in this image you will see (from top to bottom), a regular 5-pin deadbolt, a triple twisted, double ended bottom/top tension wrench, a small hook, a rake and finally one I call the "leg" pick (so called because the first time my wife saw it she said it looked like a womans leg)
The lock itself is just a regular 5-pin deadbolt that I had originally dropped to a 4-pin (I removed the spool pin to get a better feel for setting regular pins and tension control.) I have now put the spool back in and have been picking it for a couple of days fully pinned. Something odd I have noticed, and maybe someone could further explain this, the binding order of this lock seems to be pretty close to 1,2,3,4,5. Im not sure if I am just not feeling them properly given my lack of experience or if this could truly be the case.
This image is a close up of the bottom tension end of my tension wrench. I put the normal twist in it for comfort.
This is the top tension end of my tension wrench, as you can see there are two twists, one for the end to fit nicely into the top of the keyway and the comfort twist in the shaft.
This is the first Hook pick I made using a hacksaw blade. I still have some sanding to do to make it nice and smooth but it has come a long way from the crude, beat up, pitted pick it started as (thank you to Schuyler Townes youtube video on pickmaking). This seems to work as a nice feeling pick but I feel that a deeper hook might work better with more varied bittings.
This is a rake I made not really using any specific design or template, I just king of went high in some spots and low in others. When my practice lock was down to 4 pins with no spool this rake picked it in about one or two passes 4 out of 5 times.
This is a bit of an odd pick to me, I call it my "leg" pick. I was just going at it with the grinder taking material out here and there and ended up with this basic shape then finished with a dremel. The top end (when held with the tip upright) can be used like a deep hook for reaching behind longer pins to reach shorter ones though it seems to get caught up in tight keyways sometimes, which is when I realized that by flipping it over and using the "heel" of the "foot" like a small kind of diamond it seems like it could be a very versatile pick.
I still have some finishing work to do on the picks but they have all opened locks for me so far. As I said any advice or comments anyone has on this starting set of tools, please feel free to leave a comment. Thanks again and Happy Picking.
*thank you to TinyPic.com for hosting the pics.
