Making my first pick and a problem arose

[elite_death]

Me and my room mate recently got into lock picking. I am making mine out of street sweeper bristle. After watching some Youtube videos and reading countless how to's I still don't understand if heating the metal to make Tension wrenchs' is a good thing or a bad one.

[cottonmouth]

Usually you should be able to bend the material without heating if you avoid sharp bents. If you are not familiar with heat treatment heating tends to be a bad idea (your wrench is likely to end up too soft or too brittle). Even if you were familiar with it it wouldn´t be easy to restore the original material properties.

[zsoutendijk]

Welcome to LP101!

I heat the tension wrench to bend it then quench it really fast, if you only keep it red hot for like 3-5 seconds then quench it seems to be hard but not brittle. i dont use street sweepers but im sure the same properties apply.

*try to heat as little of the metal as possible*

Good Luck!

-Zack

[maintenanceguy]

Heat the metal just where you want a bend. Bend it while it's cherry red. Cherry red isn't yellow, orange, or white. You want a dull cherry red.

If the metal is allowed to air cool, it won't be as hard as it once was. To harden the metal, quench it while it's still hot. Ideally, you'll want to quench it when it's just starting to turn a dull straw yellow. That's much, much cooler than red hot. It's hard to see straw yellow unless you've polished the steel first and you won't ever get the whole thing the same temperature without a heat treating oven so just quench it as soon as it cools enough that you no longer see any red.

Quenching too hot causes brittleness and can create tiny stress fractures from in the steel.

[elite_death]

Thank you i well keep that in mind, quenching is putting it in water while it's still glowing red right? Sorry for the noob like questions but metal and its properties are not my strong suit.

[josh0094]

yes you are correct. just dunk it in the water. i use a pincil torch.

just like ur torch. heat the metal bend werever you have heated and as fast as you possably can dunk it in the water. thats my way. but read everyones posts up top first... im kinda noobish..

[jimb]

Me and my room mate recently got into lock picking. I am making mine out of street sweeper bristle. After watching some Youtube videos and reading countless how to's I still don't understand if heating the metal to make Tension wrenchs' is a good thing or a bad one.

Just get you some windshield wiper blades for you tension wrenches. No heat required for making some nice tension wrenches. Different size blades will give you some variety of different width wrenches.

[freakparade3]

Thank you i well keep that in mind, quenching is putting it in water while it's still glowing red right? Sorry for the noob like questions but metal and its properties are not my strong suit.

Reread maintenance guy's post a little closer. Do not quench when it is still cherry red.

[josh0094]

its tricky.. it takes practice...

[Raymond]

Street sweeper bristles can be bent just fine without heating. I do it all the time. Just avoid making a sharp bend with the ninety degree angle of the edge of a pair of pliars. The bend must be rounded or it will break. I usually use round tip wire bending pliars to avoid the sharp bends, but not always. Remember, any bend or cut-out in metal will fatigue and break faster at a sharp corner than with a round corner or bend.

[Gordon Airporte]

Just get you some windshield wiper blades for you tension wrenches. No heat required for making some nice tension wrenches. Different size blades will give you some variety of different width wrenches.

^^^^
This. They're already sized for you, but filing some down gives you more variety - and it squares off the edges which helps the prong grip better.

[raimundo]

bend cold as Raymond said,

heating is generally not a good idea, but after a cold bend, 30 seconds over a bic lighter on the bend will tend to erase the metal memory if you must heat. this will make the metal blue. no need to heat the entire length of the metal, its already very well tempered.
you will find sweeper bristle to have variences in temper some is better than others, if your bristle is breaking, keep snapping it off to see if its temper is better further down, sometimes parts of it are workhardened.

after some experience in cutting and shaping the picks, start to look for the least scarred bits of the bristle if you found it in the street and use that for the better picks. sand them well.

to make a rounded bend in the bristle, grip it in two small pliers, with about 3/8ths of an inch apart. by controlling both sides of the bend, you can avoid the sharp bend against the edge of the plier.