They blew my mind. Way better than I expected in every sense.
I already had a Southord Pagoda set, so I thought I would make a brief comparison between them, so everyone who isn't sure about what to choose may have those doubts vanished.
First of all, here's the pair:
Being in Europe, Rai was kind enough to make them with the tips pointing down. I found out it works great on regular locks anyway. Will get to that on the video.
So here's a comparison of the sizes between them:
So first of all, the Pagoda's don't have that beautifull handle. That handle is to make you not apply too much force on the pins. And the way it's designed, helps you a lot with the raking motion. I use 3 fingers to hold them, 2 bellow, 1 above, and wiggle them while inserting and removing the Bogota from the lock. Always with very light tension, these picks almost work by themselves. On the Pagoda's that movement is far more complicated.
Here's a detail:
As you can see, The Pagoda's are bigger, less polished and not as rounded as the real deal. That for itself says a lot.
It also means they don't go in so easily on the locks and don't move so well inside. That combined with the restriction of motion without the special handle, makes them way less effective.
On the following video, I pick 2 locks that I can't use the Pagoda's properly in them, as the keyways are a little restricted:
So this is just a small comparison, but I think it speaks a lot for the Bogotas.
They are definantly worth it. And don't think that the price on the Pagoda's is worth it because of all the other picks in there. You can get them individually really cheap on Southord, and you won't be needing the Double Hump and so on. You only need a Triple and a Single Hump for the majority of the cases. So the only picks you would want to get from Southord are the Deforest and the Hook.
At least that's my opinion.
How to properly attach the pin&spring to the Bogotas?
It's something Rai taught me and apparently many people get it wrong (I'm still not sure if I got it right, so Rai, please step in
).You need to hold the Bogotas together, using the smaller bent one inside the bigger one (you'll notice on fits above the other better). Then insert their tips into the spring, with the coil of the pin first. When it reaches the twist, grab only the spring and push it down. It will retract untill the pin passes the twist and then spring back to place. Force is not used, and if needed it means you are doing something wrong (I know in my video I appear to be using force. Well I'm not, I'm just holding it tight so it doesn't fly off my hands
)I hope to have taken some doubts. I'm really impressed with these, and having both, I definetly chose the real Bogotas. The Pagoda's are simple cheap rakes compared to these (and untill today, I used to like them...).
Thank you Rai!