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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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ec,
> Was that Ron who you sold it back too? I gave him that hammer and it was used on Angel Wings and Tehipite FA's. I was bummed when he told me he sold it.
Yes, I sold it back to Ron. Back where it belonged!
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Moof
Big Wall climber
A cube at my soul sucking job in Oregon
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Acer,
Probably half of all wall gear simply never makes it outdoors. A lot of ambitions fall flat, or folks gearing up for their once in a lifetime trip hook up with a partner that already has the requisite gear. I think in the case of A5 hammers, timing corresponds to the tail end of heavy pin use. Probably a lot of folks got nice hammers only to find that their old topo calling for 10 bongs was outmoded by Friends and Camalots.
Just my guess. Even having done a few walls, my hammer has barely been swung, and even then mostly at the local crag replacing bolts more than anything. Same with a lot of my gear. Lots of stuff gets bought only to end up in the reject bin, the aging heap, or the closet of shame.
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Thorgon
Big Wall climber
Sedro Woolley, WA
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But unused what a sin!
Thor
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SGropp
Mountain climber
Eastsound, Wa
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cragnshag, that new hammer in the photos look like a French style blacksmiths hammer. The full width cross peen is the give away. I've got a whole set of them up to about 4 lbs head weight.
With some regrinding and reforging and new heat treat these would be a good basis to make a great wall hammer from.
Hammer geometry , weight and balance are critical in a hammer that functions as it should. A hammer is a hell of a lot more than a rock on a stick. I'm a blacksmith by trade and have over a hundred hammers, each one works best for it's specific purpose.
The best wall hammers I ever used were the [ early 70s] heavy Chouinard crag hammer or the Charlet Moser with the steel sleeve below the head. The long pick of the crag hammer worked great for pulling pins out like nails after they had been loosened with a few well placed blows. With a tooth filed in the end of the pick, it also was handy for the occasional drytooling move on alpine rock.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Why are there so many hammers that are UNUSED?!?!?
I've recently done a few new routes. I've placed approx 357 large 1/2" x 6-1/4 or 1/2" x 7" Stainless wedge anchors.
Like the large one below:
Needed a hammer for every one of them. The rock below is representative of it. That one was done with just slings, a few nuts and a cam though, no bolts. Ground up solo. Originally I just left that black sling there to rap off of, but we decided to put in an anchor on top later for other folks. But lots of the other routes have gotten various amounts of bolts for pro s there's not cracks out here, just knobby conglomerate type rock.
Same with the 40 Stainless Fixe anchors that I used 3/8 x 6-1/2 stainless wedge anchors for. Like these.
However, I just couldn't bring myself to take a near new A5 hammer to bang in any of those bolts. While drilling I dropped the sweet A5 blow tube 300' and it disappeared into the woods never to be seen again (the one that came with the Hurricane hand drill) and it was so painful that I couldn't chance dropping a hammer. I used the 2 bigger hammers I had which were already pretty well used: a Forrest Wall Hammer (longer handle version), and the heavy version Kong Eagle.
That's buddy the bong smokin' bear up there holding it in and trying not to cough:-)
Hope that answers your question from my view anyway. BTW, I have 2 Chouinard's and a BD Yos hammer not pictured. I usually grab the BD to pound pins as it's a good size and most importantly, replaceable.
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Thorgon
Big Wall climber
Sedro Woolley, WA
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Dang, great collection of hammers Couch!!!
Thor
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Thanks Thorgon! I'm pretty sure there's more someplace. Like back in the 80s I loaned a sweet Forrest Wall Hammer to a buddy to go to Yos and do some walls. About 7 years later after a few reminders every couple of years I got it back. It was so difficult for dude to part with as he'd fallen in love, that I bought this one on ebay and permaloaned the other one back to him. I'm suppose to get it back when he dies.
It's the middle one in this pic
It looked much better before I loaned it out. Notice that the top Moljiner wasn't in the top picture either. I have all the picks for it and it's in perfect condition.
I bought that saw blade and was going to grind and fit it so I could have a cleaning tool. However, it was so perfect I couldn't pull the trigger and trash it.
Top:
I wound up using a Stubai tool, the red one in my hand: that is now pretty trashed:
Regards:
Bill
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