Most effective Picks

by **cruse** » 20 Sep 2005 22:09

well I was going to make a post asking what everyones favorite pick was since I was curious if it was just me that has the most luck with certain picks, but it looks as if someone beat me to it by a long shot. anyways, my favorites are in order as follows:
1. small half diamond
2. short hook
3. Snake rake
4. Large half diamond

P.S. - double ball seems completely worthless to me!

by **Ben WV** » 23 Sep 2005 12:32

If I was going to design an ideal pickset from scratch, I would make four hooks with different heights (shallow to fairly deep). I would chose a stock for these that was much thicker than the standard .025" that most commercial picksets use so that I could slim down the height of the shank near the handle without losing any strength. I'd experiment with .035-.040" feeler gage stock. And for rakes I would make exact duplicates of the wavy LAB rakes (which look very similar in shape to images of the Bogata picks I've seen on this site).

I've always been a pin-at-a-time picker. I've never had great luck with raking and never cared to spend much time practicing it. But those LAB snakes are phenomenal. I'm ashamed to admit that often I've raked locks open with them that I can't for the life of me pick by the pin-at-a-time method.

:oops:

by **raimundo** » 12 Nov 2005 9:57

I have seen some commercial rakes that look like the bogota rake, these are copies of my design and not the other way around, I was there first, made the first ones in 1980. I don't think the action is equal with the popsicle stick handles either. and of course there is the matter of sanding the edges.

by **devnill** » 7 Jan 2006 1:37

i just made a couple of rays bogotas the other day, and they are working pretty wel for first attempts. they are rapidly becoming my favorite for raking. :twisted:

by **horsefeathers** » 8 Jan 2006 14:21

hi

Is there a link to a pic somewhere of this infamous bogata rake that you all speak so highly of? Sounds like an essential bit of kit!

regards

wayne

by **horsefeathers** » 8 Jan 2006 14:41

horsefeathers wrote:hi

Is there a link to a pic somewhere of this infamous bogata rake that you all speak so highly of? Sounds like an essential bit of kit!

regards

wayne

forget that - found all i need by better searching on this forum.

thanks

by **linty** » 12 Jan 2006 18:07

for functionality and ease of use i gotta go with the snake rake, but for picking pin by pin my favorite is something i made myself with a long gentle curve, like a sabre blade, i'm sure there's a name for that style of pick but i don't know it. it just makes it really easy to rest the bottom of the pick on the warding and then use it as a pivot point so you smooth movement with a lot of control.
when that doesn't work it's back to the good ol' short hook.

by **Bahrg** » 12 Feb 2006 2:51

As I am new not to sure how valid "favorites" is but, so far I love the two hooks I made one bit deeper than other. Ive had moderate success with half diamond, and great success with a bogata style rake. As of yet I havent been able to pick anything with my snake rake. Staying away from wafer locks atm, so I will try the ball picks when I move on to these.

by **devildog** » 12 Feb 2006 3:26

Favorite meaning the most used? As of right now it would have to be the Falle-Safe #4 Graduated Curve pick, with the #5 Graduated Curve being a close second.

I hate to say it, but I never use the deep curve picks, and with as much fanfare as they've gotten, I suspect this is because I'm just not at the skill level where I have the sophistication and knowledge to be able to tell precisely which pick would be the best one in most circumstances. These Falle-Safes need a friggin' Instruction Manual :oops:

by **Sennheiser** » 12 Feb 2006 10:09

Mr Ules wrote:What is a double ball pick used for ?!

As skold said, wafer locks.

But I find it very useful for raking some of my cheaper locks, it goes faster than using my snake rake / sawtooth-rake / "S-rake" by some reason. On some locks, not everyone.

by **Sennheiser** » 12 Feb 2006 10:16

My favoutrites, in no particular order:

* Doubleball (for raking)

* Snake

* Short hook

* Small halfdiamond

Southords L-rake is cool too, but it's often a little boring due to it seems to either work very fast or not at all for me.

And yes the S-rake is cool to, even though I have found it most useful on a EGRET-padlock.

by **mr_fixerupper** » 10 Jun 2006 2:11

chicken? i don't like chicken!!! :twisted:

i'm vegitarian :lol:

by **devildog** » 10 Jun 2006 2:34

Skold, this post of yours is like herpes--it NEVER goes away :roll:

by **illusion** » 10 Jun 2006 3:41

I'll have to bump it in about 2 months. :wink:

by **bpc293** » 10 Jun 2006 20:41

i like the short hook and the small half dimond. i have a homade one i use a lot kinda like what linty was discribing i call it the tijuana tooth pick yea i name the picks i make. the saw tooth rake has been growing on me when i have a binding pin and i have to let the tension off i dont have to let all the pins drop with that rake because of how long it is i just hold it up close to the pins. i want to make diffrent sawtooth picks like in the falle set and i would like to try a bogata pick.

Most effective Picks

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