by horsefeathers » 30 Jan 2006 5:41
i broke my hook just yesterday but as I was experimenting on a practise lock at home. I know I used too much force but like I say, I was just experimenting and feeling the movement (or lack of) from the various top pins and pushing boundries as it were. The hook was a little bent and old anyway so I expected it to go at some point soon. It was a plain HPC one and I had made my own handles/grips for it. I simply took the handles off and re-ground a new hook at the other, formerly blunt and round end, re-attached handles and voila!!! Hey presto - new hook pick.
But generally professional picks do last a long time as the amount of force I applied yesterday to break one should never need to be applied for real. I would say that possibly in your case too much force was applied.
I always considered hacksaw blades possibly being a little brittle for most pick purposes where a small bit of force is required (like hook picks). Probably ideal though for snakes. So I have never tried to make any picks from hacksaw blades. But there are plenty of people on here who have so it would be interesting to hear their experiences.
regards
wayne
