picking tools

[Afro]

hey im new to the lockpicking thing and i was just wondering what can i use for a tension wrench and a pin like that are ..well not household items but stuff that i dont have to get of the internet liek just stuff you can find around the house??

[barbarian]

Check some of the tutorials for home made picks.

You can use hacksaw blades, or wiper inserts from a car, or old bristles from a street sweeper, even old kitchen knives to make picks and wrenches.

Almost any thin flat springy steel can work.

[ToolyMcgee]

A steel pen cap clip, half bobby pin, double bent safety pin, bent screwdriver, picture hook bent to 90 degrees, ground allen wrench, and half a bobby pin, are all ok tensioners. Pen clip and bobby pin being the "fastest".

I have heard of people using everything from nail heads to straightened out key rings. In a pinchI have used wrench sized snippets of metal headphone headband, busted sunglasses arms, loop bent needles and paper clips, etc. Like barbarian said any metal strip can work, but if you want something better there are many ways to make them with wiper inserts and street sweeper bristle that will give you a much better tool.

-Tooly

[Jaakko]

wiper inserts from a car

Little offtopic, but everytime I see this I imagine a scene where the teenager of the family is over the hood and trying to rip off wiper blades from moms car

[steve0527]

wiper inserts from a car

Little offtopic, but everytime I see this I imagine a scene where the teenager of the family is over the hood and trying to rip off wiper blades from moms car

And they fly off and stab your hand braking the bone in your finger, trust me it happens I found out the hard way

[wonderbread]

so i really dont get the whole street sweeper bristle thing...are the brisles metal?! and if so they must be flembsy as hell, and where can i find them?? haha

[Urbex]

Find them on the street, the best time to get them is right after the streets are cleaned.

[luke42]

i found that if you were not looking for them you would never notice them,though if you start looking for them you will have no dought (sorry for spelling)what they are they look like a thin long sheet of metal, in sydney the are about .5 cm wide and about 10-15cm long

cheers,
luke.

[datagram]

Yeah, if your city uses the ones with metal bristles (some use the plastic kind), then they should be here and there on the streets it passes. Just look in the gutters and along the sidewalk. One thing to make sure is that you find ones without brown rust, red rust is okay, it is new and comes off easily, but brown rust will leave big holes in the metal once you take it off. In my experience, bristles with brown rust are usually covered in it, making the piece unusable, but YMMV. If you find one that is partially covered you can usually be OK as long as you sever it about an inch or so away from the rust (think moldy cheese).

In any event, you should find at least 1 usuable bristle each time you go looking for them. As someone else said, best time is to go the morning after they do it, before they all get washed into drains or blown away by cars.

[aka.decoy]

I actually found out about wiper blades by accident. I worked next to a checkers auto parts, and in passing always saw used wiper blades in the trash can. Anyway, you should read:

viewtopic.php?t=1744

There's a video in there about grinding your own picks as well.

I don't have street sweepers where I live, and you might not have access to a grinder. But use a little imagination and a lot is possible. Good Luck!

p.s.- when bending things to make tools, beware of work hardening. Bending something more than once without annealing decreases ductility, and may cause your tool to break during use!

[aka.decoy]

I forgot to add this too:

viewtopic.php?t=10715