I've always been a fan of jacknife pick sets for the convenience of carrying them. For one thing, carrying individual picks can poke holes in your pocket, or in your body.
The first pick set I ever had was a jacknife pick set. Like many pick sets, it had far more picks than I ever benefitted from.
Eventually, I realized that I didn't need all those picks. I usually carried just one diamond pick and two torsion wrenches of different thicknesses. (One standard, and a smaller one made from a bobby pin. I found it useful for small keyways in some padlocks.)
Later, I started using a hook pick more, and eventually quit carrying a diamond pick altogether.
I purchased another jacknife pick set, this time an HPC JKP-5. My main reason for going back to a jacknife pick set was that I was picking locks so much that I was digging into my fingers and making them bleed. It eventually didn't take much force to accomplish that. The larger handle of the jacknife set did help. But it always annoyed me how much the pick would wiggle in the handle. It didn't actually seem, physically, to be a problem, but I don't need to be annoyed while I'm picking!
This set includes one hook pick and one diamond pick. So I moved on to the diamond when I eventually broke the hook. When I eventually broke the hook, I didn't use this set much anymore. Picks are not individually replaceable; you have to buy a new set.
I went back to individual picks. By that time, the cuts in my fingers had healed. I also knew better than to press as hard as I sometimes used to.
I later got a SouthOrd jacknife pick set. I love this pick set. Each pick is individually replaceable for two bucks, so I wouldn't have to buy a whole new pick set if one were to break. However, I don't break picks anymore. I do lose whole pick sets though, so I've gone through a few of these.
The first thing I did with my SouthOrd jacknife pick was remove that goofy key-ring. The last thing I need when I'm picking a lock is a set of keys in my way!
Next, I modified the torsion wrench by twisting the end ninety degrees. I prefer the positioning I get this way, and I find that I have less trouble with the wrench slipping out of place and flying off somewhere this way.
The hook pick is unusually large in this set. I don't know what they were thinking, but I ground the hook down to make it useable:
I really only use the hook pick these days, so I may replace some of the other picks with spare hooks or other useful tools. My pick doesn't wiggle in the handle like it did with previous jacknife sets.
This set has by far the most comfortable pick handle I've ever used. When you pick a lot of locks, that becomes important.
nvm lol
