confused about best beginner picks

[Cid12]

I'm confused about what would be the best beginner set to pick up. I hear both that peterson is good and the others suck or that peterson is too expensive and the others are just as good. Even if I decide on peterson I don't know which set to get and a trustworthy cheap place to get it without blah blah you have to be a locksmith.

[gloves]

I'm confused about what would be the best beginner set to pick up. I hear both that peterson is good and the others suck or that peterson is too expensive and the others are just as good. Even if I decide on peterson I don't know which set to get and a trustworthy cheap place to get it without blah blah you have to be a locksmith.

Hello and welcome

I hope you won't get mad at me if I tell you what I (and probably other people too) think: there is no best beginner set, there are just sets which have more picks than you would need (specially at the beginning). Really, you could even select or make some handmade picks and be happy with them

Assuming you're a total beginner and want to pick pin tumbler locks, you can choose any set of the brands you read on here without any noticeable gap, except for price: Peterson, Southord, Klom just to name a few. So in short spend what you can or slightly less, with a mind set of "more pieces do not equal to better. skill does"

If you want to build your own set of course you can, and I'd say that one or two hooks, a half diamond and a tension wrench go a very long way

Cheers

[Cid12]

Would this be a good gen purpose set or will it only work good for small locks?

http://www.lockpickshop.com/C801.html

Also do southron picks break more easily than peterson?

[Cid12]

I'm in the US btw but I was looking for something that would work on US and int locks

[gloves]

Would this be a good gen purpose set or will it only work good for small locks?

http://www.lockpickshop.com/C801.html

Also do southron picks break more easily than peterson?

Yes that'd be a good general purpose set. It is slimline so it'll work with both EU/UK locks which are tighter keyways (though they aren't smaller in body size) and US locks which have larger keyways.

There isn't a set priority on these brands. Picks are tools which don't require a lot of force to operate and as any thing will break under enough stress. They're slimline so are easier to break than a regular thicker set, though you won't have the advantage to play with both kind of locks with a non-slimline set.

Cheers

[chainfire]

the set at toool.us was a perfect starting place. i recently bought some peterson picks in some of the more advanced shapes. but i find the picks that were selected in the toool set were a good mix of hpc, and custom. so far i have been able to open most 4-6pin locks with the diamond and hook and all the locks with the tripple wave shape. i kinda wish i spent my money on peterson tension/torsion tools instead of all sorts of different advance shapes. since i am new to this i don't think i really can take advantage of them. but i do find lots of times when the 2 torsion wrenches in the toool set don't cut it.

[Haddo]

I have both Southord XPS-14 and Peterson City set. I added a few special Peterson pick. I have to say I prefer the Peterson's. Stronger feeling. They just seem more solid. They are a little pricey since I got the Govt steel. The southord set is a great set. It is the one I carry with me. Get a inexpensive set like the one suggested above, then if you stick with it maybe get something a little better. Just my 2¢