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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

> So far, I’ve only managed to score a couple, but I know of people who can’t seem to stop finding them. I guess it’s the same people who always seem to find pennies when they are walking around.

I don’t find pennies, but the first lock picks I made I made from street cleaner bristles someone gave me. I’d never seen one before up close, but since that day I’ve been unable to not find them and pick them up, typically one or two a week. Except that day I was working really late and when I looked at the empty parking lot as the sun rose and the ground flashed at me :-)

The same thing happened with four leaf clovers: a friend claimed they are reasonably common and we went out to a lawn and looked. Within a couple of days I’d trained my brain to detect them as I walk around.

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I don't recall ever seeing something like this so I wanted to know what they look like. Here's a short video that shows a guy walking around looking for them. He also talks briefly about some uses he has for them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DOwMr_T4_A

Huh, street sweeper bristles are metal?

The ones I've seen are either metal (black ones) or very hard plastic (blue).

>very hard plastic (blue).

mmm... microplastics

That is correct. Decades ago, my cousin was into recreational lock-picking, and it turns out the bristles are perfect for machining into such tools.

EDIT - whoops, I stand corrected, metal or plastic.

Recommended by the MIT guide to lock picking - https://www.lysator.liu.se/mit-guide/MITLockGuide.pdf page 44

They are no that great because they rust. Windshield wiper blades are a much better metal. And you can find tons of them just going to an auto store parking lot after a rain.

Quite often, yes! I sometimes collect them for making lockpicks and other small tools (a common practice!)

> I’d never seen one before up close, but since that day I’ve been unable to not find them and pick them up, typically one or two a week.

Same. At a previous HOPE, I'd mentioned to someone in the lockpicking village that I had never been able to find them, despite living in a city with weekly street sweeping. We walked outside and promptly found 10 or so. As you say, after you know what they look like, and where they usually are, you can't help but see them!

Quite a lot of windshield wipers have metal inserts with the same properties & dimensions. Perfect to open your older car when you forgot the keys inside.

Four leaf clovers are a mutation, so if you find a couple you are likely to find a bunch more in close locales.

I received an old terracotta pot with some succulents a while back that also had some clovers growing in it. One day I noticed a 4-leaf clover, then another, any another all in the same pot. The next day my black cat had eaten them all, but that’s another story. Two years later and the same pot still regularly produces 4-leaf clovers while the other nearby pots only seem to ever produce the normal 3-leaf variety.

Wait, those thin metal with loops on one end? Those are street cleaner bristles?

Thanks. I always wondered what those are. Now I know.

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