I’ve had a lot of emails about this question, so let’s take a minute to consider it.
Cut-Away Practice Locks are lock cylinders, usually key in knob or mortise cylinder types, that have had a lot of material milled away in order to reveal the inner workings without destroying the lock’s usefulness as a practice lock. In other words, as much of the insides is visible as is possible without causing the lock to fall apart.
They are primarily intended as training aids for people who have never picked a lock in their lives, and, on top of that, have no idea how a pin tumbler lock works. The fact that you can watch the top pins and springs, and to some extent the bottom pins as well, while you work with it is a fascinating way to get quickly educated in both these areas. If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what the real thing is worth. Some find that cut-away varieties help with understanding how picking works, because you can watch the interaction between pick and pin tumbler as you go. You can SEE what happens when too much tension is applied . . . you can SEE how the pin stacks react to the picking tool with each motion. You can see the top pins become entrapped in the upper chamber when a stack is finally picked, and see how the bottom pin then falls into the plug, creating an open shear line at that position.
And cut-away locks, once all this education has been derived, are perfectly functional as ’standard’ practice locks, too. You don’t have to watch the upper chamber anymore once you’ve acquired some skill, so you’ll use it the same way you would a ’standard’ variety.
On the other hand, those who already know how pin tumbler locks work, and have had a little practice in lock picking, really have no need for a cut-away practice lock. For these people, I suggest standard practice locks to fit their particular skill level . . . or the new EZ-ReKey series which allows magical transformation from beginner’s lock to super-challenging drive-you-up-the-wall monster lock, all without tools.
Hopefully this little discussion will help. I invite suggestions or comments that might help someone else along these lines.
Thanks for reading!
George Robertson, owner
April 30, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I have one of those plastic see-through locks that I bought a year or so ago and it just doesn’t seem to work like a real lock would. I can pick it too easy. Do your cut away locks work better than these?
May 1, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I have to be honest, Alven, I have never tried to pick one of those locks but I know which ones you’re referring to. We’re considering carrying them simply because they are designed in a different way than the ones we produce and this will give our customers more variety to choose from. All I can tell you for certain is that the key in knob cylinders we use to create our cut-aways are of very high quality with close tolerances, and though quite a bit of material has been removed to give a view of the top pins there is still enough left that it doesn’t much affect the ‘feedback’ that a lock picker gets when he is working on a lock. This feedback, or feel, is something you develop over time, picking many many locks.
George Robertson, admin
July 24, 2009 at 7:36 am
I cutaway high security cylinders all the time. I’ve just finished cutting an MTL MT5+ which is possibly non existant anywhere else at the moment, well exclusive!
When you done the write up, you neglected to give the other side of cutaways…… people collect them. It’s not always for picking, and I find 90% of my customers just collect and enjoy seeing what is going on inside. I also find the higher the security, or the more seperate locking mechanisms, the more interest they fetch.
I cut my locks in a way that keeps the lock fully functional & feeling exactly as it did in standard form. You can see the upper and lower pins in full also
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/4411/cimg6182.jpg