THE official Product Review Thread.

[Varjeal]

Greetings to all.

Since the top of this page now displays a random collection of links to both quality as well as rip-off sites, I thought it a good idea to start a stickied thread for future product reviews.

It would be greatly appreciated if product reviews would be posted in this single thread as opposed to seperate ones. That way, newbies as well as site owners can be pointed to a single thread to find reviews on different sites. Site owners are NOT welcome to advertise here, nor are they permitted to review their own products.

PLEASE don't post questions, etc. in here. This thread is for the use of customers who wish to post a review of lock and/or tool products they have purchased from various sites.

When posting, please follow this general format and include the following:

1. The name or link of the site. (comment on the site quality and ease of use as well.)
2. The product(s) you ordered.
3. The price you paid, including shipping. (mention your general location if its not in your profile.)
4. The type of packaging it was received in.
5. General impressions upon opening the package.
6. Appearance/initial quality of the tool.
7. The difference between #6 and what you expected.
8. Any comments you may have concerning the products usage, quality, durability, etc.
9. Your assesment of the overall experience (If you had problems with shipping, incorrect product, etc. relate those and how the situation was handled)
10. Any other comments you may have.

Please leave out:

1. Derogotory personal comments about the sites owner/sales team, etc.
2. Any comments which may bring legal reprocussions. In other words, be honest, but tactful.

Thanks for looking.

[pinky]

spoil sport !

[illusion]

The SouthOrd 9 piece slim-line set (Model number: C801)

I purchased this set of picks when I first began picking, and was attracted by the cheap price.

The set includes the following:
1 'S' rake - good for raking pin locks.
1 'Saw-toothed' rake - useful for jiggling, rocking or standard raking.
1 Ball pick - great for wafer locks.
1 Deforest pick - a mixture of a hook and a half-ball pick.
1 Half-diamond pick - great for pin cylinder locks.
1 Standard hook pick - great for a wide variety of pin cylinders.
1 Slender hook pick - good for locks with heavy keyways that impede the standard hook.
1 Twist-flex tension wrench - great wrench that allows a bit of leniency to a beginner's heavy tension.
1 Tapered tension wrench - Covers a wide range of locks, but due to the shaft being straight it applies the exact ammount of tension you apply - a blessing and a curse.

The quality of the tools is great when compared to the price, and my main critique is the rough edges that can be found on them. The round edges are caused in the manufacturing process when they are stamped out of sheet metal.
The best solution is to buy some wet&dry sandpaper, or emery cloth from any hardware shop, and use this to remove the sharp edges (burrs). Get a bowl of water, and add a small amount of washing-up liquid to it, drench the sandpaper, and begin to smooth out the eges of the picks, and the handles if they are causing irritation.
To test if they are smooth run them across your fingernail, if they mark your fingernail they are still rough. Work from a coarse grade of sandpaper down to an increasingly finer grade untill they are as smooth as possible.

Overall I consider these picks to be perfect for a beginner, and due to their cheap cost will not cause regret if picking doesn't turn out to be your thing. I would advise people to buy this rather than the 5 piece set because the tiny price raise gives you 3 extra picks to play with.

The picks come in a leather snap-over case that holds them all securely in place. The case may require some maintanance if the stitching becomes unpicked - the irony is not wasted.

Value for money rating: 10/10
Quality rating: 6/10

Where to buy them: Online stores sell these, and feel free to browse for the best price. For UK members: http://www.devonlocks.co.uk For international members: http://www.lockpickshop.com and http://www.lockpicks.com.

My thoughts: A great value set of picks that is perfect for beginners, and offers a great price. Bear in mind with these that you get what you pay for, and the need to de-burr the edges is an example.

Hope this helps you all.

Ben

*edited for typos per op's request: Varjeal*

[ablazia]

I purchased the Southern Specialties Basic Lockpick set - 4 picks and 1 torque wrench. I'm sorry I don't have the kit number with me right now.

Included are a half diamond, a full round, a snake/rake and a feeler/flat-topped picks. The torque wrench is your basic 90 degree with twist wrench. A small rubber retaining sleeve holds all the parts together for travel. It isn't a rubber band though, if you take one tool out, all the others will not be gripped by the rubber sleeve. The set was in a sealed plastic bag inside the sealed envelope.

There was a booklet with it that has the basics of lockpicking in it. For the price - 10 bucks plus some s & h - it's worth it. The package was brown envelope wrapped in clear tape all over the envelope for security. The tools are good. They are stamped and sanding the underside (the out pressed side of the template) is worth doing - I used some 1500 c grit with oil. It didn't take much and made picking a lot smoother.

My main (and only) complaint has to do with the booklet - On the last page or two, in describing how to pick Schlags, it refers to two drawings that don't exist. I think there is a page or two missing at the end of the book. And though the rest of the booklet made sense, the missing information made me wonder if anything else had been left out of the booklet. Frankly, the (non) MIT guide has more information in it for the newbie learning about picking. That may not be a fair assessment though really - But the booklet that came with the picks was written by someone who obviously knows about picking. It was well written and the drawings are good.

Overall, especially for the price, it's a good deal for a first (comercially purchased) set. I have made my own before and these have a little more meat to them (thickness of material) than I am used to but by no means is that a problem of any sort.

The service by the way, was excellent. I sent in my order, and it arrived very quickly, sooner than I thought it would. I paid by money order and that may have made a difference - me not know.

I don't know if this will help any newbies or not - but for what it's worth, I wouldn't hesitate to do business with Southern Specialties again. I know they have some other sets and books that look interesting and they seem to have pretty decent prices compared to some places.

I think I have included all the points listed for this posting - if not - let me know and I will update/modify it as I can.

ablazia

[LockNewbie21]

Haha this is a good one and i know mods seen it coming, and i will supply Pictures!!! cool kids lets begin!

Product: Dyno Quick Pick


Found at: www.lockpicks.com, Lockpickshop.com, Pretty much anywhere.



Pros: Comfy in the hands, Tension Wrench is thick, but for most locks works, The tensioner can also fit into some tubular locks perfectly hence you can, and i have single pin picked a tubular lock with it. Also even though it come with only a rake, its very easy to make a small or large collection of diffrent picks using the one supplied at a standar template, thus allowing you to make your own at any thinkness and any pick you want so with a little homebrew action, its worth the now 17 dollars? The price was dropped.



Cons: To get the initail pick supplied ready to enter a lock, expect some serious hand filing of the edges, i made my rounded like rays bogatas, then sanded and pollished, its great. Also it does take time to make a nice collection of alternate picks. Also a biggie is that you will find the pick retaining screw will become loose, i find that to solve this use a thinner pick material.


As Promise here is a Picture of the finised standard pick , also an unfinished L rake i made from a hacksaw black that fits great and the crew never loosens due to the thinner nature of it enjoy

1. Pick all components and homebrew pick
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h17/Locknewbie21/DSCN0932_edited.jpg


2. Shardy Close up.. you get the idea
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h17/Locknewbie21/DSCN0935_edited.jpg



So there you go! the quick picks what ever you make it, for me its was,

8.5 out of 10

[Varjeal]

The Falle Pick Set as found at http://www.safeventures.com/

As many have mentioned, the price on this kit has gone up drastically over a period of time. The price on this is kit is 140 English pounds, the equivalent of $270CND dollars. The price included shipping charges.

As promised it arrived in just over a weeks time...not bad considering. It arrived crammed into my mailbox (CP is something else sometimes ) in a plain brown wrapper. Inside was a red plastic shopping bag with the safe ventures website stamped on it. (rather nice actually.)

As others have said, the tools are all contained in a nicely stiched velcro-enclosed roll up pouch. For the number of tools, it stores rather nicely.

The initial appearance and quality of the tools are precisely what I had expected. Properly forewarned by other Falle pick owners that the tools would require polishing, I inspected them carefully and found them to indeed need some polishing.

After some time playing with these tools I'll edit this post add further comments concerning the actual usefulness of these tools. I readily admit the adjustable tension tools look promising.

I would definitely NOT recommend these for beginners or for those who are not willing or comfortable in making minor adjustments to their tools.

For those looking to add to their collection I say, Meh...if you can afford it, why not?

now I just need to find someone willing to sell me a lever lock so I can try those tools.

[scampdog]

i bought the above pen set ages ago,but i've made a few alterations. The nine picks on the left are my homemades,the others are the originals. i made mine based on computer, picks which i seem to get on ok with

its good fun and you would be suprised how many locks they have opened. and they all fit easily into the body
(can't help altering things)

[dmux]

I just got a set of the FALLE SAFE "basic pick set"

a couple things

- yes they do have burrs on them, nothing major but some of the edges are a little rough.

+ The velcro case is awesome, I took out all the "L" tension wrenches and added different wrenches and picks.

- The handles are very thin, kinda unconfortable to use with moderate pressure.

+ They are very good quality and it seems like a lot of time and R&D went into developing these

+/- Those adjustable tension wrenches are mad sweet, however they can only fit into certain locks, they cannot fit into ones that are recessed.

+ those curve hook picks work very well and are very long and slim to fit pretty much any lock that i have tried

overall i like this kit, i wanted to own the so called "rolls royce" of picks, well thats what they seem like i guess

[Benji's Keeper]

Hi.. I received this set about 3-weeks ago. Since I am new to locksmithing, this is the first set I've ever had.

www.Southord.com

http://www.southord.com/catalog.asp?cat=locksmith



I only ordered the 5-piece lock pick set PXS-05L $14.95 plus shipping put this just under $20.00. It was received in a brown padded envelope, shipped via UPS.

Thought it was a good deal for $20. Tools are stamped. They do not have the SouthOrd name on them (as other tools in their catalog do). The other tools they sell probably have better handles and a higher price.

I've looked thru their on-line catalog and they sell some “rubber” grips that slide onto the handles. I don’t know if this would diminish the feel of picking but might make the handle feel better in your hand.

Came with four picks, one tension wrench, case, and book.
Hook, ball, diamond, and rake picks.
Tension wrench is pretty heavy, and thick. (I’m getting some others to try out). Since this is the only tension wrench I've ever seen, I can't really comment on it's use. Hey, I'm still learning
Case fits in a shirt pocket nicely, can hold several more picks/wrenches. May be actual leather.
Book “EASY PICKINGS” is not bad if you don’t know anything. But if you are reading this review, then the book will probably be a waste of your time. A couple of illustrations and how locks work. Very basic.

My background: mechanical and electrical. Some machine shop background. I don’t work with tools every day, but I know the difference between Chinese crap tools and Snap-on. If Chinese tools are a ZERO and Snap-On is a 10, this set rates a 6.

Would I buy from this company again: YES, I’m ordering a few different tension wrenches to try out. Ordered on-line with no hassles.

John

[illusion]

Could I humbly ask that this thread be moved here?
http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?t=15172&highlight=

I like the review, and feel it'd be read more often, and of more use were it in a stickied thread.

Thanks.

Actualy... I'll PM a mod now.

[digital_blue]

You can't actually move a thread TO another thread. You can move it to a different forum... or you can move it to the trash... but there's no "append" option to just add one thread to another.

Sorry mate.

db

[illusion]

Meh, well it's not gunna kill me now that review hasn't been moved. I won't lose out, it's the newbies who might though.

I thought you could could merge threads? Do you have to install a mod onto the forum in order to that? If this is the case, I guess it figures considering LP101's *0%* mod philosophy.

Okay then, sorry for wasting your time I guess...

[Shrub]

The OP can repost his review in the correct thread and we can remove the original one, its the best we can do,

[Sesame]

No one ever says, "Gee, I wish I'd bought cheeper tools."

I recently bought some Peterson rubber handle picks and they really are sweet. (They still need a little smoothing around the edges though. Everthing does.) You don't really notice how cool they are until you've been using them for a half hour or so and you realize that your hands are not cramping up.

My advice for a brand noob: Get a Peterson hook and a triple rake. Make your own tension tools. When you need all the other stuff buy it. But start with just a few really good picks. They feel good, you feel good. You'll use them forever.

http://www.peterson-international.com/individualpicks-detailed.htm#hook

[Miami-Locksmith]

guys - is this thread alive? where can I read about product reviews? after getting pretty horrible tools that literally broke in my hands - i'm looking for tools that will last - but as cheap as possible....
i'd thank you for pointing me in the right direction - cheers