Filing picks- removing teeth

Behold, my inventory of picks

Picks like #3 are totally useless for anything -- even drytooling -- because the first tooth contacts the ice before the very tip does. 

Theoretically I feel it should be possible to recreate original the pick geometry, even once the "normal fileable area" is gone, as shown below.

I attempted this with picks #1 and 2. They perform well on drytooling. On ice, they perform better than before I removed the teeth. But still way worse than new picks; not good enough to lead anything but wi2. So far I didn't spend much time trying to make them perfectly sharp though. Should I spend more time trying to refine them, or just give up?

Do people usually just retire picks from ice climbing after the "normal fileable area" is gone, or has anyone successfully created a pick that's still good at ice climbing after removing teeth?

Also, at what point (if any) should I start removing teeth? When the picks look like #4 or #5 for example?

It really doesn't take much time to file off the entire "normal fileable area"... my pair of picks that were new this season (not pictured) are already getting close although I didn't bash them many times or overfile them. 

When my picks look like #4, I retire them. I want the piece of mind that comes with sharp picks that have plenty of life. Maybe it's too early in someone's opinion, but the piece of mind and security that comes with sharp picks that have a lot of life is worth it to me. 

I think you would get more life if you used a dremel with a chainsaw sharpening bit to carefully remove just a tooth when they get to 4 or 5, if you do it carefully you can get a good profile for about one more tooth... you definitely want to avoid moving the tip up, as soon as the teeth are able to lever the tip out you are pretty much done...

I don't sharpen until picks are pretty dull unless I'm climbing something really hard, I usually replace probably just a bit after your #5, and I go through 2-3 sets of picks a season, if you climb thin stuff they are a disposable item... 

I was broke and climbed on a pick like 3 for a while. Its not good.

Looking at your pictures I see lots of geometry changes as you're filing down. It *should* be possible to keep everything about the same and just make things shorter, including the needed tooth removal when the time comes. But in the photos it appears that a lot of material is being removed from the bottom, the angle of the tip becomes more acute, and the angle under the tip becomes less acute. I think if you focused more on keeping geometry as similar as possible, and possibly less on absolute sharpness, you'd get more life out of them. My experience with this isn't from picks, but from knives, where sometimes you can just bring the edge back into shape, but if you only do that you'll eventually change the geometry unless you start thinning the blade and moving the shinogi line (idk if it has a name in english... the intersection of the large bevel and the flat of a blade). So sometimes "sharpening" means reprofiling to keep the same geometry.

a bit ot but you may get more life out of your picks by replacing stock with aftermarket.  not sure what the driving factor is, but i got the sense that my stock picks on nomics and (old) quantum techs (grivel) were not as durable as the picks i currently use (kruks for nomics and steinle for xdreams).  that may be because of the material/hardening and/or the fact that these picks are so expensive that i'm loathe to abuse them...

Ellen S wrote:

Behold, my inventory of picks

Picks like #3 are totally useless for anything -- even drytooling -- because the first tooth contacts the ice before the very tip does. 

Theoretically I feel it should be possible to recreate original the pick geometry, even once the "normal fileable area" is gone, as shown below.

I attempted this with picks #1 and 2. They perform well on drytooling. On ice, they perform better than before I removed the teeth. But still way worse than new picks; not good enough to lead anything but wi2. So far I didn't spend much time trying to make them perfectly sharp though. Should I spend more time trying to refine them, or just give up?

Do people usually just retire picks from ice climbing after the "normal fileable area" is gone, or has anyone successfully created a pick that's still good at ice climbing after removing teeth?

Also, at what point (if any) should I start removing teeth? When the picks look like #4 or #5 for example?

It really doesn't take much time to file off the entire "normal fileable area"... my pair of picks that were new this season (not pictured) are already getting close although I didn't bash them many times or overfile them. 

The reason your sharpened picks #1&#2 suck on ice is because they are displacing more ice. They're thicker and taller. Not only that but the effective pick angle is changed to slightly steeper.

If you're climbing soft ice, it's OK but on hard brittle ice a new pick will always penetrate better.

I start to remove the first tooth once I'm about half way through the tip. Once the tip is down to the original first tooth [compare with new pick], I junk it or keep it as a spare.