Jacob Morgan wrote:Bought an HPC lifter a few months ago and I think it was inferior to the Majestic lifter I had bought twenty years ago. The HPC seemed thicker, and had a burr from stamping.
Yeah, their spring steel picks have so many burrs and sharp edges I felt like I was taking a metal file to the pins every time I use one in a lock (before I learned about sanding picks). I don't know if that's just a normal byproduct of stamping that kind of steel, then not de-burring it, or if their dies are old and wearing out, or what it is.
They're fairly strong picks, and you have the choice of two thicknesses in the spring steel. If you go with their
2000 Series stainless steel picks those give you a third and thinner option, at .022" if I remember right, but they seem slightly easier to bend than the spring steel which is comparable to Majestic. Now I'm not saying the stainless ones are EASY to bend, they're good quality picks, but I think the steel just isn't as rigid as the spring steel. More than just a reflection of the fact that they're fractionally thinner.
Jacob Morgan wrote:Was not easy for a kid to aquire picks in those days, just finding where to buy them was hard, then one had to have them sent to the home of a latch key kid if one's parents did not approve of that sort of thing. And no YouTube tutorials.
I know where you're coming from there. During pre-internet days I made my first crude lockpicks and go nowhere with them. Once I learned what a tension wrench was, it finally clicked in my head. I made one, and some newer, better picks then finally started making progress. This was during early BBS days. If only I'd known at the time that there was some info on the topic to be found there. If you knew where to look.
