Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert James

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JK_the_CJer wrote at 2008-04-19 10:09:19
From a hobby lockpicker's perspective:



Schlage - These very decent normal pin tumbler cylinders.  They are quite a bit better than say Kwikset and the Chinese knockoffs.  However, most people that are into picking locks (not many burglars are really) could likely open it readily.



Medeco - These are much much better and are still considered quite a challenge in the lockpicking community.  There are several people that can pick them consistently (myself included) and many that have picked them before (classic, biaxial, and m3)  Recently Medeco has come under a lot of attack and lots of new exploits are hitting them.  But, for the moment, they are more than enough for residential applications in my opinion.



Assa - I'm going to assume you're referring to one of the Twin models (6000 and v-10 being the most common).  These cylinders very secure against picking attempts.  I have only opened my v-10 one time and it was the hardest lock I've picked.  The only flaw is that the sidebar codes tend to be split up by region.  This means that if the guy up the street could pick locks, he could just buy an Assa from your dealer and cut down the key leaving just the sidebar and pick the normal pin stacks using the semi-key (thus turning it into a very hard but normal lock).



PS: I know there is a lot of "blah medeco is pickproof no proof fake!" nonsense floating around.  Please, trust me when I tell you they really aren't.  I've opened my Medecos 100s of times and there are others that have done the same.  If you still want a little evidence, I have a biaxial and m3 picking video on YouTube on the nick jkthecjer.  The technique used these clips is old and I've developed a much better method, but it is semi-private for now (should change soon).

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