Dimple locks use a flat key with drilled dimples instead of a jagged edge — they are on many European front doors (Mul-T-Lock, Kaba, ABUS, Cisa). They need their own tools: flag picks and a tension wrench that fits the wide, flat keyway. Everything here is chosen for learners.
Guide
Dimple Lock Picks
Inside, a dimple lock is still a pin tumbler: pins have to reach a shear line. The difference is the orientation — pins sit horizontally and the keyway is a flat slot. A standard hook cannot reach them. Dimple picks (often called flag picks) have a small rotatable flag at the tip that pushes each pin sideways, and dimple tension wrenches are thin flat bars that fit the top or bottom of the slot.
Not fundamentally — but the feedback is subtler and the pins are often stacked with security pins, so we recommend learning single pin picking on a standard lock first. Reach roughly yellow belt in the belt ranking on a clear padlock and a progressive lock, then move to dimple. A dimple cutaway or transparent dimple practice lock makes the transition much easier.
We stock transparent and cutaway dimple locks so you can see the horizontal pin stacks and the flag pushing them. They pair with the picks on this page and with our training kits.
Dimple picks are lock picks like any other: legal to own and use on your own locks in nearly all of Europe. Country-by-country detail is on our legality page. For the basics of tension, binding order and false sets — which apply equally to dimple locks — read how to pick a lock for beginners.
