Your Resource for Lockpicking Tips & Tricks
As an continued journey from the Blue Belt, the Road to Purple Belt is an exciting journey for any aspiring lockpicker. Achieving the Purple Belt signifies a solid understanding of advanced lockpicking skills and techniques. Here are some locks that I recommend for your journey to Purple Belt:
Two sided, high pin count dimple lock with 12 pins. Picking this lock is really fun, but the real challenge is in disassembling it! You need to be really careful when handling it or you might end up dumping all the pins!
I picked the ASSA Max+ Restricted for my purple belt and it was a challenging pick! A high-security 6-pin tumbler lock with 6 barrel pins with matching counter milling. This is a great lock to work start learning barrel security pins with. It's also a good starting point when looking forward towards higher belts. There is a red belt version of the ASSA 600 (6 gin spools with matching counter milling).Then there is the ASSA 700 that you can advance to with gin/tree pins with matching counter milling.
A high-security lock with an paracentric keyway. This lock is a challenging pick and really challenges your skills with picking paracentric keyways. The key pins are also spool pins so it's easier to mistakenly over set them and think that you are working on a security pin.
As you advance beyond the Purple Belt, you will encounter more complex locks and challenges that will further test your skills and knowledge. Here are some of the locks that I am currently working with on my journey:
8 sliders (4 on each side), no master pins, and an active side bar. This lock is definitely proving to be a challenge! The Lockpicking Lawyer has a good video about picking it, but it still takes a lot of practice. Currently I am able to get 4 pins picked (2 on each side).
6-Pin Tumbler Lock with Gin Spool Drivers, Overmilling, and Undercut milling. Another challenging lock to work with that is on a completely different level. I can get 4 out of 6 in progressive pinning, 5 out of 6 randomly, then when adding the 6th pin, it becomes much more difficult where I curl under my desk crying. Definitely a fun lock!
6-Pin Tumbler Lock with standard driver pins with rotating finger pins. In looking forward to red and black belt locks, a lot of them have side pins that you need to work with. So this is a good time to start learning about them.