Path to Black: Dynamic

Dynamic writes: Back in the day when I started to pick locks, I stumbled upon some great reddit posts: the ‘Path to Black’ series from various black belt pickers. The series gave me a general idea of which type of locks I should try out to progress more, which ultimately led me to try and finally earn my black belt.

I live in South Korea. If you did not know, locksport is not known very well in this place, which limited me on getting both tools and locks to play around. I only had cheap Aliexpress picks that were made in China, and CI picks. It was all I’ve got, and I got up to red belt using only those tools.

As for locks, I’ve bought and got many more locks to try out after I got my black belt. I’ll be using that knowledge to suggest as many options for each belt based on my picking experience. One side note, I originally wanted to add 1 or 2 dimple locks on the list but I’ve picked those locks after I got black belt and acquired new tools, so I’ve excluded them for now.

Yellow - Master Lock 140/141

I skipped low-belts and started straight at blue, but I did pick low belt locks before I got any belt! But you can skip yellow if you would like to. Master Lock 140/141 is a pretty good starter lock in my opinion, just to get the general feel of everything. It has 4 pins and a wide open keyway, so picking it open shouldn’t be a big problem if you know the basic process of picking locks. The old pinning seems to have 3 spools and 1 lightly serrated pin which made it a good learning lock, but afaik the new locks come with 4 standard pins which also was my case.

Orange - Master Lock 570/575

Also not a mandatory belt in my opinion, but it will definitely help you on future picks if you do try.

Master Lock 570/575 is a good upgrade from the 140s. We are introduced by warding on the keyway, which will be a good challenge for inexperienced pickers. The pin count is increased to 5, but all are standard pins. The 575 I own has a brass body, and a dead core. This means the core of the padlock is not sprung, and this teaches you good tension control(of not using too much tension) which is a good and required skill to have if you want to progress more.

Alpha 1000 is a Japanese 5 pin padlock. This might be tricky to get in your hands depending on where you live. Keyway is pretty wide open but the tolerances make it a surprisingly interesting pick. It has standards and spools, the feedback is really clear. If you happen to get one of these, definitely try them out.

Green - American Lock 1100

This is where things get interesting. Security pins are more common starting from here and up, occasionally pin counts are also pumped up. Ideally you should polish your basic skills on this belt.

American Lock 1100 is a classic green belt lock. It has 5 pins, with mixed serrated and spool driver pins. It really teaches you to master your jiggle test skills, along with picking serrated pins. The core kinda wobbles inside the padlock body which adds a challenge.

ABUS 72/40 and Brady 71/40 LOTO locks are both good locks from ABUS. The 72/40 has a metallic body and a pretty challenging keyway for inexperienced pickers. The 71/40 has a plastic body with the ‘ABUS’ keyway, which looks intimidating but in fact a wide open keyway. Both locks are pinned the same way, 1 standard pin and 5 spools. These 2 locks will teach you well on picking spools, tension control while counter-rotating and more.

Blue - DOM Plura

The real fun begins! This is also where you should introduce yourself to the discord bazaar in my opinion, as locks from this belt and above will not be easy to grab from Amazon or your local hardware store.

DOM Plura is a nasty lock. Even I spent a few days opening this lock, it puts up surprisingly well. The keyway looks intimidating but is wide open in the middle so it’s not a real issue. It introduces you into tapered pins, which can be exhausting to pick them. It also has some real crispy spools. This lock really tests you if you have your jiggle test skills well mastered, if you can pick this, you can consider yourself as a proud picker!

The DOM RS Sigma is similar to the Plura, just with a different keyway. The pinning is also similar with tapers and spools so acquire either of these locks to your preference.

GOAL S is a 5 pin Japanese lock, some people from the bazaar have these locks in hold. It has thin lipped spools that give very clear feedback. It’s a smooth pick, I highly recommend trying it out.

Lockwood 334B45 is an Australian classic. It has a bit of a challenging keyway to navigate through, and 5 really fat lockwood spools. These spools give real crisp and clear feedback, it’s such a fun lock to pick. Quite some people recommend the Paclock 90A Pro, but I personally don’t. It usually doesn’t come in great quality which makes it not fun to pick. The wobbling core also decreases the fun.

Purple - ASSA 600 (Barrel Pins)

New features are introduced in this belt. A new type of security pins, milling, secondary locking mechanism and sidebars… you name it. Introduction of barrel pins and matching milling on the core. Learning how to pick barrels will be essential on higher belt locks, so you gotta practice! It could be challenging at first, try learning how the picking process goes.

Medeco Original/Biaxial introduces you to a secondary locking mechanism linked with a sidebar. Not only do you have to lift pins to a certain height, you also gotta rotate pins to a certain degree! This lock requires you to learn a new skill of rotating pins, which to be honest will only be used on a few certain locks. But it still is a fun and interesting lock to try out, I recommend it.

Brown - ASSA Desmo

This is where some of the most wacky but fun locks dwell. Many wonders have the brown belt assigned to themselves…

ASSA Desmo is one of my favorite locks. Locks I’ve mentioned so far are all pin tumbler locks, but the Desmo is an exception. Desmo is a slider lock with 4 sliders on each side associated with a sidebar. It’s a unique lock and is pickable with standard pin tumbler tools(Tension tools and hooks), I really recommend this lock. Some principles you’ll learn while picking this lock can be used later on some black belt locks that I’m about to recommend.

GOAL P is a Japanese wonder. It has 6 pins, drivers are thin lipped gin spools, and the key pins are torpedo shaped overset traps. The core also has matching milling for the driver pins, and the lock has great tolerances making it fairly tricky to pick. The installed ball bearing centers the core so it assists while picking the pins, so you need some good tension control and good jiggle test skills to pick open this lock. This lock also is a somewhat powered down version of a black belt lock I’ll mention later, so this will be good practice preparing for it.

Red - ASSA 600 (Gin Spools)

This is the final step before getting black belt. Most red belt locks are essentially powered down black belt locks, but there are some unique locks that are worth trying. I’ll try to keep the recommendations as preparation for the upcoming black locks.

ASSA 600 (Gin Spools) is a good introduction to gin spool pins. When we mention gins, we are most likely referring to ASSA gins. They have a unique shape and matching milling which makes it an interesting pick. You’ll have to learn a technique called float picking, where you precisely control the rotation of the core to set the gin spools. It’s really fun once you get the hang of it, and picking gins will prepare you for picking more advanced black belt locks.

Robur 2391 Safe Deposit Lock (Both Barrels and Gins) is the real preparation for the black belt options I’m about to mention. These locks have 5 pins and 4 sidepins with a sidebar. Drivers come with either gins or barrels, and each version has its own matching milling. Sidepins are like the desmo sliders, but these are sprung. Again, this will be a good preparation for the upcoming black belt locks.

Black - ASSA Twin 6000 (Both Barrels and Gins)

The final belt that awaits you. Black belt locks are a black belt for a reason. But do not be afraid, if you learned and mastered your skills enough while climbing up until here, you’ll eventually open these locks.

ASSA Twin 6000 (Both Barrels and Gins) is one of my favorite lock series. It has 6 pin stacks, drivers are either gins or barrels with matching milling. Addition to that there also are 5 sidepins that interact with the sidebar. The Robur mentioned at the red belt is essentially a weaker version of this lock. The principle is simple, you just pick the central pins and the sidepins and the lock shall open. But easier said than done, this lock is no joke. It has good tolerances, and sidepins combined with other security pins is gonna be tricky at first. The sidebar will assist a bit on floating so if you get used to the feeling, you’ll be able to open them. The sidepins are also pickable using normal hooks like flags, so that’s that. They are shaped like desmo sliders, and pick generally the same way.

Bilock is another Australian classic. It has a total of 12 sliders, 6 on each side. While these are technically classified as sliders, they are sprung and work like normal pins. They just have to be lifted to a certain height, and will bind up when needed to be lifted just like normal pins. You can’t jiggle test them like normal pins though, you need to scrub the pins to see if they have any motion. If you get the general hang of this, the Bilock will be no problem to you.

GOAL Z is the ultimate Japanese monster. Upgraded from the GOAL P, it has 7 pin stacks, matching milling and thin lipped spool drivers, torpedo key pins. The amazing tolerances this lock has, combined with all the other security features make this lock a true beast, hard to defeat. There is a reason this 7 pin not-special-looking lock is in fact a black belt lock. Depending on who you get this lock, you might be able to get both a red and black pinned version, with the only difference being the number of standard drivers. My personal suggestion is just go straight to the black version, and work your way through.

ASSA 700 is another beast, but with its own characteristics. Similar to the Goal Z, this lock has matching milling on the core, torpedo key pins. Drivers consist of tapered pins, gins, and tree pins, which makes this lock special. The number of trees make the belt level of this lock vary from red to black also. Once you solve the puzzle of setting trees and gins, you’ll be able to open this lock at last. Float picking and gin picking principles that you’ve learned throughout the journey will finally pay off.

And that’s about it. Just for your information, my route to black consists of the following:

• Lockwood 334B45 for Blue (I started from blue as mentioned earlier)
• Medeco Biaxial and ASSA Desmo for Purple (The desmo was a brown lock, but I used for purple)
• BEST SFIC with security pinning and ASSA Desmo for Brown (Reused the desmo. SFIC was used because that was what I only had back then, but I don’t recommend using it for belts)
• ASSA Twin 6000 with barrels and milling and Bilock with unmastered 12 sliders for Red and Black (Used same video for both red and black, difference is that black also includes 2 quests that I did, but this part is not important for this writing)

Looking back what I’ve wrote, I may have gone a little bit heavy on information lol. If you have any general questions about the recommendations, or lock specific questions(how to pick this and stuff like that), ask me on the LPU discord anytime.

Thanks for reading!

See also

• Path to Black write-ups