Home Made Hardware
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- Someone was experimenting in the garage and came up with this monster! A really heavy chain link welded onto some thick angle iron.
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- At least the weld is nice.
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- Someone was experimenting in the garage and came up with this monster! A really heavy chain link welded onto some thick angle iron.
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- Neat looking but probably wouldn’t work very well… maybe as a tent peg!
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- Someone was experimenting in the garage and came up with this monster! A really heavy chain link welded onto some thick angle iron.
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- The designer took the time to angle the tip and finish the edges.
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- Simple angle iron “knifeblade” piton. This Piton was cut out of 90 degree angle stock and finished to resemble an early Chouinard type blade. It has no “springiness” to the steel so its holding power would probably be marginal at best.
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- Simple angle iron “knifeblade” piton. This Piton was cut out of 90 degree angle stock and finished to resemble an early Chouinard type blade. It has no “springiness” to the steel so its holding power would probably be marginal at best.
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- Simple angle iron “knifeblade” piton. This Piton was cut out of 90 degree angle stock and finished to resemble an early Chouinard type blade. It has no “springiness” to the steel so its holding power would probably be marginal at best.
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- Simple angle iron “knifeblade” piton. This Piton was cut out of 90 degree angle stock and finished to resemble an early Chouinard type blade. It has no “springiness” to the steel so its holding power would probably be marginal at best.
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- A simple vertical piton cut out of plate steel.
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- A simple vertical piton cut out of plate steel.
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- A simple vertical piton cut out of plate steel. Very rough and unfinished.
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- All Three for size comparison.
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- Top: A bit of angled steel welded to a washer! Bottom: A large “StoveLeg” commissioned by late great desert pioneer Harvey T. Carter
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- A short piece of angle iron welded to a washer! Pretty Funny!
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- Rear view
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- This thing is kind of funny. I guess you could call it “folk art”
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- Top Left: A home made aluminum hanger sized for a quarter inch split shaft. Top Right: A simple home made steel rivet hanger also for a quarter inch rivet. Bottom: Eiger oval
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- Made of fairly thin aluminum angle stock, this hanger would worry me even with just body weight on it.
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- A home made “strap style” hanger. I have come across a few of these on rivet ladders in Colorado. They are strong enough for the occasional rivet ladder but I would not want to arrive at a belay featuring only these things.
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- Left: A home made galvanized 3/4 inch angle. Totally useless. Center: Eiger oval carabiner Right: A modified Army ring angle piton. Cut off and shaped for use in holes and shallow placements. These things are actually pretty handy in the desert.
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- A home made galvanized steel angle piton. Too soft for anything but it looks like someone once tried to nail it into something.
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- Detail of the deformed tip
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- The eye and striking surface are bonded together but I am not sure how
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- Modified ring angle
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- Top: Chouinard 3/4 inch angle Second Down: Galvanized angle Third Down: Modified ring angle Bottom: Chouinard 1/2 inch angle
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- A modified RURP “hatchet” and Eiger oval
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- Detail of a modified RURP “hatchet” for very specialized uses in ultra thin cracks. Before Birdbeaks and Pecker type pitons were available climbers sometimes tried to adapt RURPs into thin hooking pitons. The success of these experiments can be debated.
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- “Hatchet” compared to a standard size RURP
The art of making your own equipment is largely forgotten today. There was once a time when quality climbing gear either wasn’t readily available or didn’t come in the sizes or shapes climbers needed for their pioneering climbs.
Many of the pieces of gear we consider essential today were originally created in a shop or foundry by climbers who saw a need, or had a radical new idea, and shaped their dreams into working realities. Chouinard and Frost designed and innovated much of what made the early golden age of American climbing possible. In 1972 Lowe worked out the principles of camming devices. In 1978 Jardines Friends first emerged from a Colorado shop to be secretly tested in the smooth cracks of Yosemite and talked about in hushed tones around campfires and parking lots. Bill Forrest explored many different ideas in passive protection and continued to design innovative outdoor equipment his entire life. These guys had many amazing successes and a few crazy failures but they worked things out and now their contributions are used everyday by climbers all over the world.
At one time, climbers were much more willing to use equipment they themselves had made. Climbers tied their own swami belts, or placed machine nuts they collected and lovingly filed down, or even pounded wooden wedges into cracks for protection. Now we can find almost everything we need online or in our local mountain shop. These pieces were built mostly for fun and not out of necessity but at least the DIY spirit lives on.