Sharpening A Prospecting Pick

[Guys gold]

Just heat about 1” of tip after sharpening,this is only part that wear is a concern.Heat to a minimum red glow and drip in motor oil.Or for a harder but more brittle,dip in salt water.

[GotAU?]

On 2/24/2024 at 1:13 AM, GoodAmount said:

Honing down a triangular pick head can be laborious if you’re wanting to maintain its triangular shape. I’ve just retipped my pick with a new section of carbon steel from a trailer leaf spring. It was getting pretty stubby in the tooth and becoming difficult to get through the ground, particularly when hunting heavily surfaced areas where you need to bust up slaty bedrock. In those situations it needs a well honed point and a decent wedge profile to break up the rock without sending it flying. I welded on a small arbitrary 60x18mm parallel-edged tip section and ground a relatively oblique taper on the end with an angle grinder. I reckon I’ll get a year or so of easy regrinds to maintain its shape before needing to replace it again. I took it out for a test run two days ago and it sure rips through slaty bedrock like a champ. It’s slightly too long in the tooth at the moment, but it’ll only be a couple of sharpens before it’s the right length.

That looks like some great work. I’m trying to figure out how you welded that on and then ground it down so smoothly, did you weld with a gap between the two parts?

[PhaseTech]

On 2/25/2024 at 8:10 AM, Aureous said:

@PhaseTech  do you sell those supersede picks still? Not on your website 

The guy making them stopped years ago. Been selling the gold digger picks instead since then. 

[grumpy]

hi good amount

if you are using old leaf spring and you do not destress and anneal it before welding it

is usually not a good idea to weld across the face of the tine as it can create a shear point just blow or above the weld

leave the old point on the pick, shorten it and taper it to fit neat with the new point on top/or below the old point and only weld the sides not the face 

you could leave 2 or 3 inches of the old pick point to weld the new one to

[Aureous]

34 minutes ago, PhaseTech said:

The guy making them stopped years ago. Been selling the gold digger picks instead since then. 

Sigh.... a great pity coz it was a great idea and no-one else has done this since....

[GoodAmount]

On 2/26/2024 at 8:26 AM, GotAU? said:

That looks like some great work. I’m trying to figure out how you welded that on and then ground it down so smoothly, did you weld with a gap between the two parts?

The tip of my pick was already a bit of a stub so I ground it down to a V profile and matched the back end of the new tip to suit. I figure by adding more surface area to the join perpendicular to the sheer line it’ll give it a bit more strength. There was no gap between parts, but I beveled the edges to give the weld some bite. So far so good - I’ve been out with it a few times since and the tip is holding up super well and keeping its edge.

[GoodAmount]

On 2/26/2024 at 12:11 PM, grumpy said:

hi good amount

if you are using old leaf spring and you do not destress and anneal it before welding it

is usually not a good idea to weld across the face of the tine as it can create a shear point just blow or above the weld

leave the old point on the pick, shorten it and taper it to fit neat with the new point on top/or below the old point and only weld the sides not the face 

you could leave 2 or 3 inches of the old pick point to weld the new one to

Yep, you’re right. I didn’t weld it straight across though (see previous post).

If I was doing repairs as a business for customers, I’d be sure to go through a rigorous process, but given my pick is a big DIY experiment anyway, I’m happy to leave the result in the lap of the gods. Plus, I’ll just make another one if it breaks. I’ll be surprised if it does though - it feels pretty robust.