Cutting a stainless steel padlock shackle ?

[JumbleDuck]

Somewhere I have a tungsten carbide hacksaw blade. It looks odd, because it doesn't have teeth, just lumps of cutting material along the edge and sprinkled across the sides ... but it's the only blade I've found which would cut taut and well hardened glider winch cable.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

A battery powered Dremel with a 1" grinding disc will cut through it in moments. That's what proper thieves use.

There's a good channel on YouTube by the Lock Picking Lawyer that has all sorts of nefarious tips. The one where he destroyed a lock with explosives was a good one, if probably a bit beyond your average scrote! The worrying conclusion you get after watching a few is that pretty much every retail quality lock can be circumvented in short order with the right tools and techniques.

 

[William_H]

My experience has so far mostly been that the key will turn but the shackle is stuck. The 2 spanners idea would possibly work well if the pressure is applied to pull the shackle out from the body. If it does move then the padlock is still useable after cleaning rust etc. I note all the padlocks in the Utube have a very brittle alloy body so easily broken. Might not be so easy with brass body. Not keen to try it. ol'will

 

[Stemar]

My experience has so far mostly been that the key will turn but the shackle is stuck. The 2 spanners idea would possibly work well if the pressure is applied to pull the shackle out from the body. If it does move then the padlock is still useable after cleaning rust etc. I note all the padlocks in the Utube have a very brittle alloy body so easily broken. Might not be so easy with brass body. Not keen to try it. ol'will

That was my feeling as well. Could be interesting to try it on a laminated lock, too.

I also enjoy watching the Lock Picking Lawyer. My conclusion is that no lock is proof against an expert, especially one that the expert has had apart recently, so knows exactly what's going on inside. Fortunately, the kind of person that wants to lift your outboard or flog your plotter on Ebay won't have that sort of skill. Just as I don't have to to be able to run faster than the bear, just faster than you, I don't have to be totally secure, just more secure than the next boat.

OTOH, there's such a thing as too secure. If the scrote really wants your OB and the lock defeats him, he might just hack a great lump out of the transom; cheaper to lose the OB.