Aedalas' picks and stuff

[Aedalas]

Here is the "before" shot.

[KokomoLock]

Loving the brass handle man!!! Pick looks awesome!!! Will this one be for sale?

[Aedalas]

Loving the brass handle man!!! Pick looks awesome!!! Will this one be for sale?

Thank you! You actually inspired this one by the way. I've linked your pick polishing vid to a bunch of people and I keep noticing that brass handled pick in the beginning of it. I like the feel of brass and thought it would have some good feedback so I decided to make one for myself.

And sorry, but I doubt I'll ever be letting go of a pick I don't have two of. I'll be posting one of the oak handle picks here shortly for trade, but this is my only brass handle at the moment. Maybe when I make another one.

[piotr]

The brass pick looks great. Well done!

Is the brass hard to work with, does it clog your files and grinder like alumin(i)um does?

[Aedalas]

The brass pick looks great. Well done!

Is the brass hard to work with, does it clog your files and grinder like alumin(i)um does?

It was a serious pain to work with. It didn't clog anything, but I could see a softer alloy doing that, the problem was getting any material removed at all. I broke a metric asston of cutoff wheels roughing it out as I only have the really thin ones. And I think it took like a full 1/4 inch of my grinder wheel. At least half the dust buildup was stone. Also it holds heat REALLY well. I'm used to the dipping method from making picks, but I had to hold it in the water for like 30 seconds, AND change the water every few minutes because it was getting too warm to cool it down. Come to think of it though, it clogged the hell out of my sandpaper, I went through more paper on this than all my other picks combined.

[Alaphablue]

Metal handles are a pain in the ass I try to stick to composite my self it is easy to make and work with . Metal handles sure do look and feel nice when they finally are finished.

[piotr]

Wow, that sounds like quite an ordeal. I found that burrs work better than grindng in the case of alumin(i)um and brass (I cut open a lbrass padlock). I use the burrs in a Dremel tool and they don't clog as easily as grindstones and they also keep the work cooler because the burrs cut instead of abrade the material. If you use a range of burrs with different coarseness you can do the rough shaping and some of the smoother shaping but you will eventually have to use sandpaper to get the final finish. IIRC Ratyoke uses burrs to shape his alumin(i)m handles, one of his pictures shows a coarse burr attached to a die grinder(?).

[Aedalas]

I'm staying away from brass completely until I can snag some time with my father-in-laws bandsaw, but I'll look into some burrs as I would like to play with some other materials still. When I'm feeling masochistic enough I've been thinking I might be able to use glass even... Likely just a pipedream though. And I'm already seriously overtaxing my creativity here, design is not my thing at all. I can fuck up a drawing of a stick figure. On that note, anybody have any ideas for handle shapes?

[Alaphablue]

I think a nice even wave going the whole handle length would look cool . Search the custom knife sites for cool ideas I always wanted to do a stacked leather handle on a pick as they are my favorite to put on knives.

[Violaetor]

On that note, anybody have any ideas for handle shapes?

Feel free to have a browse through my pics for ideas...

[Aedalas]

Feel free to have a browse through my pics for ideas...

Oh trust me, I already have. Notice the tension wrench on page 1?

I'd like to avoid just copying other people though, seems cheap.

[Oldfast]

Holy labor of love!! That's magnificent

[jruther2]

The brass handled pick looks fantastic, great work!

[Aedalas]

Thankya guys. Finally got around to using, for a capped diamond it works great. Which means my only real use is on Americans, I don't really like them for other things. Not sure yet why I made it that, I may change to to a regular hook. Or make another one.

[Oldfast]

. . . for a capped diamond it works great. Which means my only real use is on Americans, I don't really like them for other things . . .

A pick just for Americans? Hmmm, we should give this pick a name! But what?...

Maybe........ the AMERICAN WHORE? Or horror, if you prefer. lol