Images of my first home-made picks

[Xarragon]

Hello everyone. Here are some images of a few picks and tension bars that I have made since starting out with lockpicking. It was Pyro's YouTube video that inspired me to get started, so these first tools were made from his directions. Many thanks, Pyro!



Yesterday I realized that I needed a smaller pick for some of the tighter padlocks, so I made this new pick (also note the tension bar made from screen wiper inserts):



It's made from hacksaw blade, as usual.



I cut it down using a bench grinder and a bowl of water for cooling. Once the form was cut I started using a Dremel knock-off with an rotating grind stone to round off all the edges of the pick to cut down on sanding time. After that I used two different grits (fairly coarse, as I don't have much sand paper at home for the time being) and finally some Scotch-Brite. The result isn't perfect, but it is far smoother than my earlier picks.



The final pick is longer than my old ones, too long in fact. I guess I'll hit the correct length next time I make one. Plasti-Dip works wonders to get a non-slippery surface without loosing too much feedback. If you happen to live in Sweden, the Swedish supplier called Jula is phasing out Plasti-Dip from its stocks, so if you hurry you can buy a large can for about $12.

Hope you enjoyed reading and watching this. I sure enjoyed making the images and spamming them to you all. :-)

[tjweaver84]

Very nice. Are you sure that was your first attempt? to get the correct length test the pick before making the handle and cut it as needed. I usually make mine a little long and just cut the excess off and that seems to work pretty well for me.

[Xarragon]

Thanks. Yes, they are my first attempt at pick-making, but I am fairly proficient with metal works in general which certainly helps. And I got a complete workshop at my hands, which really is a privilege.