Mon Feb 01, 2010 4:42 pm
Cowbite's ole' faithfuls
Here are a couple of my main picks made from 3 stainless steel knife blades, laminated together with gorilla glue and a vise, then worked from there. The gorilla glue works well, as does regular epoxy but when you work it, the heat will/can make them separate, so you have to douse often. The rake is a transmission dip stick from a truck, which I liked because of how the size steps down via the rivets although, dip sticks aren't stainless steel.
I've been making my own tools for about 4 years now and have used all manner of metals - $2 for 10 steak knives from Walgreens, plumbers flat snake rolls, large, flat grill spatulas etc.. but I always come back to stainless steel knives, usually butter knife style. They are tough, rigid and aready polished.
I bought my first set of "production' picks from lockpicktools.com and was really very disappointed. The non-laminated picks are completed crap. They bend and twist and by the time you have it picked, you've cut your fingers to ribbons. Fortunately, I ordered the 60 piece set which only had a few of them in it. The laminated and laminated ripple handle picks are way better but, as with all of these picks in the set, they are all so *small*. The picks I had been making all had large-ish handles and are at least 3/8 to 1/4" thick. Not to mention that the pick shafts are still bendy and twisty which don't suit me at all but might suit others tastes. I think I really had more fun with the pick case that the set came with than the set itself. I hadn't ever had a nice case before other than a few bootleg things I'd made in the past so this one was a treat
.
But I digress...
I've been making my own tools for about 4 years now and have used all manner of metals - $2 for 10 steak knives from Walgreens, plumbers flat snake rolls, large, flat grill spatulas etc.. but I always come back to stainless steel knives, usually butter knife style. They are tough, rigid and aready polished.
I bought my first set of "production' picks from lockpicktools.com and was really very disappointed. The non-laminated picks are completed crap. They bend and twist and by the time you have it picked, you've cut your fingers to ribbons. Fortunately, I ordered the 60 piece set which only had a few of them in it. The laminated and laminated ripple handle picks are way better but, as with all of these picks in the set, they are all so *small*. The picks I had been making all had large-ish handles and are at least 3/8 to 1/4" thick. Not to mention that the pick shafts are still bendy and twisty which don't suit me at all but might suit others tastes. I think I really had more fun with the pick case that the set came with than the set itself. I hadn't ever had a nice case before other than a few bootleg things I'd made in the past so this one was a treat
.But I digress...
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