Pick Thickness

[Guitar_J]

I'm griding the shaft of my picks down to about 1/16th of an inch.... I have pretty good success with these.. but I'm wondering if perhaps I would do better with some thicker ones.. like perhaps 3/32nds of an inch or even 1/8th Just wondering how thick you folk like your picks... I may try to make some thicker ones just to see.. was just wanting other opinions about this...

[Romstar]

I'm griding the shaft of my picks down to about 1/16th of an inch.... I have pretty good success with these.. but I'm wondering if perhaps I would do better with some thicker ones.. like perhaps 3/32nds of an inch or even 1/8th Just wondering how thick you folk like your picks... I may try to make some thicker ones just to see.. was just wanting other opinions about this...

If you are using 1/16th of an inch, you are too thick. A comercial pick is .024 inch. That's 24 thousandths of an inch.

Those are also normal picks. Rytan, Peterson, HPC, SouthOrd and others all make what are refered to as slimline picks. These can be as thin as .015 inch.

Plumbing snake, and hacksaw blades tend to be very near, if not .025 inch. More than suitable for standard picks. If you want slimline, use a belt type sander to thin the stock, or find suitable stock already at .022, .020 or .018 inch. If you are really serious about the thichness, use a caliper or a micrometer to measure the thickness.

If you are thnning the material, be very careful about how long you grind or sand, as contacting that much surface at once will cause a great deal of heat very quickly.

Otherwise, good luck
Romstar

[Darek84CJ]

A 1/8" thick pick would be impossible to use. No lock has wards that allow for such a thick pick.
I don't make my picks, its easier to buy. So whatever the S.O. standard thickness is, is the one I use.

[Chucklz]

I beleive he is referring to the width of the tang, not the thickness of the stock, but I could be wrong.

[Romstar]

I beleive he is referring to the width of the tang, not the thickness of the stock, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, I was thinking of that after I made my post.
Although, I can't imagine that you would need to make too many before you figued out what the proper width would be on the shaft.

I make many of my picks with straight shafts, but I still reccomend that most people use a tapered shaft. I'v taken to making them that way fort everyone else unless they are speciality picks.

I just finished making 5 out of 7 sets today, and I still have cases to make. Some times I don't know if I am a locksmith, tool maker, or leather worker.
Oh, and then there was the guy who wanted a copy of the HPC denim case. Denim on the outside, all leather on the inside.
I sure hope nobody asks for a case like HPC's stars and stripes case. I wouldn't know where to get the material.

Romstar

[Guitar_J]

Yea.. I suppose Width would be a better term than thickness..sorry for the confusion

[Romstar]

Yea.. I suppose Width would be a better term than thickness..sorry for the confusion

I make my picks 5 inches long. Of that 5 inches, only 1.5 inches are used for the shaft and tip.
The width of your average non-handled lock pick is 5/16ths of an inch. That means that a tapered shaft should start at 3/16 of an inch, and taper down to 1/16 of an inch where the tip begins. You can go slightly lager than 1/16, perhaps 3/32 but I wouldn't go much more.

Yes, there are picks that have shafts that only go as small as 1/8th, and they tend to catch on the tension wrench, side wards, or in Yales especially, the cuts in the side wards.

All in all I would still say that 1/8 width is a bit much, but can be used. Time with a file will let you fix just about any oversized pick.

Romstar