5. ComparisonsIn this section I’ll have a brief chat about each set that I tested, the things that I learnt, pros and cons from each, and try to draw comparisons where possible.
GOSO 24Pc + Cheap
+ Large set of picks
+ I quite liked the rounded Z wrench
- Scratchy, nasty handles
- Pick tips of poor quality
- Range of picks includes many that won’t get used
The GOSO set is probably one of the more common “first points of contact” for many people looking for their first kit. It’s also one of the cheapest starter sets and certainly includes a great range of different types of picks for you to try your hand at. Unfortunately that also becomes a negative, as this set suffers from a lack of focus on specific, more useful picks. The quality is also fairly poor throughout the board and it’s clear that this set is stuffing large numbers of picks in to artificially bloat the numbers for advertising to those who are just starting out and don’t really know what they will need (“Twenty-four piece set!” – you can almost hear the late night TV ad), at the expense on focusing on quality.
At this price point, it’s tough to make direct comparisons without being unfair – to bring up the comfortable handles of the Sparrows or Southord Max set, or the superior weight and metal quality of the Petersons would be to compare this set with others priced at ten times the price, or more. That said, the closest competitor to this set is probably the Klom (at the super cheap end), or the Southord C2010 at about twice the price.
First then, let’s take a look at the Klom set. At first glance, they have that Peterson handle style thing going on, and the handles seem better moulded and generally more comfortable than the GOSO – so, a point in favour of the Klom there. Next we see that the price can be nearly half the cost of the GOSO – if nothing else, a great price-point for someone who is
really on the fence, just wants to see if this is a hobby that might be interesting to them (or a fun hour’s worth of distraction in front of the TV), or as a gift or stocking filler maybe for a Houdini-obsessed kid or young teen. So, a point in favour of the Klom there, too. However, after spending some time with the Klom set, the cracks started to show – a bizarre selection of picks left few that were genuinely useful, and the handles did get very uncomfortable after some time, hurting my hands even the day after. At this price point it’s certainly a bargain, but I’d say that the GOSO set is just about worth the extra “investment” over the Klom. Now, let’s look at the Southord C2010...
Okay, so the Southord set is twice the price of the GOSO, and probably above the price you’d want to pay for, say, a curious kid or a passing curiosity. However I’d like to make a case for jumping straight in at the Southord level if you’re interested in picking. First off though, a couple of negatives – firstly, the lack of handles. I’m personally someone who feels a lot of pain from holding picks for too long and also has trouble holding picks without slipping – for me, the lack of proper moulded handles on the Southord set was a bit of a killer. That said, there’s no way to get closer to the “metal” and the “feel” of picking than having a completely raw pick with metal handles, and the smoothness and finish on the C2010 set is absolutely spot-on. Secondly, bear in mind that I’ve specifically reviewed the C2010 kit, which is a set of Euro-thickness picks. If you’re in the US or working more on US-centric locks, you might want to look into one of Southord’s “regular” pick set versions. That aside, there’s a lot to like about this set – the picks are well finished to a mirror-like shine, there’s a good range of useful pick types, for those who want to feel everything the lack of a plastic or rubber handle can be a boon and the picks generally work well and do-what-they-say-on-the-tin. If you can justify the extra expense, it’s worth looking into the C2010 or even a smaller (or non-Euro) Southord set in preference to the GOSO.
Klom + Very cheap
+ Lots of picks for your money
+ Great stocking filler gift
+ Fairly comfortable handles – at first
+ Flat Z wrench quite nice to work with
- Overall poor quality picks
- Questionable choice of pick tips
- Handles get uncomfortable over time
- Poor finish
Like the GOSO, and in fact even moreso than the GOSO (since the Klom is nearly half the price), it’s not fair to compare this set to the Sparrows, Peterson or high-end Southord sets. It’s not really even fair to compare this to the Southord C2010, since that’s nearly four times the cost. Therefore I’ll be comparing this set directly with the GOSO in this summary.
A lot of what I have to say about this set compared to the GOSO was mentioned in the GOSO section above. However it basically boils down to the fact that at first glance this seems like a very nice set – the handles feel more comfy than the GOSO, the pick tips seem somewhat better, and the Klom just has an air of value-for-money which makes it appear a great buy- and indeed, for a stocking filler or to test out a passing interest, it more than fits the bill.
However if you’re serious about putting in the time to learn lockpicking, I’d suggest investing a bit more in either the GOSO or preferable the Southord sets –the initial glamour of this kit quickly wears off, with poor quality pick tips, a strange selection of picks leading to (in the same way as the GOSO) a lack of actually appropriate picks for the task, and the handle discomfort that soon sets in.
SouthOrd c2010 + Best price point for an actually GOOD set of picks
+ Recommended by many other European pickers
+ Non-handle makes feedback transparently clear
+ Mirror-like finish on the picks
+ Fit and finish overall of picks and handles top-notch
+ Compact, sturdy case
- Lack of handles not to my taste and can get uncomfortable
- Following on from above, the mirror-like “handle” finish and lack of (rubber or plastic) handles makes these picks slippery in sweaty handy
- European style picks flip around in wider US keyways
- Picks do tend to bend
As we move up the price range to the “middle-of-the-road” we can compare this set more easily to others and make better recommendations. First off – unless a plastic/rubber handle is a vital requirement and you’re not happy to spend more than this price point (£30-£40) on a pick set, I’d highly recommend selecting the Southord set over either the GOSO or Klom. Whilst the lack of a proper handle can be a big pain, you can make handles for these if needed and the quality of the pick metal will surely shine through after hours and hours of picking (of course, if you see only a 10% chance that you’ll like picking, or are buying this as a gag gift or anything like that, the Klom/GOSO will suffice).
On the other hand, if proper handles ARE important to you and you don’t mind spending a bit extra, consider one of the smaller Sparrows sets or one of the Southord MAX Mx000/Mx000B sets, which will give you a higher standard of quality *and* nice handles to boot. That said, £70 to £100 or more is a serious investment if this is a very experimental purchase.
Overall, I think that Southord has nailed the positioning of this quality-to-price point. It’s priced low enough that most people willing to invest a little on a new hobby can afford to lose if they decide it’s not for them, but also high enough that they were able to produce a really nice pick set with a range of useful picks at a high level of fit and finish for the price. If this price point is your top end and you’re looking for a decent pick set to spend some time practicing with, or if you need a solid beginner’s set for a friend, to hand out at meet-ups, or to bulk up your collection, you can’t go wrong with the Southord C2010.
Sparrows Monstrum XXL + Comfortable handles
+ Nice case
+ Pick steel doesn’t bend or warp much
- Not a cheap set
- Range of picks can be “exotic” and not an ideal starter kit
- Handles can be painful after extended or heavy use
- Pick tip finish and handle plastidip could be a little better
We’re now into the £100+ price range – a point that I feel is probably a little beyond the average first-time picker’s budget for a new hobby, so we’ll be looking at picks from this point onwards from an upgrade or collector’s standpoint as well as a newbie’s. For this price we’ll also be judging the picks a little more harshly, as the expectation of a high-cost product is equally high value, expressed through superior build quality, design choices and “pizzazz”.
So, does the Sparrows set hold up? Well, yes and no. Coming from the Southord C2010 – the second-most-expensive set that I own compared to this one (admittedly at around one third of the price), there are some very pleasant visible increases in quality – for a start, decent handles finally! Not only this but the Sparrows breaks the mould by being the only set that I have (yes, that includes the high-end Petersons) to have the pick metal go all the way to the end of the handle. Granted, with a rubberised plastic-dip handle that’s kinda a necessity, but still. Nice to see. The pick metal is also very nice, although I wouldn’t especially rate it higher than the Southord C2010. The case is the start in an upward trend of decent cases, and the general fit and finish is pretty darn good – in most ways, it’s superior to the C2010 – and that should be expected given the price difference.
On the other hand, the set does have its downfalls. The plastidip handle, whilst looking snazzy and feeling soft to the touch, does start to hurt the thumb and fingers after an extended and heavy-weight picking session. The pick tip finish could also be improved (for discolouration etc). To compare “up the chain”, let’s take a look at the Southord Max set, priced between slightly-more and about one third more than this set.
The handles are an issue of preference – do you prefer soft, rubbery and non-slip or hard, plastic, and smooth with non-slip text embossing to act as the gripping surface? The case, too, is an issue of taste, with the Sparrows being fabric and “tactical” with lots of design decals and the logos, whereas the Southord Max case is soft leather, plain and classy. In terms of the picks themselves, the Sparrows set has more useful picks than the Max, which had a large range of ball variants that I don’t see finding much use. The Max picks also tended to bend easily, which I didn’t notice on the Sparrows set as much. The picks themselves though could be said to be broadly equal – at least in my untrained hands, and both will likely give excellent performance for day to day use.
I rated both sets around the same overall (90% vs 92%), so it could go either way and to be honest is more a case of personal preference than having a clear victor. That said, if you ignore my semi-arbitrary 10% score deduction, this set would score 100% and is definitely at the higher end of my recommendations regardless.
SouthOrd Max M4000B High Yield Lock Pick Set + Nice case
+ Solid, good quality pick handles
+ Excellent lifetime warranty
+ Great feedback on the picks
- Could be finished a bit better, for the money
- Handles can be a little slippery off the logo
- Pick tips bend easily
I’ve moved this pick set up above the Petersons, relative to the order of reviews, because price and performance-wise it’s the easiest to compare to the Sparrows kit, which will be the main focus of comparison here.
As I mentioned in the Sparrows comparisons above, there are pros and cons to both of these sets – the Sparrows has soft handles, pick metal all the way to the bottom of the handles, a fabric “tactical” case, a good range of picks and tough, springy pick steel but a slight reduction in feedback. The Southord Max on the other hand has hard plastic ABS handles which transmit vibrations very well, at a slight loss of grip, a soft, high-quality leather case and pick steel that is more “bendy”. The range of picks is slightly poorer in the Max range in my opinion, with a large selection of ball picks that you likely will not find a use for. The prices is somewhat similar with the Southord Max being priced slightly higher.
I think it’s obvious from the five-or-so-time price difference, but the Southord Max set is a clear winner compared to the Southord C2010 – with the possible exception being if you really like zero handles getting in the way of your feedback. If you’re stuck on Southord but can’t decide to get the C2010 or Max series, it’s an easy win for the max – as I say, except if you prefer bare metal handles. Oh, and the price difference too, obviously.
It’s much harder to compare the Max and the Sparrows, and at the end of the day I think it will come down to personal preference – if you’re stuck between the two, read my full reviews of each (and some other reviews and opinions online) and make your choice depending on what is most important to you –no pick set will have everything and even the most “high end” have flaws.
I suppose we should also consider the Peterson Euro Slenders at this point – they compete with the Southord Max “B” series picks as Euro slimline high-end picks. The first thing to point out is that the Peterson Euro picks don’t come with a case or tension wrenches – it’s in the name, “Just Picks”. This allows the price to be very competitive (just over half the cost of the Southord Max M4000B, and about double the cost of the Southord C2010), however bear in mind that you can’t really compare these like-for-like in terms of being a full kit suitable for beginners or those looking for an all-in-one solutions, since the Petersons don’t come with the basic vital things that you’ll need – tension wrenches and a case – for an all-in-one kit.
That said, on a pick-for-pick level, the Peterson Euro picks compete quite well with the Southord Max. Whilst a little more expensive per pick and therefore setting themselves up for a tougher challenge in the price vs performance race, the Peterson picks start strong with a lightweight, strong and very grippy plastic handle, and a solid, spring steep pick tip that has a good quality about it. The Petersons do suffer from their own issues too though, such as a tendency for the metal to bend, a esoteric mix of pick tips and the obvious lack of a case or tension wrenches – the acquisition of which will lead to extra cost.
If you carefully pick and choose from Peterson’s single picks, wrenches and cases you can probably build yourself a kit for the same price as the Southord Max which will easily rival it – not with as many picks, but honestly, do you *need* all those from the Max set anyway? Obviously I can’t comment on how that would turn out as I haven’t bought any single Peterson picks, but in my experience you would likely be as happy with either option – as with most of the sets in this price range, it’s a matter of preference rather than hard numbers “better or worse” performance.
Peterson Just Picks Euro Slenders +Grippy handles
+ Great feedback through the picks
+ A “clean” way to add picks as an upgrade without the “bumf” of a case or wrenches
+ Good quality pick steel
- Too many rakes and not enough hooks
- Pick tip metal bends and warps a bit
- Concerning QA for a set at this price range
- No wrenches or case
I feel that I may have numerically given both of the Peterson pick sets an unfair rating in my main reviews. Giving the Sparrows and Southord Max sets 90%+ ratings and the Petersons 60-80% probably wasn’t really fair, and is definitely an issue in the way that my rating system works, deading in shifts of 10-20% differences per category. I don’t honestly believe that the Peterson picks are “bad”, and I wouldn’t class them as below the level of the Sparrows or Max sets, really – except for my lack of luck with actually picking locks with these picks (which may come down to personal preference and practice), really what I’m rating is the price vs performance. Peterson picks are priced as premium products, and so my rating harshly berates any failings versus the perceived value of these picks.
This is all a roundabout way of saying what I feel when it comes to these picks – they are decent, even very good picks overall, but don’t (in my opinion) hold up to the value and quality that they
should provide, given the price. The Peterson Just Picks Euro (stainless) Slenders set is priced at (after shipping and import fees) around £70 – twice that of the Southord C2010 and half that of the Southord Max. About two thirds that of the Sparrows Monstrum XXL and priced about equally to the regular Monstrum.
Is it worth the price? Well, that depends on what you want from the kit. The key thing to remember with this specific kit is that, as told in the title of the product, it’s “Just (the) picks”. You don’t get any tension wrenches with this kit, and you don’t get a proper case either. Does this matter to you? Well, if you are looking for a top-flight first picking kit that’s all-inclusive, or if you want to get a fancy-pants picking kit for a good friend, or if you any other reason you have no spare cases and/or tension wrenches, don’t buy this kit without also bundling in at least some wrenches and preferably a case too! Picks are useless without a range of useful wrenches to use them with, and while a case isn’t vital for desk work you might wish you have a way of carrying these if for any reason you need to take these picks out with you. However if you are already an accomplished picker looking for a solid bolster for your arsenal, or even if you are a new-ish picker who already has a set or two with some tension wrenches and a spare case or are looking to consolidate the “best” picks for you into a single case, this is an excellent set to consider.
The next “big if” with this set is to look at the pick tips – only three of these ten picks are hooks or hook-like picks, and five of them are rakes – of which three are almost identical. This set pays an unusually high reverence to rakes, something that is certainly unusual in the hobbyist picker world. I can imagine that this would be an excellent range of picks for a professional locksmith or entry specialist however, where time is of the essence and all that matters is that you “get in”, whether that’s by raking or SPP. Just don’t forget to pick up a nice case to keep them in! Purple-pink handles might also be your downfall in this case, just sayin’.
In terms of actual pick quality, personally I had a few nitpick issues with the Peterson picks in general, but as I’ve previously mentioned, that’s more a case of holding these picks to higher standards for the price point rather than picking on (pardon the pun) these picks for being “bad”, which they certainly aren’t. As long as you know the caveats going in (and please do your research before dropping any serious cash on a pick set), you won’t find a bad pick here.
Peterson Phoenix Ultimate GSP +Excellent case
+ Great range of picks
+ Grippy, high quality handles
+ Decent pick steel
+ Nice range of tension wrenches
- Pick tips prone to bending
- Outrageous price for picks and quality doesn’t really keep pace
- I personally didn’t have much luck picking with these
- Some might not like the “open” design case
Like the Klom pick set, it’s hard to draw any direct comparisons with this set due to price – because it doesn’t seem fair to compare the picks from this set at others half, a third, or a quarter of the price. That said, and unlike the Klom set, being in a prestigious price bracket it’s easy to pick on any failings on a pick set which has set its bar this high.
I did mention this in my last comparison (of the Peterson Euro Slenders set), but my numerical score of the Peterson picks is probably a little unfair and only ended up that way due to a fault in the way that I designed the rating system for these picks. It was created haphazardly and is untested, and has led to wild disparity between scores of the different sets. That said, part of my poor scoring is due to the fact that, because this set cost 2.5x as much as some of the competitors, I rightly judged it with a 2.5x sterner eye – and whilst the set is still extremely good, it’s not
that much better, IMHO, than some of the competition.
I should also point out that I
personally didn’t have much luck picking with the Peterson sets – whether this is due to a lack of practice, or a weariness from this project and leaving the Peterson sets until last, or just the fact that the Peterson sets need an “expert’s touch” to work well, I’m not sure – I know that the Falle-safe picks have a reputation for being only *amazing* in the hands of a master picker, and whilst I don’t believe that the same is said of the Peterson stuff, my general lack of skill and experience with picking puts me in probably not the best place to review lock picks. I will touch on this more in the conclusion. I just wanted to put these disclaimers in place before attempting to summarise and conclude on my Peterson review.
There’s no denying that the Peterson Phoenix Ultimate is a pretty epic piece of kit – a big selection of Peterson picks in both regular and Euro thickness, a whole cavalcade of handy picks including a range of the fan-favourite Prybars all wrapped up in a solid and quality tri-fold case. The set has a lot going for it – pick handles are firm and sturdy, and exceptionally grippy and easy to hold, pick tips are pretty sturdy and well designed, the finish is not bad and there is a good range of picks.
On the other hand, there are plenty of down sides too, depending on how nit-picky you want to be – pick finish leaves a little to be desired – sometimes just cosmetically but also structurally as I’ve seen rust and stippled waves from laser cutting that really shouldn’t be there on a pick set at this price range. The case, while sturdy and with a classy finish, has some design issues with the pockets being SO damn tight, and the handles suffer from layout and typographical failings that, again, while minor, really have no place in a pick set at this price range.
Is this a case for the beginner? Only if you have deep pockets. No, this is no “starter’s set” – it’s for the picker who has it all, is well-heeled, or maybe is spending on their company’s (or the government’s) dime. Some will find this a game-changing vital kit for the arsenal, while others will defer to it on occasion as a nice thing to “have around”, but no epic lock-picker’s collection (especially a lock pick collector’s collection) is complete without some Peterson tools, and if you want it all, and are happy to pay the price – this is it.
6. Picking Times ChartHere’s a quick graph of the average picking time from each lock pick set.
7. ConclusionsI originally intended to use the Conclusions section to discuss each of the picks sets in turns, discuss their pros and cons, how I found them and give you my ultimate verdict. However, I’ve decided instead to use this space to address some other issues and things that I want to say from my time working on these reviews. Why? Two reasons:
1. Each pick set has already had two conclusions – at the end of each mini-review, and then in the
comparisons section above.
2. At the end of the day, I can’t in good faith recommend one pick set above another, or give you a definitive conclusion of
Yes, Pick Set X is the best that I have reviewed and slap an “editor’s choice” award on it, or anything of that nature. Partly because my overall rating system is somewhat broken (more on this below), partly because, as a total noob to the world of picking, my experiences and abilities with these picks
really do not do them justice, and partly because there
is no one correct answer – the pick set that is best for you will be down to a combination of your personal taste, requirements, and budget. I’ve strived to provide as much useful information, statistics and photos as I can for the sets that I have at my disposal, now it’s up to you to select the best pick set
for you – and I implore you to not only use my experiences but other reviews and opinions across the Internet to help you to make the best informed decision that you can for your needs.
Now, a word on those ratings.
When I first started writing this document back in December, I wanted to codify a concrete format, layout and set of standards that would govern the structure of the document and make each mini-review a modular, stand-alone, easily-repeatable “unit” which I could complete one-at-a-time and which could be read in a stand-alone manner. Due to wanting to follow a review-like structure, I decided to add a scoring system as is so popular these days to allow the pick sets to be compared and contrasted, and judged both on their own and as a part of the wider range of options available.
Unfortunately, since I wrote this document in a linear manner and the first part of the document laid the foundations for the mini-reviews and their scoring, I had to determine an appropriate scoring system upfront, before I’d had a chance to properly test many of these lockpick kits and certainly before I’d had a chance to compare them in a like-for-like manner. Deciding as I do to make my life as hard as entirely possible I decided to go for a weighted composite scoring system, where individual elements of the pick sets (such as case, finish, pick quality and overall rating) are judged separately and then the sub-scores are added together using a weighting to prioritise certain elements seen as more important than others (for example, the score of the picks should be given a higher consideration than the score of the case, no?), in order to produce a good average rating. I would then draw up a fancy table at the end of the conclusion comparing all the rating, and award a “Top pick” and “Second choice” style award to the best sets.
Sounds good in theory. One problem with this is that I have little experience in drawing up rating systems, especially for things that I’m not
overly familiar with, and also I have little experience in weighting these things correctly. Despite spending a lot of time trying to perfect a weighted rating system, I never really managed to properly express what I felt was important in these pick reviews through ratings, and the end result is a system that swings wildly, awarding 60%s here and 90%s there with little practical difference between sets.
The other problem with the above is that I hadn’t actually
reviewed any picks when I came up with the rating and weighting system. As time went by, and as I wrote more and more reviews it began to dawn on me that the observations that I was making were too complex and nuanced to boil down to a simple number, and this was exacerbating by the forced tying of a very small range of rating numbers (0 to 3) to a wide range of stark percentage scores (0% to 30% in some cases), as well as the weighting being plain off and wrong. By this point however, it was already too late and trying to go back and fix the ratings would have meant completely re-reviewing all of the pick sets – if I could even figure out
how to make it better.
Another, more subtle problem with the above – and one that really pervades all of modern review culture, not just this little set of noob pick reviews – is the fact that most purchasing decisions come down to a thousand tiny points and a mish-mash of the buyer’s subjective perspective, budget, specification requirements, aesthetic preferences and a million other factors. There’s no way to boil that down to a single two-digit number – especially where the product being discussed doesn’t have a set of finite and objectively measurable statistics by which to compare them. You might be able to pick, say, a length of high-tension wire based on how many lb of weight it can take vs how much weight you expect to pull on it, but with picks it more comes down to how a pick
feels to you. It’s messy, subjective and wishy-washy and makes it hard to pin down. High-end Audio has an interesting dilemma where there are certainly measurable stats (THD, dBm, SNR, etc) by which you can measure a piece of audio equipment, and yet the perception of sound and what “sounds good” is a very subjective experience, with terms like “bright”, “open”, “forward” and other such wishy-washy phrases having a vague collectively understood meaning but experienced differently by every person.
The point that I’m really trying to get to is that the more I’ve analysed and over-analysed these picks, trying to pin down and extract what makes them unique, trying to quantify and objectively categorise their qualities, the more I’ve realised that for lock picks it’s somewhat of a futile task. Not only is a given prospective buyer going to have a completely different list of requirements and their ranking of importance (Do you need a really quiet, discreet case for tactical field work? Do you prioritise really well finished Diamond picks, because that’s what you work best with? Is a handle, or lack of handle important to you?), but everyone’s perception of, and experience with these things is going to be different. One person’s
nice rubber handle is another person’s
horrible rubber handle.
Due to this, I’ve decided against finalising and collating the pick review scores, or for giving “prizes”. They’re still there if you want them, at the end of each review (I’m not going to remove them after the effort that I put in to creating them, and some people may find them useful), but please know that I no longer consider these ratings to be remotely useful, at least in the way that I have assessed and rated them. There are scores that I myself don’t really agree with, and the more I look back at how the rating system works, the less I agree with the way I did it. It’s a learning experience!
No, instead, if you are interested in a specific pick set, please read my review (or if you are wondering what pick set you should buy, read the whole lot!) and then go off and do more research. Google the company in question, take a look at their official website – their returns policies, their item descriptions, their shipping policies. Do a search on your favourite forums or on Google – look for threads where other people are discussing those picks. Put your own post or thread out there – explain your situation and ask questions relative to what you are looking for. Check YouTube for video reviews.
At the end of the day, like with anything there is a degree of caveat emptor and you should do your best to be fully informed about the purchase that you’re about to make before you make it. I accept no responsibility for bad advice or poor decisions made! I’m just taking what I know, what I can see and touch and photograph, and putting it out there for the world to look at – to give you yet another source in a vast Internet full of sources from which to make observations and build a picture of the item that you are considering purchasing.
All that being said, I’d feel bad finishing this on a downer note and not at least giving my overall impressions and a vague hint of a recommendation, so I’ll try to give a rough-and-ready opinion which I’ll break down into a few buyer’s categories to at least
attempt to tackle the near-infinite web of possible angles that you might be coming from. Just please read the following with full knowledge of everything I have said before including that bit about
doing your own research and
not blindly buying stuff cos a guy on the Internet told you to, mmkay?
Cheap n Cheerful stocking filler gift or “Hey, I saw lockpicking in a film once, that might be cool to try”: Klom or GOSO set
Total noob, beginner, “I’m not sure if I’ll like this hobby but I’m happy to put some time in” and hand-outs for picking meets: Southord C2010 or Sparrows
Beginner as above but with a bit more cash to burn & likes to buy good stuff upfront: Sparrows or Southord Max
Pick collector, must-have-the-best*, or Gov’t-is-paying: Anything from Peterson. Also the Southord max.
* I’m not saying that
I think it’s the best, but that’s the public perception in a you-get-what-you-pay-for world
Bonus round! What would I buy if I could only have one set of picks in the whole world?:
Either the Sparrows Monstrum XXL or the Southord Max M4000B. Can’t decide between those two.
And that’s as close to a recommendation as you’re going to get
.
Now go out there, do some research, and buy something already! There are locks that need picking
.
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