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Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 4:22 am**

I finally completed Ed's Falle-Safe picks. Thanks for your patience Ed. These aren't perfect but they are much improved over my last effort. I've learnt much in the course of producing these.

These are the shiniest picks I have handled. I polished them to a near mirror finish. You can see the reflection of my blue gloved hand holding a marker in the picks.

For those interested they are made from ShopAid .025" (.6mm) AISI 1095 feeler gauge stock. I used a combination of bench grinder, belt grinder and Dremel to shape these. I used sisal wheels with black and then white rouge to cut the surface and then spiral sewn flannel wheel with green rough to polish the surface. I finished the surface with an unstitched loose cotton wheel and Fabulustre.

I'm not entirely happy with the shaping. It was very difficult to produce the pick with the tapered shaft. I need more practice creating tapered shafts. I have ordered a jeweller's saw and I will try that design again. If it turns out better I will send it to you Ed.

I will send these out to you Ed along with some Majestic picks late this week. I will be working on a hook pick with a polymer clay handle. I've had two attempts at the handle and I'm not happy with it. When I make one I am happy with I will send it to you.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 5:59 am**

These look really good mate.

A friend of mine is a jeweler and i was showing him my picks to see if he thought his jewelry saw would do the job for cutting shim steel. It's thicker and tougher than anything he worked with but he reckoned it wouldn't be a problem and would work well for doing intricate cuts.

when you said creating the tepers was hard, was that due to the manufacturing process or drawing prices designs? I just produced some printout for falle-safe style picks but they don't have tapered necks on them. If you ever need any patterns draw with very accurate angles give me a shout, using corel or other graphic design software i can make you print out with very precise angle's. the ones i uploaded are JPG's so they look abit bit jagged, but with a PDF file they will be spot on.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 6:34 am**

Dopug wrote:These look really good mate.

Thank-you.

A friend of mine is a jeweler and i was showing him my picks to see if he thought his jewelry saw would do the job for cutting shim steel. It's thicker and tougher than anything he worked with but he reckoned it wouldn't be a problem and would work well for doing intricate cuts.

That's good to hear. I will try when I get my saw.

when you said creating the tepers was hard, was that due to the manufacturing process or drawing prices designs?

The difficulty was in the manufacturing. I could have made them non-tapered but I wanted to be true to the original design of that one particular pick. Producing the taper is difficult because none of the usual tools (bench grinder, Dremel, hand files) span the length of the shaft so you have to grind it down in sections and blend those sections into a clean angled line. The knife makers get around this problem by using a edgless belt grinder but these cost big bucks. I have a belt grinder but it is not edgeless ie. the belt does not go all the way to the edge so its no help with this problem.

I just produced some printout for falle-safe style picks but they don't have tapered necks on them. If you ever need any patterns draw with very accurate angles give me a shout, using corel or other graphic design software i can make you print out with very precise angle's. the ones i uploaded are JPG's so they look abit bit jagged, but with a PDF file they will be spot on.

Thanks for the offer. I'm ok with templates. I own a Falle-Safe set and I scanned the picks then used Photoshop to turn them into silhouettes. I printed out the emplates and attached them to the steel with rubber cement but I am not happy with this process and I will be experimenting with Press-N-Peel next.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 7:35 am**

scanning the picks was a good idea and a hell of a lot quicker than making a vector art image. i only went to the trouble of drawing them from scratch as i intend to modify them and create my own profiles using those basic designs as a starting point.

I've not yet made any picks but when making precise cuts on metal i quite like using a blue engineers ink. you can either paint the whole piece of metal with it then scratch off ink around a template, or place a cut out template over the piece of metal and paint it on then use a scrib to scratch off any ink that has bleed over the edge of the template. It's good if you need to use a coolant as the ink doesnt come off in water. A lot of people find paper templates easier to work with but when i was learning metal work/ machining ink was the way i was taught so i kinda got used to it.

Could you tell me how much the falle-safe's taper by giving me a measurement at the top and bottom of the neck of the pick.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 7:58 am**

Those look damn awesome Piotr. I have trouble with tapering as well unless I use a marker to trace an already made pick and use a cutoff disk to get a straight line. Using drums and grinders to get the taper even is a complete bitch if you fuck up a little. Where did you get the Shop-Aid brand stuff? Also with those, did you do any sanding on them, other than the sharp edges from the cutting? You said that the stock is around the same thickness as the Falle picks, so i assume you didn't do much sanding other than to get rid of the rough burrs.

Oh man, that polymer clay is hellish to play with, I have tried making a few molds for handles, and if they are off by just a tiny amount, the whole handle is wonky and skewed. I'm working on aluminum handles now I'm going to get them cut and sized tomorrow at my dad's place since he has more equipment than I.

They look great man.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 8:18 am**

superb job....those are difinitely a thing of beauty

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 8:34 am**

chris wrote:Those look damn awesome Piotr.

Thanks Chris.

I have trouble with tapering as well unless I use a marker to trace an already made pick and use a cutoff disk to get a straight line. Using drums and grinders to get the taper even is a complete bitch if you fuck up a little.

I don't trust myself to take the cut-off disk right down to the line but I think I will try that method as well as the jeweller's saw.

Where did you get the Shop-Aid brand stuff?

www.toolsandsupplies.com

Also with those, did you do any sanding on them, other than the sharp edges from the cutting?

Only a little sanding with some 400 grit wet-and-dry to remove some of the tarnishing that occured after I washed of the rubber cement residue.

You said that the stock is around the same thickness as the Falle picks, so i assume you didn't do much sanding other than to get rid of the rough burrs.

No it didn't need thinning. There weren't really any burs either because I used a belt sander and progressively finer Dremel grinding stones.

Oh man, that polymer clay is hellish to play with, I have tried making a few molds for handles, and if they are off by just a tiny amount, the whole handle is wonky and skewed.

Yeah its harder than it appears, I have a new-found respect for Legion303. My first two looked awful but I will persevere because I like the colours that are available in polymer clay.

I'm working on aluminum handles now I'm going to get them cut and sized tomorrow at my dad's place since he has more equipment than I.

Excellent, I'd love to see what you come up with. Eventally I would like to make aluminum/aluminium handles also and then anodise them just like Ratyoke but that is a long way off.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 8:39 am**

Yes, Legion303's handles are amazing, I played with some of his picks when I met up with Raimundo a few weeks ago. I will have a go with them eventually, I want to get the Aluminum out of the way first. I think anodizing them is way beyond my level of skill and equipment. Thanks for that link, I shall check it out.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 8:46 am**

Dopug wrote:I've not yet made any picks but when making precise cuts on metal i quite like using a blue engineers ink. you can either paint the whole piece of metal with it then scratch off ink around a template, or place a cut out template over the piece of metal and paint it on then use a scrib to scratch off any ink that has bleed over the edge of the template. It's good if you need to use a coolant as the ink doesnt come off in water. A lot of people find paper templates easier to work with but when i was learning metal work/ machining ink was the way i was taught so i kinda got used to it.

I actually went out to buy some Dymark Layout Fluid today and the shop was out of stock but I will be getting some next week. I will be experimenting with engineers blue and a scriber to layout the design also.

Could you tell me how much the falle-safe's taper by giving me a measurement at the top and bottom of the neck of the pick.

Most of the Falle-Safe picks do not have a taper. Two of the hooks do and the "knives" do also. The hook that I reproduced is the 3/4, its taper is as follows:

Shaft:
3.04mm -------------------> 1.64mm

Tip: 1.50mm

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 8:47 am**

darkhorse wrote:superb job....those are difinitely a thing of beauty

Thank-you, much appreciated.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 9:29 am**

Damn Fine looking picks. Great job on them.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 9:44 am**

KokomoLock wrote:Damn Fine looking picks. Great job on them.

Thanks Koko.

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 10:43 am**

Nice job replicating the shapes Piotr.

Have you used picks made from this steel before? If so, would you care to comment on its performance versus a couple of the manufactured picks that most of us are familiar with? If you have answered this question before, feel free to tell me to use the search function. :mrgreen:

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 10:44 am**

They look great Piotr!! Can't wait to get them!
Ed

Posted: **Mon May 30, 2011 12:18 pm**

viery nice ed, if you dont use these ill take em!

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