Going into the lock picking session at the Muster, I assumed that it would be really hard to do and would take hours of practice to figure out. Yet within two minutes of getting a set of picks in my hand, I had successfully picked my first lock.

Since coming home from the Muster, I've been regularly practicing my lock picking skills, and from time to time I'll be offering a primer on how to pick various locks. We'll start by taking a look at the most common lock used on front doors across the world: the pin tumbler lock. But let's begin by discussing why you might want to learn the art of lock picking in the first place, as well as the legal issues involved with this great hobby.