[Steffen Wernéry] has published a video of the impressioning contest at LockCon. We learned about key impressioning at this year’s HOPE conference. You start the process by inserting a key blank into the lock. By turning the lock until it stops and then moving the key up and down you create marks on the blank’s face. Take a file to those marks to remove the extra material and then repeat the process. Once the pins are set properly, they’ll stop leaving marks on the blank. It takes a lot of skill to do this right, but you end up with a perfectly functional key. [Barry Wels] managed to win the competition in 5:30 with second place coming in at 6 minutes.
I love reading these lock picking stories. Wish I had more time to get into doing it myself.
Get a job as a locksmith. You’ll then wish you had more time for other things, you’ll also wish you could walk into places without noticing their locks.
A key was impressioned in five and a half minutes? That’s some really fast filing.
This is AWESOME!! I am a third generation locksmith in the US, and the new breed of lock defeaters are quite impressive. Yes, it can be done in the time he did it.
soot or lamp black on the blank works well for the cut marks.