What you’re looking in front of you there is a disc detainer padlock. There’s something you got to get straight in your head. This lock is a disc padlock, sometimes called a discus. That’s not what we’re talking about today, so put that thing out of your mind. We’re not talking about that. What we are talking about is the locking mechanism of this padlock here. It doesn’t have a normal key. It has a key like that, which is usually half round on one side, and flat on the other side. Sometimes in a really cheap one, it’s flat on both sides, like this thing is, and it’s got these funny angled cuts in it. These angled cuts fit into the little discs inside that mechanism, and it’s lining up those discs that you’ve got to do to open the lock. The sort of pick that you use for that is one of these strange looking things. They pick completely different to any other lock that you’ve ever dealt with, guys.
It’s not a beginner’s lock. There’s one more thing I need to tell you about these. They really come in only two flavors, Chinese, which is virtually every single one of these that you’re ever going to see, in which case, they’re fairly easy to get into. The other type that you’ll see is the type made by ASSA ABLOY. A-S-S-A, and then A-B-L-O-Y. The ASSA ABLOY is pretty much the most secure mechanically keyed lock you can buy. Nobody can reliably pick those with an instrument like this. There are some guys that are learning, but there’s nobody that’s got it right every time. If you get yourself some Chinese ones of these and one of those, you can have some fun.
