• Home
• Full tang and lock picks

Full tang and lock picks

Why is a full tang knife thought to be better than a partial tang knife? For two reasons:

Full tang KNIFE construction allows more force to be applied to the blade without a risk of the knife snapping at the bolster, which is the area of the knife where the blade transitions to the handle. Some knives have a full tang, even though you might not be able to see it through the length of the handle.

Full tang knives are weightier than partial tang knives since the entire knife is made of steel. The knife is therefore more balanced, which also makes it easier to chop for extended periods of time. Because a full tang knife has a heavier handle, you don't have to exert as much force to cut through denser food.

Looking through various blogs and articles on the internet, it’s fair to say partial tang knives definitely aren’t as well renowned as full tang knives, yet we can all certainly still see awful knives made with this type of tang construction everywhere you look.

(“There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey.”
― John Ruskin)

However in the case of lock picks:

1. Lock pick designs are more than adequately strong in a well-constructed product. We have found that if the handle/grip cannot be gotten off of the tang without destroying the handle, it is definitely strong enough to replicate a full tang product’s strength. And Peterson product handles are virtually unbreakable due to our using fiber filled nylon.
2. However weight is the clincher. The sensitive activity of picking a lock is quite different than chopping food. Instead of “banging” down through the food to the cutting board you are trying to feel the lock’s pins click into place. Peterson’s fiber filled nylon handles perfectly transmits those “clicks” to your hand.
3. Did we mention balance? These light weight picks are well balanced as well as responsive!

So when buying knives buy full tang, but when buying lock picks – BUY PETERSON!