Long Ripple - Euro Slender 0.018

Product Description

This pick is manufactured from 0.018 thick Government Steel and then molded into a purple toned plastic handle. This is our second thinnest series of picks. While they are somewhat thicker than the 0.015 picks, they are designed with the "Euro" shank reduction to enhance egress into restrictive key ways. They are designed to be useful for locks having narrow key ways and to provide some more strength than the 0.015 picks.

Please note that these picks are specially designed to provide you access in narrow key ways where standard picks will not fit. This reduction in width comes at a logical cost in rigidity. Using these picks in wider key ways means you will lose the side to side lateral support for your pick that a narrow key way provides. If you are heavy handed you may find that these picks will try to flex sideways, or even bend under high pressure in locks with wide key ways.  

Ken says: Because of the height reduction behind the rippled profile, (handle side) there is a tendency to encounter the "it broke" syndrome if you use this pick aggressively like perhaps you would use a double rake. Even though we reduced the drop to make them stronger they will break with aggressive action.

However I myself love them, AND I don’t break them. The reason is that I don’t use them as you would a standard rake; instead I use the as a precursor tool.

With some light turning tool pressure I walk back and forth across the pins several times as if I was crushing grapes to make wine. Remember the objective in crushing grapes is just to crush the fruit; but not the seeds!

What I have now accomplished is I have set about half of the pins. I am not usually able to set them all because the ripples don’t reach high and low enough to pick all locks. Then I take my favorite hook or my diamond picks and set the last pins: wow it opened! And it actually opened faster than if I used my second tool alone…