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V-Lok
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I acquired my Climb Axe Max from Climb Max in 2003.
The Climb Axe Max is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 56 mm. long, 47 mm. wide, 100 mm. high, and weighs 51 g. The slots are 34 mm. long and 16 mm. wide. The top of the Omega oval carabiner that I use for comparing belay tubes sits 7 mm. below the ends of the slots. The Climb Axe Max has a flexible, plastic-covered, cable keeper.
One side of my Climb Axe Max is marked "Climb Axe," while the other has two rigging icons, one showing the high friction arrangement with "+," underneath, and one one showing the low friction arrangement with "-," underneath.
The following closely-related belay tubes include the Climb Axe Max as an example:
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Each of these is 55±1 mm. long and 47±1 mm. wide, and has a weight in the 54±3 g. range. Their slots are all 35±1 mm. long and 16 mm. wide. The main differences are that most have cable keepers and U-shaped notches on both ends, but some have rod keepers and V-shaped notches on the high end.
These have several distinctive features, but overall, perform like most devices of this type. The rope slots are hour-glass shaped, but this does not appear to affect their performance. They are slightly asymmetrical with a high and a low end, giving two distinct riggings. One would expect a difference in friction for the two riggings, with more friction if the braking line runs over the shorter end; however, I do not notice much difference.
Most of these have shallow U-notches at both ends. The Clog Flyer, Ellis Brigham Climb and Unknown have V-notches at the high end, so I call these notched belay tubes. The V-notches are not as tall and acute as those on the Trango Jaws and its equivalents, so they do not provide as much braking. The U-notches on the others are are too shallow to noticeably amplify braking.
I prefer the ones with the rigid rod keeper. For the others, the plastic-coated cable keeper is moderately flexible, but stiff enough that it tends to stay out from under the rope.
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I acquired my Climb Axe V-LOK from Climb Axe in 2010.
The V-LOK is a notched belay tube. It is forged from aluminum alloy and soft anodized. It has two slots with ribbed v-grooves and a plastic-covered cable keeper. Mine is 45 mm. long, 55 mm. wide, 95 mm. high, and weighs 63 g. The slots are 34 mm. long and 15 mm. wide. The top of the Omega oval carabiner that I use for comparing belay tubes sits 14 mm. below the ends of the slots.
One side is printed with "Climb Axe" inside a rectangle and "ClimbeAxe.com." The other side is printed with two alternative rigging icons, one with a "-’ inside a circle underneath and the other with "+," underneath. Between the two circled signs is "FRICTION" inside an oval with arrows pointing to the two circled signs.
The Climb Axe V-LOK is one of the following essentially identical notched belay tubes:
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Each of these is 54±1 mm. long and 45±1 mm. wide, and has a weight in the 60±7 g. range. Their slots are all 35 mm. long and 16 mm. wide.
The shallow V-notches used in this design do not seem to be very effective at increasing the braking force. The notches do not have the narrow angle found on the Trango Jaws and its equivalents, so they do not create the same wedging action. Spreading the friction helps with heat dissipation, but like all belay tubes, these can get quite hot when used for rappelling.
The recessed bottom on the Climb Axe V-LOK does not seem to affect its performance for better or worse.
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