Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:45 pm
Re: New Gem for FarmerFreak
JR, in addition to your skill in shaping and polishing these picks, I think you found a lockpick trifecta:
An ideal combination of steel selection, handle material, and bonding material/method, between them.
It's sturdy and transmits feedback incredibly well.
This isn't to detract from other pickmakers, there are other combinations of materials and methods that also work well.
This one just happens to work rather well for my picking style.
An ideal combination of steel selection, handle material, and bonding material/method, between them.
It's sturdy and transmits feedback incredibly well.
This isn't to detract from other pickmakers, there are other combinations of materials and methods that also work well.
This one just happens to work rather well for my picking style.
). Finally, my picks didn't suck...they weren't great but they definitely didn't suck any more. 
) for less than $1 per foot I knew I had found my first "good" material to buy and work with. Soon I was making picks that were decent enough to at least show off to a friend or two but I had this aching in the back of my mind (or was is in my fingers?) that I wanted to put "cool" handles on them like Ratyoke and Tooly do. Inspired by Tooly's use of synthetic materials, I decided to give G10 a shot. Once I had the G10 in hand, I knew that this was "it". Now all I needed was a good way to attach it. I tried using "loveless" fasteners but did not like the results for various reasons, the most significant of those was the pick's tenancy to "work loose" over time and use. Not that the tool would come apart, but I could feel the slightest bit of wiggle of the pick between the scales and it was a huge distraction while picking. I wanted a way to make the handle become "one with the pick" so that it wasn't a pick with a handle but it was just a pick, neither one independent of the other but working as one solid piece. I spoke with a friend who is a machinist and he suggested I try JB weld. Its well known that when bonding two surfaces together that the mating surfaces should be roughed up to insure a good bond but somehow that didn't seem to me like it would be good enough for a pick. After a little thought and consideration, I decided that in addition to roughing up the surfaces I would punch several holes in the tang of the pick as well as cut several deep grooves (about 1/3 to 1/2 depth of the thickness of the handle material) along the length of the G10. This would allow the JB weld to flow through the tang of the pick and actually into, not just on, the handle material thereby making it "one". 
