Source for mini rubber handled picks & flat tension wren

[eric343]

I've lost the tension wrenches and some of the picks from my HPC "KGB" pick set. Does anyone know of a source that sells replacements?

They're small rubber-handled picks, and the tension tools are entirely flat.

[vector40]

Entirely flat?

[eric343]

Yes... Normal torque tools, if you lay them flat on a table, will be perhaps 2-3mm thick. These are <1mm thick laid flat, because they are bent differently.

Imagine a flat piece of torque-tool stock, held tightly in a vise. The wide side faces you. Normally, you would push forward on the stock to bend it into a torque tool. However, to make the HPC tools, you would have to grab it with a pair of pliers and bend to the left or to the right.

[raimundo]

You can bend sweeper bristle that way although its not an acute bend, just use twovisegrip locking pliers, put them on the edge of the bristle with the edge of the bristle in one of the deep grip grooves in the plier jaw, leave threequarters of an inch between pliers, then set up a propane torch and hold the pliers so that the flame heats the bristle, and not the pliers, slowly without much force, bend the metal as it becomes plastic, when finished, inspect it for a dimple in the outer curve, if that is there its a weakness, and the piece has to be thrown away, and you start again, but if its not there, you will just have to lightly hammer the piece into flat plane where the bend gets wavy. Different thicknesses and qualities of bristle will respond differently. so keep trying. 90 degrees is actually more bend than is needed so 100 degrees or 110 would work quite well and keep your fingers away from the flat surfaces of any lock mount.