Front | Rear |
I acquired this eight from Barrabés.com in 2003.
The Ace is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 109 mm. tall, 80 mm. wide, and 19 mm. thick. The Ace has a distinct bend that accounts for the increased thickness; if flat, it would be only 11.5 mm. thick. The rope hole is 35 mm. high and 53 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 35 mm. and 25 mm., respectively. The eye measures 20 mm. by 25 mm. The ears are 13.6 mm. long. My Ace eight weighs 93 g.
The convex side of the shaft has "ACE" in raised forged letters, and the concave side has "kN25," also in raised letters.
This is one of the following family of nearly identical "mini"-size figure eights with ears:
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Each of these eights is 109±1 mm. tall and 80±1 mm. wide. Their weights fall in the 89±5 g. range. Although similar, these eights are not identical, and close inspection will reveal some minor differences in their shapes. None of these affect their performance to any noticeable degree.
These eights are smaller and much lighter than most figure eights with ears. While the advantages are manifest, there are two practical disadvantages:
The holes in the ears provide a place to tie a keeper cord, if you believe in such things. To me, the nuisance of keeping the keeper away from the main rope outweighs their value.
The rope hole is shorter than normal, so these eights may provide too much friction on stiff or muddy ropes. If these were flat (like the similar Kailas Multi 8), they would create more friction than most eights. The bend allows them to be rigged two ways with differing amounts of friction, one with less friction than the Kailas and one with more.
Other small eights have similar bends. Examples are the Chouinard Version B, Faders Versions A and B, Frendo Version B, and the Trango Penta. The significant difference is that this eight and its equivalents also have ears. Better yet, the ears are placed low where they can function effectively without increasing the size of the eight. The idea behind ears is that they reduce the chance of an eight girth-hitching. They are not strictly needed, as girth hitching is neither likely nor more than a minor nuisance to a competent user. For eared eights, I like this design enough to give each example a star.
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