[703] Sparrows Black Flag Dimple Pick Set!

this is the lock-picking lawyer and what i have for you today is a brand new product from sparrows that i am really excited about this is the sparrows black flag dimple pick set and it just became available on sparrows website for $39 I'll open this up and show you what's inside in just a moment but first I want to tell you why I'm so excited about it and frankly why you should be as well if you pick dimple locks my involvement with this set actually started about two and a half years ago it was in late 2015 when I was doing a ton of dimple picking and getting increasingly frustrated with the terrible dimple picks on the market it was at that time that I heard a rumor that sparrows was developing dimple picks so I reached out to them hoping that I could help sparrows avoid the pitfalls into which many other makers seem to stumble that was the first of several emails back and forth over a couple of years in which I outlined my thoughts on what qualities superior dimple pick should have and along the way I also provided feedback on a couple of different prototype sets now the single most important item on my list that I was hoping sparrows would get right was that the picks needed rounded shafts that so they could rotate smoothly in the key way that may sound basic but hardly any other dimple set has it most had to have either square or flat shafts that don't rotate or if they do they don't rotate smoothly here's a couple of examples on the left we have a go so Peck which you can see has a square shaft this rotates very poorly in tight key ways and then we have a flat shaft on a klom dimple Peck now not only does this have a problem with rotation but it has the additional problem of lifting pins that you don't intend to pick that's because when you rotate it the back edge acts as the fulcrum and the front edge lifts up lifting pins as well that can be very very frustrating another huge issue was sizing many sets have tips that are way too big to pick pretty much any lock that I've ever seen this is a great example it's a Chinese pick which got most everything right a slightly rounded shaft nice handle however the scale is just way way too big I pictured it next to a pick that I often use and you can see how it could be very frustrating to put that into the keyway and try to isolate a single pin at a time that also applies to shafts by the way you really need a very delicate shaft to make sure it doesn't get in the way of pins and on this one we have a much larger shaft that is almost always going to be in the way unless you have a really open key way so while I was being the annoying peanut gallery to sparrows the real work was going on in Canada there is a reason why there is a dearth of quality dimple pics on the market they are not easy to make the combination of round shafts and a finely shaped 90 degree flag is really tough from a mass production point of view but sparrows did navigate those choppy waters and here they are the black flag dimple pic set so let's take this out and see what you get okay here they are we get seven picks total and each one has a nice overmolded handle with a steel core that steel core gives a nice heft and also a quality feel to these picks the seven picks are offset left and offset right then small offset left and small offset right curved left and curved right and then a small flat flag it's a good selection that will handle the overwhelming majority of dimple locks out there the shafts are rounded and quite fine but even so very strong I gave these a good workout before this video and had absolutely no issues with bending or breaking the tips are also well sized and shaped nothing too clunky but also not too small to be overly weak and then we have the tension wrenches there's a selection of 9zi bars and in-video 319 I discussed why I think this shape is so good for dimple locks but I'll touch on it again briefly many locks have really wide open key ways like this multi lock interactive unlocks like that you have the issue of not in-depth placement of your pic but also lateral placement of your pic that's where these tension tools come in you can use a tension tool inserted properly as a guide for your dimple pic so you never have to worry about lateral placement only about depth placement I find this does wonders for picking precision and makes opening dimple locks considerably easier in any case you have a selection of nine of them which means you're probably not going to have any issues about finding one to fit your keyway finally we have the case this comes in there are two compartments one for the tension tools and then one for the picks and each pick has its own compartment cut out in foam so you can put this in another case for instance I plan on putting a few of these in my sparrow a Sherman case or if you want to carry them around in something else this will be very very nice in some we have what I believe is the best dimple pick set on the market right now the only real competition as far as usability goes are the hand-finished picks sold by spooks in germany in fact that's what I've been using for the last two years but all of that handwork comes at a price a set of Spooks picks will run you about $100 or more than this sparrows black flag set I don't mean to discount the work done by spooks because they really do spend a lot of time making very nice picks but it does show what a bargain these sparrows picks are in fact I was surprised when I heard the price was $39 I was expecting it to be fifty to a hundred percent more than that so let's close by doing some picking I have a couple of locks here let me get some some tools and I'll show you the real amazing part about these picks and that is that you can use them to open locks right out of the box which is something that is very very rare for dimple picks okay one is loose to click out of him and a false set number three got a click out of him for counter rotation he's set five counter-rotation he sent six counter-rotation he is set back to the beginning one counter rotation and we got it open so this is the I fam huh no there's actually been a whole lot of Chinese copies of this recently but the originals a very nice lock let's do just one more I have this master lock stainless steel simple padlock here I believe this was only sold in Europe has four spools and one serrated pen a couple clicks out of one went into a false set counter rotation on two got him set but we lost our false set so go back to 1 1 & 2 or set got three set let's just keep going 4 got him set 5 back to the beginning 1 drop down and we've got it open so I think it is remarkable that any set of dimple picks out there can be used right out of the case and because of that I highly recommend these sparrows black picks it's not something I do very often recommending any particular tools but I think these are hands-down the best on the market so that's all I have for you today on these sparrows black flag dimple pecks if you have any questions or comments about them please put them below if you like this video and would like to see more like it please subscribe and as always have a nice day thank you

Channel: LockPickingLawyer

Views: 141,051

Rating: 4.9626265 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: RvA2wPPWfsI

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 23 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/MarkChapterThirteen]

Well you sold me. Ordered.

Current status: Eagerly Awaiting.

[u/LockPickGuy]

Sweet Jesus... I've been shopping for a decent dimple set for 2 months now, swapping out various kits in my shopping baskets on sites like banggood and dhgate, unable to make a decision... All of those kits sucked balls so my decision came down to trying to decide between the least shitty option. I'm aware that souber makes a fairly decent kit but they're like $60. They're also flat and not rounded. Same with Southord's.

So I figured if I was going to get a set, I'd get a cheap Chinese kit since I was going to have to heavily modify them anyways. I was going to finally pull the trigger this weekend, probably tonight. But then I stumble across this holy grail - my prayers are answered, this kit has everything I've been looking for with rounded shafts!

Quite a change of pace; normally my luck is such that I purchase the cheap Chinese kit first, then the very next day this gets released. I guess the bad luck gremlin that sits on my shoulder went to take a shit and got lost on the way back.

Edit: minor critique - don't much care for that plastic case. But I think anything else would have increased the price so I'm perfectly fine with it. I'm wondering if the Sparrow's ranger case could fit all those picks plus a couple tension wrenches. It seems to have some thickness to it and may accommodate the set's girth.

[u/Jjay1one]

Thanks for the review, they look great and i cant wait to feel them crack their first lock. Did you do any finishing on your personal set?

[u/Atgoat2014]

Great video. I am wondering if the Sparrows dimple picks are ok for mul-t-locks or if the Souber Mul-t-lock picks (sold in Canada by lockpickcanada) would be better. I have purchased a number of dimple locks but I haven’t started trying to pick them yet, but I love the gear.

And I see that Sparrows is now shipping out of the US and prices on their site are now in US dollars. For those of us in Canada we are probably better off ordering from lockpickcanada website which appears to be the same as the Sparrows site anyway.