Sat Apr 19, 2014 8:49 am by Deadlock
Hi AaronMce.
Good choice on the C2010. I'd recommend them to any beginner. I was reading the lockpicking forums for years before I started myself in 2012. Time and again I'd see somebody ask what set they should buy if they were starting out, and the answer was always the same, "Oh, you just need a tension wrench, a half diamond and a short hook." Well meaning advice, no doubt, but I didn't agree, and I still don't. Like a lot of people, I'd tried poking bent hairpins and whatever bits of wire looked handy into locks and pushing the pins up - with no success, of course. I'd never even heard of rakes before I found Keypicking and Lp101. I don't have the manual dexterity of a guitar player, for instance, and I'm primarily a visual type of person anyway. I need to see it myself to really understand it, so "feel" is not something that comes naturally. What I'm getting at is if I'd just bought a tension wrench and a short hook, I would've thrown them away in frustration pretty quick. The C2010 wasn't the first set I bought, but I wish it had been.
I haven't really used the ball and snowman picks, as I haven't got any double sided wafer locks. I see the tension wrench you've got for them is different from the one I've got which is like a pair of tweezers. I haven't yet found a good use for the pyramid (MSL-05), the angle snake (MSL-14), or the big snake (MSL-15). These are all my names for 'em. I'd be interested to hear anybody's experiences with these picks.
I'm still struggling with SPP. In fact, my only New Year's Resolution this year was, " SPP!" The pick I like most for that, and the only one I've had any success with, is the Deforest half ball. May sound strange, but it's the one pick I get any real feel with.
All in all, a great set and well worth the money wherever you buy it from.