Possibly Ray's friend with the Fairy Liquid bottle picks just stocked up. The bagpipe maker Julian Goodacre makes his reeds out of a particular pot used for a local brand of cottage cheese. Once he'd found the perfect pot, he contacted the factory and bought several hundred of them, enough to last the rest of his life's production.

The best types of industrial strapping I ever found for oud and cümbüş picks aren't made any more but I stocked up, I have yards of it.