A cutaway lock is a real metal lock with one side machined away so you can see the pin stacks. It has the tight tolerances of a real lock and the visibility of a clear one — which makes it the ideal lock after the transparent padlock and before your first "blind" lock.
Guide
Cutaway Locks
Take a standard brass padlock or Euro cylinder and mill a slot through the body along the pin chambers. The lock still works with its key, but every pin, spring and the shear line is exposed. Unlike an acrylic transparent padlock, the plug and pins are the originals, so the feedback through the tension wrench is exactly what you will feel on a real lock.
Brass body, 4–6 pins, standard or security pins. Compact and desk-friendly.
The profile on most European doors. Comes in a stand or with a mounting plate. The most realistic practice you can do without a door.
Windows into other mechanisms — see disc detainer, dimple and tubular practice locks.
Pick it with the cutaway facing you until you can name the binding pin by feel before you look. Then turn it away and pick it blind. When you can do that ten times in a row, it is time for a progressive lock or a security-pin lock. This is the yellow-to-orange stretch of the belt ranking.
Locksmith schools, makerspaces and security teams use cutaways to explain the pin tumbler principle. Multi-packs available on request. Hobby picking is legal in nearly all of Europe — see your country. New here? Read how to pick a lock for beginners first.
