Evolution of Pick Making

[tuscarora]

What got me started making picks was Pyro's infamous video and my cheapskate ways, oh and the fact that I enjoy making stuff. I began with junior hacksaw blades and heatshrink handles, finished with some wet&dry paper (of not a very fine grit). The first one took.. well, a lot longer than it should have! I use a Dremel and files to shape them and finish them. The first one I didn't even run the Dremel at full speed - which is a waste of time until you get to the very last stages.



So after making a few picks, and using them on various locks I realised that junior hacksaw blades weren't going to cut it. I was eyeballing the shapes to make the picks to - this slows things down considerably when using full size hacksaw blades. After I started to mark up things went a lot more quickly and I am now using hacksaw blades for all my picks. Most of my collection is in the style of this -



Now I thought I'd experiment with a wooden handle for my next pick (I'm replacing a small steep hook that's made from a junior blade) and the building process was a bit of a trial. The wood was split into two halfs, taped together and roughly shaped to the same dimensions. Pick tip and tang was made from hacksaw and fixed between the halves of the handle and then PAINSTAKINGLY all shaped from a wrecktangle. Try cutting a chunk out of a piece of metal sandwiched between two bits of wood and keep the result even and you'll know what I mean. I won't be doing it like that again. The process definitely needs some refinement but given that, I'm happy with it for a first result -



The wood needs a final sand and varnish or stain but that's basically the end product.

All I can say is a proper handle for your pick makes all the difference. I used to tell myself that it wasn't worth the effort and the heatshrink wrapped ones had a nice raw look to them, but this one pick I've made has convinced me that proper handles are the way to go. Now I know that some of you on here need to carry your picks around with you, so chunky handles are probably out - but if you're into locksport and your stuff lives in your house, it's well worth it. Over the next while I'm definitely gonna be trying out different handles shapes and materials, as well as trying to find a better stock supply than hacksaw blades.

[mr_chris79]

Some great work there mate well done, those wood handles look like they would feel really nice in the hand

[datagram]

Those actually look pretty awesome. Peanut picks!

dg

[cppdungeon]

Oh man, do i know what you mean about keeping the metal in between the wood. I made some lexan handles for a pick once and it was tough. I can see you took a good amount of time to make that handle. its nice! How does it feel?

--Cpp

[Zheol]

i think it was Ray that uses shim stock to make his pick blades, I remember reading someplace in this hord of knowledge we call a forum

[Zheol]

my bad its high carbon steel feeler gauge stock and it was Ratyoke's picks Thread very frist Post.

[tuscarora]

Cheers for the kind words, when it was two blocks of wood roughly taped together I had serious doubts about how it would turn out. I used a combination of Dremel sanding cylinder thang, cork block, and a sanding sponge (this is a very good tool, I've got to order some more - it's basically a sheet of sponge with sandpaper bonded to it). Took ages but I'm sure will be quicker with practice.

Argh, never again metal and wood sandwiched like that, gonna be cutting the metal FIRST.

Haha peanut picks! Yeah they're very comfortable in the hand, the shape nestles very comfortably in your fingers and gives a lot more feedback than heatshrink blades. I'm blown away by how much difference it makes - the locks I used it on (some of which I normally wouldn't even use that tip on) were so much easier to pick. Much easier to hold too, my hands tend to cramp up a bit after a while with my other picks.

Ray's picks are something else, I read a tutorial he wrote on how he makes them - so much work and they look amazing. The shim stock seems really nice, I've got a set of feeler gauges so will try some of that. The metal is in pretty short strips but it should give me an idea of what sort of thickness I wanna order when I find a supplier. This site is a gold mine of information, I reckon it's saved me years and years being able to draw on the experience here.

[MacGnG1]

those are lookin pretty good

[raimundo]

www.easterngage.com/stock-feeler-gages.asp

The usual picks I make are from sweeper bristle. another good metal, excellent picking temper on most of it. lots may vary

But feeler guage, ordered in the one foot lengths is excellent. You can chose your dimension, and the metal is finished and polished when it comes. I haven't used eastern gauge, its just an internet link I saved, I usually get the starrett or precision brands.

[jamesphilhulk2]

a bit of advice when ordering from them, there is a $35 minimum on all orders.

last night i got quoted $112 for a order, thats including shipping

[tuscarora]

That's a nice table of materials raimundo, once I've used up the different weights of feeler gauge I've got here I'll decide on one thickness and get an order in from somewhere. I'm going to see if Clead will sell me some sweeper bristles, they look like a good material - I had a look at a street sweeper going past the other day and they're all plastic bristles over here

james - that's a pretty high price! The $$ looked good on the table but if it's gonna cost that much to ship here I might have to try and find a UK supplier. Closest I got was - http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=123559 but it seems very expensive. I'm gonna have a more thorough search some night soon.

[mr_chris79]

james - that's a pretty high price! The $$ looked good on the table but if it's gonna cost that much to ship here I might have to try and find a UK supplier. Closest I got was - http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=123559 but it seems very expensive. I'm gonna have a more thorough search some night soon.

im confused mate, in the link you give above a 12 inch long strip is £2.32? thats pretty cheap id say considering you could make three 4inch long picks? or am i looking at the wrong product on that page?

[Engineer]

0.021" isn't too bad a choice of thickness. Normal picks are 0.025" usually (only a little thicker, but you will really notice the difference). Some European locks have a very restricted keyway, so there you would 0.020".

That's a nice table of materials raimundo, once I've used up the different weights of feeler gauge I've got here I'll decide on one thickness and get an order in from somewhere. I'm going to see if Clead will sell me some sweeper bristles, they look like a good material - I had a look at a street sweeper going past the other day and they're all plastic bristles over here

james - that's a pretty high price! The $$ looked good on the table but if it's gonna cost that much to ship here I might have to try and find a UK supplier. Closest I got was - http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=123559 but it seems very expensive. I'm gonna have a more thorough search some night soon.

[jamesphilhulk2]

That's a nice table of materials raimundo, once I've used up the different weights of feeler gauge I've got here I'll decide on one thickness and get an order in from somewhere. I'm going to see if Clead will sell me some sweeper bristles, they look like a good material - I had a look at a street sweeper going past the other day and they're all plastic bristles over here

james - that's a pretty high price! The $$ looked good on the table but if it's gonna cost that much to ship here I might have to try and find a UK supplier. Closest I got was - http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=123559 but it seems very expensive. I'm gonna have a more thorough search some night soon.

i might get some spring steel strips from http://www.smallparts.com, im just waiting for the stock to become available, if i remember correctly the shipping to Europe is like $7.99, although that might have changed by now

[tuscarora]

That smallparts.com has a good inventory and decent prices/shipping to boot. Definitely gonna have to send a few quid their way in the near future. I was having a look at the feeler gauge I got and it's got a about three weights I think are possibilities. That said, I don't think there's neccesarily an ideal weight, as engineer mentioned some keyways are real restrictive, and of course some pins are very hard to move (and not just when you're being cack-handed at tensioning).

I reckon I'd like a half diamond made out of real thick stock with as thin a shaft as I can get away with. It's my go-to pick for locks that are difficult to work with because it's a lot less delicate than a hook. Don't enjoy picking with it as much but it's a good tough shape.

Ideally I suppose you'd have a collection with different weights of picks. Junior hacksaw blade for picks = fail, I've nearly managed to replace all my picks made from that stock. I think I'm'a make a snake rake or a single sided random rake (although I'm dubious about the usefulness of this tool given the curvy wards most of my locks have) next, and see if I can do those wooden handles a bit quicker and better!

mr chris - I'd say that £2.32's not a great price given that I can get a hacksaw blade for 50p and 25' of stock from raimundo's link for $23! That said, I am a cheapskate

Stock wise, I got 40 virgins in the post from Clead, so that'll keep me going for a fair while!