Rytan steel / sanding results?

[blake1803]

I was just looking at one of my Rytan picks up close and noticed for the first time that the pick seems to made up of 3 separate pieces of steel fused together. Maybe it just looks that way, I'm not sure. In any case, my intention was to sand the pick down a bit, but now I'm more hesitant.

Has anyone had good experiences sanding Rytan picks? Should I just proceed as as with any other pick? I only ask because I've heard of some of the more nonstandard types of pick materials (Peterson's "Government" steel for example) being a bit trickier to sand.

Thanks,

[JackNco]

I have to admit that i haven't had my hands on that set before. but unless they are especially well made picks the general rule of thumb is that they will operate better after a sanding.

my Peterson standards looked find but as soon as i started sanding them i could see the difference.

All the best

John

[Eyes_Only]

What have you noticed regarding the picks improvements after sanding?

[NIC]

What have you noticed regarding the picks improvements after sanding?

I've sanded my Peterson's as well !! I find that the pick 'FEELS" better and glides better inside the lock!! You're picking instead of scratching the lock !! What i mean is that it doesn't bite the keyway as much.

[blake1803]

I had sanded my SO picks a while back without too much noticeable difference (I don't really use SO picks much anymore, but I never found them to be very "sticky" in the keyway to begin with)

But after using some of raimundo's rakes very recently (now those things glide!) I gave it a shot with my Petersons, too, and got much better results. "Glide" really is the perfect word for it.

So, I've been a bit sand-happy lately Looking at the Rytans even more carefully now, it sort of looks like it is 2, and not 3 pieces of steel that have been fused together, although for all I know there could just be a line down the middle of each of their picks on a single piece of a steel. It's very hard for me to tell, even under magnification. I guess my worry is just that if the two pieces aren't evenly sanded, I might have strange results, or that I might even weaken the seal between the two. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud.

I'm also hesitant just because I really like my Rytans. If no one else has tried sanding a Rytan pick, what I may end up doing is just buying another single pick to use as a practice run / to make sure nothing goes wrong. They're cheap, so it's probably worth a shot.

[raimundo]

What you may be seeing is the result of a tight die and punch setup that stamps the picks out, this is called a cut-break edge, you will see this on the edge of many things produced on a punchpress, the die has a hole in it the shape of the part being stamped, and the punch fits into this hole with very little clearance, when the punch hits the metal strip it forces the shape of the pick into that hole, and this cuts as it it pushed in then it fractures and breaks away. some times the cut area, which is the lines perpendicular to the plane of the metal cut only about a tenth of the way through, then the rest of it is fractured, which does not show the lines, but a rough surface. it sounds like yours is cut half way through, which I think means a tight clearance between die and punch.
you can often see this on key blanks around the bow, although these are tumbled, still with a less tight clearance between the punch and the die, there is still plenty of fracture showing, and sometimes the cut area is just a flat area where the lines have been tumbled off.