What type of steel are these picks?

[The Lock Artist]

I know that peterson makes different steels such as spring steel, stainless steel, and government steel. So what are these ones made of?
http://www.lockpickshop.com/P2-SET.html
I am guessing they are the government steel but not sure as its not in the description.

[smokingman]

I would contact the website and ask them.
I could not find that info elsewhere.

[YouLuckyFox]

http://web.archive.org/web/20030425121455/http://peterson-international.com/picksets-detailed.htm
Same; went back through old internet archives to find that the Peterson website's original description for the set did not detail what kind of steel they were made of. This may have been back before they supplied more than one kind of steel (even now I believe they just have government and carbon/spring steel), which to me would imply the set you ask about is carbon/spring steel. Smokingman is right, though, shoot them an email. Only securitysnobs has answered one of my emails faster than this business has. Peterson has been most helpful to me.

[The Lock Artist]

Just contacted the website and am now waiting for them to reply. Thanks guys.

[The Lock Artist]

Okay just got a reply from the website. The set is made from Peterson's spring steel, like YouLuckyFox Suspected.

[Dogrocket]

May I ask what your preference is for the standard steels vs. gov steel peterson picks? I've done a good amount of searching and the opinions seem to be pretty mixed on if they're worth the extra money.

[YouLuckyFox]

You bet (unless this question was not a general one, in which case, sorry!) my personal opinion is that the feedback is the same, but the level of sturdiness is noticeable. Not that the spring steel picks are by any means weak: my old spring steel Peterson Reach lasted me 2 years before even a slight bend occurred in it. The bend was not even SPP related, I was using comb picks for the first time and tried to lever the comb pick up, a total mistake, but part of the learning process, I have developed an excellent comb pick technique since then. But I put a contemptible amount of force on my favorite, 2-year-old pick before taking my own name in vain for what I had done to it . I mention any of this embarrassing confession only to say that the spring steel picks (not just the Reach, either) are very strong. Also of note, the gov steel picks are much less springy, which is something I miss but that doesn't really affect my SPP technique. I would say the only real difference is--if you are getting a set--the handle that comes with it. They are discontinuing the dipped plastic handles. All of the gov steel sets seem to have rubber handles and the spring steel sets seem to have plastic handles. This is just the case with the official Peterson website, an old set from lockpickshop or another site may furnish you with some rubber-handled spring steel picksets. I prefer rubber over plastic, but I have totally spoiled myself when it comes to pick handles. Keep in mind, though, you can get rubber handled spring steel picks individually from the official Peterson site. Sorry if I seem a little spacey, today. It's been an off day. I guess to answer your question, the only difference in the actual steel itself is that gov steel is less springy and more sturdy and spring steel is the opposite. As a sidenote, the newer handle design fills the hand better than the old dipped rubber handles.

Edit: DogRocket, my personal recommendation would be to get the Peterson Prybar and Prybar Lite, and two or three spring steel picks (making any other tensioners you need out of wiper insert or streetsweeper bristle). If you really get to like a pick, get the government steel edition. This is cheaper than any set; as much as I dig Peterson, they have a lot of things in their sets that I would never use (I understand the reason for assembling sets according to variety, of course.) For one, if you use practice locks instead of in-use locks, you will not have need for a broken key extractor in almost all cases (impressioning being an exception-but most beginners don't go there for awhile anyway.) Secondly, it is generally advised for beginners not to practice raking until they have SPP down, so that rules out the rakes that are in the sets (plus the best rake is arguably the Bogota and can be purchased from Serepick for a decent price given its effectiveness.) Third, the filler picks like ball and snowman are VERY rarely useful to beginner. That narrows the selection down quite a bit if you look at what is in most picksets and compare the price to the cost of the prybars and the useful picks. I would recommend the Offset Diamond and the Peterson Reach as excellent beginner picks. They glide through warding (remember to turn your picks at an angle to match the keyway,) and free the beginner of stumbling over high-low combinations. For an in-depth take on my opinion, see here:
http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=57336

[YouLuckyFox]

Also: phrygianradar made a good point in the above post, beginners tend to over exert themselves and bend picks. This is often because they put the pick against one of the wards in the lock without knowing it and wrench their pick against it thinking they are trying to force a troublesome pin above shear, this seems to be a major cause of beginners bending picks. The other cause seems to be the domino effect of beginners using WAY TOO MUCH tension; this leads to pins binding and being very hard to push up, so the beginner over-compensates for too much tension with too much pick exertion. I would recommend the following to help prevent this:

First, hold the tension wrench as close to the keyway as possible, this helps reduce the amount of leverage a beginner can place on the tension wrench, thus limiting the amount of force you can put on the plug. Limits are good for beginners :

Featured is the Peterson Prybar, note that I hold the tension wrench in the keyway with my middle finger and apply turning force with my index finger. The Peterson Prybars fly out of the lock a lot until you get used to them, holding them in can be very helpful.

(forgive the dirty fingers, I am the new guy at a machine shop and get some horribly messy jobs that it seems no Gojo can completely remove)


Second, hold the pick like this:

The pick is held steady between my middle and ring fingers, the thumb is used to push the pick upward to set the pins. The advantage of this is that feedback is increased as it is felt directly by the thumb being placed on the actual metal of the pick. Another advantage is that it eliminates the possibility of a beginner using the pick like a prybar by "fulcruming" the pick against the bottom of the lock. This may seem unorthodox, but I have found it is very useful for beginners! Of course this is just my own experience, feel free to disregard my opinion to the preference of others. Hope this is of some help!

[Dogrocket]

Awesome, thanks for the advice - I've been holding off on buying some additional picks (My commercial picks are a grab bag from several cheap sets - you might call them the survivors of my efforts so far) due to the sticker shock and not knowing if the additional cost was worth it.

I tend to hold my picks like a stylus or pen - I'll give the different hold a try and see if it helps.

[YouLuckyFox]

Most do hold the pick like a stylus. Nothing wrong with that- I do it myself, but the way shown in the picture is good for a beginner, I also use it sometimes if I have a weird angle on a mounted lock. The tension is the most important part of avoiding a broken pick. Best of luck!
Bytheway, what has been your success with picking so far? Have you been able to consistently pick at least one lock?

[Dogrocket]

I'm somewhat consistent at this point - SPP a couple of cheaper padlocks (Master Lock mostly), and a couple of Schlage and Kwickset locks (mostly Restore purchases). I can one-off a lot of the rest of my "To Do" collection (More household locks mostly, plus some padlocks that have been less consistent) with a combination of luck, raking, then SPP the pins that didn't set (usually having to let a pin or two slip from the raking that were binding). I have a few more that I've opened once or twice but never since (Including a Schlage Master Keyed lock which in theory should be easier to pick).

Over-tension was my first big enemy, and then getting distracted by automatic picking (which is fun to do once, but not much past that) now I'm working on getting a finer feel of when pins are set (I think I rely too much on the change in tension / rotation of the plug, rather then the springiness of the pin which I can barely feel). I'm hoping a couple of quality picks will help with that (Just ordered a hook, a half-diamond, a deforest and a gem from Peterson - thanks again for the recommendation).

[YouLuckyFox]

You've got the right mindset at putting down auto-picking in the place of SPP. Good of you to make that decision on your own. I've had some beginners want to go straight to bumping or straight to auto-picking. I compare it to blowing up fish in a lake instead of learning how to fly-fish. That's good of you to try to work on SPP sensitivity, let me know what you learn! I think an offset diamond will do you well, being able to feel one individual pin at a time is what makes SPP true to its name. Concerning any advice I've given, let me know what works for you, I welcome constructive criticism!