How to use Lishi pick locksmith tools? (Advice)

This is good for most lishi. Posted earlier on another thread….

The thing I noticed is you just picked and didn’t check it the wafer was binding. You went in an order and VERY few locks require picking in a specific order. Please read tip 5…. It’s crucial to doing lishi work!

My list of advice. 
1: lube the lock first and foremost, even a brand new lock.

2: doesn’t really matter which way you pick a lock, toward lock or unlock. As you are learning, try doing it the same way each time until you develop muscle memory of picking.

3: passenger door is usually easier to pick and read because of less wear and tear, same with the trunk lock. Trunks almost always turn to the clockwise direction and going counterclockwise is almost always futile.

4: always start with light tension to begin with. Apply more if needed. Will explain about that more below.

5: my biggest tip!!!… if it bounces, and I mean bounces any, leave it alone. Some bounces are micro millimeters and you are looking for the one that doesn’t move with light pressure. You are always looking for “The Next Binding Pin/Wafer.” That is the one to pick. If you pick a non binding pin, that actually can cause you to not be able to pick the lock at all. This is my biggest beef with The Lock Picking Lawyer, he is an advocate on next binding pin when single pin picking, until he gets to his lishi work. I see him pick bouncing pins and yet he still opens the lock, but we really don’t know how many tries it was before where he erased the tape and started over. IF IT BOUNCES, LEAVE IT ALONE!

6: work your way through the pins, one by one, over and over, usually it’s a random order to picking (besides the 4 arm lifters)

7: if you get to the point of no new binding pin, then one of two things are probably happening. (A) you aren’t applying enough tension, or (B) you have just overset a pin and until you get really good at lishi, it’s best to start back over with resetting the lock. I mean, you can hold finger on lifter and slowly release tension, letting the last pin slowly reset itself until you find it bouncing again, but that will take a lot of practice with lishi work.

7: usually if you have overset a pin, the others pins will have an excessive amount of bounce now. 

8: if no next binding pin, start to apply a little more tension to the turning tool, and see if you get new binding pins. Too much pressure and it will cause many pins to bind and it becomes super hard to correctly set a pin. You will either start to damage your lishi by bending/breaking the lifter, or your will be oversetting the pins at this point. Sometimes it’s best to reset and start over.

9: some pins will reset themselves after you have picked them, and you will have to repick a pin, sometimes multiple times. It happens, it’s not unusual.

10: a mistake made is forcing it to bounce after you get that initial click. You can and will overset the pin if you are forcing it to bounce. Now usually you do get a bounce with a correctly set pin. I however suggest you if you get that click and no bounce, feel your way through the rest of the pins. If none is binding, go back to that just set pin and pick a just a little more. Normally when you set a pin correctly you will get a new bounce at a lower position. If you don’t get that bounce, try the next binding pin and go back to that other pin, it might now actually have a bounce at the lower position. If not, and it’s still binding, try to pick it a little some more. A word of warning: most new people break or bend a Lishi at this point, they are trying to force a bounce and it very well could be the pin is at the lowest possible position and it just won’t bounce. Look for another binding pin.

11: yes, cy24 and FO38 are the lishis to begin with. 

12: if you aren’t making progress picking one way, flip yourself around and try picking the opposite way. 

13: locks are like people, some like you, some don’t. Its life! It’s ok to not get every lock picked right off. Also some locks, especially residential locks I have found, some like to be picked to the lock position, some like to go to unlock, again, I guess another human analogy could be applied to which way a person likes to swing. Just saying. 

I hope my tips will help you.