The kit came in, along with the sparrows pry bars I ordered to go with it. I was going to do a first impression then a review on usage after I've familiarized myself with the kit in a more affectionate manner but I'm doing a little of both.
First impression:
These are the .020 picks so they're thin. I like it. The finish on each individual tool is much better than the other picks I've purchased. It comes with a shallow hook, snake (I may use the wrong name for this one), half diamond, double peak, triple peak, and the Octo rake that has he EOD and bomb logo on it instead of the octopus. No rough edges or outstandingly noticeable tooling marks. They feel great in the hand even though they lack handles or plastic coating. I'm sure you're all familiar with thinner picks, they're thin to fit into smaller key ways and more prone to bending. These are really springy though and I don't fear they'll bend up on me.
The turning tools are standard, 3 flex wrenches; small, medium and large (thin, thicker, and thickest? Lol). 3 z bars of the same three thickness.
Four double sided wafer lock tryout/jiggler keys, that's a total of 8 keys if you know how to math. Great finish just like the picks, no rough edges or noticeable tooling marks. They came on a bead chain which is fed through the sparrows logo (skeleton keyway) at the top of each one (neat). And a sparrows dog tag key fob which went on my car keys.
The sparrows mini jim. Same great finish on this and a short length of paracord on the butt end of it. This thing is rugged, and I doubt you could hurt it if you tried.
EOD knife. The finish stays consistent across all the tools and this is no exception. I don't have a micrometer but I'm going to bet this is .025. It's definitely thicker than the picks but not by much. This appears to be a good bypass tool where applicable and a nice decoder where applicable.
***not part of the EOD set***
Pry bars! You know what they are. Different thicknesses, great finish, serrated tips.
And a little bit about first use of this equipment...
The mini Jim was first on my list of things to play with. It does what it's supposed to do. If it's a stubborn latch with a decent amount of spring tension this thing is not forgiving to the hands.
Next up was the octo rake. I put this thing to the test on a few of my locks and it performed as expected at first. It was a rake. Blasted through a no-brand schlage keyway but due to the bitting I had to SPP two of the pins. About 20 seconds each time. It ate through a kwikset like it was the original key. I was thoroughly surprised when I got to a brinks KIK that has two spool pins. The octo blasted through it in less than 10 seconds, 3 times consecutively.
The triple peak operates like a bogota and I really like it.
The lack of handles is also something I really like. I seem to feel more feedback through the naked steel.
And here's a picture of the set!
https://i.imgur.com/ooER055.jpg(It comes in a tuxedo case, which is nice. I put the pry bars in there with everything else from the set and it fits comfortably but I won't be putting much else in it.)
