当我年轻的时候，关于如何开锁的信息并不容易获得。现在(Nowadays)，当然，您可以在互联网上找到说明，还有大量YouTube视频向您详细展示如何操作。既然所有这些信息都是免费的，那么还值得买一本关于这个主题的书吗？Practical Lock Picking在我们看来是一本有趣的读物，所以我们试了一下。让我们在这篇评论中讨论它。
在你开始之前
我将以与作者开始本书相同的方式开始审查，并考虑道德因素。在过去很难获得关于撬锁的信息是有原因的——不是每个想要这些信息的人都是道德的，而且这是一种可以用于好的或坏的技能，所以不传播信息被认为是明智的自由地左右。尽管今天获取信息要容易得多，但事实是并非每个人都是道德的，过去的担忧仍然存在。
无论(Whether)您是从这本书还是从互联网上获取信息，请牢记作者的两个开锁黄金法则：不要撬您不拥有的锁，也不要撬您依赖的锁(Do not pick locks you do not own, and do not pick locks on which you rely)。他补充说，仅仅因为你有一把钥匙并不意味着你拥有这把锁——例如，想想公寓或办公室门(apartment or office doors)上的锁，它们实际上属于建筑物的所有者，而不是居住者。话虽如此，让我们讨论这本书。
锁定(Lock)基础知识以及如何使用它们
本书从两种最常见的锁类型开始，即针形不倒翁(pin tumbler)和圆片。作者详细解释了每种类型的机制。我必须在这里指出，《实用开锁》(Practical Lock Picking)是像教科书一样写的，而不是流行的计算机指南书那种简单、轻松的风格。信息都在这里，但作者的语气非常实用，有时阅读起来相当枯燥。但是，必须了解锁的工作原理才能更轻松地了解如何选择它们。一旦您完成了基础知识，就可以更容易地想象作者将教您的技术。首先(First)，对每种类型的锁是如何制造的进行了冗长的讨论。
从逻辑上讲，制造部分之后是对钥匙以及它们如何与锁配合使用的讨论。键的各个部分都有详细说明。
只有在对锁和钥匙的制作方式进行了仔细而冗长的讨论之后，才真正开始讨论如何开锁。
常用的开锁技术和工具
实用开锁(Practical Lock Picking)描述了制造缺陷使锁更容易开锁的方式，这是我发现最有趣的东西。您最常遇到的锁并不完全是高精度机构，它们组合在一起的方式——或者不完全组合在一起——是初学者需要了解的。孔有轻微的误钻，销钉或晶片可能被不完美地切割等等，这些缺陷使成品锁更容易被撬开。对初学者来说是好事，对真正的安全来说是坏事。
经过这么长时间的讨论，作者终于开始着手实际开锁了。他从销子(pin tumbler)锁开始，描述了两种常见的技术，提升和耙动。这两种技术都需要专门的工具，但解释很详细，说明也很好，所以如果读者已经掌握了这些工具，按照说明逐步进行应该不难。不过，再一次(Again)，教科书的写作风格(textbook style)可能有点令人反感。这是一个例子：
Ollum 先生(Mr. Ollum)提供了他多年使用锁具的许多有用的提示和技巧，以帮助初学者避免不良习惯。有很多常见的初学者错误，其中大多数使过程比需要的要困难得多，因此注意不要做的事情与注意应该做的事情一样重要。紧随其后的是对您需要的工具的冗长且经过详细说明的讨论。我不知道有这么多不同种类的撬片、张力工具和其他装置可以让开锁工作变得更容易。当然，初学者不会想要或需要所有这些，但有一些很好的实用建议可供选择。
练习和学习技术
名为“初学者培训-如何变得非常好，非常快”("Beginner Training—How to get very good, very fast")的部分并没有真正辜负它的名字。它的主要目的是描述练习设备的种类(practice equipment)初学者可以购买或建造，以使学习过程更容易。“好得很快”的部分只有在获得培训工具之后才会出现。该部分非常冗长和详细，简短的描述并不公平。如果你买了这本书，你会想要阅读这一部分并密切关注，因为按照说明和获取设备将使学习更容易。作者指出，几乎每个人只要抓住任何一把旧锁并撬开它就可以获得一定程度的成功，但如果读者想认真学习这门手艺，那就需要更多的设备和更多的努力. “高级培训——学习一些额外的技能”部分("Advanced Training—learning some additional skills")也是如此. 本节讨论制造商试图使他们的锁“防撬”的各种方法，而且，彻底的讨论超出了审查的范围。任何认真学习手艺的读者也应该注意本节并练习(section and practice)其中描述的技术。进阶部分之后简要介绍了作者认为特别好或特别差的专用工具，以及几种适合实践的锁。
所有那些互联网的东西
如果您曾经看过一段关于用铝罐切(strip cut)出的条带打开挂锁的视频，或者关于“撞击”锁或以其他方式攻击它以使其无需钥匙即可打开的视频，您可以阅读这些技术以及它们的原因通常在实际开锁(Practical Lock Picking)中如此成功。事实上，作者Deviant Ollam因发明了打开挂锁的汽水罐技术而广受赞誉，尽管他谦虚地说他只是普及了它，而不是发明了它。
他还解释了“碰撞键”（如果你在YouTube 上(YouTube)查找，你会得到无数次点击）并解释了使用它们的技术——这比其中一些视频可能显示的要少得多。他解释了如何绕过一些门锁（我还在上小学时就知道该怎么做，但考虑到那是多久以前的事了，门和门锁制造商(door and door lock manufacturers)让这些技巧变得更加困难也就不足为奇了目前为止）。
真正困难的部分
本书的教学部分最后讨论了更复杂、更难撬锁的锁类型：管状、十字形和凹坑(cruciform and dimple)。这些锁并非不可能撬开，但要做到这一点需要一些非常专业的工具和大量练习。我想说，想要承担学习这些专业技术任务的读者还有很长的路要走。尽管如此，如果您到目前为止已经阅读了这本书并了解了锁和钥匙是如何协同工作的，那么即使您自己没有兴趣研究这些技术，您也将能够了解这些技术是如何工作的。
详细信息超出了评论的范围，但如果您想购买专门的工具和一些练习锁来进行操作，《实用开锁》(Practical Lock Picking)可以作为一个很好的参考（当然，请记住两条黄金法则）。
贸易工具
本书的最后一节专门详细介绍了各种开锁工具。有各种截齿和张力工具配置的照片和图表，讨论了哪种工具最适合初学者，以及哪些制造商生产的工具质量最好。拥有这种建议可以使初学者免于在不起作用的工具上花费大量资金。
如果您认真将《实用开锁(Practical Lock Picking)》中的说明付诸实践，那么获得正确的工具将使您走上正确的道路。
概括
不是每个人都会对这本书感兴趣，因为它是一门专业学科。而且它不是为快速轻松阅读而设计的。这是一本教科书。虽然您可以阅读有关如何打开或破解锁的所有信息，但如果您希望成功，您将需要练习最简单的技术。永远牢记两条黄金法则：不要撬你不拥有的锁，不要撬你依赖的锁(Do not pick a lock you do not own, and Do not pick a lock on which you rely)。如果您决定第一次尝试使用您的车锁(car lock)或前门，您将了解为什么要创建这些规则，并且您将不得不请专业人士来解决您刚刚所做的事情。
判决
Practical Lock Picking, Second Edition是一本详尽的、插图极好的教科书，为简单和复杂的技术提供指导。虽然您当然可以在互联网上和整个YouTube 上(YouTube)到处找到这些信息，但将印刷说明摆在您面前可能是一个真正的帮助（如果您不明白，您可以随时尝试这些视频）。我没有尝试过这些技术，因为我没有专门的工具……但我必须承认，我正在强烈考虑获得一些。我们确实有一盒旧挂锁，我丈夫就是舍不得扔掉。🙂
Book Review - Practical Lock Picking, Second Edition, by Deviant Ollam
When І was young, information on how to pick locks was not easy to come bу. Nowadays, of courѕe, yоu can find instructions all oνer the internet and а wealth of YouTube videos showing you what to do in great detail. With all thаt information available for free, is it worth buying a boоk on the subject as well? Practical Lock Picking seemed to us like an interesting read so we gave it a try. Let's talk about it in this review.
Before you begin
I will begin the review the same way the author begins the book, with ethical considerations. Information on picking locks was hard to come by in the past for a reason--not everyone who wants the information is ethical, and it's a skill that can be used for good or for ill, so it was thought wise not to spread the information around freely. Although access to the information is much easier today, the fact is that not everyone is ethical, and the concerns of the past remain in force.
Whether you get your information from this book or from the internet, please take to heart the author's two golden rules of lockpicking: Do not pick locks you do not own, and do not pick locks on which you rely. He adds that just because you have a key doesn't mean you own the lock—think of locks on apartment or office doors, for example, which actually belong to the building's owner, not the occupant. That said, let's discuss the book.
Lock basics and how to work with them
The book begins with the two most common types of locks, pin tumbler, and wafer. The author explains the mechanism of each type in detail. I must note here that Practical Lock Picking is written like a textbook rather than in the easy, breezy style of popular how-to computer books. The information's all here, but the author's tone is strictly practical and it makes for rather dry reading sometimes. However, it's essential to understand how locks work in order to more easily understand how to pick them. Once you've gone through the basics it's much easier to visualize the techniques the author will teach you. First there's a lengthy discussion of how each type of lock is manufactured.
The section on manufacturing is followed, logically, by a discussion of keys and how they work with the locks. The various parts of the key are described in detail.
Only after this careful and lengthy discussion of the way locks and keys are made does the discussion of how to pick locks actually begin.
Common lock picking techniques & tools
Practical Lock Picking describes the ways in which manufacturing imperfections make locks easier to pick, something that I found most interesting. The locks you'll most commonly encounter aren't exactly high precision mechanisms, and the way they fit together—or don't quite fit together—is what the beginner needs to understand. Holes are slightly mis-drilled, pins or wafers can be imperfectly cut, and so forth, and those imperfections make the finished lock easier to pick. Good thing for beginners, bad thing for real security.
Only after this lengthy discussion does the author finally get down to the business of actually picking a lock. He starts with pin tumbler locks and describes the two common techniques, lifting and raking. Specialized tools are needed for both techniques, but the explanations are detailed and well illustrated, so if the reader has acquired the tools, it shouldn't be difficult to proceed step by step through the instructions. Again, though, the textbook style of writing may be a little off-putting. Here's an example:
Mr. Ollum offers plenty of helpful hints and tips from his many years of working with locks, to help the beginner avoid bad habits. There are a lot of common beginner mistakes, most of which make the process a lot more difficult than it needs to be, so paying attention to what not to do is just as important as paying attention to what you should be doing. This is all followed by a lengthy and well illustrated discussion of the tools you'll need. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of picks, tension tools and other devices to make the lock picking job easier. A beginner won't want or need all of them, of course, but there are good practical suggestions which to choose to start out with.
Practicing and learning the techniques
The section called "Beginner Training—How to get very good, very fast" doesn't really live up to its name. Its main purpose is to describe the kinds of practice equipment a beginner can purchase or construct, to make the process of learning easier. The "getting good very fast" part only comes after the acquisition of the training tools. The section is quite lengthy and detailed and a brief description wouldn't do it justice. If you buy this book, you will want to read this section and pay close attention, because following the instructions and acquiring the equipment will make learning easier. The author points out that nearly everyone will have a degree of success by just getting hold of any old lock and picking away at it, but if the reader wants to get serious about really learning the craft, it's going to require more equipment and more effort. The same goes for the section called "Advanced Training—learning some additional skills". This section deals with the various ways manufacturers attempt to make their locks "pick resistant," and again, a thorough discussion is beyond the scope of a review. Any reader who is serious about learning the craft should also pay attention to this section and practice the techniques it describes. The advanced section is followed by a brief description of specialized tools that the author thinks are especially good or especially bad, and several kinds of locks that are good for practice.
All that internet stuff
If you've ever looked at a video about opening padlocks with a strip cut out of an aluminum can, or about "bumping" a lock or otherwise assaulting it so that it opens without a key, you can read about these techniques and why they usually work so successfully in Practical Lock Picking. In fact, the author, Deviant Ollam, is widely credited with inventing the strip-of-soda-can technique for opening padlocks even though he modestly says he only popularized it, he didn't invent it.
He also explains "bump keys" (you'll get a bazillion hits if you look that up on YouTube) and explains the technique for using them—which involves a lot less force than some of those videos might make it appear. And he explains how to bypass some door locks (something I knew how to do when I was still in grade school but given how long ago that was, it's not at all surprising that door and door lock manufacturers have made those tricks a lot more difficult by now).
And the really hard part
The instructional part of the book concludes with a discussion of the more complex and more difficult-to-pick types of locks: tubular, cruciform and dimple. These locks are not impossible to pick, but to do so will require some very specialized tools and a lot of practice. The reader who wants to take on the task of learning these specialized techniques is going to have a long road ahead, I would say. Still, if you've read the book so far and have seen how locks and keys work together, you'll be able to see how these techniques work even if you have no interest in pursuing them yourself.
The details are beyond the scope of a review, but Practical Lock Picking can serve as an excellent reference if you wish to buy the specialized tools and some practice locks to work on (keeping in mind the two golden rules, of course).
Tools of the trade
The final section in the book is devoted to a detailed description of lockpicking tools of all kinds. There are photographs and diagrams of the various configurations of picks and tension tools, and a discussion of what kinds of tools are best for beginners, and which manufacturers produce the best quality tools. Having this kind of advice could save a beginner from spending a lot of money on tools that won't work.
If you're serious about putting the instructions in Practical Lock Picking into practice, getting the right kinds of tools will set you on the right path.
Summary
Not everyone will find this book of interest because it's a specialized subject. And it's not designed for quick and easy reading. It's a textbook. While you can read all about how to pick or defeat locks, you're going to need to practice even the simplest techniques if you wish to be successful. Always keep the two golden rules in mind: Do not pick a lock you do not own, and Do not pick a lock on which you rely. If you decide to make your first attempt on your car lock or your front door, you're going to find out why these rules were created, and you're going to have to call in a professional to fix what you just did.
Verdict
Practical Lock Picking, Second Edition, is a thorough, extremely well-illustrated textbook that provides instruction for simple and complex techniques. While you can certainly find this information here and there on the internet and all over YouTube, having the printed instructions in front of you can be a real help (and if you don't get it, you can always try those videos). I have not tried the techniques because I don't have the specialized tools… but I must admit, I am strongly considering getting some. We do have a box full of old padlocks my husband just can't bring himself to throw away. 🙂
