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wstmrnclmr
Trad climber
Bolinas, CA
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Mar 12, 2013 - 10:24pm PT
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Cool thread...Never seen it till now. I climbed with Eben a lot through-out the 90s (I remember climbing with Ron O and Eben back then one day at Donner. Eben showed me one of the cams he made back then. He is a truly gifted machinest but he never claimed to have designed the friend.
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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Mar 13, 2013 - 04:35am PT
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telemon01: your micro ¾ perfectly matches the micro ½ that I have in the Nuts Museum (photograph in a previous post above). It is carefully crafted and… would be a wonderful addition to the collection… I do not have any information about who really made these micros. What I’m sure is that they were not manufactured by Dave Altman, Rob Oravetz and Eben Stromquist. Both small and large cams made by Altman / Oravetz / Stromquist were copied and produced “in mass” by people with access to better machining capabilities. Your little wonder is one of the later copies.
scuffy b: no doubt at all… your small cam is an original Associate! May I tell you that this treasure would find a good home here in Corsica, close to its big brother #6…
Anyway, I thank scuffy b and telemon01 for posting the photographs of these magnificent little cams.
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FTOR
Sport climber
CA
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:42pm PT
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bookcase versions of our first gen cams. enjoy.
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WBraun
climber
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:48pm PT
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Yeah they're beauties !!!!
Plus if you didn't have those small sizes back then you couldn't lead "cosmic debris" on sight ....... :-)
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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Mar 13, 2013 - 12:55pm PT
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So FTOR... you found them again... Absolutely splendid!
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FTOR
Sport climber
CA
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Mar 13, 2013 - 01:21pm PT
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unfortunately, i have no idea where these are now. found old slides taken when we were making them. i suspect they're in eben's bookcase but it's been many years since we've last connected.
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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Jun 16, 2014 - 06:04am PT
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I received this carefully made ¾ “Friend”, in very nice condition, from Dana Bartlett this morning. This camming unit was made by Steve Jones. Steve was originally from Western Massachusetts – a very talented climber and skilled with tools, as well. He was an avid Yosemite climber in the late '70s and early '80s, and he made several hundred of these units and sold many of them in Yosemite at that time. Interesting to note that many of the home-made “Friends” did not have grooves in the cam lobes. Steve told that Wild Country made the cams grooved simply to make them appear as if they would grip. He put plastic coating on the trigger wires. I imagine there are some Supertopo members that bought one or two, or at least heard of them.
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FTOR
Sport climber
CA
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Jun 16, 2014 - 06:57pm PT
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as they say imitation is the highest form of flattery. (thanks big ray). i would put these in that category as many knocked off our little associates. but hundreds available for sale during that time period seems a bit of a stretch. i was pretty active in the valley scene then and barely selling my somewhat limited production runs off as is. i don't recall seeing any of these going around, at least in the valley, and i would have...
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wstmrnclmr
Trad climber
Bolinas, CA
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Jun 17, 2014 - 07:00pm PT
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FTOR....I climbed with Eben last summer after a few years of him taking time off. I told him I had my gear stolen so he told me he'd get his gear out. When I showed up, he had all the cams he'd made out and ready to go! I think yours are still in his bookcase in Fairfax and I can certainly find out as we keep in touch. You, he and I climbed Neanderthal dudes in the mid 90's in Tahoe. I have pics somewhere......
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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Jun 19, 2014 - 06:38am PT
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Is there anybody on Supertopo who remembers the person that made the Micros? To date, it is still a great mystery for me.
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FTOR
Sport climber
CA
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Jun 19, 2014 - 10:49am PT
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hey wstmrnclmr, ran into eben for the first time in many years at biw recently, seems to be doing well, will have to stop by next time i hit tamarancho... the maker of the stamped micro above was thrown out up thread, but not anyone i knew at the time.
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enigma
Trad climber
Sedalia, Colorado
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Just to clear things up a bit on these cams, I made and sold about 400 of them over a 2 year period in the early 80s. Even sold a few John Bachar one night in Lower Pines campground. Saw a picture of Ron Kauk once with one on his rack. Dave Altman let me borrow one of his home made cams to trace the shape of the cam. Mine were made using a router and a steel master cam to trace the profile. I just about went deaf cutting the cams as I didn't have any hearing protection. My girlfriend Carol Black helped me assemble them in a friend's garage. I still have a few of them in with my old climbing gear.
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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PM sent
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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"Between climbing and death there lies collecting memorabilia."
Nailed it.
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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As long as we are going down memory lane...
I knocked the cobwebs off these.
The rear one is an original titanium shaft 1/2 friend, maybe winter of 1985. WC came out with the flexible/tech friends the following Spring which I still use.
The one in the middle appears to be the Steve Jones variant, which makes sense, since I bought it out of the trunk of a car in the Gunks. I'm guessing that was 1983-'84 no markings on it whatever. The shaft is a grade 8 bolt. It has plastic covered trigger cables. I might have bought it from Dana. He at least told me about them.
The one in the front was the first cam smaller than a #1 friend I ever saw. 1/2 size. Bought it at Seneca maybe a year or two earlier on the Gendarme porch. Had to have it.
It scared the willies out of me, though. The shaft is the same major dimensions as the titanium friend, though of aluminum? The cams appear to be 1/2 circles of metal - certainly not any log spiral that I can see. Amazingly, the cam survived a couple falls taken on it ( others took 'em. I was too scared to fall on it) and made it up triple Direct, my first El Cap wall.
And Friends were available in 1978 in the USA. My partner bought a set for me from Jardine in the valley that Spring. He came back and presented them to me with a bill for $51 for the three. (Without asking me)
I think you could buy a rack of nuts for that back then.
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FTOR
Sport climber
CA
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i am so glad that you cleared things up about copying my cams directly and selling hundreds of them. not exactly what we were up to. i don't think i made more than a 100 of these total bitd.
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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i don't think i made more than a 100 of these total bitd. FTOR: it lets me very very little chance to find any sample without your help…
Lorenzo: the original Wild Country ½ Friend with a titanium shaft hit the market in 1986. There were two generations. The first generation has a thicker titanium stem than the second generation that tented to bend…
The Wild Country Technical Friends (or Flexible Friends) came onto the market, in 1987, in the size #0, #½, #1, and #1½. They had riveted camshaft ends that were changed for axle with low profile end-screws in 1988.
I suspect that I do have a sample of the cam in the front of your photograph. (I will post a photo in the next days). It was given to me by Marty Karabin as a custom made “Friend-like” cam made in the early 80’s by a long time valley climber and journeyman machinist.
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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Nut story.
Thanks. My 1/2 Friend is def. the second generation on the bottom of your photo. I thought it was earlier than 1986, though.
I have both versions of the flex friends. I still use the ones with the button head nuts.
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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Lorenzo: The version with the riveted camshaft ends is “collector” as there was a recall for all the samples (rigid and flexible) that were marketed with such a configuration.
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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Wait...recall?
you mean I can turn them in for new ones? ;)
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