@@nukewurldThen we must propose LPL a challenge. To prove he can use any of his tools, he lets the chat audience on live stream choose which one he uses.
As a kid who remembers the Kiev of the 1990s - you wanted your locks to look old, otherwise it attracted attention of the more serious criminal elements that wanted to know what you were hiding. And the small time criminals certainly knew more about using a crowbar than a wave rake.
@@PhD63 Ah, yes, the one the inhabitants would rather you use, or the Russian derived one there's no real reason to (but we know why). But yeah, either or.
Yeah, that's a universal truth. If your locks look too good, people wonder what you're using them to secure. Hey, look! One person here can comment on substance instead of go OCD over minor spelling differences!
To be fair, the reason most Soviet locks don't care about pick resistance and instead resemble a solid brick, is because all the criminals of that era wanting to break in, would have gone the sledgehammer or crpwbar approach regardless of how easily they could have picked it.
Funny master lock seem to have taken the same approach, making their reinforced shackles etc yet any I've found that have those extra reinforcements are easier to pick than the ones that don't have that security
@@jackmarshall2496 The real irony, as this channel has discussed on numerous occasions, is that Master's by far most pick resistant locks are their plastic-body lock-out-tag-out locks, which are designed to be extremely unlikely to be inadvertently opened with the wrong key but also easy to break off if the key were to get lost. So they have pick-resistant locks and highly reinforced locks, but have never combined those features into the same lock. Would seem like an obvious thing they could do to make an actually good lock, but I suppose they have a reputation to uphold.
Most likely this is not a “reproduction” in the usual sense. It’s just that some businessman privatized a former Soviet factory and continues to produce old locks on old equipment. There are quite a lot of such products in Ukraine, as well as in Russia and other post-Soviet countries.
Yeah it's surprising the tools and materials and the entire factory wasn't "sold" for scrap, this was the fate of many soviet factories after it dissolved
@@lolatmyageand it is mostly good idea, because soviet products can't compete with other countries product in market-driven economy anyway, therefore completely useless.
@@voidseeker4394are you suggesting post Soviet countries do not have market economies even 30 years after the collapse of the Union? Or do you just need to invent a reason to feel smug, Westerner?
@@real_andrii Depending on what kind of leverage applied where, and depending on what the structural strength and quality is of either part, and the lock's mechanical assembly is, then yes. This very channel shows how you can use a pair of non-adjustable wrenches to break various common padlocks open. Consider that lead is softer than steel, but if you shoot a lead bullet at the side of a gun's barrel, you can seriously damage that gunbarrel, even if it's the exact same kind of gun which you used to shoot it with. Energy is a significant factor of the equation.
In Ukraine and former USSR states, no one picks thees locks. Instead, there is a simple brutal force technique - a screw into the keyhole, then pry it open with a crowbar.
@@prfwrx2497 screw, not screwdriver. The screw will gut the mechanism and pins while you pulling it out by crowbar so you may just turn it by any key of this size
@@arthurmoore9488they make that attack slower to accomplish, it is still entirely possible with the knowledge of what to do. I've drilled through many good quality "drill resistant" locks. Also higher end drill bits are faster, but more expensive doing that since they get fairly chewed up. Will always attempt to pick first though if time and access is available.
hey LPL, small correction: I'm pretty sure the company's name is actually "Ariko" (the Cyrillic R looks like a P), I looked it up and there seems to be a Ukrainian lock manufacturer by that name
@@kutter_ttl6786that's true but she might then have figured it was in Latin characters because of the 'i', which isn't present in Russian. However, it is present in the Ukrainian Cyrillic alphabet.
Most soviet era criminals liked to smash lock open rather than pick them. These type of locks were found on garages. And garages were built like storage units all next to each other in a compound. That usually had guards and guard dogs on site. Lockpicking was reserved for braking into aparments were actually valubale stuff was. Because tools were cheap and everywhere and cars were fairly hard to resell if they were stolen.
No different anywhere, I suspect. Lock picking requires skill, and the main reason to use skill over brute force is that you're trying not to break things... not a priority for the average burglar.
@@simongeard4824 I always felt like average burglar will want to get in quickly, grab whatever he can and get out with minimal sound and time spent outside. Crowbar will usually give you pretty quick access and can be also used inside, if something is screwed down (or if the owner is there and the burglar wants to fight). But lockpicks, that is something for a guy that doesn't want the owner to know that somebody got in. What may be the reason for it? It can be a private eye, I know, not 100% legal, but I can see a situation where PE would use picklock. I saw firefighters use a pick gun to get in an apartment when they had to get out guy who fall and couldn't get up (BTW, having one of those tools is great for situations like that, they wanted to get the guy in hospital and lock the door after leaving). And then there are really dark reasons, like kidnapping, stalking, maybe even a planned murder.
@@simonspacek3670 Or just not being detected. Sure, sure, a quick smash and grab will get the job done, but that will alert everyone within half a city block that you're doing naughty shit. Pick the lock quietly and slip in nobody has a clue. And if you're particularly good faced with a shitty lock you can even do it in broad daylight in front of everyone and it won't look like you're breaking in at all. Just look like you're sticking a key in there as if you're *supposed* to be opening that door. Witnesses won't even know they're witnessing a crime. The average burglar doesn't care too much about being undetected, though, so they'll just smash their way in. And that's why they always get busted.
@@pavelognev108 Which is pretty much never the case in an American home. Standard PTP 2x4 door posts and cheap laminated hollow-core doors don't do shit to stop burglars. One well placed kick bypasses whatever lock you have in the door whether it's a shitty Masterlock or the finest in the land. You want a burglar to have to rely on skill you're gonna want reinforced steel door posts and a solid oak or solid steel door. And then hope beyond hope they don't get any ideas about the bay window 5 steps to the right of the front door..... Modern US home design is a security nightmare. You just about have to design the damn thing yourself if you want it to be secure.
I know you often point out how cheap locks are easily picked, but how many people know that? Maybe serious criminals and a few hobbyists like us know that locks can be picked by most everyone with a few easily obtained tools. The other 99.9% of the population see a padlock and think it's removal is the only way in. Case in point. I have a driveway with a cable between 2 mafia blocks. I welded the nuts on the clamps, have a grade 70 3/8" chain on 1 block for length adjustment. A few years ago someone tried to get in. There were 3 broken hacksaw blades, scratch marks on the shackel and cable, and the lock had been beaten with a hammer to the point I could not open it with a key. 1 hacksaw blade could have easily cut through the soft rebar loop in the top of the mafia block. Again my point is a padlock is more of a mental barrier and there is usually a much easier way in.
Hi! I'm from Ukraine and I actually used a very similar lock on a garage for some time. And, who would have thought - it was broken into at some point! But the funniest part - no one picked it. They just brut forced it with a screw and a hammer.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine this lock isn't the one that can be easily brutalized. Of course you can break it but you will make a ton of noise and spare a considerable amount of time. If such problems don't concern a burglar then it doesn't matter what lock you put on your door. I know a family that secured their country home with an extremely break-proof lock system and burglars just used thermite composition to burn through that door leaving the locks untouched. Picking such lock is way faster but it requires certain intellect to do which burglars do not possess
We used a (not sharp) kitchen knife to open the room door in OUR communal flat in Odesa. Like yeah the apartment itself had a working lock but the door to our room from corridor occupied by 3 families was essentially a lever you picked with any thin object that could slid between the door and the frame and lift up the tongue or however you call it. Iron thingy that lock manipulates.
I am waiting for two books from the LPL. One, a history book with the know faults of each design and the other, a how to book on how to use all the covert instruments.
I have to say, the Lockpicking Lawyer is my favorite RU-vidr ever. I'll say that again to make sure it wasn't a fluke. The Lockpicking Lawyer is my favorite RU-vidr ever !!!
The second best thing about LPLs videos is seeing what the subtitles in the preview call him. "look again Lola" is my all time favourite. The best thing of course is the skill of this burglar-turned-lawyer 😊
Actually, it's not pronounced Apiko but Ariko because the product name on the lock is written in Ukrainian. This company still produces this lock (model name BC-5). People use this lock to protect the garage screw lock from opening. It cost only $6 so you can't expect more for that price. Company located in Zaporizhzhia.
Love your work. For these relics one needs to dig deeper into the social trends of the era. These particular locks were often found hanging on garage doors and such, and they were attacked by brute force not by delicate picking hands.
High gauge steel suitable for making picks was hard to come by. Someone up the comment stack said the cores are so soft that you can easily drive a wall screw into them and then yank the entire core with a crow bar or slide hammer. As a two man operation I actually think that's faster than raking it.
If the purpose of those locks is to act as some form of deterrent to the casual passer by, then I could possibly understand it, but it looks as if a solid sneeze would have opened that one.
@John5HUN that would be the case if all the locks that look like that weren't incredibly easy to pick. I'd imagine if it weren't used on a submarine entry, a would be thief would be more likely to see no lock and assume there was no value there than passing up a gift of grift that this lock represents 😅
"In the wild" that lock, as well as most Soviet padlocks, would come with an amount of rust that would made opening it with a key a challenge, never mind picking :)
Companies like this (by the way, it is spelled in cyrillic and reads "Ariko") just use old manufacturing tools and hardware that is left on the factories. It's not even a homage, but the exact same locks. They even sometimes have a price stamp in soviet currency because it was straight up a part of the casting 😁
Oh right, they probably don't update that at all, just use the existing dies and tools because that's much cheaper. Such interesting historical curiosities.
Last I seen a rake that quick was the master lock 10/10 secure vs the 4/10 'kiss' lock where he both picked and raked the 10/10 so fast I doubted it was ever locked in the first place 😂
I enjoy your content. I found your channel researching how to pick a brass combo master lock that our company supplies contractors at my plant. They leave them on & locked on various items and I had to remove a few after our outage. The tool room supervisor tried handing me a bucket of PPE, and a Milwaukee cordless angle grinder. I asked him for a pack of feeler gauges a pair of tin sheers, and a burnishing stone. I came back with a 1 gallon bucket of open locks. Later I seen your video of how to feel for the combination. I reset the whole bucket to zeros. Gave them back to the supervisor. I told him to only give tbise locks to the contractors... 🤫
My uncle has this lock on a garage door. During the war in Ukraine looters tried to break into garage but the lock held. Its bulky by design to be put on these small protrusions on the door to protect them from being sawn off by an angle grinder, and in our case, it worked.
Nice little history lesson. These snippets of history are a welcome blend to simply demonstrating how easy the lock (boat anchor) is easy to pick. Thanks for sharing.
My dad still has that one in Ukraine and he was not able to open his garage for almost two years cause he lost the key. Actually not sure if he ever opened it. Need to check with him
I know these ones. We had those on the ICBM launching sides in east Germany. They came in handy: When you forget your key because you were drunk you still were able to access with a paper clip and 2 fingers crossed. Oh those times...
Many Soviet-era factories had production quotas based on the total weight of their output. Lamp companies produced chandeliers, lumber companies produced 8 x 8 beams, and so on. Probably the same for locks.
Tbh what I remember from Soviet Union we didn't even lock the doors really, locks on the barns and such were bulky but often not locked as well 🤷🏻♂️ So I'm not sure pick resistance was ever a consideration back then
At least it wasn't knife or the bypass turning tool. This is level 2 security! (you will need to use both hands and at least a little bit of skill. Not much, wave rake is low-skill attack, but at least it is not something 80% of population would have in a pocket)
I really like all your videos. You mentioned a few times your lock collection. Is it possible to make videos of your collection ? The good, the bad and the ugly ? lol
He's shown off parts of his collection in bulk before and I'm pretty sure he makes his videos as and when he gets new locks to show them off and pick them but you're right I would also love to see his whole collection with some highlights. Still a big backlog of videos to go through though 😊
It is a garage lock, it basically protects your cheap lada from being taken apart by petty criminals and alcoholics, and it is very effective in doing just that. I strongly recommend you to try some of the modern post-soviet locks for the change, like Chaz or Polyvector😁
Polyvector's clockwork is indeed a fine piece of hardware, and I'd be interested to see LPL try his hand at their Premier. Chaz, though? They make cheap padlocks, afaik. Disk mechanism at best, so I'd expect conventional disk picking tool to pop them.
@@boaragile82 Since LPL has already picked an old soviet disc lock before, I mentioned Chaz only for the purpose of comparing new locks with old one in terms of technological advancement (or the lack of thefeof). As for the Polyvector, it will be really interesting to see him picking it indeed, only it will be somewhat hard to send one overseas.
In Ukraine we had almost on every garage something like this in 90s. Plus some self-made trick locks additionally. But mostly those shitty. So the most security came from poverty - nothing to steal, no one will try. And from person watching for garage area. But what interesting that this lock still better than some others options on market nowadays. Why? Most of them easy to lock pick. But at least for this hard to destroy it with brutal force. And also - it normally stays vertically, so it is not so obvious where the lock hole is, hard to find if you look it first time. Still complete garbage thought 🙂
I understand that you specializing in cylinder locks (and showed hunderds of times that they are 100% not safe), but don't you want to try russian Barrier lock (Барьер-4)? They are quite popular and considered as very pick-resistant.
LOL. Someone bought an old Soviet lock factory (probably for pennies) and just rebooted production. Master Lock take note: there is ample opportunity to race even further to the bottom if you just look hard enough!
I collect Soviet era cameras (Zorki, FED, Zenit, etc.) and a common joke is that you need to own five of any model to have one working camera (that is, you need at least 4 for parts for inevitable repairs). I see their locks also live up to a similar reputation regarding quality.
Weird. I only had to buy 2 Zenit 203 Panoramics to get one that worked. Must have been a fluke. Story goes that the 28mm lens used was originally made for a spy camera. And also that a whole year of production ended up without the coating that is usually on the lenses. And about 1 in 10 would have defective light baffles around the drum.
Today perhaps you do. Back in the day they had an extensive service network and replacement parts regimen together with extensive warranties and inexpensive post warranty service. So getting things going again wasn't a problem at all, and as the time went on, often the replacement parts were re-engineered just a little to alleviate known weaknesses. Today if you find a well abandoned camera, what are the odds that it had all of its planned service done?
@@SianaGearz The problem with that arguments that you can find Japanese cameras that were contemporaries of those Soviet cameras and many still work today and can be easily fixed by experienced technicians. Or even a newb like me. Soviet cameras were largely poorly designed, poorly assembled and used subpar materials. This was true for Japanese cameras (and other consumer goods made in Japan) at one time but they got their act together pretty quick when they realized they were developing a bad reputation globally. I guess when you are a country pursuing full employment like the USSR was, having a bunch of products fail and needing constant repair helps out with that.
@@user-nz7co4pk5s Yes German and Japanese cameras are THAT much better made. Better materials, better engineering and manufacturing methods. Soviet society was a deficit society, the resources of the country or conglomerate were not sufficient for the people. It struggled to keep all these people fed with the most basic of foods, famines were regular. Almost literally nobody could afford these cameras which cost several monthly salaries, and they still had to be built down to a price. This had a knock on effect that the manufacturing scale was ridiculously small and the experience in manufacturing reliable product couldn't get built up, nor was there the budget to employ better materials and manufacturing. In turn the service network was shared between all types of products and manufacturers, so it was quite efficient.
I'm pretty sure this lock is produced on the same machines and by the same people who made them on that same factory back in the soviet times. All that changed is the name.
Let me guess, is it Motor Sich factory? I got a lock on my door from them, broke the key yesterday, cylinder followed suit with assist spring. To be fair though, it worked OK for a decade at least Update: looked it up, Ariko is it's own thing, though in Zaporizhya too
Unlikely to be its very own thing. Could be a brand padding its product portfolio by making other (preferentially local) companies manufacture their branded products. Or they took over the whole production line, that happens as well. Nobody would be building up new manufacturing of this junk.
@@SianaGearzthey're listed as a lock manufacturer, to be fair to the company in some way though this was an early product and it stood up to that rake as well as any master lock however little that means lol
I really wonder why they do not source-in some better core for that lock - I guess that lock body itself would take quite a beating if it only would have some better core. If they would buy in some semi-decent core with like 20$ they could sell pretty awesome lock less than 30$ as premium model or whatever.
In all fairness to the locks (and they need all the help they can get) LPL rarely does a demo with the lock in a "field application." Having full 360 manipulation of the device on a clean, well-lit surface is a far cry from how locks are usually applied. It wouldn't have helped this lock any whatsoever, but I'd love to see more vids where we see the lock "in use" without the benefits of being able to get a solid grip or a clear view of the keyway. Not that I doubt his skill, but part of making it look so easy is he does his picking under the easiest conditions.
Even a lowly Master No3 can be next to impossible, hanging on a shackle for years and or with restricted access (I alway hang locks to have awkward keyway access). I have an old Master No2 that works like butter with the key, but out of hundreds of attempts by at least 10 people, its been raked once(coworker) and zipped once(me) and never SPP'd. The hateful phuquer gives zero feedback; no binding, no clicks, no nothing.
Another Ukrainian is here :) Thanks for your review and you are completely right, it's a piece of trash, but... Lot of my friends were using these locks. Obviously, it's useless against professionals like you, but the main benefit - it's harder to open it with crowbar or just a brutal force, by double wrench method and etc., comparably to the lock with an "eye". So, generally, it does its job ;)
After reading the commits this is an anti theft lock for people that are drunk! Sober person uses dril and pry bar. Supper easy to pick and not make noise doing it. Quick simple easy for you good job!
As others have said, this is likely not a "reproduction" in the traditional sense. More probably, some businessman bought a factory that made these locks and just restarted the production lines.
![[1565] A Modern “Soviet” Lock… As Bad as the Original (Apiko)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
