How to pick a skeleton lock?

Take it to a locksmith. If it really used a "skeleton" key to open the lock, it is a type called a "warded" lock which is really easy to open if I showed you what to do, but to describe in words would take a book. An image is REALLY worth a thousand words. Was the key a simple round shaft with a tab sticking out? Like the kind used on locking diaries and tiny card file type boxes? If so, it is quite easy and this kind I CAN explain. Picture the shape of the key in your mind. Find a flat piece of metal you can shape using a file or whatever with tools you have handy to approximately to the correct shape and try to fit it to the hole. Inside the lock, in the space where the tab goes, there is something which resembles a light switch, a toggle, which flips up and down. Turn clockwise and the tab flips the toggle up. Turn counterclockwise and it flips the toggle down. One way locks, the other unlocks. If you take your time and file off a little here and there, you may eventually get the ...  more