What could I use?

[CHGkiller]

I'm 16, I don't have money to by picks and my parents wolnt get me any. I want to practice, is there anything else that could be used to at least practice with?

[2octops]

Get some hacksaw blades and a good file and make your own.

That's called doin' it ol' school.

[Raymond]

I hate to sound like a grouchy old old schooler, but first you should learn to read and spend about 30 days reading the back posts befor posting. Questions like this get asked toooooooo often and many are ingored. Some get answered with pointed inside jokes. Make a list of questions and and the source that did not answer them. Then when you ask too common basic questions we can al least see that you tried to do some homework. With this you will gain a LOT more cooperation.

UI hope I speak for most of us but we give a lot more attention to innovators and thinkers than lazy copiers.

[keysman]

FAQ: LP101 Frequently Asked Questions

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1744


NEW USERS PLEASE START HERE
viewtopic.php?t=10528

[CHGkiller]

@2octops : I won't have access to any sort of tools until mid January so I didn't want to go that way.

@Raymond : sorry to be so newbish xP please excuse my laziness, I didn't take the time to look through the forums. Thank you for the feedback

@keysman : thank you for the links, I'll check them out

[nothumbs]

The cost of a basic set of picks is pretty low. At 16, with any effort at all you could find a few odd jobs in your neighborhood to raise the cash. Since you stated your parents would not fund your new hobby, you can easily fund it with a little work. You might consider explaining why you're interested in this, what you hope to gain from it (or why it's a worthy hobby), and see, once they see you are serious about this, if they have a more supportive attitude. You might point out that there is a international organization TOOOL that other lock picking hobbyists join.
http://toool.us/

Good luck.

[MBI]

I made my first picks out of street sweeper bristles. I had just moved to this country and had never seen a street sweeper before so I wasn't even 100% sure what these metal pieces were at the time, but since I found them in the gutter and they had one end worn like it had been dragging on the street, I guessed it might come from something like that. Turned out later I was right.

I had a hammer which I used to try to gently tap a curve into it like a hook, with limited success. I made a hook that was too big to pick anything other than a simple warded lock. The other (better) picks, I made by grinding them by hand against the edge of the cement curb. By finding different edges and broken areas of curb, I was able to grind different radii of curvatures into the bristles.

I was young, but determined. I had no access to tools (other than the hammer which proved to be useless) and had no access to materials other than what I found in the gutter.
Where there's a will, there's a way.

[CHGkiller]

Thanks all! I felt like I was being really lazy after your replies and some other stuff on the forum. I went into my garage, found an old metal ruler and a round file (I didn't have a clue it was in my garage) and I got busy. This is probably the most crude pick i have ever seen in my life, but at least now I can practice while I wait for better tools or some money. Thanks again for the feedback!

[GWiens2001]

Don't forget to sand the pick smooth. It will work much better.

Gordon