You can buy a $2 set off AliExpress. It will bend on your first real session, give you garbage feedback, and teach you nothing about what a pick is actually doing in a lock. For $12, the Covert Instruments FNG is made from the same steel as their $200+ professional sets and will outperform anything cheap Amazon ships you. The gap between a $12 quality pick and a $200 quality pick is feel and geometry — not whether you'll be able to open locks. Skill is the variable. Tools stop being the limitation fast.
This page covers dedicated pick sets — what they include, who makes them, and which tier they belong in. If you're brand new and need locks and gear alongside picks, start with the Starting Out guide first.
The major makers covered here: Covert Instruments (USA), Sparrows (Canada), Jimy Longs (USA), Multipick (Germany), Bare Bones (Australia), SouthOrd (USA). Each has a different philosophy — all are worth knowing about.
Three or four picks. No more. A short hook, a wave rake, and a tension wrench is all you need to start picking pin tumbler locks. The sets below don't compromise on steel — they're all made from the same materials as the professional equivalents. Fewer tools, smaller cases, lower price tags. That's a feature, not a limitation.
The most honest beginner product in the hobby. Three picks — short hook, wave rake, .040" double-ended turner — made from Genesis-grade steel. They will not bend. Includes a clear acrylic demo lock so you can actually see what the pins are doing. At $12 this is not a compromise buy. Start here, learn on it, then upgrade with real information about what you want next.
CI's definitive beginner recommendation. Four picks: short hook, medium hook, quad wave rake, quint wave rake — all 0.025" steel — plus three double-sided Precision turning tools in their Tradecraft case. Two different hooks mean you'll actually learn something from switching between them. If you want to skip the FNG and buy one set that will carry you into the intermediate stage, start here instead.
Sparrows' entry point: triple peak rake, short hook, offset hybrid, city rake, six tension wrenches. Same 301 Cold Max steel as every other Sparrows product — the only thing that changes between their cheapest and most expensive sets is the pick selection and the case. A solid alternative to the Genesis if you want rakes first and hooks second, or if Sparrows is the easier order from where you are.
The British option. Chris Dangerfield has been in the game since 2000 and the Serenity is his beginner recommendation — a focused set of the most-used profiles in 0.023" steel with metal handles and a leather wallet. If you're in the UK or Europe, Dangerfield often ships faster and cheaper than North American brands. The Praxis is their step-up dual-gauge set (0.023" + 0.015") for when you want both thicknesses without buying two separate kits.
When to move on: You can SPP a standard brass padlock consistently. Raking feels mechanical, not lucky. You've picked 20+ different locks and have a sense of tension feedback. That's when a beginner set stops being the limiting factor.
You have muscle memory now. You're dealing with security pins — spools, serrated, mushroom — and need picks with better geometry and more variety. Sets here add offset hooks, deeper reaches, and more rake profiles. You'll also start caring about steel thickness: 0.019"–0.020" gets into tighter keyways than the 0.025" you started on.
Seven picks in a slim booklet case: short hook, Best Buster, city rake, pry bar, offset hybrid, steep hook, and a 0.015" thin pick for narrow keyways. Designed as an EDC set but comprehensive enough to be your main kit at this stage. The thin pick alone earns its place the moment you hit a European-profile or tight keyway lock. Clean, well-built, no gimmicks. Sparrows' most popular set for a reason.
The pick that changes how people talk about feedback. FEA-optimised 0.019" stainless steel with glass fiber-reinforced handles shaped after surgeon scalpels — the tip communicates to your hand better than most picks twice the price. Four hooks (low flat, low round, short round, medium flat), an aggressive cycloid rake, and Christina Palmer's TOK tension tools in three sizes. If you're serious about SPP this is where Jimy Longs earns its reputation.
SouthOrd's slimline picks at 0.022" are built specifically for European, Japanese, and US locks with tight or narrow keyways — the places your starter 0.025" hooks struggle to manoeuvre. 15 pieces: five handled picks, six standard picks, four tension tools, leather snap case. Made in the USA since 1989. Worth having if you're working narrow keyways regularly or picking anything non-North-American. A different tool for a different problem.
Also worth knowing — Bare Bones (Australia): Not a set, but Bare Bones Lock Picking makes individual picks with some of the best feedback in this price range. Individual picks from ~$16–$21 USD. If you're building a custom selection rather than buying a kit, they're worth looking at for hook work. bareboneslockpicking.com
You know what you're doing. You're working high-security pins regularly, you care about pick geometry in specific keyway families, and you want tools that won't be the variable when a lock gives you trouble. Sets here are built for people who've broken bad habits and know exactly why they're reaching for a specific profile.
Sparrows' everything set. The Wizwazzle picks, SSDeV hooks (developed by the German locksport association SSDeV), the laser-engraved Sandman, comb flat bars, and a tubular tension wrench — 15 picks total in a Multicam Black Sherman case. Covers raking, SPP, high-security deep-access, and tubular locks from a single kit. The SSDeV hook trio alone justifies the upgrade from the Tuxedo if you've been fighting tight-keyway high-security locks. This is what "one set for everything" looks like at a serious level.
Curated by LPU black belts and made in Germany to a standard most picks don't approach. Covers 99% of common locks — pin tumbler, wafer, and dimple — with a deliberate SPP-only focus. No rakes included by design. The 0.4mm blades with slimmer shank heights perform in paracentric and narrow keyways where thicker picks won't cooperate. German spring steel, leather roll case, feedback that makes you reassess everything you've used before. The entry point into Multipick's world and a legitimate reason to spend $130 on picks.
On Peterson: Peterson makes genuinely excellent picks — some of the best geometry in the serious tier, and a long-standing staple in the community. That said, the man behind the brand has developed a reputation in locksport circles that gives a lot of people pause. The picks are great. Look up the situation, make your own call. There are strong alternatives at this level that come without the baggage — the Vorax and Multipick ELITE are both here for a reason.
Standard hooks do nothing on these locks. Every category here requires a purpose-built tool. You don't need any of this to start — but the moment you want to pick disc detainers, dimple locks, or tubular cylinders, this is where to go. Each is a completely different mechanical problem that demands a completely different approach.
Abloy and disc detainer locks use rotating discs instead of pins. Your hook does nothing here. You need a rotating tensioner and pick tip that manipulates each disc independently. Three options from cheap-to-learn to professional:
The one place where a cheap Chinese pick actually makes sense — before you commit $30+ to a proper tool, a $5–$10 generic disc detainer pick off eBay or AliExpress will teach you the basic rotational technique on cheap Chinese disc detainer padlocks (also ~$5 on eBay). The quality won't handle serious locks, but the mechanism is the same. Learn the motion on this, then upgrade. The community generally agrees this is a reasonable starting point for disc detainer specifically.
Designed in collaboration with Bosnian Bill and the Lock Picking Lawyer — the community's most-trusted disc detainer tool. Stainless steel construction, interchangeable tip, Allen key and spare parts included. Built to handle everything from cheap disc detainer padlocks up to serious Abloy-type locks. When this first released it sold out in under two hours. The definitive community recommendation at this price point.
The professional end. The Multipick ARES is a full modular system developed with Lock Noob — interchangeable disc tips, scales calibrated for ABUS (2mm graduation) and Abloy (1.6mm graduation), rubberised aluminium handles with a zero-position marking for precise navigation. The handle geometry is designed to prevent the last-pin stability problem that frustrates Sparrows users on harder locks. Made in Germany. If disc detainer is becoming a serious focus and the Sparrows pick is limiting you, this is the upgrade.
Dimple locks (Mul-T-Lock, Abloy Disklock) have pins on the side of the key rather than the top. Standard hooks can't reach them. You need a 90° offset dimple flag. Four options ranked entry to pro:
The accessible entry point. Sparrows' dimple picks get you into the format without a big investment — solid steel, familiar ergonomics if you already own Sparrows gear. Start here if you're picking basic dimple padlocks and want to learn the technique before committing to more.
German-made ELITE dimple flags with micro-elliptical blade shafts and interchangeable tips. The feedback at the handle is noticeably better than budget options — you can feel individual disc/pin movement rather than guessing. The standard choice in the serious dimple community. Multiple flag variants cover most dimple lock families.
The Australian outlier that the community keeps coming back to. Full-tang Fe-Cr-Mn steel — a harder alloy than most picks — means zero flex and maximum feedback transfer from tip to hand. At ~25g per pick they're noticeably heavier than anything else, which some pickers love. Individual flags also available at ~$8.75 each if you want to build a custom set. Genuinely different feel from Multipick or Sparrows; worth trying if feedback is your priority.
Honest makes a solid dimple pick set that comes up regularly in community discussions as a value option. Good build quality relative to price, covers the main dimple flag profiles, and easier to recommend as a budget alternative to Multipick without the Chinese generic quality concerns. Worth knowing about if Multipick's price is too steep but you want something more serious than the Sparrows entry set.
Tubular locks — bike locks, vending machines, older safes — have pins arranged in a circle around a cylindrical plug. You need a tubular pick: a ring of picks that sets all pins simultaneously with a ratcheting motion. SouthOrd has made the most-used tubular picks in the industry for decades. Adjustable-tension models set themselves to the lock's shear line automatically. Once you own one, tubular locks are never a problem again.
Specialist tools are a rabbit hole. Once you can pick standard pin tumblers consistently, it's worth picking one specialty and going deep — disc detainer, dimple, or tubular — rather than buying one of everything. Each has its own months-long learning curve.
Buy direct from makers where you can — you get the best prices and the brands actually benefit. These are the major retailers worth knowing, from manufacturer stores to third-party shops that carry multiple brands.
FNG, Genesis, and the full CI lineup. USA.
covertinstruments.com →Full Sparrows lineup. Ships internationally. Canada.
sparrowslockpicks.com →Individual picks and dimple sets. Australia — ships internationally.
bareboneslockpicking.com →Slimline sets, tubular picks, standard sets. Made in USA.
southord.com →Dangerfield brand home. Also carries Sparrows, SouthOrd, Multipick. Ships to US and EU.
ukbumpkeys.com →Best option for Australian buyers — Sparrows, SouthOrd, Peterson, faster domestic shipping.
pickpals.com.au →Good US source for Multipick ELITE sets and specialist tools that are harder to find stateside.
uhs-hardware.com →US-facing arm of UKBumpKeys. Dangerfield, Sparrows, SouthOrd, Multipick. Good for US buyers wanting UK brands.
lockpickworld.com →