Sunday is blackbag day, so here is my sunday posting:

Impressioing is still part of my daily routine. I used to open at least one lock per day, now I sometimes skip a few days and open five locks in a row… Occasionally I have to open a lock a different way and take it apart to see why impressioning did not work, but it does not happen often.

I keep experimenting with new techniques and try to open more sophisticated locks. And I invest a lot of time learning about blanks, and keep searching for exotic keyblanks. (if you have any interesting european or US blanks, please drop me a mail)

This weekend I experimented a little on using ultraviolet light and UV ink.

I was hoping ultraviolet light would point out some marks that are difficult to see under normal light conditions. So far this is has not been very successful as I could see approximately 80% of the marks I normally see. And it slows me down as it takes the ink between 45 and 60 seconds to dry. Then again, I just started using this technique … and it is nothing more then an experiment and gaining knowledge and experience.

I shot some images for my dear readers, so you might want to click on them:

1) First round of impressioning (UV and TL view)
2) Second round of impressioning (UV and TL view)
3) Sixth round of impressioning (before and after)
4) Marker, includes advice (Edding 8280)
5) Forensic evidence, ink residue on the lock

For this experiment I used a Q22 inspection light (UVA light, 360 nm, the least harmful of the ultraviolet spectrum) and an edding 8280 marker.

Next week on blackbag: video revealing more of the inner workings of the mysterious ‘russian lock‘ ….

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 19:34 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.