Rakes are the picks that open easy locks in seconds: you scrub them in and out under light tension and the pins bounce to the shear line. Every beginner's first open is a rake open. Here are the profiles that work — snake, Bogota, city and wave — in real stainless steel.
Guide
Lock Pick Rakes
Raking is single pin picking's chaotic cousin. Instead of setting pins one at a time, you move a wavy pick rapidly through the keyway while applying light tension; pins jump, some land on the shear line and stay there because of the tension, and after a few passes the plug turns. It works on locks with standard pins and forgiving tolerances — which is most padlocks and many cheap cylinders — and fails on security pins, where a false set stops everything.
The basic wave. Gentle, fits narrow keyways, the first rake to try.
Three rounded peaks. Famous for how many locks it opens with a fast rocking motion. Most experienced pickers carry one; ours is 0.6 mm stainless with a triple-peak tip.
A jagged "skyline" profile. Good on locks with a high-low pinning that resists the smooth rakes.
A deeper wave for tall keyways and wafer locks — see also wafer picks.
Technically a pick, used as a rake by many beginners; the triangular tip lets you rock and scrub in tight keyways.
Raking gets fast results and is genuinely useful. But it teaches you nothing about individual pins, so learn to rake for fun and single pin pick for skill. The belt ranking only counts single pin picking from yellow belt up. A good practice routine: rake a lock open once, then single pin pick it five times.
You need two: a snake and a Bogota. Everything else is refinement. Our lock pick sets include both; this page is for replacements, thinner 0.5 mm variants for tight European keyways, and specialised profiles.
Rakes, like all picks, are legal for hobby use in nearly all of Europe (legality by country). Technique with photos: how to pick a lock for beginners.
