Fri Jun 27, 2014 2:49 am by escher7
If the pick is Peterson's spring steel (carbon steel) line, it can be heat treated by heating the working end with a propane torch. First wrap the handle with a damp cloth so it doesn't melt, and then heat the steel until it is cherry red, (bright, not dull red but not so much heat that it becomes orange). Then quench in oil, (motor oil or even cooking oil will work). Now the steel will be hard but very brittle. Next, clean the metal with a 350 - 400 grit "sand" paper until it is shiny. Now re-wrap the handle with the wet cloth and play the torch flame evenly (and carefully) over the whole end until the colour goes from straw (gold) to blue. When the tip is just turning blue you should have a good trade-off between spring and hardness. If it turns purple it will probably be too soft and you will have to start over.
However, from the way you describe the pick bending, I can almost guarantee that it is not high carbon but rather "Government Steel". Peterson doesn't say so on the site, but it is most likely 301 stainless which cannot be hardened by heat. This type of steel comes hardened from the factory after being rolled and compressed under very high pressure which work-hardens the steel. The usual 301 mix is what's called an austenitic steel and does not contain enough carbon to respond to heat treatment, so the best you can do is straighten it and leave it alone.
I am quite familiar with the .015" "Government Steel" used by that company having purchased one, along with some DCAP picks in the same material, just for testing. In my opinion there are two problems with the pick: firstly .015" is far too thin, but more importantly I believe "Government Steel" is poorly manufactured. The .015" Reach that I bought straighten the first time I used it. Thinking perhaps I was too rough on it, I straightened it and the same thing happened. I then bent the pick sideways about 35 degrees and instead of snapping back, it stayed bent. All other picks tested, including Southord, Sparrow etc. will bend sideways at least 45 degrees and will return to their original shape.
Thinking maybe it was just the thinness that was the problem, I tried the DCAP's which are .025" and found the same thing. They bend rather than springing back to the correct shape. The DCAP half diamond, after being bent sideways to 45 degrees stayed bent at about 20 degrees. It also slowly bent backwards after a half hour of use and had to be straightened.
I am the first to admit that as a medium level picker I still use fairly heavy tension, but none of the other commercial picks have ever given me this problem, even the $10 Chinese set I first bought on coming back to the sport. Petersons claim a tensile strength of 280,000 psi which is the same as Sparrow and Southord's Max picks, but there is simply no comparison. I can hang a 2 1/2 lb. weight from a Southord Max and it will not bend or break.
I did not mean to turn this into a comparative rant about Peterson products and I am giving away some of the content of a review of Southord Max that I am working on, but given that Flywheel had the same experience I wanted to respond. I know Peterson has many happy users and this will no doubt cause some feedback, but there it is.