Lock Picking Lock Picking Lock picking is an art in its entirety. It takes lots of hard work, practice, and patience to pick a lock. Being able to sit in one place for a long time doing something that at first seems hopeless is the key to learning how to pick a lock. In the world of locks there are probably 1000's of different locks. The most common type of lock is the pin tumbler lock. Since this type of lock is the most commonly used lock, this is what I will use to teach the basics of lock picking. To start things off you must first learn how a lock works. The most basic of locks as stated above is the pin tumble