by BbGenesis » 21 Sep 2014 20:26
Hello everyone. I've been lurking on the boards again recently and thought I would make a post essentially for me to think out loud and comment on things. And I guess that it could be looked at as a series of mini reviews as well.
So I've been picking off and on since 2006, but never really stuck with it to get good at it. I made my own picks with a dremel and hacksaw blades. I ended up making a half hook, a large half diamond, a small half diamond, a deforest half diamond, an auto jiggler, and recently made something similar to a peterson gem although modified a bit. My biggest issue with all of these picks was rust so I didn't use them very much and made sure to keep them oiled. Recently I've been wanting to make some more but I'm thinking about making them from feeler gauge, I'm debating on either 316 or 304, 316 would be the most corrosive resistant but I'm not sure if it would be too brittle or not.
Getting tired of the picks I had made and wanting to try some professionally made picks I ordered a set of southords (the MPXS-32 set) in retrospect this kit is kind of a waste as I'm never going to use most of these picks, and if I do it'll be the ones with the thicker handles and not the ones made from a single sheet of metal. Really the only one I find myself using from this set is the half hook with the thicker handle and a couple of the tension wrenches. I've gotten pretty proficient with opening the locks that I bought for picking so I figured I'd get some Peterson's to try out.
I ended up ordering a Peterson Gem, the Bogie 1, and the 0.040" serrated pry bar (since I wanted to try some top of the keyway stuff to see if it was easier with more space in the lock.) I got them all in govt. steel (which I suspect is 304 stainless but I don't know) The gem came with the black rubber handle, which I thought was going to be the handle I would like. The bogie 1 came with the hard black plastic handle which I didn't think I would like because I thought it would hurt my hands like the metal handles. As it turns out the rubber handle seems to dull my feeling inside the lock. I think I like the hard plastic though, it's thick enough that it doesn't hurt and since it's rigid I can feel more feedback. I really like them overall though, they feel and look like they're in a different class from the southords.
Now that I've gotten the new picks I am having trouble with them though, the feeling is totally different in the lock though. I like the shape of the gem but I think I would be better with it if the angle was slightly more shallow like the southord half hook, I think I'm going to make a pick with the traits of both of these picks.
Does anyone know what material the southords or the petersons are made out of? I was wanting to order some material to try my hand at making my own again. I may end up ordering one of each brand to hardness test and play around with (I don't want to put divets in my picks I use).
Anyway I'm making progress slowly but surely, I'm up to four pins in my Mr.Wizard practice lock and I've gotten that down to about 45 seconds to a minute with various pinnings.
Sorry if this post was boring and seemed like it had no point, I mainly just needed to write my thoughts down and figured others might be interested or have feedback or something. Well, back to picking.
