For Your Urban/E&E Kit or BOB - Bogota Entry Tools

Well, this August will mark the 23rd year of this stuff. :D

I started out with a set of ESPs then, went on to HPCs and then Rytans and I've owned something or other from just about every manufacturer except Falle since that time.

The Bogotas that are handmade, and I believe the ones I have from SEREpick are, are without a doubt some of the best and most effective tools out there. If they are hand cut with a chainsaw file or equivalent and finished with sandpaper and not Dremelized...no matter the attachment or your skill with a Dremel...they are incredible tools. The Bogotas and Monserrates are top notch.

It's hard to beat Rytans for ergonomics but they are fragile, they will bend easily. LAB even moreso. Although LAB turning tools are much tougher than the picks they offer. LAB tools were designed by Gerry Finch who used to teach DAME Courses for the Military at Fort Holabird, among other places, and then went on to win many Locksmithing awards in the private sector. He was also the gentleman who first wrote about "upside down picking" to defeat mushroom and spool high security pins.

Peterson is offering flat turning tools now that are probably going to be very, very good tools. Peterson blue plastic handled picks, that are checkered, are excellent picks. I don't much like the black rubber or red whatever composite handled picks they have, however.

Peterson also makes excellent bypass tools for those interested in attacking these problems in that manner.

I think a couple guys in this thread might be causing quite a stir because they have had such great success with Bogotas. It's not that they are not effective, they are, but you guys might just be naturally inclined to picking, too. I would not underestimate that reality. There are plenty of people out there who will mangle them on the first go-around.

The reason I say you guys might be naturals is this, picking is 25% picking hand skill and 75% having the touch with the turning tool in your other hand, tension wrench or torsion wrench as some of you might know these tools by.

So, if you are getting excellent results, it's also you and not simply the profile of the Bogota Rake. You can take someone that has excellent manual dexterity with their picking hand and if they get too much pressure on the turning tool, or not enough, you're going nowhere fast. That is also the fast road to bent or broken picks.

Just respect the tools and the skills you acquire. It should go without saying, but I have to say it anyway. No matter the temptation, even to help someone out, I would not be providing lockout service to anyone except family and friends that you are on damned good terms with.

There is another lock that gets picked when you open someone's house or their tool box they forgot the keys to and that is the lock on their psyche. Do not underestimate the physical violation that some people feel even when they call a Locksmith out and they see how relatively useless deadbolts, doorknobs and padlocks really are.

Some of you have expressed that feeling right in this thread, about your own locks. Don't do anything that would even remotely bring into question your motivations, keep the skills and tools for a rainy day when some emergency happens. Nothing more and nothing less.
 
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Hey Matthew and Dragan, just realized we were all on the Bogota thread over on USN! Good to see u guys over here! I'm hoping my replacement Titans get here this week. My father in law just got a new tenant and changed all the door locks and gave me the old ones to mess around with so I'm anxious to give these a proper try.
 
Hey Don, just read your post above my previous one. Very well put and some good food for thought there, especially about the physical and even psychological violation that one can feel. This is definitely a skill set to keep under wraps until really needed.
 
Very little pressure on the tension is the most important part (but that is the case with whatever lockpick you use). On most locks, using home made bogota, i can turn the lock, so the spools engage very quickly and then its just finding the spools which only takes few seconds to find and beat those. It works well.
 
Don Rearic said:
Just respect the tools and the skills you acquire. It should go without saying, but I have to say it anyway. No matter the temptation, even to help someone out, I would not be providing lockout service to anyone except family and friends that you are on damned good terms with.

There is another lock that gets picked when you open someone's house or their tool box they forgot the keys to and that is the lock on their psyche. Do not underestimate the physical violation that some people feel even when they call a Locksmith out and they see how relatively useless deadbolts, doorknobs and padlocks really are.

Some of you have expressed that feeling right in this thread, about your own locks. Don't do anything that would even remotely bring into question your motivations, keep the skills and tools for a rainy day when some emergency happens. Nothing more and nothing less.
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:thumbup: Well said!
 
Tomso said:
Very little pressure on the tension is the most important part (but that is the case with whatever lockpick you use). On most locks, using home made bogota, i can turn the lock, so the spools engage very quickly and then its just finding the spools which only takes few seconds to find and beat those. It works well.
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Sometimes in single pin picking, you want to bind the pins and then you pick the "fattest" pins. Then you have to have the sensitivity in your hand with the turning tool to feel that as well. You will get feedback from both tools.

It's not always the lightest pressure, sometimes it is give and take when raking and rocking.

When you talk about "spools," are you talking about spool pins or just using that as a term for regular pins?
 
yep, spool pins. you know, when lock turns and feels like it opened, but not all the way.
 
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pretty slick package. if i were doing a search, i doubt i would have even realized that these were lock pics!
 
Tomso said:
yep, spool pins. you know, when lock turns and feels like it opened, but not all the way.
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You just have to be a bit more specific when you are talking about this stuff. A lot of people use Internet lingo they picked up from various websites and the terms are wrong. :)

There are regular pins, then the high-security pins which are generally spool, mushroom or serrated.

You do have to generally have a lighter touch with those pins but the Feather-touch wrenches that have been around for a few decades, I never had much luck with them.

By the way, the guy I spoke about in a prior post, Gerry Finch, he is the guy that first defeated spools and mushrooms by "upside down" picking. You turn, say, a half-diamond pick upside down so you just have a straight feeler pick and you raise all of the pin stacks to their maximum height then you bind the plug with very heavy turning force. Then, remove the pick and insert a riffle rake, which a Bogota is very similar to, and you scrub the pins gently as you start to gradually release turning force on the wrench. You want to trap all of the high security upper pins above the shear line and then tease the lower pins down below the shear line with the scrubbing motion of the rake as you release turning force a little at a time. Pretty productive!
 
Don Rearic said:
You do have to generally have a lighter touch with those pins but the Feather-touch wrenches that have been around for a few decades, I never had much luck with them.
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Nor have I - they take away all the feedback, which is why I don't recommend them.
 
Those look pretty rough for a $35.00 set of tools. They are very inexpensive to make and to make them well. It's kind of hard for me to justify that much money for that simple of a tool that has that rough of a finish.
 
yeah you can get a nice set of HPC's for the price but i was looking for a small set i would always have on me. really the finish is not all bad maby there is something better?
 
Do the picks lock in place? If they do, will they stay locked?

A set of Bogotas are light years beyond that and they are very simple.
 
yes see the large phillips screw in the pic? all you do is back it out select a pick and then tighten it back down there is no movement. i like it because its small on my key chain.
 
As far as "jack knife" type picks go, there is better to be had. But I don't think I would want to be sporting a set of picks on my keys. You might want to consider being a bit more discreet about that. :)

Shoot me an E-mail and I will get to it later today.
 
huh just noticed something with my set. if you go on that site i posted scroll down to where it shows each pick it shows the key chain attachment sticks up on my set its off to the side out of the way
 
I've been looking for something like this for a while so I ordered a pair of the titanium and just received them last night. Let me say I am impressed! I loved "picking" locks with a paper clip when I was little even though I was not really successful lol.

So I went into work early to mess around with some of the locks today as it is too cold to stand outside at home and try there. I spent about 15 frustrating minutes on my desk lock and decided to try a different one. So I moved on to the cash drawer (I have the key, I wasn't doing anything bad) and picked it in under 30 seconds! After that success I had a better handle on what I needed to do and went back to the desk. Took me about a minute to get that one, so I decided to relock and try again. This time was easy at under 15 seconds! Next up will be an actual house lock.

I love these picks, easy to use and great quality. I'll be ordering another backup set for sure. :)
 
Bugoutbob said:
So I went into work early to mess around with some of the locks today as it is too cold to stand outside at home and try there.
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Read the last page or two last pages of the thread discussing the strangest thing you have in your survival kit. :)

I spent about 15 frustrating minutes on my desk lock and decided to try a different one. So I moved on to the cash drawer (I have the key, I wasn't doing anything bad) and picked it in under 30 seconds!
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Not all, but most desk locks and cash drawer locks are low to medium security disc tumbler locks and are a lot easier to pick than pin tumbler locks which you will encounter on a house's deadbolt and/or doorknob. They both fall to the same tools but the actual mechanisms are different.
 
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