Lock Pick Material

D

Dash Lambda

Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
11
Before anyone says "Lock picks aren't knives!":
They may not be made to cut, but they have blades (The part you insert into the lock). This makes me assume they're a valid point of discussion.

Anyway, I've been making lock picks for a while but have gotten tired of hacksaw blades and various pieces of mystery metal, so I want to get an actual sheet of steel or some other well suited, high quality material to use.

I know people usually want springiness, but what I want is for them to be stiff (Of course there is the fact that I don't want it to be too brittle). Other than that, the needs of a lock pick should be quite easy to understand- So what should I use?

I've been looking at blade and tool steels like 3V and carbon steels, but I'm not really sure if I should use them for a lock pick. I was considering titanium because of its strength and lack of a magnetic signature, but I'm not sure about its other properties.

Any information is helpful, so let's see what you guys think.
 
D2 would probably do well and not break the bank.
 
I'm pretty sure a cheap stainless would be fine. Don't need edge retention, so it should be easy meet the "toughness" needs for the pry. The actual picks don't even really need toughness, am I right?

Anyway, I need a lock pic tutor to help me learn to pick something other than a simple 7 pin lock!
 
Titanium? I don't know the current price, but I have this 5 x 1 x 1/16 bar that I can stand on. It bends maybe 30 degrees and goes back to being arrow straight after I get off. Or is titanium too springy? It sure is strong enough.
 
I'm leaning closer and closer to titanium... This would be much easier if I had money to experiment.

And sorry BenchCo (If you're asking me to help you), I make the picks, I don't use 'em. I can pick a lock but not nearly with the level of proficiency or certainty that someone who actually practices would do... I think I want to learn how to though, now that I think about it... I should practice...
 
Flexibility is a function of thickness not anything else !!! Your limited there I guess.
If you'd like stainless just buy FULL HARD 301 stainless . That's used for springs so we know it works !
 
*looks at wikipedia*
Yield strength is the max amount of force that can be applied before permanent deformation.
Stiffness is how much it resists bending under force.
Rubber has high yield low stiffness, glass has high stiffness very low yield.

They're not necessarily opposites though. That titanium bar I have is an example of high in both. I bent it 30 (maybe 25, hard to tell when I'm standing on it) degrees and it still went back to shape. It also took a whole lot of force to bend it that far.
Looking around, the steel handles in binder clips is about the same thickness. I'm willing to bet that if I did the same with that steel it would permanently bend and take less force to do it.

Spring steel is another that's high in both. They all bend enormously but retain shape, yet there's varying rates of stiffness.
 
mete said:
Flexibility is a function of thickness not anything else !!! Your limited there I guess.
If you'd like stainless just buy FULL HARD 301 stainless . That's used for springs so we know it works !
Click to expand...

Glad someone stepped in to say this! Think about razor blades, hRc of 63 or more and extremely flexible.

Anyways, I used to have a need to pick locks on a daily basis and made my own. I used 300 series stainless. The biggest issue I found was having proper rake/pick handles that could be used in unison in one lock without binding against your torque bar or pulling it out under their weight.


-X
 
301 FULL HARD stainless has a hardness of 41 HRc.
BTW the old clock springs were made of 1095 ! Very tightly wound .thin.I don't know the hardness .
There are some PH type stainless springs but I'd have to research them. 301 is readily available.
 
Mete has a good point

you can buy ribbon strips of 195 blue shim stock in diffferernt widths and thicknesses

stainless too
 
Many Ti alloys are purported to have no magnetic signature with a high level of strength. This might be useful for some specialty picks. 303 might not have the strength for the picks?? and 301 develops a magnetic signature upon cold working.
 
as kids, we used to collect the steel pieces that would break off street sweepers and file them.
i think those are spring steel, worked reasonable well.
 
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