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last year i bought a used figure 8 at an outdoor thrift shop. its by chouinard. im guessing its from the 90s but im not sure. it says "italy" on it but i didnt know the company ever did anything there. so im just wondering what italy has to do with this piece if anyone knows?

Sounds like a great artifact. If it has the <c> (diamond-C) It would be earlier than 1988 I think. Someone correct me if they know better. That is about the time He flipped it over to Black Diamond. I have a whole rack of that old stuff. If it says "Made in Italy" that might be older.

Send an email to these guys: http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en ... contact-us

They can probably give you the whole story.

SpiderSavage wrote:Sounds like a great artifact. If it has the <c> (diamond-C) It would be earlier than 1988 I think. Someone correct me if they know better. That is about the time He flipped it over to Black Diamond. I have a whole rack of that old stuff. If it says "Made in Italy" that might be older.

Send an email to these guys: http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en ... contact-us

They can probably give you the whole story.

yep a diamond with a c inside. you are pretty much right it was at or after 89 when it became BD. its a pretty cool piece to have. when i got it last summer i didnt know who chouinard was. ill be using it soon hopefully

The named changed to BD but the old <C> logo remained for quite a while. The change to the current BD logo that we know is recent in terms of the company's history. I have some BD Arc Ascent skis that I purchased new around 2001 (+/- a year) which still had the <C> logo. However, the "Made in Italy" would probably suggest it's at least mid-80's if not older judging by some of my father's Chouinard carabiners which say "Made in Italy."

do you think its safe to use? its in pretty used condition. then another question.. an atc has more uses than a fig8 right? i shouldnt have an atc and a figure 8 on the same rack correct?

I'm sure many others can comment on an ATC v. figure 8; and I'm sure you can search about it too. My brief summary would be that you can use a figure 8 in more ways, but does it matter? No, it still does the same job.

Is it safe to use? I'm not sure anyone could say with 100% certainty, but I would use it as long as: there is no obvious damage (knicks, cracks, burrs, gouges from rope wear, etc...), there is no corrosion, and looks fine overall. (Note: I don't use figure 8's though because I prefer an ATC)

Worse comes to worse, you can keep it as an artifact of climbing history

Figure-eights have their uses, but climbers rarely use them anymore. They do have a following and there are some that might recommend you use it for just about everything, but I'm not one of them.

An ATC-type device is much more versatile. The most versatile are the auto-blocking tube-style devices - Petzl Reverso or Black Diamond ATC Guide. Either of those will do everything you could ever need - belay a leader, rappel on one or two strands, and the nice thing that few other devices do: bring up two seconds independently with an auto-block.

I have an ATC Guide and wish I had a Reverso for smoother feeding with fat ropes. Either is about $30.

If you're just starting out and on a very tight budget, a Wild Country VC Pro 2 is dirt cheap ($15) and will belay a leader or rappel on two strands. But, if you start leading you're probably going to want something else.