I decided to at least try to pick a lock using tools found around the house. Now, this was made significantly trickier by the fact that I have absolutely 0 lock-picking experience. I know the basics, but that's about it. My tools to start: a nail file and paperclips. I also used a hacksaw, metal file, hammer, and vice to modify them.

At first I tried just using a couple of paper clips, but I didn't feel like I had very much control over the torsion using a paper clip for that it. That's where the nail file came in. It was too wide to fit into the lock, and too long to be comfortable to have sticking out, so I hacksawed it down and bent it a little under 90 degrees (when I bent it 90 degrees it just snapped right off). Then came the problems with a paperclip as a wrench. It wasn't stiff enough, and I kept having it pushed down instead of the pins pushed up. So I hammered it flat(ter), which also helped with the fact that it was too wide to fit comfortably in the narrowest bits of the lock. I never got it quite thin enough though. Then I ran into the issue that I could reliably get the front 4 pins, but not the back pin, to stick. One of my friends suggested trying to start with the back pin, so then I had the issue of needing to get to the back pin without disturbing the front pins. So I bent a few other paper clips into common lock pick shapes, and hammered them flat that way, and then filed their fronts down a little bit to avoid them catching.

Now, with these tools I still haven't managed to rotate the cylinder, but I did manage to get all 5 pins to set (when i released the torsion I heard 5 separate clicks as the pins came back down). I don't know why it didn't turn, but, especially seeing as I started this with no experience, I'm going to consider that a success. If I get my hands on a praactice lock and manage to open it I'll update this, or add a comment.