Broken Picks

In various threads in this wonderful place, something I've noticed is the comment about picks that break.

I know how I now make mine.

Anyone else care to comment?

For picks, I mostly just use paper clips, bobby pins, Bic pen clips and my favorite, safety pins. Of course, they all fatigue and will eventually break. When I need a "tool", it's one of Ian's pieces.

For shimming, I'll use anything that fits. Ultra-thin saw blades that have been made dull are handy, especially for multiple pawls.

In various threads in this wonderful place, something I've noticed is the comment about picks that break.

I know how I now make mine.

Anyone else care to comment?

Picks break....plain and simple. You can't avoid it if you are constantly using them.

I use some pin-tumbler lock picks, for example, diamonds, hooks, and a few others for picking cuffs. I recently discovered that a standard diamond pick works beautifly on a Bean Cobb cuff and it also will pop open a S&W mod. 104, in the single lock mode, in a jiffy.

I am constantly making new picks to use on the double locks of handcuffs....they don't last long at all. S&W products have a nasty double lock system that eats up a lot of picks.

I make a lot of my own picks. I use long pieces of round stock spring steel, that I bought a very long time ago. I have it in assorted sizes; from very thin...like a cat's whisker to very thick, like a pencil lead. I use small bobby pins as shims, but I use a file to make them as thin as I want. I will sometimes use a broken regular lock pick in the same way....thin it down and it makes a dandy handcuff shim.

I prefer to attack the keyway as opposed to shimming *unless it is pair of real cheap handcuffs that can be shimmed with a standard lock picking tool...."Peerless Clones" (as Mark Cannon calls them) will usually open that easy.

BTW, I do not like paper clips at all. They bend way too easily. Safety pins are okay, but I have to work on them first (a little bend, file down the point, etc).

I had better end this before I get carried away! Cheers, Mike

In various threads in this wonderful place, something I've noticed is the comment about picks that break.

I know how I now make mine.

Anyone else care to comment?

"Picks break....plain and simple. You can't avoid it if you are constantly using them."

Picks if used incorrectly or the wrong material and shape under far more stress they they should be may bend or twist out of shape. However and pick should never break!

I.E. One with understanding and forethought should know when the pick has gone beyond it's limits or examine the tool/s prior to this happening.

for pin tumbler locks, a pick should never bend, let alone break. If it does so, it is being used incorrectly.

Ian

In various threads in this wonderful place, something I've noticed is the comment about picks that break.

I know how I now make mine.

Anyone else care to comment?

I guess I have opened a boatload of locks incorrectly over the last 30 years....that must have made the defeated locks very mad. Maybe you can give me some lessons.

Cheers, Mike

In various threads in this wonderful place, something I've noticed is the comment about picks that break.

I know how I now make mine.

Anyone else care to comment?

I have to agree with Ian, if you are wearing out your picks then you are doing something wrong. You shouldn't have to force it. I have been picking handcuffs since I was a teenager and that was a looonnnggg time ago... Today I am still using those same picks I made as a teen. I have a shim made from the maim spring of a baby ben (westclock?) alarm clock that died one day. The spring is very thin, springy, and strong. It shims open your standard swing through, S&W 94, towers, mattatucks, etc. I took one of those small hair pins/clips that woman use for there hair and bent the tip and filed down a bit because of the tightness of some keyways and made a spiral at the other end so I have something to grip. And for the darby's I took some paino wire and make like a cork screw with a loop at one end for gripping. The thing here is make a tool that is designed to open the locks you are going after.

-Dorson