Best Practices for Using Lishi Lock Picks

Lishi 2-in-1 lock picks offer convenience, efficiency, and ease of use for locksmiths of all experience levels. They’re a great way for beginners to get used to the mechanics of a lock, and they offer easy picking and decoding for locksmithing experts with years of experience.

As with any tool, though, they take some practice to master. Knowing how to use and take care of your Lishi tool will make every lock picking job easier. Brush up on your skills with these best practices for using Lishi lock picks.

Prepare the Lock Before You Pick It

You can’t work with a dirty or broken lock. When there is dirt, grime, or debris stuck inside the keyway, it makes it difficult to manipulate your Lishi tool. If you’re not careful, a dirty or damaged lock will break your tool and create even more problems.

Start every job by inspecting the lock. Make sure there are no broken key bits or other large pieces of debris in the keyway. You can flush out the lock with cleaner to get rid of any grime or smaller debris. After cleaning the lock, try running a key blank in and out of the keyway a few times; this helps loosen up the pins and springs, making them easier to manipulate with your Lishi tool.

You can also use lubricant in the keyway to loosen up the parts and ensure smooth and easy picking. Be sure to use a silicone lubricant, as it won’t leave a residue that sticks inside the keyway and gets in the way of moving parts.

Use Care When Inserting the Pick

Lishi picks are fragile tools. Forcing them into the keyway or applying too much tension can cause the pick to snap, leaving you with a broken tool, metal debris stuck in the lock, and a much more stressful job than you started with.

Take care with your Lishi tool, especially when you first insert it into the lock. Make sure the lifter tip is down and pulled all the way back. Keep the tension arm folded back and out of the way as well.

If you feel resistance when sliding the pick into the lock, don’t try to force your way past it. Instead, withdraw and double-check that the lifter tip is out of the way. Check for debris or damage inside the lock as well. If you still meet resistance when you try again, gently tilt the tip of the tool up and down to guide it through the keyway and into place.

Feel With the Lifter Arm

Using a Lishi pick is a matter of delicacy rather than brute force. Once your pick is in the keyway, you can use the lifter arm to lift the pins and pick the lock. However, because the lifter arm is fragile, it’s crucial to move carefully.

Feel for the pins rather than forcing them. If they don’t move easily, find a way to work around the stiffness rather than pushing through it. One trick is to loosen the tension so the pin can move more easily. This might mean you have to repick some pins or pick the pins out of order.

You can also change the cut you start on. For example, if the pins at the front of the lock are too stiff to move, try starting at the back of the lock and working your way forward instead.

Maintain Gentle, Consistent Tension

One of the great benefits of the Lishi tool is its built-in tension arm, which makes it easy to keep tension while picking. With it, you don’t need to hold a tension wrench in your other hand and try to manipulate two tools in such a small space. Instead, you can manipulate the tension arm with one finger.

As with every other step of the lock picking process, the key is to be gentle. A small amount of pressure is all you need to hold the tension and pick the lock successfully. Keep up that gentle, consistent pressure to prevent damage and make picking easier.

Use the Guide to Your Advantage

There is a panel on the Lishi tool that offers a simple guide for picking individual pins. It takes the guesswork out of identifying and manipulating the pins, giving you a better idea of what you’re doing so that you don’t have to rely on random maneuvering.

Don’t neglect this guide when picking. Pay attention to where the lifter arm is in relation to each individual pin so that you can manipulate the lock more precisely.

Decode the Locks

Learning how to read the Lishi tool’s guide also helps you decode locks more easily. Once you pick the lock, hold tension to keep the pins in place, then manipulate the lifter arm to touch the first pin. Read the guide to identify and record the pin height.

Repeat this process for every pin until you have the information for every cut. You can then use this information to cut key blanks and make replacement or duplicate keys for that lock. This is a top best practice to follow every time you use your Lishi lock pick. You’ll thank yourself if you end up needing to cut a key for the lock down the line.

Keep Your Lishi Tool Clean

Grime and debris from the locks you pick or the toolkit you store your Lishi pick in can build up and hinder the performance of your tool over time. That’s why it’s important to care for your Lishi tool and take time to clean it. A clean tool offers smoother picking and is less likely to break inside a lock.

Cleaning your Lishi doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming—you don’t even need any special products. A quick wipe down with mild soap and water is the best way to wash away dirt and grime. Remember to take care with the lifter arm to avoid bending or breaking it while cleaning.

Practice Patience

Picking a lock takes more than just mastery of your tools; it also requires patience. If you try to rush the process, you risk breaking the tool and damaging the lock. This only leads to more work, higher costs, and frustrated clients.

Take your time. If something isn’t working, don’t try to force a solution. Sit back, examine the situation, and try to identify the problem so you can fix it.

Find the Best Tools at Locksmith Keyless

Equip yourself for success when you purchase lock pick training sets and other locksmithing necessities from Locksmith Keyless. No matter how much experience you have, you can find the ideal tools to meet your needs.