Miss you guys already
A real pleasure to spend time with you guys.
No doubt, I learned a huge heap. Too many treasures and pleasure to remember right now. But some highlights include a very good presentation on contemporary Chinese locks, and heaps of goodies for sale on that. There's some real off the wall tech going on there that varies from the down-right laughable to the WTF! / Really? / Holy-cow-why-has-no-one-thought-of-that?
Some great stuff on safe manipulation, which I won't get into, CNC milling EVVA 3KS keys blew my mind, for one thing. Then there was a friend showing his tools for picking Abloys, and some stuff on the DOM Diamant I'll leave for someone else to expand on. Then there's sitting down with someone like the inventor of the new Wave rakes to listen to her years of research and testing to come up with a set that's now public. Hands-on with those under her guidance was a real bonus.
But best of all, is sitting around with lock addicts, innovators, out-of-the-box thinkers and picking locks to the wee hours of the morning, trading locks, testing stuff, getting to know new people, listening to ideas, passions, work-arounds and successes. Really, really endless great fun from start to finish. And then there's meeting up with old friends from forums or previous Cons.
Some of my goodies I've unpacked today. Note the Con badge on the left that's a working pin stack. And a present from femurat I'll treasure. His precious bamboo pick:
Or an even bigger version of the badge made by the same guy. This was going for 80 euro, but I didn't go for it. Really cool thing though, and a great teaching aid:
The competition impressioning set up of Jos Weyers. Impressioning legend:
Some juicy Chinese innovations for sale at the Con, as well as some usual tools:
A direct comparison between the new Peterson Waves and Toools Waves. I went for the Peterson set in the end (not for sale on the shop yet), purely because I prefer handles. Both sets are identical other than Peterson doing a very slightly thicker steel, and of course, Peterson handles. Other than that, they are from the same files. Opening results for me were the same regardless of the set I used. Note these are US made, and the finish on them is excellent.
That's all I can think of for now, but as my head clears more, there's possibly more
femurat - it's always a real pleasure to spend some time with you. The Winkhaus is in my vice, my friend
Hux - a bloody genius. Without doubt.
mh - always thinking out of the box. A real inspiration.
cocolitos - a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to another opportunity.
Who else was there?
