Raking: A Picking Approach and How Locks Resist It

What the Term Means

The Lock Industry Standards and Training (LIST) Council's Professional Locksmith Dictionary lists "rake (rake & hang)" as a picking technique. The same dictionary defines picking itself as manipulating "tumblers in a keyed lock mechanism through the keyway, without obvious damage, by means other than the specifically designed key." Raking is therefore a kind of picking, not a separate category of attack.

The term is easiest to understand by contrast with its neighbors:

• Picking in general. Any non-key manipulation of the tumblers through the keyway. See lockpicking.
• Impact methods. The LIST dictionary describes lock bumping as "a picking technique that utilizes a configured key forcefully impacted into the keyway," and a pick gun as a machine that impacts the pins. Those methods depend on impact. Raking, as the trade uses the word, does not.
• Over-lifting. A comb pick attack, in the LIST definition, tries to push the whole pin stack past the shear line. Raking is still aimed at the shear line.
• Bypass. A bypass avoids the tumblers altogether by acting on another part of the lock or its hardware.

Why Any Picking Approach Is Possible

No mass-produced lock is made to perfect dimensions. Locksmith Ledger's overview of lock picks explains that every lock is made within a set of tolerances, plus-and-minus limits on machined parts and on materials, because perfect parts would make locks impractically expensive. Those small differences are why keyed mechanisms can be manipulated at all. That is as far as this article goes on mechanism. For how the parts themselves work, see pin tumbler locks.

How Locks Resist It

Manufacturers and standards bodies do not usually design against one named picking approach. They design against picking as a whole.

• Security pins. The LIST dictionary describes spool, mushroom, and step pins as pin shapes typically used to increase pick resistance. ANSI/BHMA A156.30 includes, among its pick-resistance requirements, detainers "that have false notches, mushroom shapes or other constructions that impede manual picking." See security pins.
• Other mechanisms. The LIST dictionary defines a high-security cylinder as one offering greater resistance to two or more of picking, impressioning, key duplication, drilling, or other forced entry. Features such as sidebars are part of that picture.

How Standards Treat It

Lab standards test picking by result and time, not by the name of the approach used.

• UL 437 (Key Locks). A 2007 DEF CON presentation by Marc Weber Tobias and Matt Fiddler summarizes UL 437 as including timed covert-entry tests for picking and impressioning, alongside forced-entry tests.
• ANSI/BHMA A156.30 (High Security Cylinders). The 2014 edition sets pick-resistance requirements in levels. It cautions that its tests "are performed under laboratory conditions" and that results in actual use vary with installation, maintenance, and environment.
• EN 1303:2026 (Europe). The 2026 edition of the European cylinder standard adds "requirements and evaluation methods for manipulation," which it defines as an unauthorized attempt to open a cylinder by non-destructive techniques.

A rating describes the result of a defined test. It is not a guarantee against every method.

Traces, Ethics, and Law

Raking is not traceless. TOOOL Netherlands notes that picking tools "make scratches in the lock in places a key would never come into contact with," and a 2014 Journal of Forensic Sciences study reported that examiners could identify class-characteristic marks of a specific picking tool. See forensic locksmithing.

Locksport clubs require permission. TOOOL Netherlands says its most important rule is "to only open locks that you have permission for to open from the owner." Laws on pick tools vary by place. See lockpicking for documented examples.

Related Topics

• Lockpicking
• Security pins
• Key bumping
• Pick gun
• Comb pick
• Pin tumbler locks
• High-security locks
• Forensic locksmithing

Sources