Covert Companion and Turning Tool Expansion Review

I disagree with your assessment entirely.
This set is mainly beginner gimmicks, jigglers, combs, warded picks...all take up room that could have been used for better hooks and rakes. A serious picker does not bother with combs, and warded picks, the locks they work on are rare and low quality that are easily picked with good set of hooks. Only 2 wave rakes, a triple peak or a city rake would be much better. No way to lock picks open makes them difficult to use. A handcuff shim in a folding pocket set is ridiculous. How do you get it out of your pocket and opened if you're handcuffed? I noticed ALL of the locks you used for demonstration were easy beginners locks, how well would this set work on an 1100? I like the multiple turning tools, and decoding shim, but that is all. It is much larger and bulkier than most other jackknife or other style of EDC sets, and nothing to make it resemble anything other than what it is. The price is ridiculous, way over twice the cost of any other pocket set. That is typical of covert instruments, and one of the reasons I no longer subscribe to LPL channel. Ever since Harry opened his store, he stopped teaching me new tricks, and focuses more on using his advanced skill to promote his overpriced products.
If someone serious wants a good everyday carry pocket set, there are many sets much better, much smaller, and much cheaper, available if you only browse around a bit.
I am really quite surprised you had anything positive to say about this set.

I think the traveller's hook could be stronger but then again it is quite small. I now carry it with my Mad Bob's jackknife as a perfect companion! 😀

Custom charges are ridiculous for stuff from the US

Really appreciate your efforts to educate those of us who have an interest in these products and the challenges they address.

chuckles Thank you for this review. I’m new to locksports and for about tens seconds had a fever dream about becoming a professional pen tester. I bought a CC first day… It is what it is.

It’s a compromise like any other piece of “multi” equipment. Same kind of mentality as beginner wilderness survivalists “one tool that does everything, just not really well”. I appreciate the quality of the CC for what it is, an entry level, mall ninja, gimmick.

Now I’m off to piece together a bypass kit from Peterson and RTA… and when I start going to meet ups for the local toool group… I’ll ask them what I should gear for picking specific.

But the CC will still ride in my messenger bag in case I do a dumb and lock myself out of something or someplace and need a tool that’ll scrape by in a pinch.

A very big con is you have a lot of tools which can have the same function as the traveler hook (the 3 turningtools, the warded lockpick) and that makes the traveler hook obsolete.
In The Netherlands there are no warded locks and just a view locks were you can use the comb picks. I'd like to have a covert companion more focused on the european market.
For instance an expansion with medium jiggler keys for smaller wafer locks, a city rake and maybe a small flashlight to go at the side of the picks.

Overpriced & way expensive 🤔
Don't pay more than $30

Can you do a video where you use all these tools to pick various locks with various methods ? It would be AWESOME ! (I mean where you explain the technique on top of the demo you did here)

What is the small square metal piece with a rectangle hole and a circle hole in it that comes with the covert companion because I am very confused

$150 and you have to assemble it yourself...?

Just got mine today I do like it , find it a little tricky to use but eh what’s the only way to get better. Practice , but I do find that the picks rakes and stuff do stick and tug each other when being closed so closing it carefully is a must , but looking at LPL’s thumbnail it looks like we could flip tools to go inwards for the comb side plan to try doing than soon and I also installed one of the rakes backwards plan to fix that too , I did the same mistake as you though one side wouldn’t screw down completely to tighten the tools in place but after I fixed that it worked I also left my screws a little looser so that they can be separated without as much force :) hope that my input could help

False advertisement he doesn’t sell them put together

I just recived my Covert Companion and I think your review is spot on.

For me, this is a complete nightmare, Too bulky and trying to do to much. There is nothing that tool can do that a minimum standard HPC pick-set would not do with a couple of additions. The HPC would be similar in size, lighter, easier to use and a lot cheaper. It’s a gimmick aimed at people who like gimmicks. Reminds me of the Swiss Army knife that has about a hundred tools on it !!! Didn’t see you review the flashlight on it !!!

The things the screws go into are known as Posts as a set they are Chicago screws or Book binder screws or even Sex bolts 😁 (yep genuine enginering term)
for the issue with tool selection it would make sence to offer other tool baldes of differnt types so you can customise the carry to suit the individtual by swapping out tools this style of handle is perfect for that . you could also have a tool that is the ful length of the handle ie the SPP hook or knife so you have more fixed handle to grip this would lose a tool on the other side but may be acceptable . locking the tool or just haveing a stop so it cant over rotate (like a pen knife)and you can put pressure on in one direction wouldnt be to hard to design in

How buy the products from Bangladesh

Yeah for me the lack of a locking system in the covert companion was a deal breaker

That guy is a scam artist. My cousin is a licensed locksmith and refuses to watch any of those videos.
Lockpickglawyer really made a name by opening low security locks. Never tried any of the difficult ones.
Sad too say we can't support anything he's involved with.
Thank you for sharing your honest videos 😁

Lol, I made the same mistake...

This video just came across my feed. Nice review! I purchased one of these on one of CI’s holiday sales. It is absolutely my EDC, and is almost perfectly geared towards what I usually encounter, which are mostly bypassable locks. The addition of the decoder is by far the most useful thing for me in this set. I will say that I’ve used almost every grouping of tool on this in the field at some point. Also CI sells a small set of pliers for straightening the shim and decoder. Which conveniently fit in an empty slot in my electrician tool roll. Just my 2 cents.

his videos are annoying to watch now because he has to push this thing in every video

G'day, I follow the LPL and get blown away by how crapy locks are, I've seen his sets of tools, and loved your review of them, great video, I've just subscribed to your channel 👍🏼👍🏼🇦🇺🇦🇺🦘🦘Cheers from Melbourne Australia

Where can I buy one??

from watching videos of it i rly like it but they dont ship to Poland :(

I love my Covert Companions! I have the main one with the main tools plus the turner tool expansion pack, SSF commercial door hook, lock harpoon expansion pack, and SSF Genesis 0.020" picks. The second Covert Companion has the scissors, multi-tool, padlock bypass driver, and extra picks. They are kept together with the Mag Connect. Both of them together fit in a pocket nicely.
I use a penny on the screws instead of a screwdriver and the screws still look good.

I bought this set exactly as you did and I find it difficult to use as I am a beginner but I did get it for future use after using my sparrow set etc to learn.

I was considering getting one of these as my first set of tools, but after seeing this, I think I'm going to pass for now and get a legit normal set to work with until I'm comfortable. I also like the idea from one of the other commenters about using heat shrink tubing where they dig into your fingers.

So what’re the longer screws for?

I’d like to of seen a city rake instead of one of the hooks

Any idea where we can get the turning tool expansion from? Covert Instruments aren't shipping to the UK anymore :(

어디서판매하는교?

Mine showed up today. 3 hours of picking I cannot get anything to open. You make it look so easy. My hands are cramped and I feel like banging my head against the wall.

I own the set as well and the only issue I have with it is that it was not made in the U.S. it is however, very durable and nicely put together.

I think it might fit nicely in a "holster" for a hiker's multi tool.

ive noticed when i assembled mine yesterday that the expansion is very stiff when closed, ive assembled it and reassembled it a few times, using the site blueprint, his video and yours but still once everything is closed, pushing on those 2 prongs just ends up hurting my thumb instead of swinging out the tensioners, im not sure if im missing somthing

Con. Price! With the expansion pack you’re well over $100. You can piece together a nice kit for much less and just get a little pouch for EDC.

for someone who's always been curious about picking but have never attempted it i started recently looking for a set. i figured it was a better idea than using a large knife as a pry bar to open a locked door... don't judge me too harshly, i had a plethora of knives and not enough functional picking tools. i'd like to change that but this set seemed pretty expensive compared to other sets which typically had screw driver like handles and contained within a bag. this ones running around 120 ish with these turning hook things included and i'm setting alernative sets for like $30 but without the nice tiny little form factor. while i can tell you all kinds of differences between steel types and such i have no idea the types of thicknesses of these tools so have no ability to weigh in on whether the more expensive set by covert instruments is worth the increased price tag. any feedback or thoughts would be appreciated to help me get over that initial lock pick set search and into actually trying this stuff out.

Seems really cool, but also like a gimmick, I feel bad to say that but in my opinion it the pieces were all detachable, that would be cool... idk

i was hoping to follow your video putting it together....very disappointed as you FF thru it

I just got this and, to be honest, it's a bit disappointing. The Swick is way, way better in terms of pick feel.

Good video. Purchased mine recently with the expansion pack. A few disappointments were:
Was hoping to use this as an everyday carry due to it's compactness, but I like the full size sets better and easier to use. Just like a swiss army knife that has all those tools, you wouldn't see a maintenance person or a carpenter use a swiss army knife. They would use individual/better/comfortable tools.
The second was how much time you have to spends closing it up as picks overlap and jamb. To combat this problem, I went back to the bigger original screw, and purchased some small washers at a local hardware store to spread out the pick spacing a little more.
Overall I'll just play with it more and see if it gets easier, or I'll just keep it as a back up and carry the bigger set.

As an American, your accent is very easy to listen to. Good narration, and calming. lol. Nice video. I’m new to the hobby and just picked mine up and put it together watching this video. Cheers

Great video!!!...I'm so into this thank you LockpickLawyer!

Bought it.... Junk

I am new to lock picking and i thought this was a pretty good deal. I work in a place with a locker room so i wanted to do this as an alternative to bolt cutters. Would i need/want anything else for this kind of setting? May also need to open simple office doors every now and again

Just bought one. So far so good! 🙂 I've been going through my stash of various locks trying it out. I'd say I opened about 75% of them with this tool.

Bleh. The problem with the covert companion is the steel. It is subpar. If it was all 301 high yield it would be worth it, but it isn’t even full hard steel. It’s the kind of junk HPC would use. Swick or preferably Entry Kit from tuff possum gear is MUCH better.

@LockNoob Do covert instruments ship to the UK?

I just purchased one today, it’s on sale for $70 USD. I added a dimple, and padlock bypass driver. I bought it specifically to use as a bypass tool only. I’ll probably never use the short and medium hook and just bring my genesis/southern specialties kit with me everywhere I go. I did forget to add the turning tool kit. Haha I have seen people really like the riv kit. So I MAY purchase it in the future. But I like spp with dedicated tools.

FINALLY! I get to do my review of the Covert Companion! Let me know what you think of my opinions on this tool and any of your experiences with it in the comments! 😀🛠

So my quick calculations are based on very much middle of the road equipment prices and I substituted a cheap padlock key for the shim as I couldn’t really find one:
Jiggler keys £5
Comb picks £10
Handcuff key £5
Hook set £2
Decent quality but cheap jackknife set £33
Knife decoder tool £10
Knife tool £10
=£75 if I went for really cheap stuff I could get this down a bit but the quality of the tools are good so I’m happy with my choices
Covert Companion is $90 which is around £70. Advantages of buying separate are that you do get more, easier to use tools for the price at the disadvantage of them taking up a lot more space. Advantage of the covert companion is for about the same price you get everything concentrated into a small format EDC with the disadvantage that some tools are harder to use and you don’t have as much of a range of tools. I think what you buy, if you want to buy a set of tools like this, is largely a matter of your use case and location as postage and customs charges vary