In a couple of weeks Han and I will be giving a two day impressioning course in Spain. It is going to be the second course we organize for the Spanish APECS locksmith organisation in nine months. Last time we gave a very successful course on bumping Spanish locks (a small test proved around 80% of the pin tumbler locks on the Spanish market could be bumped). This time the topic will be impressioning.

One of the things I am focusing on lately is ‘advanced impressioning’. This means trying the technique on other locks then the standard pin tumbler locks, or modifying keyblanks to make life more easy or have a higher success range on high security locks.

The lock high on my wish list is the Abloy classic (PDF). As far as I know it is the oldest system that uses discs instead of pins, yet it still is (to me) a remarkably secure lock as it has a very high degree of pick resistance. Of course I had to try if I could use impressioning to open it.

My first attempt was to simply give it a try and see what happens. In this case I just took a classic key, smoothened it and filed down where I saw marks. I soon realized this was not going to work. I had absolutely no idea of the exact position of the discs on the blank and the marks kept wandering from left to right. So my second try was using a marker making some dots on the blank, indexing where the discs should be. Still this did not work well as the marks were sometimes appearing between the dots … and I ran out of blanks too …

I recently bought more blanks and could continued the challenge. My new strategy: reducing the contact area of the key. Using a caliper I noticed the spacing on Abloy classic is two millimeters (at least on the locks I was experimenting with). So I marked the blank and removed the material between the positions. For removing the material I used a fine metal saw, a dremel tool (with a diamond disc) and a very fine ‘blade file’ (knive file?). After some work I ended up with a ‘reduced contact area blank’ that looks like a comb.

Filing down the remaining teeth of the comb is done with a special file. This file is cut only on the thin side. Using this file will only remove material from the contact area of the file, and not from the side of the blade (like on a normal ‘full contact’ file).

I did not have a whole lot of abloy classic locks and was happy to have one padlock I did not know the key-combination of. I did have the key, but put it in a bag without looking at it. Using the reduced contact area key I got the idea I was on the right track … when the key broke off in the lock (grrr). And I could not get the remaining key out of the lock and was out of test locks….

It is a good thing Han managed to remove the key from the lock, and even though I was on the right track I was too deep on some positions.

Talking with Han, we came to the conclusion to start easy using a simple six disc camlock. As most abloy classic locks have a cut 1 (no material removed) on the first and last disc, there were only four discs to work on. And each of these discs could have a cut between one to six (as you can see on this ‘stairway’ key that is cut 1-2-3-4-5-6). This four disc lock did not provide a challenge and was opened in a couple of minutes (without knowing the code).

After this success I did buy some new nine disc padlocks, yet I still have not managed to open them. Somehow I am doing something wrong … so I would be grateful if people would share their experiences on impressioning disc (and lever?) locks in the comments or using a private message …

Of course I will keep trying and report back if I know what is needed to successfully open the nine disc version …

* Update 22/06 21:00: hyperfocus kicked in and … voila … just opened the nine disc version …
All I did was make the teeth of the key a little more thin, and filed in small steps. I must say I am pretty pleased with this success as I have not found any other info out there on people successfully opening Abloy classic locks this way …

A friend of mine asked if I could help him with a lock. The specifications were: I have to be able to lock it from the inside with a knob, and I will not use the key on the outside at all. It is a pretty security aware friend, and he wanted to use a pick- and bumpproof lock. So I gave him the lock you see below. Guaranteed pick and bump proof!

Can you see why?

Ok, here is what I did: I drilled out three of the caps that hold the springs and pins in place, and replaced the pins with a steel screw. Of course I cut the remaining head of the screw off using an abrasive wheel. If you look closely into the keyway you can see the thread of the screw instead of a smooth pin. Now, I am the first to admit the lock can not be opened from the outside at all, but that was the specification. Because of the steel screws I think the lock is a little bit more difficult to drill and pull out also …

More news soon, as I am still busy and still exploring the new features of this version of the wordpress blog software.

Sorry, no blogposting today. I am a little busy and simply have no time to write something that lives up your high quality expectations 🙂

And Rop is busy with sysadmin stuff (as you can see), so if all goes well I will be able to upload images and video’s again soon …

Hopefully all will be ok soon, and I will write a new posting in a couple of days …

I am flabbergasted. To be honest I did not expect to win this year’s German impressioning games, simply because the lack of training and some of my German friends seemed very motivated to bring the title back to Germany. And Oliver Diederichsen did just that: in a record time of four minutes and twenty three seconds he managed to open the Abus C83 lock. Quite an achievement and very well done!

For me personally the games ended in pure drama. I lost my title in the worst possible way: without opening my lock at all!

A very strange experience as in the last year I barely ever had to use a second key, let alone a third one to open a lock (even when working under pressure). But hey, you can not win them all, and it is a good motivation to start serious practicing for the ‘Hacking At Random’ impressioning games later this year ….

I must say I am very happy Oliver won the games. Instead of keeping the watch I offered to the winner he decided to turn it into a challenge trophy that will change hands from game to game. Every time someone wins a game his or hers name will be engraved in a plaque that holds the watch. The winner has to safeguard the trophy and bring it to the next challenge. A great idea and a display of true sportsmanship!

Here the rest of the scores of the German Impressioning 2009 games:

1. Platz Oliver Diederichsen 04:23 SSDeV/Spg. HH
2. Platz Arthur Meister 12:25 SSDeV/Spg. HH
3. Platz Ingo Zschippang 15:20 SSDeV/Spg. HH
4. Platz Roland Geyer 16:31 SSDeV/Spg. Nürnberg
5. Platz Dr. Manfred Bölker 19:29 SSDeV/Spg. HH
6. Platz Gerhard Hepperle 27:10 SSDeV/Spg. Stuttgart
7. Platz Jens Andrews 42:51 SSDeV/Spg. HH
8. Platz Volker Löding 46:05 SSDeV/Spg. Stuttgart
9. Platz Jos Weyers 46:40 TOOOL NL
10. Platz Django 46:53 TOOOL NL
11. Platz Oliver Jans 52:09 SSDeV/Oelde

My congratulations to the winners and all that did manage to open the lock in under one hour!

As you might know Han and I invest a lot of time and money visiting lock related fairs all over the globe. Huge investments, but they pay off. Because of it, our LockCon (formerly known as Dutch Open) attracts a lot of international attention and certainly does not go unnoticed in the ‘real’ lock(smith)world. I think it is fair to say it bridges the gap between the locksport community and the ‘professional’ lock(smith) community.

We are currently negotiating a deal to have LockCon hosted outside the Netherlands in 2010! That is right: maybe there is a sponsor that is willing to host LockCon and it’s famous international lockpick championships (lockpicking / impressioning / safe combo dialing). If we can pull it off it will be really spectacular and a big breakthrough for all of us. And if we can not pull it off we will put our energy in organizing the event in Amsterdam in 2010 (although there are a few other options left as well). But we have good faith to be able to come out with some spectacular news in the weeks to come …

My first priorities now are the impressioning championships in Hamburg this weekend. I will have to defend my title against some friends who really believe it is time to bring it back to Germany. And rumor has my friends have been practicing a bit too ….

But so have we (yes, ‘we’: some other Toool members also are into impressioning a lot lately). My gut feeling says the record time of five minutes and thirteen seconds will be smashed, and we might even be looking at times in the three minute range! (depending a bit on how many ‘long pins’ there are in the lock).

I will make sure to bring my watch ….

*NewsFlash*

Wired just came out with an interesting article on Marc Tobias (and Tobias Bluzmanis). It also contains great video of them picking and bumping Medeco locks (in as little as 9 seconds, not including selecting the correct side-setting key …). As I am in the middle of something else here, I keep this post short for now. Just go read the article now 😉

Just got back from the ELF 2009 convention in Warsaw Poland. A great event!

I did follow quite a few classes as the schedule had some interesting topics. And besides meeting old friends I made quite some new ones too. Not to mention my collection of tools also grew considerably (and my wallet is empty). I will share with you these hand made hobb’s picks, used to manipulate (simple) lever locks.

The most interesting tools are the one with three handles. I do not even now what specific lock these ‘three in one’ picks are used for, but I do like the technique used to make them.

I wrote in a previous posting about the popular orenco lock in spain that uses a simple yet effective countermeasure against a classical hobb’s pick. It seems the kind of pick shown above will be able to open these kind of locka because of the shape of the fingers/tensioner. Although I still I wonder why it is ‘three in one’? Is the middle feeler used to tension the lock? Anyone got an idea what kind of lock this pick was designed for?

The other hobb’s picks are regular ones that vary in diameter and shape, but nothing special.

Unfortunately we did not have much time to see Warsaw, but did manage to shoot some images of a high security door there. The door is not only protected by a Gerda high security lock, but also uses seals for intrusion detection. I did not have much time to figure out the details of the sealing mechanism, but is sure is intriguing …

(* update 19/05: MH made a nice comment: Interesting seal, it seems to use the owner’s fingerprint – for “normal” intruders there would be some kind of psychological barrier to leave their own fingerprints behind…)

All over Amsterdam billboards are popping up saying: “from now on, all that deserve PUNISHMENT will get PUNISHED”. It is a ridiculous poster by the Dutch VVD political party. And good old Viola did not like to see the threatening words ‘punishment’ and ‘punished’ all over the place and decided to fix the problem. She made prints with the words ‘something sweet’ and put them over the billboards. So now it says: “From now on, all that deserve SOMETHING SWEET will get SOMETHING SWEET”.

Isn’t she sweet?

(Dutch video about Viola below, and she also made the Dutch newspapers)

One thing that always fascinates me is high security keys and restricted keyblanks. And I always keep an eye out for new techniques and profiles.

The image above shows two keys to the (relatively new) EVVA ALS system. As you can see EVVA removed some material from the tip of the key, making that part much thinner. Flattening the tip is done by more manufacturers, like the Nemef/CES on the Dutch KM profile, and I was really curious how they made the core more thin on the tip. So when a friend got his hands on an EVVA ALS demo lock I could not wait to take it apart.

The solution by EVVA is clever … as always. They just milled a thin slot between pin 4 and 5, and inserted a small metal plate with the ‘thin tip profile’. A simple and elegant way of making your keyway more narrow. The image above shows you the keyway with and without the plate inserted.

The interesting thing is that if you make a key that is entirely as thin as the tip part, it will get stuck at the plate. The wide part of the original key will align the thin part right in front of the plate, while a complete thin one will hit the walls of the plate and need some jiggling to enter all the way.

All in all a pretty clever design …

I am here at the safe opening weekend and can tell you some monster safes are being opened as I type. As always the weekend is a great success, with safe techs from all over the globe attending.

One person who is a safetech and brought some tools to sell (like the electronic stethoscopes people here are found of) at the little marketplace here is Gerald from Berlin. And Gerald also is the inventor of the Gemini set up key. With this tool we finally managed to open the Gemini shield in the Dutch lockpick competition, and I now had the opportunity to ask him some more details about it.

One thing he did show me is a fifteen year old prototype (more images here and here). And since I know blackbag readers are curious I shot some images of the latest generation tool and the internals for you. Here is an overview of the tool, and here you see the pins used to keep the inner and outer pins in place. The inner pin can be changed in height by turning the knobs at the back of the tool.

The depth of the outer pins are changed using a screwdriver and the inner pin goes straight trough it (and is also threaded). I hope the images speak for themselves.

Geralds stories are interesting. And a little mysterious too. The tool was available on the free market for one year (for around 500 euro), and later just more or less disappeared from the popular lock tools catalog. Maybe not enough demand?!?

Anyway, got to go now … Rob just fired up his (by now famous) BBQ ….