When it comes down to it there is nothing better than manual tools for your Lock pick Set, whether they be retail, homebrew, macgyver style. DIY'ers look here.
Today, I was watching my wife play with polymer clay and I thought it would make great handles. So I made a basic handle just rolled out some clay into a long cylinder and made some picks out of wiper blade inserts. I pushed the picks into the clay and cocked the clay. I was really happy with the turn out. The handles are rock hard and the handle holds the pick really nice. I'm going to start making more attractive handles now that I no it works good.
Here are the pictures of the picks I made. They only took around 1 hour to make from start to finish. They are only a trial so I no they need a lot of work.
No, its in really good I tryed to pull it out but I cant get it out and yes its really hard. Its like a rock but also like a really hard plastic to. Its one of the best materials I have come a cross for handles. I have tryed a lot of things for handles and this takes the cake. There are over 200 colors you can pick from I have one type that is glow in the dark. So the next handle I make I'm going to use the glow in the dark clay so I can see the lock at night. It glows really well you can see the lock perfect in complete dark.
I really suggest using it you will be happy with the turn out.
freakparade3 wrote:Someone posted this a year or so ago. I think it was just the idea posted, I don't remember there being any pictures with the post. They look good.
Thanks freakparade they were just a trial run and I'm happy with the result. I'm going to make some really attractive looking picks to night. The handles of the 2 I made are just your most basic handles. You can make what ever your mind can think of with this stuff. I hope some of the more artistic people try using the clay, I want to see some cool picks.
That pick with the pink handle has a pretty specialized shape, but I made another plain old short hook with a green handle and I use it all the time.
I like that it doesn't deteriorate or wear away like the plasti-dip I used on most of my pick handles.
My wife uses Sculpey a lot for figurines. The stuff's awesome. I'll be trying it myself now that I know the metal won't slip out (which is what I assumed before).
if you are concerned with the metal slipping out, you could always make it a security pick handle i.e. serrated or spool etc.
Cheers,
mh
"The techs discovered that German locks were particularly difficult" - Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton w. Henry R. Schlesinger, Spycraft: The secret history of the CIA's spytechs from communism to Al-Qaeda (New York: Dutton, 2008), p. 210
steve0527 wrote:I pushed the picks into the clay and cocked the clay. I was really happy with the turn out. The handles are rock hard and the handle holds the pick really nice.
Sorry, just had to as I lolled
Those pick handles look awesome and I might find similar material from here also to test this out
And as mh said, you can always make some serrations or the like to the handle piece of the metal so that the clay holds it in tightly, if there is slippage problems.
i.e. serrated or spool etc.
