks in the morning, a competition in the afternoon, and an evening program which includes a variety of activities.

For the competitions, we have Friday evening reserved for the Dutch Open in impressioning, on Saturday the Dutch Open in Lockpicking will be held, and on Friday we will start and Sunday we will conclude all the ongoing smaller competitions: Lever lockpicking, Disc detainer picking, Felix’s Breakout and Pic Tac Toe by FoxPick, and safe manipulation. The rules for each competition are published here: https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4652

The schedule will be available in the conference room on large sheets of paper. The Schedule is not set in stone, where you are allowed to fill the gaps, or take the stage with your own last minute talk. Last year, a panel on RFID was assembled on Sunday to fill one of these gaps. Please discuss large changes with the organisation.

Thursday
17:00Arrival (Hotel check-in is possible from 15:00)
19:00 – 20:30Dinner (with prior reservation)
20:30 – 22:00Conference room build up
22:00 – 01:00Socializing in the hotel bar

Friday
07:30 – 10:00Breakfast
10:00 – 10:15LockCon Opening
10:15 – 10:30Dennis van Zuijlekom – Shoot all the hackers
10:30 – 11:30Zeefeene – Why Your Unpickable Lock Sucks
12:00 – 12:30Michael Hübler – 3D printing working keys for TSA008 and (all versions of) TSA006
13:00 – 14:00Lunch
14:00 – 19:00Dutch Open Impressioning competition
19:00 – 20:30Dinner
20:30 – 21:00Introduction to the evening program & ongoing competitions
21:00Start of disc detainer & safe manipulation competition by Toool
21:00Start of lever lockpicking competition by Nigel Tolley
21:00Start of Pic Tac Toe and Felix’s Escape by FoxPick
Saturday
07:30 – 10:00Breakfast
10:00 – 11:00Eric Scaillet – Aubin’s trophy
Group photo
11:30 – 12:00Nigel Tolley – Hobbes Anti-Violence
12:00 – 12:30Thijs Bosschert – Lockpicking in Capture the Flag
short break
12:30 – 13:00Han Fey – Lips Keso
13:00 – 14:00Lunch
14:00 – 19:00Dutch Open Lockpicking competition
19:00 – 20:30Dinner
20:30 – 21:00Eric Scaillet – Lishi
21:00 – 23:00Walter Belgers – Pub quiz

Sunday
07:30 – 10:00Breakfast (Check out of your hotel room)
10:00 – 10:30Denes Szabo – Car lockpicking book
10:30 – 11:00Prize ceremony
11:00 – 12:00Disk detainer finals
12:00 – 13:00Nigel Tolley – Lever picking finals
13:00 – 14:00Lunch
14:00 – 15:00Foxpick’s games finals
15:00 – 16:00Safe manipulation finals
16:00 – 16:30Closing Ceremony + prize ceremony
18:00Dinner (with prior reservation)

Posted in LockCon, Conference, Gatherings | No Comments »

LockCon 2024: Dutch Open competition rules

September 21st, 2024

We are excited to announce the competitions hosted at this year’s LockCon. There will be the usual lockpicking and impressioning competitions, as well as a return of the disc detainer picking competition. You can also test your safe manipulation skills, join the lever lockpicking competition by Nigel Tolley, and play multiple games by our friends from Foxpicks.

The smaller competitions will be open from Friday evening till Sunday. Each of these competitions reach their conclusion during the finals on Sunday. This can be either a 1:1 with the best pickers, or a first to open wins where the best are competing all at the same time.

Dutch Open Impressioning & Lockpicking

The two main competitions are impressioning and lockpicking, where each takes a whole afternoon. The main rules are found in the pdf below, but for this year’s event we like to share our competition planning as well.

The Impressioning competition will be a standard competition with a qualification round, and two finals of six people each. We want to reduce the luck factor in the competition. E.g. consistent opens are a better demonstration of skill than a single quick open. For this, we have split the qualifier into two. You will now have to open both Abus C83 locks within two 30 minute attempts. The finals are, as per usual, on Abus C83 as well. The locks and blanks are sponsored by Abus!

The lockpicking competition is a standard competition with a qualifier and a bracket of two and three people. The qualifier has six tables of at most ten people per table. This qualifier is five minutes per lock, and in total you will pick ten locks. The best three from each table continue to the bracket. The bracket is played in nine groups of 2, three group of 3, and a final with the last best three lockpickers. Each round of the bracket is 15 minutes per lock.

Further details are below.

Dutch_Open_rulesDownload

Dutch Open Disc detainer picking

Also this year, we have a disc detainer competition. We have learned from the competition last year, and have updated the rules accordingly. We have chosen some great locks for you to pick. This year we have included the Discombobulator from Opsasec in both in front and rear tensioning models, but you can also use the Sparrows 2-in-1 disc detainer lockpick.

20240921-V1.0-LC24-disc-detainer-competitionDownload

Lever lockpicking

Nigel Tolley hosts this year’s lever lockpicking competition. Try your hand at lever lock picking! Various lever locks from the UK will be attending LockCon, for your bafflement and amusement. Try picking a selection varying from 2 levers, uncurtained without anti-picks, up to 5 lever curtained with anti-picks, with various tools supplied. Nothing too hard, and everyone should get at least one open.

The winner of each round goes through to the final, there will likely be 5 rounds of 5 locks for 5 minutes. The final setting will be communicated so everyone is on the same page.

Timing will be like the cylinder picking, call out “open” when you’ve opened your lock. The locks will be modified to not open fully, so expect the bolt to remain sticking out a little when unlocked – but don’t worry, it’ll be obvious! Have fun. Please remember, ‘it’s about manipulation, not brute force.’

There aren’t many rules, but if you break a tool, you’re out!

Foxpick’s games

Foxpick will host two lockpicking games during LockCon. In Pic Tac Toe, you will play a head-to-head competition in a game of tic-tac-toe, but to move you’ll have to pick the locks. For the second game, Felix’s Breakout, it’s your goal to free Felix the Fox from jail! Both games are very exciting, and we hope you will enjoy them as well.

Foxpick will provide all the tools you need. This helps to keep it an even playing field for everyone. Further details of the game are explained before each player starts.

Safe manipulation

To celebrate the skill of safe manipulation, we have included it in this year’s competition list. We are working with S&G 6730, for which we ask you to find the combination. The locks spin true, and read very well, so don’t let this opportunity pass!

20240921-V1.0-LC24-safe-lock-manupulationDownload

Posted in Lockpicking, Safe, Impressioning, LockCon, Conference | 9 Comments »

Impressioning a Porsche 356 gear shift lock

July 2nd, 2024

I don’t consider myself much of a car person, but this Porsche 356 from the 1960’s is a work of art. The owner imported it from the US, and a keyless gear shift lock was added in the sale. The current owner had almost given up the hope of finding a working key for it, when he read about Toool in an old Quest magazine.

The gear stick with the lock to the right

Learning of a community of lock enthusiasts, he contacted us hoping we might have a solution for his problem, and luckily we did. I immediately thought of impressioning a key for the lock. After emailing back and forth a bit, the owner ordered blank keys and arranged for him to visit me after they got in from the UK.

The lock cylinder. Note two screws: one in the middle to hold the plug, and a longer one in the back used to install the cylinder

A couple of weeks later, after the blanks arrived, we arranged to meet and impression some keys. This was the first time I saw the cylinder, and I was surprised to find out it was a five pin cylinder and not a wafer lock as I expected from a car lock. The blanks were from Ilco, DM2, and brass.

Your’s truly at work

Impressioning was pretty straightforward, but I did encounter some interesting things:

  • Impressioning a used, old lock has it’s own challenges. Wear and dirt made getting marks take a bit more time. It felt dampened and “muddy” (for lack of a better word);
  • The brass used for the blanks was very soft. I was afraid to use a lot of force, because I didn’t want to unnecessarily break the few blanks I had;

Luckily I didn’t break any blanks. I took my time checking marks, only filed when I was certain there was a mark (as I know I should always do, but sometimes forget in the heat of the moment). Then after about half an hour the key suddenly turned. But only once, I couldn’t reopen the lock with it. Closer inspection showed two deep craters on 1 and 4. Slightly filing those down left us with a smooth working key. Beforehand I had warned the owner that the process might take a while and multiple tries, so we were both surprised and very happy with this swift success.

The end result

I really enjoyed doing this project. Not only did I get to practice my impressioning, but we also had a nice conversation about how much fun it can be when different hobbies suddenly overlap. Lately I have realized this is one of the things that keeps me going back to the locksport community: meeting people from all walks of life and discovering there’s always something connecting us.

Henri/Greenish

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LockCon 2024 registration is open!

June 18th, 2024

Dear friends,

With this mail, we like to announce registration for LockCon 2024 to be open. The event will be from 17th to 20th of October 2024 at De Werelt in Garderen, The Netherlands. This is the same venue as last year, which was previously known as Westcord Hotel Garderen.

The program

We will welcome the attendees from Thursday afternoon 15:00 with a get-together at the bar. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we will have a program with talks, workshops, and competitions. In the program there will be plenty of room to socialize, and pick locks. LockCon closes on Sunday afternoon, 17:00-ish.

If you are unfamiliar with what we usually do at LockCon, please read https://toool.nl/LockCon and the LockCon 2023 recap https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4357. The schedule for this year’s event will be quite similar, where the competitions are usually in the afternoon, and the remaining program are talks, workshops, and socializing.

How to participate

LockCon is an event organized by Toool in the Netherlands for the extended Locksport community. This means, we try to be welcome to everyone with a healthy interest in the lockpicking hobby and the community. The attendees of LockCon are mostly friends, and friends of friends. You are also welcome if we have never met before. While it is easier for you to have a friend vouch for you, but this is not required.

The venue

This event is hosted at a hotel at which we have rented a large conference hall, and enough rooms to host a hundred guests. We are able to use the other hotel facilities, like the bar and restaurant. The hotel has additional facilities like a sauna, but these will have an additional charge and are booked at the reception.

The ticket price for LockCon 2024 is €430 per person, this includes three nights in the hotel with breakfasts, lunch, and dinner in the restaurant. Some options, like a single person room, have an additional charge.

Please register as soon as possible:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNg6lzLXX669DL2Oru2Qgb6w6nqChjP95Mg45NlQAT_-kxtQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

We are looking very much forward to the event. Hopefully we will see you in October,
LockCon Team

De Werelt in Garderen | Oud Millingenseweg 62 | 3886MJ Garderen | The Netherlands.
https://dewereltgarderen.nl/
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/3591498

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