Questions about which mortise curtain pick set to buy.

[Clay-Miller13]

Hello everyone,

Ok so I am an experience lock picker in regards to pin tumblers and dimple locks but what I am new to is mortise locks which I want to start picking. From what I have read there are just two types of mortise locks. Curtained and non-curtained. And if I'm wrong about anything corrections would be appreciated. Anyway, it seems there are lock picks specifically for curtain mortise locks and picks for non curtained locks. The ones i am curious about are the Chris Belcher picks and the ICL picks. Also please forgive any questions that may seem like common sense but if I plan to spend hundreds of dollars on something I want to make sure what I'm getting will work with what I want it too. Thanks for the help.

-I get that non curtained picks cannot pick curtained locks but can curtained picks also pick non curtained locks?

I am looking at the Chris Belcher Reversible Pocket Curtain Pick which is around £160. Will this pick work with all gauges from 4 to 8 or however many there are? It says it comes with a 5 and 7 gauge pick so does that mean it will only work with 5 and 7 gauge locks?

Being that this set only comes with 2 size gauges does that mean that the 5 and the 7 are the most common mortise locks or are there just as many other gauge locks out there?

There is also a Multi gauge curtain mortise pick thats also made by Chris Belcher. It says this pick covers all 9 gauges of keyhole and it is quite a bit more expensive than the RPCP at £200. Is this a better pick? Will I be able to use this pick in the same locks Id be able to use the RPCP in and more?

Which one of these Chris Belcher picks came out first, the Multi Gauge or the RPCP? Is one of these pick sets an improved version of the other or are they just separate sets with one covering all gauges and the other only 5 and 7. If they are pretty much the same and that the only difference is the number of locks they can be used on, it would make sense to me to get the one that covers all gauges so I can pick more locks, right?

The ICL improved curtain pick is cheaper at £140 and comes with the same size gauge picks as the £160 RPCP. Are the sets pretty matched in quality and performance? I like the design of the ICL picks more than CB's and if there's no real difference in Q and P, then i should be ok with getting the one I like more?

Is the Multi Gauge pick the best one to get out of these 3 in terms of quality, performance and the #of locks I can open with it? This seems to be the most expensive curtain mortise pick set out there so to me that says its also probably the best one, correct or not?

Thank you to all who can answer these questions. There is no real place I can call to get the answers I need and I figured this would be the best place.

Thanks again!