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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - May 7, 2007 - 09:01pm PT
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Steve, Here is a Chuck Wilts Knifeblade that he started making in 1950.
To show you how small it is, here is one with a Bedayn carabiner.
If you have seen the well known Tom Frost photo of Robbins sorting pins and drinking coffee prior to the second ascent of the Nose, You can see 5 or 6 Wilts Blades amongst the pitons.
Ken
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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I always wondered about those tiny verticals! I just assumed that they were soft iron wafers. Very cool item.
Can't remember how I came by the old angle. The base of the Captain has been very good to me! It likely came from there.
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Topic Author's Reply - May 8, 2007 - 12:53am PT
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One interesting thing is that Wilts did not use a forge, which means he milled all of his pitons from stock.
Ken
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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It would be interesting to find out if the availability of different alloy sheet steels around 1950 was the main driver behind inventing the Wilts' KB. The vertical type design probably posed lots of eye clearance problems on granite leading to the offset eye KB by Chouinard not long after. Lots of work to grind the taper on those little blades.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 17, 2007 - 11:42am PT
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Here is a photo of two KB's produced after the ones that I posted above.
You can easily see the roll forging marks becoming more refined as time advances. In addition, you can see evidence of the technical problems in producing the thin KB by forging alone. In order to maintain the thinner blade all the way to the eye contact point, it became necessary to begin roll forging the flat KB blank a little bit ahead. This unfortunately lead to a slight thinning of the eye itself (prior to the bending step) and eventually some grinding to achieve the desired blade thickness and taper without compromising strength. By 1968, "the blades are forged of aircraft quality alloy steel and have been masterfully ground by hand." Pictured also is a CMI blade which has been shaped and tapered exclusively by grinding.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 20, 2007 - 11:26pm PT
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Here is some antique funk a little more on the wider side. A 31/2" and 4" Longware thin steel bong.
These early bongs are very much like the original stoveleg design used on the Nose. Later designs, like the early 21/2" Chouinard aluminum alloy bong shown, tended to be longer by an inch or so and shaped to facilitate endwise placement.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Another thing about these is that the eyes are on the opposite side of where they usually are for Bugaboos.
Is the eye shape a lot different from other ~1965 Bugaboos?
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paralysis
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Steve, I'm wondering about the source of the story about Sheridan drawing the first "Diamond C." Did that come from Y.C. himself? It seems to me that Chouinard's logo was around before Sheridan appeared on the scene. That fits with the Diamond as a general label for master blacksmiths, but doesn't negate the story itself, especially if Sheridan knew that tradition. Just wondering...
Edit: Having re-read the Sheridan thread, I found that one source for the story was Galen Rowell's account in Mountain 25, and that he said that it took place in 1964 during the Chouinard's, Pratt's & Harding's Mt. Watkins climb. As a reference point, I have some Chouinard flame-cut bugaboos that were certainly made at the LATEST in 1963 and were produced several years earlier; these have the Diamond C stamped near the eye on the "inside" face of the blade. I have posted pix of those pins (Diamond C not visible) which I have on my desk now previously here: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1104287/Help-with-vintage-pitons. Any way, it doesn't appear to me that Sheridan actually created the Diamond C logo.
When did Sheridan's first climbing cartoon appear? Going thru the Sheridan thread, I found that 1964 seemed to have the first appearance of a Sheridan cartoon.
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