why do you have to shine your picks up?

[teecee]

does shining picks affect ability to feel each pin or pick the pins? i dont think it does but im a newbie and i made 2 picks and there really dull and i read somewhere that you must shine your picks up very well. i dont know i need help thanks i will add pictures of my picks later...

[JackNco]

its not that they need to shine its that you need to take the burs and the ruff parts off.

Just that most of us polish them to get all the best possible results.

John

[Julian-]

I dont polish mine. Just a wire brush wheel is usually the finest finish I go to. If I make them out of hacksaw blades I get the ones that are coated in that rubber/lacquer stuff and you can just dunk them in lacquer thinner and wipe it off. Its pretty smooth underneath already!

[headshot tM]

Yeah I can make mine really smooth, with no burs but it just doesn't look to good, like it's a perfectly functioning pick but it doesn't look sexy. Lol.

[cjames73]

de-burring and polishing your picks will cause less damage to the pins and the insides of the lock.
you'll also feel whats going on inside the lock better as the pick will glide rather than scrape across the pins.
every now and then i also give my picks a few rubs on a leather faced board/strop with a bit of polishing paste.

[LockNewbie21]

Its all a bit of persoanl prefernce. A mirror finish is not needed. But as said having a very smooth pick will help you feel feeback much better.

But the main thing is you want no burs on the tool.

[raimundo]

most picks have sharp square edges where the shafts and pick heads were stamped out of the sheetmetal. these square edges cut into and interact with the warding in the keyway, as well as the pins, this can cut up the inside of a practice lock to the point where you have difficulties that were not present when the pins were still round not rough.

think about it,

the pickshaft is only for positioning and controlling the pickhead, ideally, it would be infinatly thin and strong. however, in the physical world, it needs a pickshaft. the thinnest pickshaft possible.

since the keyway and the pin drillings, have a variety of angles just to make picking harder, you should make your picks rounded and smooth so that they do not easily interact with the keyway wards, and so that they slip and slide easily around them. Keeping the square shafts on the picks is just adding to the warding problem.

[dmux]

^^^^^ exactly.. listen to the master

[Abus]

I think even with easy locks and little skill, at least polishing with, say 320 grit wet or dry makes life easier. The pick doesn't bind up wierd on the sides, moves easier, and well, everything that raimundo said.

Even now, if I use a bone stock HPC or Petersen pick in even a simple lock, it comes out all smeared with brass. So, its not good for the lock, and its not conductive to good feel.

IMHO, the pick manufacturers have missed the boat in going to higher quality steel as opposed to making polished and coated carbon spring steel picks. A 1095 spring steel pick thats even crudely polished and coated in some sort of anti-rust substance (nitride would be nice, black oxide would do) would be a nice item. It has been a long time since I bought them, but the stainless Southord tools were reasonably rounded, though they were as soft as butter.