HPC Wallet Pickset
I have been meaning to purchase a back up pocket pick set for a while. I have owned the Southord jackknife plastic and metal as well as the LPT jack knife aluminum model and plastic model. I have also played with the HPC jack knife style pick set as well. They were all great and I was successful with all of them but what they lacked was the true back up necessity. I needed a real "oh shit" back up when the keys were locked in the car or a house. Usually I kept my jackknife style picks on my key chain and it was always bulky in my pocket. I really never used them as they were attached to my keys. Then I thought about the Kevin Mitnick style break away set but it had the obvious 1 time use factor. Then the 007 credit card hide away set, but it just seemed like a novelty item. After needing a new wallet and my usual wallet cost is about 3 times the cost of this set I figured why not give it a go.
Wallet Construction
First off it comes really nicely boxed and wrapped in tissue paper like real quality wallet comes in. The presentation is short lived by the thin low grade leather. The construction isn’t bad but the stitching is very thin. It is also single layered with no additional material added. It is oddly shaped slightly smaller than a standard size tri-fold. A credit card will only fit in the first stacked pocket. The rest will only fit a standard business card.
Pick Holder portion
The picks are held securely in place but there is not any backing to keep them from bowing. I improvised with the limited space and stuck my thickest card behind it to support the picks from bending. This worked really well and also gave the wallet the much needed support to keep its shape.
Picks
At first I noticed the picks were really thin compared to a regular pick. They felt like they were going to bend so I tried them out and they worked fine and didn’t bend at all they did flex a bit but sprung right back to shape. The handles are really nice and the rubber is comfortable and not over done. These are the same picks in the KGB belt set and I think Barry makes note of there quality in one of his conferences, so the picks are sturdy for more than a 1 time use.
Tension Wrench
The tension wrenches are similar to a Peterson flat but single sided. I may add a Peterson wrench in there because of the small teeth instead, but the originals fit fine in the set. They are very usable but I would like to put a thinner wrench in there since it comes with 2 of the same.
Overall
I would say not bad over all and if you do not have a lot of cards and stuff to carry it will work fine for a daily wallet. I had to reduce many extra cards I keep but my cell phone handled some of the burden. Not a bad little set for the price of around $50. I am thinking of scrapping the wallet because I prefer a Bi-fold and getting a custom one made. At least now the they can have an idea of what I want since I now have the picks. Maybe I will just carry spare keys in my wallet next time