Home made picks.

You could simply smash your fingers with a hammer and save yourself the trouble of climbing with a mojlnar...

Thank you! While working on this I regretted not having purchased an alpine pick off of eBay. In little used condition for $25. It went quick. 

Glad you found one. If you want to try a different style, let me know. Here are a few different ones, all unused:

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

You could simply smash your fingers with a hammer and save yourself the trouble of climbing with a mojlnar...

Nick, I know about smashing fingers ice climbing. That’s how you learn not to.

My first winter ice lead was a Grade 4, with a 70cm Chouinard Piolet and a gen 2 Chouinard Alpine hammer. My friend Bill was my belayer, and Ron Kauk and Charlie Porter were my audience.  
Actually it was my first winter ice climb period. And my knuckles did bloody my Dachstein mitts a bit. 

It was Ron’s first time ice climbing at all. I think he used Charlie’s tools, a pair of “Porterdactyl’s”. They were, of course, made by Charlie. Probably right about 40cm long, the shafts were hexagonal aluminum stock with lightening holes drilled in them, picks drooped like Terrordactyls, but longer. They climbed a very similar parallel line to mine and Bill’s. The day was all Charlie’s brainchild, and a good one. 1975?

ME student here, from limited experience with materials science labs.

It depends if you want to drytool or ice climb, and how often you want to sharpen your picks. If you want something harder go higher heat then faster quench (water/saltwater). If you want something more ductile so you can bend a pick rather than break it, go with slower quench (oil or air quench).

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Houghton Gremlin wrote:

If you want something harder go higher heat then faster quench (water/saltwater). If you want something more ductile so you can bend a pick rather than break it, go with slower quench (oil or air quench).

The hardness and toughness you will get from a given heat-and-quench depends significantly on the material.  Some materials are specifically intended for air quenching (such as AX tool steels).  Many other materials are not.  Oil and water quenching will give varying levels of hardness and are not always a super predictable process.  Blanket advice such as "oil or air quench for a ductile result" isn't really applicable across the wide range of applicable steels.

Tempering is frequently used when you want to achieve a target hardness, and is done after quenching to allow grains to reform, reducing hardness and increasing toughness.  Tempering is probably a more common, and certainly much more repeatable process for achieving a desired hardness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempering_(metallurgy)

Honestly Yo just buy yourself some modern tools and spare yourself the trip to Steadman Clinic

Guess I will close this thing. Thanks to those that made helpful posts.