Gentlemen, sharpen your picks!

[glauber]

I got a diamond knife sharpener file yesterday, to experiment with bevelling picks. I put a small bevel in an Ultex 1.14 triangle pick, and it seems to have improved it a little. I'm wondering how many players put bevels in their picks, and what parameters they use, what shape they're aiming for.

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[Eugene]

I like the old Neapolitan shape of plectrum that are entirely unavailable in the US unless you have one custom made of Tor-tis. #To satiate my cravings, I buy Clayton's 0.8 mm thick large triangles of Ultem gold. #I cut them to the shap I like (essentially a typical teardrop, but very long, spanning the whole length of the triangle). #I finish the shape with a coarse emery board and buff and bevel the edges with a multi-stage cosmetic nail buffer. #I definitely like the bevel on the point.

My bowlback isn't Tupperware!

[John Flynn]

I have a little pen-sized diamond sharpener made by "EZE-LAP" of Westminster, CA. It has a groove in it that is supposed to be for sharpening fishhooks. I finish/refinish pick edges with it. Contrary to what you would expect, it does not put a really sharp edge on a pick. It does put a kind of micro-fine rounded edge on it, which I like a lot. I have used it on a lot of picks, but it works particularly well on my fave, the Ultex 1.0 teardrop. I don't work on the Ultex's when they are new. I like the edge they come with. But after I play them for a while, the edges get rough spots and nicks. The fish hook sharpener brings them back to the edge they had when they were new.

[AlanN]

For me, just playing the mandolin with my fave pick puts whatever edge I need on the thing.

[glauber]

I have a little pen-sized diamond sharpener made by "EZE-LAP" of Westminster, CA. It has a groove in it that is supposed to be for sharpening fishhooks.
I think that's what i got too.

[acousticphd]

I just started trying this and it's still an experiment. I use a couple different grades of sandpaper followed by buffing using a series of squares cut from Home Depot-type buffing pads. Initially I experimented with modifying point sharpness on Golden Gate picks, but recently I also put a slight bevel on several of the "points". Not too extreme, just maybe working back ~2mm from the edge. It seems beveling sharpens the tone just a bit, but I haven't formed an opinion of whether I like it better or not. I haven't been able to get the surfaces as perfectly smooth as originally, and the rougher surface makes detectably more pick noise.

I also just bought a couple of those ultrahard wood picks (lignum vitae, whatever that is) from Surfpicks. These had only one finished point, with the rest just roughed out and and much thicker, about 2-3 mm in the center. I worked the points down to where they were a little sharper and more beveled than the regular Golden Gate. On the first couple trials, I thought I liked the wood better, but after swapping back and forth, I'm not sure any more. The stock GG, maybe with a little beveling, seems to be my preference so far.

[Bob A]

I have a few Santos Supreme picks from the thirties. They were made with a sort of chisel-pointed bevel on the main point, which is good for a bright treble. I mainly use the two other more rounded points, and the pick is a close approximation of the proscribed tortoise picks.

Sadly the supply of Santos picks is even more limited than the more illegal types.

[mandolooter]

I used to bevel mine pick until a local instructor/picker said she just rounds her's evenly. I gave it a try and found without the beveled edge it did seem to work better, especially for tremolo which Im very fond of and use a lot in my playing. #As a side note after a few weeks of playing I have to reshape to REMOVE the naturally occuring bevel the pick takes on from string contact. Her reasoning was with the bevel a certain pick angle must be maintained to reap the bennies and without thats not necessary. All in all its not a real big deal either way with the most important thing being a nice smooth and polished area where the pick makes contact with the strings. #A quick buffing with those nail file thingies will do wonders to just about any pick. YMMV

[G_Smolt]

I used to maintain the perfectly rounded edge on my picks, sometimes refinishing them after 4-5 hours of play...

I started recently experimenting with beveling, starting with the "propellor" effect that AlanN talks about. I would wear the heck out of one corner of the pick, then duplicate that bevel on the other 2 points...Worked pretty well. Now I get a consistent, reproducible tone with whichever corner I happen to be gripping.

My newest fave pick is a 2.1mm TS "slab", sanded level, but unfinished on all but the beveled points. Even there I left some texture. Normally, after a 200-400-600grit sequence, I would continue with 1000 then rouge on a buffing wheel, but this time I stopped at 600 and "Buffed" using a thick cotton material (...okay, I used the side of my Futon). By "picking" on the cotton material, i buffed out the playing surfaces of the pick.

So far, I really like this pick. I get a good, heavy attack on singles, nice glide on doublestops, and good tremelo "swish" when I need it...IMHO, this is due to both the thickness of the pick as well as the beveling consistent with my normal pickstroke.

Give beveling a shot...use a cheap pick first http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[GeoMandoAlex]

I try and bevel my mock tortis picks simiar to the Wegen picks. Can't quite get the right bevel, but I'm having fun tyring to get it and they don't sound to bad either.