I'm somewhat of an inexperienced dowser, but have been experimenting with some different pendulums for the past few years and am interested in hearing fellow dowsers experiences on which pendulums are your favorite?  Do you seem to have better luck with a certain type/style of pendulum?  Do you think the effectiveness of the pendulum is relative to the different materials/compositions, the difference of commercial vs. handcrafted, shape/size, the length of your string or chain.... it would seem that all of these things can be factors in how effective the results of dowsing can be.  

Personally, my favorite/most effective one is a commercial wooden, reverse teardrop shaped pendulum which is hollow and has a compartment that you can fill with whatever you want.  I filled with several chips of different semi precious stones which I picked out.  I think picking out the stones I wanted and making that a part of the pendulum probably helped in it's effectiveness, but at least one friend of mine who dowses also has a wooden pendulum which is their favorite.  I've tried several others, both commercial and handmade from all different kinds of materials ranging from paperclips to clay to stone.  Mostly I've experimented with different types of stones, crystals, and metal.  My wooden one always seems to be the one I connect to easiest and strongest, though.  Also, generally speaking I definitely get more clarity when using a shorter length of string.

What have your experiences been with different types of pendulums?