Is SouthOrd a respectable brand?

by **mikash52** » 15 Mar 2005 10:20

I am a beginner myself and I bought the 14-piece set and it seems rather well made. They are easy to use and come with a decent variety of shapes. For the price I would say it was a decent deal. I hope to be making my own eventually but these give a good reference point to the basic of what’s out there so I would recommend them to others like me, a beginner.

by **master in training** » 15 Mar 2005 14:03

for beginners, it is normally best to buy some picks, even if they're only one of two single picks, they are good for patterns and you can pysically see how big things should be.

by **quicklocks** » 15 Mar 2005 15:23

i started with a five piece soth ord then brought a 32 majestic set and i much prefer them. southord are ok though

by **spl0rk** » 15 Mar 2005 18:11

in your experience how do the southord folding picks, like the JPXS-6

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

, compare to the single handled versions? i'm not for certain yet if the compact all-in-one design is worth more than twice the price of a 5 piece set...

by **master in training** » 15 Mar 2005 18:22

judging by the amount of posts you've made and the questions you're asking i think i would be allowed to assume you're a newbie.

if this is the case, the general advice is buy the normal picks and stay away from fancy things such as jack knives and pens, they look quite nice, but to learn to pick with they are not very good at all, even some advanced pickers have bought them and said they simply never get used, they just get look good. they are awkward to work with, have poor feedback, you cannot change picks during picking like you may need to do and the pick heads feel as if they are going to fall out all the time (or so im told). bear in mind i only own the SO 17piece set and some home mades, but from what i've heard they are not good at all!

by **spl0rk** » 16 Mar 2005 19:30

thanks for the clarification. i assumed that was the case, but it's good to get confirmation from people who have better insight. i would think that feedback and ease of use would be more important than how small and compact you can get things...

(and yes, you're correct in assuming i'm a noob, but one has to start somewhere, doesn't one?
post #2!)

by **master in training** » 16 Mar 2005 19:41

absolutely! theres no shame in being a noob, look at when i joined the forum :lol:

a tool being compact isnt really high on the list of needs if you're learning, ease of use is much better, i would assume that the jackknife type picks are awkward to hold as well and would not be good for longer periods of picking or anything like that.

feel free to add me on msn if you have it and want to chat about anything

by **jason0** » 26 Mar 2005 0:03

I have a southord MPXS-14 set, and I like it. I also have a small majestic set, and a few picks I made myself, and i pretty much only use the Southord set. They are very well made, the rivetless handles are nice because they doesn't stick out. I accidentally bent one sideways a good amount, and it didn't break when I bent it back. They are definately good quality. About the jacknife ones, I don't have any myself, but i hear only bad about them, that they are awkward and less strong. For these reasons, I didn't buy one.

by **Woofcat** » 10 Dec 2005 2:21

I am new to lock picking and i love my Southord MPXS-11. (11 piece set) They work well for me and are much better than i could ever make. Plus the price point was low enough for me to buy them and try out lock picking.

by **devnill** » 11 Dec 2005 6:43

i have southords 5 piece set, and it works fine for pretty much any lock i have except for my yale padlock. The included tension wrench is a bit big for this lock, so i cant quite manuver well enough to get the pins in the back set.

I would reccomend a newcomer to buy either the 5 piece, or getting single picks from lockpickshop.com (10% off code : lp101), and depending on what locks you have, get a appropiate tension tool. Personally, im looking at getting a set of LAB's, but being a poor student doesnt help:(

by **Omikron** » 11 Dec 2005 16:39

master in training wrote:judging by the amount of posts you've made and the questions you're asking i think i would be allowed to assume you're a newbie.

if this is the case, the general advice is buy the normal picks and stay away from fancy things such as jack knives and pens, they look quite nice, but to learn to pick with they are not very good at all, even some advanced pickers have bought them and said they simply never get used, they just get look good. they are awkward to work with, have poor feedback, you cannot change picks during picking like you may need to do and the pick heads feel as if they are going to fall out all the time (or so im told). bear in mind i only own the SO 17piece set and some home mades, but from what i've heard they are not good at all!

I'm going to agree with M.I.T. on this one. The jacknife set, although convenient, is NOT a drop-in replacment for a normal pickset. Additionally, the picks included are fairly large and absolutely will not work on some smaller keyways. I would stray away from the jacknife set unless you already have a normal set and are just looking for something different.

If you are looking for some portable picks, I might reccommend you take a look at raimundo's picks...

by **Infosec** » 11 Dec 2005 21:37

I started off making my own picks then bought a 14 peice southord set and switched over to those for the moment. I prefer the cut of my homemade ones but love the handles on the southord. Once I get the right materials to make better homemade ones i'll probably be going back to those though.

by **kodierer** » 21 Dec 2005 3:07

I have bought many southord items. the Jacknife does work, but its not to my preference, and I didn't keep it long enough to wear it out. I gave it to someone else. I have bought their 14 piece set, and ordered several picks to add to it, and a 9 piece slim line kit. The 14 piece set is good, but I do recommend you get reinforced handles for comforts sake. Being too rough I have ruined about 3 picks, and replaced them, and not had to do again since. In other words your picks will last if you respect them. I have purchased also purchased many of their other products, and they worked well as well.
Even though the only HPC products I've used weren't hand picks, but impressioning, and automotive tools. They seem like they may be even better quality, and I plan on purchasing more HPC items, and maybe trying brochage, and petersen.

by **HKW** » 6 Jan 2006 20:54

devnill wrote:i have southords 5 piece set, and it works fine for pretty much any lock i have except for my yale padlock. The included tension wrench is a bit big for this lock, so i cant quite manuver well enough to get the pins in the back set.

That was my problem with SouthOrd, They would provide multitudes of fancy picks, but only one type of tension wrench. I solved my problems by filing thier wrenches to different widths. I found it perplexing that they would sell pick sets with multiple copies of a single width wrench; however, maybe it was thier intent, all along, to provide a 'generic' wrench to be 'customized' by the user... Possible?

HKW

by **illusion** » 6 Jan 2006 20:57

grab some wiper-blade inserts and make wrenches till you're blue-in-the-face...

they can be found free of charge, and are almost identical to the SO wrenches.

I don't like twist-flex wrenches at all.. so I use wiper-blade inserts to make my own... I do agree that having a wife range of wrenches is good

Is SouthOrd a respectable brand?

folding sets?

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