Home made

[Oman]

I recently made a full set of homemade lockpicks, all very well crafted, and they do work rather well. I used coat hangers, but I was wondering if there was a better material to use?

[master in training]

search the site for stuff like home made picks, you'll get tons of ideas not only for materials but also for designs and techniques. do you have any photos of your picks?

[digital_blue]

Here here! You can't say something like "very well crafted" and not give us pics! Some of us live for this stuff!

As for materials, MiT is right. Give the site a search. Some popular materials will include hacksaw blades, street sweeper bristles, feeler gauges, steak knife blades, windshield wiper blade inserts, and plumbing snake.

I am curious about the coat hangers. Did you heat treat the metal when you were finished? Coat hangers are very pliable, and unless treated, I wouldn't expect them to make good picks.

db

[MaaX]

I've too made my own pics from hacksaw blades but I was wondering, where could I find street sweeper bristles?

[master in training]

what country are you in? if you're in the UK, you may be able to get some from quicklocks, otherwise if you look around local towns for kurbs at the edges of paths that have just been cleaned, if you look at sharp turns in the path, you may find some bristles there as the street sweeping machine has turned sharply and hit the kurb a bit.