A warning - when using hacksaw blades for picks

[josh0094]

so today i was at my grandpas, i noticed that he had hacksaw blades for a hacksaw i was like "grandpa can i have those hacksaw blades" hes like yeah,

so i take them home and guessing there from about 1940 i start to make picks. ide get to finishing the pick and they would shatter,

the moral of the story is

DO NOT USE OLD HACKSAW BLADES

[TANGO]

Haha that's too funny! I hope you had glasses to protect your eyes.

I noticed that cheap blades are real easy to bench grind with little water dipping involved. However they break easily and ruin locks. I use High quality blades, "Lennox" Blades which are sold 5$CAD a piece. You have to cool them off every 2 seconds while grinding but they are tough. you can pry and twist, no problem. the cheapos if you twist them a little they break.

[josh0094]

i usuallly buy "pro hack junior hacksaw blades" ive picked with them day in and day out and never broken a single one

[martin12]

I noticed that cheap blades are real easy to bench grind with little water dipping involved. However they break easily and ruin locks.

I am agree with you that always use high quality blades...

[Jaakko]

However they break easily and ruin locks. I use High quality blades, "Lennox" Blades which are sold 5$CAD a piece. You have to cool them off every 2 seconds while grinding but they are tough.

I don't understand. I dip once a second my blades that are 5$ for like 50 blades and not one has been broken in my use. What kind of picks do you do from those? Got a picture?

you can pry and twist, no problem. the cheapos if you twist them a little they break.

If you break a pick, then you are using it wrong. With normal picks you don't have to pry and twist them in order to use them.

[ilmr]

Also if your friends are drunk and picking for the first time, you shouldn't use hacksaw blade based picks. Or have a lot of spare picks.

[ObiWonShinobi]

Is there a formula of how many times you have picked..
vs..
the number of drinks you have had

to determine whether or not you should use hacksaw blades when picking?

hahaha... kidding...
yeah, I've had newbies break a few of my picks at cons on occasion.
If you have a "fav" set, dont let anyone else near it.
I usually have a few extras with me "just in case"

But........... have you tried heating the OLD blades before cutting?
might re-align a few atoms and keep it from being so brittle.

[ObiWonShinobi]

ohhh yeah.... and quenching too quickly makes them hard and brittle as well.
Let them cool slowly.

[Bandit_b]

I made a lot of homemade picks and they worked fine all except one. It broke and destroyed my best padlock . Then I realized it was my fault because I made it too thin. Other than that all of the others worked great (and they still do)

[TANGO]

However they break easily and ruin locks. I use High quality blades, "Lennox" Blades which are sold 5$CAD a piece. You have to cool them off every 2 seconds while grinding but they are tough.

I don't understand. I dip once a second my blades that are 5$ for like 50 blades and not one has been broken in my use. What kind of picks do you do from those? Got a picture?

you can pry and twist, no problem. the cheapos if you twist them a little they break.

If you break a pick, then you are using it wrong. With normal picks you don't have to pry and twist them in order to use them.

The pick I'm refering to was a pick I made from a cheap hacksaw blade, it broke just trying to insert it into the lock. Cheap blades are very brittle and break easily.

If you want to bypass a master 140 or similar lock you will need to pry to open it. Using cheap blades again insures it to break quickly.