Maybe you should ask yourself why your picks fall apart in your hands? Do you use too much tension and too much force? Or maybe you have ruined the picks in the making process by letting them warm too much. Did you remember to quench often (like all the time)?
I haven't bought any pick or tool, my only expense was to find those proper hacksaw blades. I bought 2 or 3 different brands of hacksaw blades before I found the material described in Pyros pick making video (snaps without a bend), so I have "wasted" about 5 Euros.
Tension tool material and Bogota rakes are made from windscreen wiper blades that I got from local car repair shop for free (used blades).
And for my electric pick gun I harvested few flee market places and found electric scissors for 4 Euros.
So, all in all, I have managed to get my fully functional tools for about 15-20 Euros total
I suggest that everyone who wants to get their tools with little or no money can spend couple of weeks scrounging for material and doing a pick per day. That way you leave time for all your other hobbies or housework and still get a fully capable set in a matter of two weeks
) but I was wondering about people's opinions about buying a set of picks vs. making my own. I'm definitely going to make some more (so far, I've made 3 hooks that have broken and one half-diamond), but would a quality set of Peterson picks be "selling out" as it were? (I know that in the "making picks" video on Google, it's repeatedly stressed that "you never ever have to buy a set of picks ever never ever. 
)If so, should I just get one or two, or a whole set of standards?
