Diy picks question

[Darrylportelli]

Hey . I make my own picks and they come out preety good, but I saw a couple of you guys that sand the paint off the picks..... I did that tand polished the pick using autosol metal polish but after a few days the metal is tarnished and after a few months rust. I use hacksaw blades...do you think that its the brand of the blades I use or what?? do you do something to the blades no to rust??
Thanks

[femurat]

I keep mine in a dry place and I've never had a rust problem.
Well, I think so... let me go home and check...

Cheers

[hydruh]

Quality of blades can make a difference. I use cheap hacksaw blades, and hit them once every few months with a thin layer of WD40. Seems to keep the Fe2O3 away.

S

[Darrylportelli]

Hey I used cheap blades and I used good blades(brand name: ULTRA) and they dont make a spec of difference in :1)cutting ease 2)material strength
They both seemed the same in preety much everything. Do you polish yours?? Im gonna try the WD 40 thing..
Cheers

[Kaotik]

It really doesn't matter what type of hacksaw blade you use, High Carbon, Low Carbon, Bi-Metal ect. The fact of it is that they are going to rust if exposed to moisture. As previously mentioned, the way to go would be to keep them in a cool dry area or container, or keep a light coat of an oily substance on them.

Oils in general contain petroleum distilates, which inhibit moisture. Though if you don't live in a high moisture climate and light rust occures, a few strokes of a steel wool pad can take care of it. Another good idea is not leave them stored with finger prints on them, as the oils on your hands will cause rust as well.

[Darrylportelli]

If I leave the hacksaw paint on they wont rust, but they dont look professional(Ill leave the workhorses with the paint on and the show girls polished!!!!). Ill try the oil next then
cheers

[LocksmithArmy]

Polishing is important for picks because it helps them glide in the keyway and helps the pins glide across the picks... its not just for show.

I use gun blue to defend aginst rust.

[thelockpickkid]

Gun blue is an awesome idea, you can pick it up at all major sporting good stores, I think it would give the picks a look like the non handled, HPC's but I am not sure!

Thanks LocksmithArmy, nice idea!

[Darrylportelli]

I know that polishing is for gliding but when I polish the shaft, it doesnt rust the problem is when I polish the handles...only the handles seem to rust lool
cheers

[LocksmithArmy]

oooooh!

then gun blue the handles

happy picking

[Darrylportelli]

this gun blue is it an oil?? like regular gun oil ?? or is it something else??

[LocksmithArmy]

Its the thing that makes the guns a dark color. when guns are made they are shiny but most people like a dark gun so it wont reflect light so they"blue" it with this blue liquid that makes the metal black, Idk how it works but it not only makes the metal darker but prevents rust so its a good idea for most guns...

[Darrylportelli]

Ill give it a shot then see if its any good ill ask my dad if he has some around cos he has guns if not i'll pick some up.

[raimundo]

fingerprints are oily and salty, after using your picks you should wipe them with a tissue, and of course, occasionally use a bit of some machine oil.
If you keep tools in a metal toolbox, you may want to have a slightly oily rag on the bottom of the tray. this helps.

[tjweaver84]

I did a little test a few months ago where I polished some hack saw blades and applied different products the let them sit with out touching them and found that using Brasso after polishing does a pretty good job at keeping rust at bay. The brasso blade went a week or two before I saw the first speck of rust but all the other products and the one with no products had a solid rust layer within a few days. Stainless steel resists corrosion by the formation of an oxide layer which protects the metal under it. Sanding removes this layer and exposes the base metal. The oxalic acid in the brasso helps speed up the formation of the oxide layer but still you want to do something to help keep moisture off and like raimundo said the salt and oils in your finger prints will get rid of that layer also. If you use gun blue though it changes the metal so brasso wouldn't really make much of a difference.