A while ago I got some custom made pins from Mikus. Today I had the time to test them all!
Mikus has a wonderful skill to make them, and I am so happy to have a couple!
I grabbed my practice lock and tested them.
This test was made with a relatively flat bitting, so I could test JUST how the pins behave, not how difficult they are on extreme bittings.
So lets get to it:
These are the 6 custom pins I got. I also got mushrooms but there's no point on testing them, because you know how they behave!
I pinned the lock at first with 6 equal pins, but later I tested everything again with just 5 pins. More on that later!
So, from the easiest to the hardest:
1)
So this was a deal breaker!
It looks like an awesome pin (it's beautiful) but, to be honest, didn't work very well. It does sound crunchy, so if you are not experienced with serrated pins you may find it tricky, but since every serration makes the counter-rotation a bit smaller, it's not hard to detect when you have actually set each pin.
To improve it: Make a bevel on the bottom of it with one extra serration. That would make it evil!
(Also, I believe this exact pin with counter-milled chambers would be evil too!)
2)
This one was one of the funniest to pick. It's not difficult, but not so easy that it takes all the fun away. It behaves exactly like you would seem to think. But the extra large part on the bottom doesn't give you a false sense of set as I expected.
3)
Now we're getting somewhere. I can consider this pin as "hard-ish". I believe this design already exists and is used by ASSA. It has DEEP serrations, so everytime you get past a serration it really seems to be set. You only notice the differences because of what I explained on my "How not to Overset post".
4)
This design is brilliant! Passing the first false set really gives you a feeling of true set. I found myself going a little bit back and forth with this one. Not something TOO difficult, but makes you want to get serious with this SOB
5)
I was pleasantly surprised with this one.
Although I found this design to be one the most beautiful ones, I didn't have my hopes up, as having a thin bottom, would make it very easy NOT to overset.
That was true but....
It was hell to pick! Setting a pin would drop another one. And not in a predictable order, which confused me! I took a while to get this one.
6)
This one is undoubtfuly the hardest. Not much to add to this. It's a TrioVing pin with a serration in the middle. To be honest, the serraton didn't add any difficulty to it, just made it more crunchy and, consequently, more fun! I wasn't able to pick this with 6 pins on the 5minutes I was aiming for each configuration. So I reduced to 5 pins and tested every single one again. I did take the same time to pick this one as the previous (with 5 pins too), so I only differenciate their difficulties because of not being able to get it with 6 pins.
I hope you guys liked my review, I look forward to test these with HiLo bittings and mixed pins (also using some as keypins too!)
You should try with 6 pins now! (5pins are too easy 
