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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Jan 28, 2014 - 06:37pm PT
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I do not know what BD is doing now but back in 2005-2009 their picks were breaking like matchsticks here in the north east. 30+ years of climbing ice and had broke 1 of the 1st generation humming bird picks. Broke 4 BD picks w/ silver vipers in 4 seasons. Talked to many other folks with the same negative experience. Switched to Quarks and they ran perfect for the last 4 seasons. Only heard of one broken petzle pick personaly.
My point is that it would have made good sense to build custom picks for the BD tools when their reliabilty was piss poor. It does not make good sense to make custom picks for a tool that is as near to perfect stock as the Nomics and Quarks are. obviously YMMV
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SGropp
Mountain climber
Eastsound, Wa
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Jan 28, 2014 - 11:53pm PT
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If I was going to make a set of picks, I'd use something like a spring tooth harrow tine or the tapered end of a leaf spring. They have already been forged to shape so the grain orientation is better than a piece of plate. Either of them are designed to be tough and go through repeated cycles under load and shock.
You'd have to straighten it out by heating to yellow, press or hammer it flat and normalize by cooling slowly from transformation[ non- magnetic ] heat in an oven, gas forge or buried in vermiculite.
After machining and grinding to shape and profile, I'd heat treat it for toughness as opposed to hardness. Heat slowly to full transformation, quench the whole piece by plunging the tip straight down in a couple of gallons of warm oil, agitating the piece the whole time. Temper immediately by heating the shank slowly with a torch until the colors run down to the polished tip to a blue or purple. Quench again to cool.
This is just my educated guess about how to do the job as a one off, The $50 or $60 for a proven commercial replacement pick seems cheap in contrast to all that work. The only reason to do it would be to try out some new pick profile or tooth configuration.
If you try this and the pick breaks while your friend is leading some M13 death route, this post never happened. If it's the next big game changer, I get a 50% royalty on all units sold.
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adatesman
climber
philadelphia, pa
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 29, 2014 - 10:34am PT
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WTF, rSin???
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