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Most lock pick brands don’t talk much about where their picks actually come from. There’s a reason for that — most of them don’t really know. They’re ordering from offshore suppliers, slapping a label on the packaging, and calling it done.

Bare Bones is different. And this is how it happened.

It Started With Frustration

Bare Bones didn’t start as a business. It started as a hobby — my hobby.

I got into lock picking the way most people do. Fell down a YouTube rabbit hole, got completely obsessed, and then started trying to actually buy decent picks here in Australia. That’s where it got frustrating fast. The options were either cheap import sets of questionable steel, or ordering directly from overseas — dealing with currency conversion, international shipping fees, multi-week wait times, and the customs lottery on arrival. For something I just wanted to mess around with at home, it felt ridiculous.

So I decided to make my own.

I didn’t set out to start a business. I set out to solve my own problem — get quality picks, built properly, without the overseas headache. But it turned out I wasn’t the only Australian picker who felt that way. Word got around. People started asking where they could get them. Orders came in. And what started as scratching my own itch quietly became Bare Bones Lock Picking.

The Steel Matters More Than You Think

Everything starts with the material, and on this point there’s no compromise at Bare Bones: 301 high-yield stainless steel, full stop.

This isn’t a marketing claim — it’s a practical one. Lock picks operate under real mechanical stress. Every time you apply tension to a lock and work a pick through a keyway, you’re flexing that steel repeatedly. Cheap picks — the kind often found in large budget import sets — are typically made from inferior alloys with a high iron content. They’re brittle. They take a set (meaning they bend and stay bent). They snap.

301 stainless steel has the combination of strength, flexibility, and corrosion resistance that the job demands. It’s the same spec used by professional-grade pick manufacturers worldwide, and it’s the minimum that makes a pick worth using long-term.

When you buy a Bare Bones pick, the steel spec is stated clearly. If you’re shopping elsewhere and the material isn’t disclosed — that’s your answer right there.

Full Tang. Every Time.

Every Bare Bones pick is full tang through the handle — meaning the steel runs the entire length of the pick, handle included. This matters for two reasons.

First, it’s structurally stronger. A pick that terminates at the base of the handle has a weak point right where stress concentrates during use. Full tang eliminates that.

Second, it means the pick and handle move as one unit, giving you direct, unfiltered feedback from the lock. When a pin sets, you feel it. That tactile feedback is everything in single pin picking — and a pick that deadens it through a poorly joined handle is a pick working against you.

Built for Australian Locks

This is the part that overseas manufacturers genuinely can’t replicate — the picks are designed with Australian keyways in mind.

The most common locks on Australian doors and padlocks — Lockwood cylinders, standard Australian pin tumblers — have specific keyway profiles. The thickness range Bare Bones stocks (15thou, 20thou, and 23thou) is built around what Australian pickers actually encounter, with 23thou as the recommended all-rounder for the wide keyways common in local hardware.

An overseas brand optimising for North American or European keyways is making picks for their market. Bare Bones is making picks for ours.

From Raw Steel to Finished Pick

The process starts with 301 stainless steel stock and ends with a finished pick ready to go into a kit or ship as a single. The profiles — hooks, rakes, deep hooks like the Three Bones collaboration series — are cut and finished to spec, inspected, and packaged in Australia.

The ‘plastic’ components — handles and cases — are made from DLP resin with a protective coating for long-term durability. Not cheap injection-moulded plastic, but material chosen specifically for longevity in everyday use.

There’s no offshore middleman in that chain. No mystery about what you’re getting or where it came from.

Why This Matters to You

You might be wondering why any of this is relevant to picking a lock. Fair question.

It matters because the pick is your only connection to what’s happening inside a lock. When you’re trying to feel a pin set at a shear line — a movement measured in fractions of a millimetre — the quality of the tool in your hand is the difference between feedback and silence. Between opening a lock and wondering why you’re not getting anywhere.

Good steel. Proper construction. Made for the locks you’re actually picking. That’s what Bare Bones is built on — and it’s what was missing from the Australian market when this whole thing started.

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