Slightly bent pick-can I bend it back?

I climbed some thin ice today and ended up bashing rocks a bunch of times. One of my picks is bent about 10 degrees at the tip. Is bending it back to its normal shape advisable, or is this pick likely permanently damaged? This is one of the new BD hot forged picks for reference.

Jeez. Yes, but I wouldn't trust it. In fact, I would send it back

Alex Fischerwrote:

I climbed some thin ice today and ended up bashing rocks a bunch of times. One of my picks is bent about 10 degrees at the tip. Is bending it back to its normal shape advisable, or is this pick likely permanently damaged? This is one of the new BD hot forged picks for reference.

I slam my petzl picks straight with a hammer all the time. It hasn't killed me yet and saves me $$$ 

What's funny is the tip looks to be still quite sharp. I suspect there was more than a little pick torquing going on to do that. 

Gunkiemikewrote:

What's funny is the tip looks to be still quite sharp. I suspect there was more than a little pick torquing going on to do that. 

You can't tell from the photo but the tip is actually very dull. This was definitely from bashing rocks, not twisting the pick to remove it.

You can bend it back, but then I would designate that pic for sport drytooling.  Wouldn’t lead anything “real” on them.
Funny story, back in the day, Kyle Dempster was working a route in a cave in Utah with a huge torque moves. He had a pile of picks, would crank hard on the tools and bend a pick, and when he came back to the ground changed it out. At home he would pound them all back straight again, then go back to the same cave to work the route and start again with a fresh pile of picks. At least that’s the story I was told.

On my drytool home wall I have bent picks, I just leav them in a pile and straighten them back when I get to it and torque away again the next session. 

Slightly off topic, but definitely related...

Has anyone had a pick suddenly fail while actually pulling on it ?    I’ve had several fail/break over the years but I’ve only noticed after the fact, when it was hard to place - only then I notice I have half a pick.  

(Maybe I don’t want to know the answer, lol)

Mark Pilatewrote:

Slightly off topic, but definitely related...

Has anyone had a pick suddenly fail while actually pulling on it ?    I’ve had several fail/break over the years but I’ve only noticed after the fact, when it was hard to place - only then I notice I have half a pick.  

(Maybe I don’t want to know the answer, lol)

I once fell off of a drytooling route because because beak snapped off my kruk picks

My humming bird pick in 86 I saw it break. filming a segment for local TV I had to hang out in the crux of a grade 4 pillar  soloing while the camera guy changed batteries.   I was a bit pumped and did not do the delicate cleaning move that those picks required..   the 4 BD picks that  broke  I never noticed them break. just couldnt get the tool to stick and then noticed the pick was broken. 

Try putting it in rice?

spaceman laflare wrote:

switch to grivel 

Grivel picks are the only ones I’ve ever broken, and I broke several. That was back in the mid to late 90s, though, and after that the problem seemed go away.