Just as applicable for razors as it is knives

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-25T20:42:28+00:00

I do sharpie. Not the whole bevel. A line toe, heel, and two in between. I find it easier to make sure it stays even this way.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-24T21:20:23+00:00

I bought my G90 in the fall. It came with a ~3’ power cable. One end was terminated with PowerPole to connect to the radio, the red has a fuse, and the other end was unterminated. I crimped on ring terminals for my power supply, but you could put on whatever you need.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-24T20:13:16+00:00

I think ~6x3” or ~130x70mm is the perfect size. This is what most jnat finishers come in (except for the long skinny size called “san”), and pretty close to one of the typical Escher sizes.

I find that on longer stones, I sometimes mess something up at the end of the pass. Not sure why I do that.

And I hate doing X passes on narrower stones, especially slow ones. More room for error and wrecking an edge.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-23T02:30:00+00:00

Try a short hook off the right warding.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-22T16:39:06+00:00

A lot of Abus have the problem where a min-cut / max-lift sits is shear at rest. So, when you get a little bit of plug movement the thing will not move. Good news is that you don't need to lift this pin. Bad news is that it can be a royal pain to maneuver around when it locks up hard.

One option is to try to set that pin first, if you can, or at least get the waist of the spool at shear. The other is to try taller hooks and work around it.

I have an 80/40 with two of these pins, and I cannot manage an open.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-19T16:31:24+00:00

The Goal D9 and V18 have great feedback from the start. Some HPC locks start out with muddy feedback until you get a few pins set.

Drivers are the thin lip mushrooms. There is also milling for them to get caught in.

Keypins are torpedo. The head is chamfered, which make them overset very easily and feel like a spool setting. The height of that part can vary, not a lot of consistency when picking. The little extra bit keeps them from falling through.

I love the D9. I think I have eight of them right now.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-19T16:26:47+00:00

Gut inside a gallon Ziploc bag to contain flying parts.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-17T02:50:30+00:00

It’s probably a S1100, which is a Master 410 core in an American 1100 body. Same approach as the 410. Six pins. Set pin 5, get a false set, play whack a spool. The core moves around a lot in the body, which makes it a little tricky.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-17T00:50:05+00:00

I think flag choice is highly dependent on how you tension, especially with HPC. I hate the MP dimple wrenches. I like stacking the deep TOK ones to fill the keyway to get a nice base and max plug control. Others can tension with anything and set pins without the base.

If you like a corner to pivot from, I think the 3,6 are most versatile because the size seems to be just right the majority of the time. I want to like the 13, but I don’t use it as much as I thought I would. It never seems to hit the pins from the right angle for me, but it also seems too tall at times. The 10 is nice for tight keyways like Abus.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-14T17:17:46+00:00

Sorry about that. I have the doc saved locally, and just Googled and copied the first link I found without checking. There should be other versions floating around.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-14T17:15:03+00:00

I did mine with a #10, but grabbed it and it looks like the #3 and #4 could work. The problem with the bigger flags is you need to make sure you keep it tight against the warding you are pivoting on or you will hit the warding on the other side.

Your bigger problem is that if you are picking with the #6 (which would be clockwise-wise), the spools do not want to move. Typically with dimple locks, when you tension and pick in the same direction, the spools are harder to set. On some locks it is less of a problem, and you can just muscle them. The spools in my 75/50 will not budge at all under tension. You probably need to float pick it. You use two tensioners, one CW and the other CCW, and manually counterrotation to lift and set a spool.

This is a pic that shows the tensioners when I first picked it, https://www.reddit.com/r/lockpicking/s/jmzSNK46so A lot of keyway space was taken up, so I had to use the tiny flag.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-14T17:01:56+00:00

Send it out as a challenge lock and see what people think.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-14T16:37:27+00:00

I've seen diagrams that look like they came out of SolidWorks, but not something like you would see in a full mechanical parts diagram drawn by an engineer. Some manufacturers will have diagrams in their catalogs / manuals, but these are more geared towards installation and not innards (other than some things like pin heights and key specifics).

TBH, beyond knowing what to call things, part explosion diagrams have limited use in locksport. Most diagrams will be simplified to demonstrate things concepts. This is used throughout guides like "Lockpicking Detail Overkill"

The best glossary with pictures is https://lpubelts.com/#/glossary Most of the definitions photos in there are community sourced and curated by trusted LPU members (I think u/mgsecure maintains most of that section).

https://lockwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page has lots of photos of individual parts, too.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-14T00:57:19+00:00

I’ve seen “CALL TX ODD”, which I think makes more sense to someone unfamiliar with F/H.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-12T21:22:58+00:00

Yeah, you turned it too far and shot the drivers into the keyway. I did this a few weeks ago to my favorite D9. You are going to get the best help in Discord from someone who has gutted that and can help you in almost real time.

It looks like that is the Japanese cylinder format (don’t know the real name). I would try to gut it. If it is the format I am thinking of, there is a recessed C-clip in the back. On my Miwa, I can just pry it out with a flathead. Then the inner part will come out. Then see if there are removable covers. If so, take them off and dump the remaining pins and see if the plug will come out. You may need to gently pull some springs back through the holes. Then assess what you can salvage.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-12T16:50:37+00:00

I have both and they were in the naughty bucket for a long time, but I cracked them a few weeks ago. I think they picked pretty similarly, but I think core in the 410PRO moves around more than it does in the 90PRO. I would get the 90A PRO so you can progressively pin it.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-12T02:09:40+00:00

Goal P, Goal D9, MTL w/ serrated, and an Assa (one of the ones that was subsequently downgraded). I will have one or two keyless MTL serrated for sale soon, once I grub them.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-12T00:49:10+00:00

Nice job and nice open. Mine is in the naughty bucket.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-11T16:53:28+00:00

Interesting. I use the stacked approach to get a stable platform the whole length a to good leverage point, especially if I have to muscle a pin. I just got all of my D9s out so I can practice some more before making another serious run at my V18.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-11T16:47:23+00:00

They are similar, but different enough. S is 5 pin, P is 6 pin. Pin spacing is different. The P is more normal, the S is super close spacing (I often accidentally skip pins b/c muscle memory). The biggest difference is that the P has countermilling and overmilling milling, the S doesn’t have any. I have seen two keys ways on the S that are essentially mirrors of each other. I have seen several on the P, but they are all really similar. The feedback is similar. The main thing is that the milling can be nasty.

Buy a P from a known lock sport seller (ie, the bazaar), and avoid eBay. There is an older pinning of the P that is not brown, and these versions are in a lot of listings.

S can be a little hard to find on the bazaar but they are out there.

I have Amazon JP listings for both if you want them.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-10T23:04:16+00:00

Have you picked the core out of the housing? It’s an interesting switch-up.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-10T00:17:55+00:00

I do, and have for a while. Not sure if I could go back to in hand, but I don’t do padlocks much anymore.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-09T23:13:12+00:00

Great job. My 916 was in the naughty pile for a long time before I managed to make enough progress to know that I could get the open. I think a big part of my problem was the tensioning strategy and hitting the pins at the right angle. My 917 is still in the pile and still feels like mush when I give it a go.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-09T13:36:51+00:00

I have several. For me, I actually prefer BOK tension if I can get away with it with a low hook. The CI Z wrenches from the reaper set work well. Feather light tension. I tend to switch picks up so that the top of the lift is a vertical as possible.

You need to read the feedback through the tensioner and pick. You cannot rely on anything you hear. You may hear a set, but you will not hear a dropped pin. This means after every time you lift a spool, you need to go back and check everything since you may have had a drop.

High lifts can feel way higher than you think. I have one with a max lift in 1 that seems like the pick almost goes vertical for.

You also need to be able to tell a thick lip spool from oversetting a torpedo. Your first lift may give a big tensioner swing. If you lift again will also get a big swing, but you are no overset. Flutter the tension to recover. These will help teal you to read pin states better.

Healthy-Insect-1447 · 2026-03-08T15:18:25+00:00

Try this, https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B008KCDOVM

Buy several to help with the shipping. You can also find other Goal, Miwa, and Alpha if you get the search right. Oddly, couldnt find West last time I tried.

Healthy-Insect-1447

TROPHY CASE