You can open a standard pin tumbler lock with two bobby pins: one bent into an L-shape to act as a tension wrench, and another straightened out to serve as a pick. The process involves applying light rotational pressure while lifting internal pins to the correct height, one at a time. It takes patience and practice, and improvised tools like bobby pins are far less reliable than professional lock picks, but the technique works on most basic pin tumbler locks.
How a Pin Tumbler Lock Works
Before you can pick a lock, it helps to understand what’s happening inside it. A standard pin tumbler lock has a cylindrical housing with a rotating inner piece called the plug. The plug is what turns when you insert the correct key. Running through the top of the housing and into the plug are several spring-loaded pin stacks, usually five or six. Each stack has two pins: a bottom pin (key pin) that sits inside the plug, and a top pin (driver pin) that bridges the gap between the plug and the housing.
When no key is inserted, the driver pins cross the boundary between the plug and the housing, physically preventing the plug from rotating. That boundary is called the shear line. When the right key slides in, it pushes each bottom pin up to exactly the right height so that every driver pin sits flush with the top of the plug. At that point, nothing crosses the shear line, and the plug rotates freely. Lock picking mimics this process without a key, exploiting tiny manufacturing imperfections that let you set pins one at a time instead of all at once.
Preparing Your Tools
You need two bobby pins. The first becomes your tension wrench. Bend it into an L-shape so the short end can slide into the top or bottom of the keyway. This tool’s only job is to apply slight rotational pressure to the plug. The second bobby pin becomes your pick. Straighten it out completely so you have a long, thin piece of metal with a small curved tip at one end. That tip is what you’ll use to push individual pins upward inside the lock.
If you’re working with safety pins instead of bobby pins, the concept is the same, but you’ll need pliers. Open the safety pin and straighten it as much as possible for the pick. For the tension tool, bend a second safety pin into that same L-shape. Safety pins are thicker and stiffer than bobby pins, which makes them slightly harder to maneuver inside a narrow keyway but less likely to snap.
Smooth out any rough or jagged edges on your tools before inserting them. Rough metal can scratch the inside of the lock, catch on components, or break off inside the keyway. Running the ends lightly against a file, sandpaper, or even concrete helps.
The Picking Process, Step by Step
Insert the short end of your L-shaped tension wrench into the top or bottom of the keyway. Apply very light pressure in the direction the key would normally turn. If you don’t know which direction that is, try one way first. If nothing catches, switch directions. The amount of pressure matters enormously here. Think of it as the weight of a finger resting gently, not pushing. Too much force is the most common reason beginners fail.
With your tension wrench holding that light pressure, slide your straightened pick into the keyway above or below the wrench, depending on where you placed it. Push the pick toward the back of the lock so it passes under all the pin stacks. Now slowly drag it back out while pressing upward. This is called raking, and on cheap locks, it can set several pins at once and open the lock in seconds.
If raking doesn’t work, switch to single pin picking. With tension still applied, use the tip of your pick to push up on each pin individually, starting from the back. Most pins will feel springy and bounce back down easily. One pin, however, will feel stiffer and resist more than the others. This is the binding pin, and it’s your starting point. The reason it binds is that your tension pressure has created friction between its driver pin and the shear line.
Lift that binding pin slowly upward. When the driver pin clears the shear line, you’ll feel a subtle click and the plug will rotate a tiny fraction further. That pin is now “set.” Move to the next pin and repeat the process. Feel for the new binding pin, lift it until it clicks, and continue. Each time you set a pin, the plug rotates slightly more. When the last pin sets, the plug turns fully and the lock opens.
Why It Often Doesn’t Work
Picking a lock with bobby pins is significantly harder than it looks in movies. The most common mistake is applying too much tension. Heavy pressure causes multiple pins to bind simultaneously, making it nearly impossible to isolate and lift them individually. It also increases the chance of oversetting a pin, pushing the bottom pin past the shear line so it blocks rotation instead of the driver pin. When this happens, you need to release tension briefly to let pins drop, then start again with a lighter touch.
Bobby pins also snap. They’re made of thin, coated steel that wasn’t designed for the lateral pressure and fine movements of lock picking. If a piece breaks off inside the lock, it can jam the mechanism entirely. This is one of the biggest practical risks of using improvised tools. Professional lock picks are flat, spring-tempered steel designed to flex without breaking.
Feedback is another challenge. Experienced pickers use professional tools with comfortable handles that transmit tiny vibrations from the pins to their fingertips. A bobby pin dampens that feedback, making it harder to feel the difference between a binding pin and a springy one. Expect the process to take many attempts before you develop the sensitivity to distinguish between pin states through an improvised tool.
Locks That Resist This Technique
Basic pin tumbler locks found on interior doors, cheap padlocks, and simple deadbolts are the most vulnerable to picking. But many locks are designed specifically to defeat this technique. High-security locks use specially shaped pins, such as spool or serrated driver pins, that create false sets. You’ll feel a click and think a pin is set, but the plug will stop short of opening because the spool pin has wedged at the shear line. Getting past these pins requires counter-rotation, a more advanced skill that’s extremely difficult with improvised tools.
Locks from brands like ABUS, Medeco, and Mul-T-Lock use combinations of security pins, restricted keyways (too narrow for a bobby pin), and sidebar mechanisms that make traditional picking nearly impossible even with professional equipment. If you’re locked out and facing a high-security deadbolt, a bobby pin is unlikely to help.
Legal Considerations
Lock picking laws vary by location, but in many jurisdictions, including California, simply possessing lock picks or improvised picking tools is not a crime. What matters legally is intent. Possessing tools with the intent to break into a building, vehicle, or other property is a criminal offense. Hobbyist lock picking, practicing on your own locks, and locksmithing are generally legal activities. Some states do treat possession of lock picks more strictly, requiring a locksmith license or treating picks as prima facie evidence of criminal intent, so it’s worth checking your local laws before carrying tools around.
The practical takeaway: practice on locks you own. Buy a few cheap padlocks from a hardware store and work on those. This gives you a controlled way to develop the feel for pin states and tension control without any legal ambiguity or risk of damaging a lock you actually need to function.