Skill Book

Lockpicking

Proper Lock Design

A Lockpicking skill book: a locksmith’s guide to building locks that frustrate thieves.

Proper Lock Design and Construction is the counterpart to Advances in Lockpicking: a locksmith explains how to beat thieves with steel instead of brass, offset tumblers and springs from different smiths. Read both and you’ll see the arms race from both sides.

Skill book

Proper Lock Design is a Lockpicking skill book. The first time you read a copy, your Lockpicking skill goes up by one point – later copies of the same title don’t give anything extra, so there is no need to carry them around.

Book details

Author (in game): Anonymous
Teaches: Lockpicking (+1)
Weight: 1
Base value: 75 gold
Item ID: 0001B01B

More Lockpicking skill books

Advances in Lockpicking, Surfeit of Thieves, The Locked Room, The Wolf Queen, v1.

Value, weight and skill read from the Skyrim game files; locations from community-checked lists. The book text is summarised here in our own words – read the full text in game.

Where to find it

Twilight Sepulcher, on a desk down the stairs past the torch trial (needs Darkness Returns).
Howling Wolf’s Folly (unmarked), on a Stormcloak soldier.
Faldar’s Tooth, on a table at the top of the tower.
Next to a fallen birch tree down the path from Troll Den Rkund (unmarked).
Cidhna Mine in Markarth, on a bookcase by the prisoner belongings chests.

Lore notes

Quest reward from

Where to find it

Markarth

Markarth is the stone city of the Reach, carved into the cliffs by the Dwemer – home of the Silver-Blood family, Cidhna Mine and the Forsworn conspiracy.

Characters connected to it

Other books for this skill

Smithing

The Armorer’s Challenge

By Mymophonus

A Smithing skill book: Empress Katariah sets two armorers against each other.

Light Armor

The Rear Guard

By Tenace Mourl

A Light Armor skill book: a soldier left behind to hold a castle with nothing to eat but armor.

One-handed

The Importance of Where

By Marobar Sul

A One-handed skill book: a Dwemer riddle-tale about knowing where to strike.

Alchemy

A Game at Dinner

By Anonymous

An Alchemy skill book: a spy’s letter about a deadly dinner at Prince Helseth’s court.

Smithing

Light Armor Forging

By Revus Sarvani

A Smithing skill book: Revus Sarvani’s guide to leather, Elven and Glass armor.

Heavy Armor

The Knights of the Nine

By Karoline of Solitude

A Heavy Armor skill book: the rise and fall of the order that sought the Crusader’s Relics.

Sources checked: Skyrim game files (Skyrim.esm + strings, read 2026-10-11); Elder Scrolls Fandom book articles (locations)