pick bending/un-bending

[GulleyOwl]

Hello all!

I have started relatively recently and have been picking with some picks I got from lockpicktools.com. I like them quite a bit. They are, however, becoming a bit bent. It's not huge now, but I have been fighting a small battle with them from time to time. Right now my policy for unbending them has been to use my hands. My question is this: is there a better way to straighten them out? Some special trick?

Thanks a ton.

[unlisted]

Yes, do not bend them in the first place. That means your applying too much pressure when your picking.

[GulleyOwl]

Yeah i figured out that I was using to much pressure, but it's a bit late for that now lol.
It's not awful, still totally usable.

Man am I glad that picks are cheap. Now locks, on the other hand...

[unlisted]

What you will want to do is get some good quality picks, new, and not torque them at all. Once you start bending them, they lose their "toughness" and become the little sissy boy at school who got beat up by the bullies for lunch money. Oh, and in this case the locks are the bullies.

[GulleyOwl]

Ah. I see. Makes sense. That leads me to a question: I got a short hook, medium hook, and a hybrid diamond from lockpicktools.com. These are all bent or twisted to some extent, probably turning into sissies now ( I can put up pics if you want ). My question is: should i get more of the same, or do I do the next step up? I realize that you probably can't say off hand do x and drop y but a point in the right direction would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[tballard]

Once you know what you are doing, you won't bend picks, but when you are learning, it's not uncommon. (Personally, bent a half-diamond a bit when I was first learning the SC1 keyway.) It's part of the learning experience. Unless you have cash to burn, I wouldn't "step up" just yet. You may not be done "learning" just yet.

Also, keep those bent picks around. There are a lot of situations where you don't want to just go sticking a good pick into an unknown lock. (There are also techniques which are "advanced" which require doing more violent things with picks as well) It's nice to have a pick which you don't care about for these times. (As well as when you are teaching someone new to pick. More than once I've been teaching someone to pick and watched in horror as one of my picks gets violently jerked around)

[mjw10210]

i mod mine to make bypass tools and usually picks if i can. =)

[Artkrp]

It is great to have those crappy picks that have bent and thrun them into new picks. Just pry the handles off, and grind a pick out of the steel under the handles. Its a little short but it fits nicely on a key chain! Also you can make it really tiny and make a wallet "emergency entrance" set Of course if you want the handles back on just put some 2 min epoxy on the reshaped handle and put it back on. Or whatever you want to do to re attach the handle, rivets etc...
This is a great Sunday afternoon thing to do, just ask every locky you know if he has a bunch of messed up picks (they usually do because they use them for all sorts of things) he would sell you for cheap cheap. Sometimes they will agree!

Have fun keep picking!

[MangooLeaf]

[edit- nice try SPAMMER- unlisted]