In the market for a new set of picks.

Anybody else into picking?

I'm not as good as a lot of other guys out there, but it's sort of been a hobby of mine on and off over the years.

My interest started when I was a kid. Some of you may have had the same experience when you were younger. In the morning rush, when the keys get locked in the house, you, being smaller, usually end up getting volunteered to climb in the window and unlock the door from the inside. Haha! It happens to the best of us. We've all locked our keys inside the house, in the car, lost the key to the fireproof safe underneath the bed, the padlock on the shed, etc.. I use to think, Wouldn't it be awesome to pick the door open like some spy in the movies!

Fast forward a few years with a developed interest in mechanical things, I came across a cheap pick set. On impulse, I bought it for about $10. This was pre YouTube, so having absolutely No idea what I was doing, and not even sure where I could learn, I took my crappy, but usable, $10 pick set and started fiddling with every lock I could get my hands on around the house, without much success.

Eventually, not realizing I was well within my rights to have those tools, I ended up having that set stolen from me by an over zealous, misguided, no necked, DEA agent who decided I was the guy to hassle that evening on my way to the grocery store, but that's a whole other story. The joke was on him though, because after a short dive into the non obvious legalities of these things, I went down to the flea market, and found a slightly higher quality set for the same price.

That set got loaned to a friend and forgotten about in all the craziness lately, so I've decided to let him keep it, and look for a decent quality set.

Sparrows has a longstanding reputation of selling quality tools. Unless I can find something that fits my use and skill level better, I think I've settled on the EOD set.

It has the rakes and hook that I would probably use the most, a nice assortment of tension wrenches, and a few extras I could see myself potentially getting some use out of like the wafer picks (which I've never had the pleasure of using), the Mini Jim, and the knife, that's good for all sorts of things like decoding and bypassing.

The Mini Jim, in particular, excites me because I'm tired of having all the cards in my wallet chewed up. Wafer locks are also fairly common in low security applications, and they often have small keys that are easily lost. I could see that skill and tools coming in handy.

So, has anyone else bought and used this set? Thoughts on it? Other recommendations? Drop a comment and let me know!