Can anybody find an american dealer of these picks?

[What]

Something to note is that these picks have riveted handles, not screwed. The picks themselves are NOT user-replacable, and will require the whole pick to be replaced if it breaks.

the handles on the OP's pic look to be screwed. you can see a line that i'm guessing is a flat head srew.

[Romstar]

That's very unfortunate to hear Romstar. Did you ever talk to any outside people about it? Do you have any leads?

Something to note is that these picks have riveted handles, not screwed. The picks themselves are NOT user-replacable, and will require the whole pick to be replaced if it breaks.

Now that is interesting that you say that. I read that you have a set of these, and I assume that you purchased yours through Lockmasters.

My design called for the handle to be a single piece of aluminum, and the retainer plate was a second piece and the pick blade screwed between these two pieces. If you were to replace the rivets in yours with screws, would the same design ideas hold true?

I did in fact show a few people pictures of the original design and sketches but after I got ill, I didn't pursue them much further. I was going to revisit the design soon, and it appears that I may not have that opportunity, or at the very least be called an imitator.

The original design concept believe it or not came from a diving knife. One of those single flat steel knives with holes drilled through the handle. When I envisaged the "one piece" picks, I felt they could be made with tapering handles either larger in the front or large in the rear depending on the person using them.

The aluminum ones were meant to be an inbetween product from "regular" picks and the one piece ones I had made.

Romstar

[Omikron]

That's very unfortunate to hear Romstar. Did you ever talk to any outside people about it? Do you have any leads?

Something to note is that these picks have riveted handles, not screwed. The picks themselves are NOT user-replacable, and will require the whole pick to be replaced if it breaks.

Now that is interesting that you say that. I read that you have a set of these, and I assume that you purchased yours through Lockmasters.

My design called for the handle to be a single piece of aluminum, and the retainer plate was a second piece and the pick blade screwed between these two pieces. If you were to replace the rivets in yours with screws, would the same design ideas hold true?

I did in fact show a few people pictures of the original design and sketches but after I got ill, I didn't pursue them much further. I was going to revisit the design soon, and it appears that I may not have that opportunity, or at the very least be called an imitator.

The original design concept believe it or not came from a diving knife. One of those single flat steel knives with holes drilled through the handle. When I envisaged the "one piece" picks, I felt they could be made with tapering handles either larger in the front or large in the rear depending on the person using them.

The aluminum ones were meant to be an inbetween product from "regular" picks and the one piece ones I had made.

Romstar

I suppose if you replace the rivets with screws, you could theoretically replace the picks with new ones.

I don't think you should abandon this design. One thing that I've found true of imitators, is that they lack vision. When they lack vision, they just want profit, so they go cheap. Just because they stole part of your design doesn't make them good. Go ahead and make your picks, Romstar, and make them to the best of your ability.

The proof is in the pudding.

[Romstar]

I suppose if you replace the rivets with screws, you could theoretically replace the picks with new ones.

I don't think you should abandon this design. One thing that I've found true of imitators, is that they lack vision. When they lack vision, they just want profit, so they go cheap. Just because they stole part of your design doesn't make them good. Go ahead and make your picks, Romstar, and make them to the best of your ability.

The proof is in the pudding.

Well, thank you for the vote of confidence, I do appreciate it. I am pretty sure that you will be seeing these, and they will have the screws rather than rivets. That was a part of the design from the beginning anyway, so that the user could replace the blades rather than sending them away or throwing them away.

Well, we shall see what comes up, but I still have this overwhelming urge to sue someone or something.

Romstar

[What]

I suppose if you replace the rivets with screws, you could theoretically replace the picks with new ones.

I don't think you should abandon this design. One thing that I've found true of imitators, is that they lack vision. When they lack vision, they just want profit, so they go cheap. Just because they stole part of your design doesn't make them good. Go ahead and make your picks, Romstar, and make them to the best of your ability.

The proof is in the pudding.

Well, thank you for the vote of confidence, I do appreciate it. I am pretty sure that you will be seeing these, and they will have the screws rather than rivets. That was a part of the design from the beginning anyway, so that the user could replace the blades rather than sending them away or throwing them away.

Well, we shall see what comes up, but I still have this overwhelming urge to sue someone or something.

Romstar

i would buy a set from you.

but as an extention to your idea, why not have a clip that holds the picks in the handle, one handle, many blades.

[Romstar]

i would buy a set from you.

but as an extention to your idea, why not have a clip that holds the picks in the handle, one handle, many blades.

Thanks for that.

In answer to your question though, there are a few reasons.

The first is that almost every scheme to interchange blades ends up weakening and then the pick becomes difficult to use.

Secondly, from a professional standpoint it slows down picking.

When I want to change picks, I do not want to sort through a collection of small blades, remove the previous pick, and insert the new one.

Yes it is possible, but it almost always disappoints. Therefore, each blade gets a handle.

Romstar

[What]

shows why i should think about things before posting them...

thank you for the correction.

[Bud Wiser]

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200241974_200241974

I purchased the set and am very pleased with the quality and selection. The cordura belt case is a plus.

I just purchased these and received them a few days ago. I been trying them out on locks I can pick consistantly. I will eventually follow up with a more indepth review with pics but for now here is a quickie.

The design of these picks and handles are superb. The handles fit perfectly in the hand with very little loss in pick feel. More dead feel then Peterson, HPC, etc, but not terribly more. They are much lighter then they look and this helps retain more pick feel.

So far my only complaint is these spring steel picks are chrome plated, and not very well. Out of box you could see they were not the best plating job. I've done some plating in the past including chrome and gold. These would never have passed our quality control! The chrome plating is very light and I doubt if they nickel plated it first for best chrome plating. It has some minute bumps, bubbles and peeling in some spots already. While this is entirely a cosmetic problem, it's still annoying and noteworthy.

But for a 18 pc set for $49 you can't complain too much as the peeling chrome will have no effect on the actual pick blades.

Very nice selection of hooks, and specialty picks! No diamond or s-rake or comb rake. It's got picks I've never seen before and have no idea what locks to use them on. I like the sonar wave shape pick for raking. Picks also come in various thickness. Over all length of the picks are about 1 inch longer then regular picks.

The jury is still out on my over all opinion of this set. I don't think it's the best set for a beginner, but if your in to pick sets and specialty picks, worth a look at.