Should you add the Under Door Tool to your gear set up? Today we do a review of the Sparrowslockpicks.com “Under Door Tool“. See our YouTube video below and subscribe to our channel for more.

How to use it:

  1. I do a size up on my side of the door just to check and make sure I’m not crazy, and that my tool is long enough…. 😉 (Man, if I had a nickel) I also make a mental note of whether the door opens TOWARD me or AWAY from me.

    Better to check the height now than to fish and not be able to reach your handle on the far side and not know why!

  2. I slide the tool under with one hand while retaining the draw string with my other hand, keeping the draw string on the side away from the center of the door and the tool and towards the handle of the door.
    Drawstring placement

    Make sure when you initially put your tool under the UDT handle is near the center of the door and the drawstring is towards the handle side.

  3. If able I pull the drawstring until the tool makes contact with the opposite side of the door to confirm with an audible “clank” that the tip of the UDT is touching the door, preferably near the center of the door (left to right).
  4. If able I maintain contact with the door and I listen for the tip to “drrrag” across the door, with both a shimmy to the handle side and a lean towards the handle side, until I feel both a tension change and an audible “thud” to confirm that my UDT has made contact with the base of the far side handle base. (and hopefully is wrapped around the handle)
  5. I keep moderate tension straight down on the draw string and also pull the UDT handle towards me. While doing this (respective of the swing-opening direction of the door) I either push my forehead lightly forward into the door so that once the latch is clear my head will push the door open, or I pull the UDT and drawstring towards me allowing the door to free swing open towards me.

Should you add it to your tool kit?

My recommendation: Maybe, Here’s why. First of all, very affordable at around 30$. It is a little long coming in at about 42 inches in length, but it is light weight and flat so it is easy to keep in a closet at home, or behind a bookshelf or flat in the trunk of your car, I happen to keep it in the trunk in my cruiser (***Case study to follow). (Just be warned, Sparrows is a great company with great tools but they are based in Canada so not always but sometimes they have some longer shipping times and I have had packages get lost/stuck in Customs before.)

I LOVE the tool, but the only reason I say “maybe” for your personal kit is that if you are resourceful than you can create your own under door tool for pennies, and if you equip yourself like me than there is another tool in my kit that I can use to manufacture my own underdoor tool that is just as effective using pieces of my other gear for multiple purposes. I carry it. And for me, it is designed perfectly and thin and light enough that I have no problem driving around with it flat inside the trunk of my cruiser. It is so easy and effective that it’s worth keeping in my vehicle as part of my 3rd line gear***. Is it for you? That’s why I say maybe. Is it a quality tool worth buying? Fuck yes.

Deployment Problems

It’s tough working from a tiny trailer overseas. Got to get creative sometimes. I’m thankful just to have fucking internet!!! #firstworldproblems

As always you should ONLY be practicing on and accessing doors when you have explicit permission to do so from someone authorized to give you that permission. And a quick bonus, as seen in the video, make sure to keep the key to the door you want to access handy while you practice, don’t ask me why that lesson is beat into my head. 😉

Have fun, kick ass, stay safe, stay legal.

-RW