Sparrow's Monstrum picks

[Neilau]

Has anyone had any experience with Sparrow's Monstrum picks??

I saw his Mosntrum snake the other day and as a pick it is a great piece of jewelery!

All the picks seem very large (for BIG locks?).

The shapes look OK but too big (to me).

I'd like to hear any comments from members who have seen or had a play with them.

[escher7]

Haven't tried them but the Sparrow site says:

"The MONSTRUM consists of nine highly polished lock picks with thromo plastic handles each designed for unique single pin picking. One laser engrave extra-large Octo rake ….. when we first picked this one up we thought it was a scaling error (It’s Big). But testing proved its effectiveness. The Octo kracks locks."

[Deadlock]

http://www.keypicking.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=3296&p=81499&hilit=Monstrum#p81499




They call that big one the Kraken Rake...

[Neilau]

Thanks for the replies. Jupiter’s comments were helpful.

Jupiter. If you are around could you say how you have found them after using them for a while?

Just want to say that I am a big fan of Sparrow’s picks. I have a couple of sets and love them. Strong, great shapes and fairly comfortable. I prefer thicker handles (old hands) but they (thick handles) take up too much room in the wallet.

Back to the question.

Back story – short version.

An acquaintance has just started to get into the hobby. I gave him a couple of half diamonds, hooks and Bogota style picks and he has had some success on his locks. Anyway he wants to get into SPP and went and ordered the Monstrum set.

Showed them to me the other day and said that he was a bit disappointed as he hasn’t been able to pop a single lock with them. He was under the impression that they were somewhat magic for SPP.

Looking at them, I thought that the shanks (?) were a bit wide ( as opposed to thick) and that the width was knocking out pins that were already set. The profiles (most of them anyway) were really nice I thought.

I didn’t have very long to have a good look at or try them out.

I’m going to borrow them from him and give them a good tryout on my locks. I’m particularly interested in the Kraken rake snake.

I’ll take photos of them beside a standard Sparrow of a similar shape and post them so that you can see for yourselves.

If I like them I’ll get a set – and maybe slim them down a bit. We’ll see.

Anyway, what I was after was any feedback by anyone who has used them for any length of time.

What were the pluses, minuses. What locks they were the particularly effective on and what locks they were hopeless on ….. etc.

Are they better for SPP than regular picks?

Your thoughts??

[Divinorum]

I have a Monstrum XXL set and I absolutely love it. I chose the XXL because I did not already have a full set of normal picks. The Wizwazzle picks are great and usually get the job done. If they dont, that's when I turn to the Monstrum picks. Today I was picking a Russwin mortise cylinder and the bitting was very high low. I could not set the pin all the way in the back with any of my regular hooks, so I used one of the Monstrum reach picks and had that lock open after that no problem. IMO the Monstrum picks are totally worth it but keep in mind they are situational picks for tricky situations. I would not use them as my default go to picks but they accent a standard set wonderfully. If you don't already have a nice set of standard picks I would get that first and then consider the Monstrum picks.

[Neilau]

Thanks Divinorum for the feedback.

Having had a little play with them I totally agree with you. Not the first go to but for special occasions a nice addition to a standard set..

I have even opened a lock with the Kraken - though to be fair that lock can be opened with just about anything.