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richard_noggin

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I think the progression on the Friends can be best seen in what kind of nut secures the ends of the axle. Mine were all stolen in the late 80's in front of my now wife's house. Always had them double slinged East coast style for horizontals and never had a complaint except for a #3 that exploded into a million pieces in Eldo once. Good thing it was backed up by a bomb nut.

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No markings on these very early models other than the slightly askew:

 

FRIEND

PATENT PENDING

MADE IN ENGLAND

 

Additionally, as you can see, the location of the size stamp and orientation of script varied.

 

I sent a second set (#1-#3) of these to Stephane in Corsica last year for his collection.

 

Models earlier than these were likely given/bartered/sold directly from Mr. Jardine and known accomplices...

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  • 1 month later...
I went to jtree with some young punks from the gym. We stopped in at the climbing store where they have a museum wall of old hexes and rigid stem cams (friends). My buddies pulled me over, saying, hey, Mark, how come they got your rack on the wall? Honestly though, the only friend I still carry is my 4. It's a great fit between the 3 and 4 camalot if you are on a long offwidth like Moby Dick in the valley.

 

Young punks?! ahhhh come on ol Marky! hell they had your rack, knee pads,old tape gloves and all dangling up there on the manikin with a sign that said please don't litter in our parks nicely hanging from its neck ^_^ Just kiddin so when you going to post some pictures of the valuables up here?

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Austin, didn't know you could access this site from China! Yeah, you were a young punk back then...18 and never placed trad gear...look at you now. They've already got pictures of my rack up here...even older friends than mine.

 

Gear is cool. In twenty years, your camalots will be old gear, and you will be the old timer. Come visit me in the nursing home, and bring some whiskey.

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  • 4 months later...

Finally got around to scanning this old slide. I'm sure the wooden piton is even older than the slide is, probably by quite a bit. But I guess you never know for sure.

 

We came across it while climbing something in the Chamonix area, I couldn't tell you what it was we were on any more though.

 

[img:left]http://www.snowman-jim.org/climbing/gallery2/d/1767-1/wood-piton.jpg[/img]

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When Greg Lowe designed the split or fan cam, it was acutally based on a bucket retreaval device that folks in old old England used when the rope attached to the bucket fell into the well and they had to get the bucket out. Good to see one of those things still around. Thanks for the pic.

Edited by Climb X
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