Peterson's Significant Down Grade (?)

[JamesOzment1]

Papa Gleb ,xeo ,
I know exactly what you mean . I pick seriously nasty challenge locks and tend to bend them alot and sometimes break them . they still are IMHO the best available ,but it does piss me off when I order picks and they arrive looking like some Chinese made junk. Especially when I comment that flat rate shipping is cheaper so they ship flat rate . they paid $6.00 to ship it but still charged me over $8.00 shipping. I have received picks with the tip crooked in the handle so bad I just threw it away and bought another. I would have had them exchange it but I'm not made of money and could not afford to ship it back at the time. So I waited till I had the dough and bought a few more. Also I notice my last hook #1 was a postal pick cut down shorter . irritating...

[JamesOzment1]

I placed anther order since I was returning a hook and just received the new picks. Half are old stock (meaning the pre budget cuts) and half are post but what I understand is that if your pick has a stamp on the metal (e.g. H1, H7 etc) then that is the old pre budget cut picks and if your picks dont have that then they are the newer stuff. All of the picks that have that V or U finish I mentioned have the pick style stamped on them.

Also I order their clearance diamond pick in the dipped handle and the pick is good but the handle in that thickness sucks as the metal is to flexible.

Can anyone explain or better yet show the difference between their dipped pick and their rubber pick. The price on the rubber is double compared to their standard plastic and my mind cant understand why.

Papa Gleb the rubber handle picks are identical to the plastic handles just rubber instead.. The dipped handles are just plastidipped.

[Josephus]

...

Papa Gleb the rubber handle picks are identical to the plastic handles just rubber instead.. The dipped handles are just plastidipped.

I don't own any of their dipped handles and cant say, but the rubber and plastic pics are not the same. The rubber handled picks are metal the full length. The plastic handled picks have far less. The tang only goes about half an inch down the handle. Take a magnet to them and see.

[Papa Gleb]

I was more interested in the material but a full tang would be needed for a soft plastic handle.

James, if ever in the future you receive a defective product from Peterson do NOT keep it or worry about sending it back. Give them a call and they will make things right. Chances are you may not even need to ship anything back. At $8 a pick, dont be forced into keeping any defective item for any reason.

[tpark]

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Papa Gleb the rubber handle picks are identical to the plastic handles just rubber instead.. The dipped handles are just plastidipped.

I don't own any of their dipped handles and cant say, but the rubber and plastic pics are not the same. The rubber handled picks are metal the full length. The plastic handled picks have far less. The tang only goes about half an inch down the handle. Take a magnet to them and see.

I was not expecting that. I did the same test, with the same observation that the metal doesn't go all the way through on the plastic ones. I don't really know if that's problematic - the pick would break before you broke the handle.
As you noted, the rubbery black handled Peterson picks have metal that goes all the way through, where the plastic handled Peterson picks only have metal a short way into the handle. The Sparrows picks appear to be their regular pick with some sort of handle heat shrunk on, and the metal goes all the way through. The very cheap chinese pick and the Southord Max picks also only have metal a short way down into the handle. I don't know if there's really any technical advantage to having the metal go all the way through - for soft materials like rubber you need the metal in there, but the plastic handles of the Southord Max and Peterson picks seem to work fine. I guess I could clamp up the end of one of the picks and bend it and see where it breaks off, but for some reason I'm not so inclined to do so. The Brockage, Southord, and HPC pick with the metal handles appear to have metal all the way through - perhaps it's just easier to rivet/weld if the pick goes the full length of the handle.

various_picks.jpg

[tpark]

it appears as though some quick filing and sanding fixes the "wavy pick" issue. I filed the top of the pick, then sanded it down. This took about two minutes.

wavy_pick.jpg

wavy_pick_fixed.jpg

[Papa Gleb]

Yes almost all of these defects can easy be fixed with some sandpaper but this thread isnt about that. The point was that as little as a year ago, you would not find even the slightest of defects on these picks not to mention that at $8 a pick I would expect very little to no defects not having the molding be messed up, the pick in the molder off center, metal unevenly cut and other little nicks and that is all on one pick. But again and again, Peterson will fix and take care of all their defective products so if ever received something your not happy with, make sure to call them!!!

[Oldfast]

Curious... any new developments on this nowadays? Better? Worse? Same?

[tpark]

Curious... any new developments on this nowadays? Better? Worse? Same?

Better. None of the Peterson picks that I've purchased since the bad ones have had any defects. I bought some of the rubber handled government steel hooks and gems, some of the 15 thou gems, and some Reach picks, as well as some of the rubber handled S rakes. It's not a big sample, but my sense is that they fixed something.

[Oldfast]

Well that's very good news. I know alot of people make purchases
this time of year... so hopefully some others will confirm this too.

[OrMeanGene]

Id say there is a significant difference now. I just received a large order within last couple weeks, and im impressed. They changed their finishing process and are much cleaner finished. The waves that were present are very minimal compared to before. Seems to have that V cut referenced earlier. I think it would be foolish to think that no work is required on your part to finish a mass produced pick at that price. The work is definitely minimal compared to the competitors. I still see them as one of top pick manufacturers. If you want a perfect pick, there's only one way, start making.

[MHM]

I bought a shedload a few weeks ago in two tranches, about US$200 all up. I'm a Sparrows guy for my main picking but I wanted a few specialty bits and pieces, and ended up buying a few Petersen classic shapes as well. The quality seems reasonable - not great, but ok - but the one thing that I just can NOT wrap my head around is that the same shape in different thicknesses...is not the same shape. Here's a gem, in all three thicknesses: they could be three different picks. I've never, ever seen anything like this before and frankly I think it's appalling. FWIW.

DSC_0223.JPG

[plugspin]

Dies wear out and have to be replaced, sounds like they were pushing the limit on some used up dies (dies are usually the most expensive part of a "small" metal stamping operation so replacing them is no small cost). One die could stamp out 10 picks at once, so there could be variations in a single run if they don't wear uniformly. Thinner sheet metal may also deform/shrink differently than a thicker sheet during the stamping process causing the variation you see. Or they could be using a different die for different gauges of steel for some reason... maby an older die still works ok on thinner gauge so they still use it to spread the wear out across dies. Just some food for thought.

[Lauren]

Dies wear out and have to be replaced, sounds like they were pushing the limit on some used up dies (dies are usually the most expensive part of a "small" metal stamping operation so replacing them is no small cost). One die could stamp out 10 picks at once, so there could be variations in a single run if they don't wear uniformly. Thinner sheet metal may also deform/shrink differently than a thicker sheet during the stamping process causing the variation you see. Or they could be using a different die for different gauges of steel for some reason... maby an older die still works ok on thinner gauge so they still use it to spread the wear out across dies. Just some food for thought.

That's not who Peterson makes his picks. So many pics are slated to fit on a sheet of his special steel. They are then cut out electrically. The rough edges are a bi-product of the process. The rough edges are supposed to be tumbled/polished out.

[jeffmoss26]

Now I really can't decide if I want to place an order!