Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired this eight from On Rope 1 in 1999.

The Rescue Systems Inc. eight is forged from steel and then chrome plated. Mine is 162 mm. tall, 149 mm. wide, and 19 mm. thick. The rope hole is 57 mm. high and 76 mm wide. The top center thickness is 12 mm. The shaft length and width are 55 mm. and 43 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 25.2 mm. high and 15.9 mm. wide. The eye measures 28 mm. by 28 mm. The ears are 23.2 mm. long. My Rescue Systems Inc. eight weighs 672 g.

The front of this eight has "97" forged over the top of "96," "0," and anvil icon, and "H."

Comments

The Rescue Systems Inc. eight is another typical forged steel rescue eight. It is essentially identical to the later Pensafe eight.

One catalog says that this eight will never wear out. Supposedly forged from stainless steel (if so, a magnetic stainless), it should take a lot of use before it does. Weighing more than a pound, it will be a lot of years before I use it, unless perhaps as a canoe anchor. The "bigger is better" crowd will love this one for its size and strength, but they can get better and stronger devices that weigh less.

The belay slot is only 25 mm. long, which is fine for a Sticht belays slot for 9 mm. rope, shorter than I like for 11 mm., and impossibly short for anything much larger than that.

This eight is asymmetrical, so theoretically one should be able to rig it for two different frictions, but the asymmetry is slight and I couldn't tell the difference.

I hypothesize that the original forgings were from 1996 and that the dies were later changed for 1997. That would explain the "7" over the "6." As for the remaining hieroglyphs, your guess is as good as mine.