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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 29, 2007 - 11:44pm PT
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Steve, I have only one Wilts knifeblade and it is pretty small. I would be interested to see what you have.
Ray, We are redoing our website and I have been adding content for the last month and a half. I will let you know when it is up.
Ken
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Apr 29, 2007 - 11:47pm PT
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Great Ken.
Also, Steve I want to admit I did not know the Sheridan Anderson part of the diamond C story, thanks for informing me - pretty cool.
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 29, 2007 - 11:53pm PT
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Ray, I do think that Salathe made the over size biners. Ames was the company that made climbing equipment for the military during World War II. I have at least one aluminum Ames biner and it is about the same size as the Bedayn biners.
Ken
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Apr 29, 2007 - 11:57pm PT
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Best of luck with all your archive/museum related efforts Ken. Great stuff.
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john hansen
climber
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Apr 30, 2007 - 12:45am PT
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Hey Ken, thanks for the tour. The Higher Cathedral album compiled by Richard Leonard et al is an amazing historical document. The Salathe stuff was incredible to see and actually hold in my own hands.
The one story and artifact that really impressed me for it's provenance was the one bolt that Robbins placed on the Muir Wall route on the second ascent and the first solo of a El Cap route.
I'm not mentioning this to "put down ' Robbins at all, he was one of the most ethically pure climbers ever ,,it's just a great story,,eight days into the route, trying to place a rurp that keeps popping and finally in desperation placing a bolt( the only one he ever placed on an existing route).
And then the fact that whoever finally replaced it realized the significance of the piece and saved it for prosperity.
When I told my sister, a non climber,, this tale,and that I actually saw and held this bolt, she said it gave her goose bumps .
An outsider could see all your boxes of strange bits of Iron and steel, and odd bolt hangers, as just a bunch of junk. But a hundred years from now the stories and history behind them will make these already incredible items ,priceless .
Keep up the great work.
PS How did it go with Robin Hansen?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 30, 2007 - 12:46am PT
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I have a Bedayn biner that was hanging on a single bolt station on Mother's Lament long ago.
Here are the KBs. Eyeshape much like an early Chouinard. Any similarity to yours, Ken?
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 30, 2007 - 08:56am PT
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Steve,
Those are beautiful! The one I have is a little smaller than the smallest one you have and is a wafer type pin. It does not have the angled eye. It is currently mounted in a display. I will post a picture when I can.
Ken
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Apr 30, 2007 - 10:11am PT
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yeah, those are beauties!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 30, 2007 - 11:27am PT
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I have a feeling that these might be early run Chouinards but one can always hope with no stamp. Of course, no stamp could also mean a second if the concept existed forty years ago. I'll have to ask Tom Frost next time that I see him. Have you ever seen another three hole bolt hanger like the Dolt one that I posted a while ago?
How much display space are you working with currently Ken? I will have to stop by this season and say hello. I might have a few goodies for you of my own.
Thanks again for posting this stuff
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 30, 2007 - 12:06pm PT
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Hi Steve,
I didn't see the Dolt hanger you mentioned. Do you remember which thread it is posted on?
Those pitons are very unique looking. I have not seen a pin with those bevels on the blade.
NPS has given me permission to do two different displays this year by the Visitor Center. This fall I am going to put a Glen Denny photo exhibit next to the Indian Museum. I also have the O.K. to display artifacts and photos in the same area for the summer of 2008. DNC is also interested in having displays at various other areas around the Valley. All this stuff takes time and money. I have worked for free for the last fifteen years on this and spent over $35,000.00 of my own money.
I look forward to meeting you. We have met briefly a few times in the past though I doubt you would remember.
Ken
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scuffy b
climber
The town that Nature forgot to hate
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Apr 30, 2007 - 12:07pm PT
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I've seen some of Chuck Wilts' knifeblades. He went for really
tiny blades in some instances.
There was an article by him in the Sierra Club book [h]Belaying
The Leader[/h] which gave detailed instructions on their
construction. He recommended making vertical rather than
horizontal pitons (all in one plane). I suspect most of what he
made was vertical.
Anyhow, his really small ones had a blade about the size of the
RURP. The biggest difference is that his had a head big enough
for an eye that would take a carabiner.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 30, 2007 - 12:47pm PT
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So, do Wilts KB's lack an offset eye configuration then? My recollection is otherwise. Any chance Janet Wilts is still a ranger in Yosemite? She was around twenty years ago and might have a few Blades laying around.
Bolts from the Wayback Machine and Welcome to Kevin Worral are two threads with photos of that three hole Dolt goodie.
Have you ever approached the Sierra Club about using the LeConte memorial building as a climbing museum at least in part? What better way to remember LeConte as a climber?
Any Charlie Porter hatchet head rurps in your holdings for show and tell?
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Apr 30, 2007 - 04:39pm PT
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I was thinking about the knifeblade, wondering if it is (one of) the oldest technical climbing designs still made, one sought after and used in its (essentially) original configuration - in other words the most long lived (unchanged) design in the sport?
Just a thought.
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 30, 2007 - 05:02pm PT
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Ray,
Salathe's Arrow design hasn't changed much.
Ken
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Does this look like a match on the Wilts' KB on the bottom? Both pins have a Holubar stamp but the upper one is soft iron I believe. The reversing corners pitch on Astroman had one of these dainty ring piton as crucial pro when I did it long ago. Still there anyone?
I think the longevity of design award goes to the horizontal for sure. Pictured are a soft iron vertical and horizontal piton top and bottom with my oldest Chouinard Lost Arrow in the middle.
A selection of soft iron pitons. The plated ring angle still has an REI 65 cent price tag on it.
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - May 6, 2007 - 10:53am PT
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Steve,
I sent you an email about the Blades. The earliest Chouinard Arrows have just a diamond C stamp. I will post a picture of a Wilts Blade soon.
Ken
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Just a few more odds and ends from the past.
From the top down; an 1 1/2" angle showing the largest product stamp Chouinard equipment used, a vintage Clog angle, a very early Chouinard angle showing the smallest and most primtive diamond C (no USA below) and lastly an early 1 1/2" aluminum angle with no visable stamp (homemade?).
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Thanks for the update Walleye.
Charles Cole and I got pulled over by a Ranger one day. Charles was driving and asked what the stop was about and received a load of attitude from the abrupt officer. Having stonewalled to the point of real tension, he finally called in Charles' information. The woman on the other end of the radio calmly asked the ranger to repeat the information before adding with a slight giggle, "say hello for me will you?" The transition to Mr. Nice was so quick that I remained pissed off but we were off the hook. Thanks to Janet, the dispatcher that day!
Ken- Does the stamp on the old 1" angle resemble the blacksmith's found on the oldest Lost Arrows that you've seen?
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - May 6, 2007 - 07:32pm PT
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Yes Steve that is the stamp that he used. He has the stamp special made and it is hammered into the piton before it is hardened and tempered. I bet that angle is one that he made.
Ken
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Good story Steve; Janet is a cut up.
I met her when she sort of, maybe dated Bartlett.
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