Good Material for Picks

[cuttinedge1]

I found that the side pieces of most glasses work great as a pick material. Most people either wear glasses or know someone that does and they usually have old glasses that broke. Inside the side piece of most glasses there is a small round piece of metal about six inches long. You can tell this by holding the glasses in front of a light and you will see a thin line in the middle. To make a pick just snap off the side piece and to remove the plastic coating take a hammer and hit the plastic where you want to take it off. This will weaken the plastic and you can just peel it off. If you leave some plastic on it works great as a handle. To make a hook just cut off the flat part where the glasses have the hinge and bent the tip up. File the pick to the desired thickness and you’re done. If you want to make a rake either cut off the hinge and file the flat part or cut off the flat part and hammer the round metal flat then file a rake.
If you’re lucky you will find one that is nonmagnetic a la titanium bogotas.

[cuttinedge1]

another good material is the metal tines on some rakes (the gardening variety). They are very much like street sweeper blades.

[billdeserthills]

I'm gonna totally keep this in mind for next time I get tossed in jail. I better get a bigger set of glasses for those Folger Adams locks tho...

[cuttinedge1]

If your in jail you could make them like a bogota but instead of one side being a tension wrench it could be a shiv

[1mrchristopher]

Bill, how you gonna see to do any of it without your glasses? Just raggin', and yeah you better get some of those Armed Forced BCGs. (Birth Control Glasses - so named because if you're wearing them, you aren't going to be a part of any baby making equation)

Thanks for the tip cuttinedge1, I would have never thought of this, and I have broken glasses frames around. I was just saving them for the screws and pads - I find that I am less likely to lose those small parts if I leave them attached to something a little larger.

[cuttinedge1]

Thanks I know some of the sports glasses have titanium in them which would be really cool.

[cuttinedge1]

[KPick]

I just had to let everyone know, THAT was a good laugh. BCG's I didn't know what that was until I googled it up and I saw this picture.

[Durzo Blint]

Hey guys, I got a blade from a horizontal band saw thats about 8ft long, .050 thick and 3/4 wide. Is that suitau material or too flimsy? Its been laying in the scrap barrell for a week or so. Im eyeballing pretty hard.

[GWiens2001]

Those band saw blades tend to be excellent material for picks as long as you don't overheat the metal. The .050" thickness may be an issue in a lot of keyways. Normally would recommend about half that thickness. However, you could make some pretty decent TOK tension wrenches!

Gordon

[1mrchristopher]

I'd cut that blade up into maybe 8" sections, maybe 12" and take them home. As Gordon pointed out, they might be too thick for most picks (and it would take a LONG time to sand them to half thickness), but good tension wrenches are every bit as important as good picks, and you'd have a very decent supply of stock to build them from. Chances are the blade is even wide enough to try your hand at a Peterson Pry-bar.