Identifying J-frame Racks
Here are some quick starting points for identifying open-frame racks. Here I focus on common, readily available commercial racks. I excluded my Russian racks, since I have little information on who made them.
Do not rely on brake bars for identifying rack frames. Brake bars used to have standard sizes that matched an old standard carabiner size, so people would buy a rack and add their own bars. Brake bars also used to be incredibly inexpensive, and people frequently swapped bars as their old ones wore.
Do not take these starting points as the final word. There were so many people making racks and manufacturers often changed their designs, so I made an early decision not to try collecting all the available racks. I wish I had done the same for eights.
MILD STEEL RACKS:
- [1] John Cole: The original open-frame rack. Hand-made. Earlier ones had a distinctive squared-off top. Later ones may have a semicircular shape that makes them hard to identify. Mild steel frame with end coiled around the vertical shaft.
- [2] Blue Water: End coiled around the vertical shaft.
- [-] PMI once had a mild steel rack like the Bluewater. I do not have a confirmed example - just suspected ones.
STAINLESS STEEL RACKS:
Coiled Eye:
- [3] Goldlock (U.K.): Stainless steel frame with end coiled around the vertical shaft. Eye painted black. Gold bars.
- [4] Caving Supplies (U.K.): Commonly has a reversed curve to the eye.
- [5] PMI: Right-hand coil with no straight end. They also made mild steel racks like the BlueWater.
- [6] Blue Water: Left-hand coil with straight, near vertical end. Also available with 90°eye for the twisted harness crowd.
- [7] Rescue Systems Inc.: The rack frame appears to be identical to the later BlueWater frames.
- [8] Speleoshoppe: Stainless steel featuring a left-hand coil with straight end at 45°.
- [9] Lewis (U.K.): Left-hand stainless steel coil eye with straight end at 45°.
Welded frame:
- [10] Lowell Burkhead Safety Rack: Circular eye. Unique bars with lower bar fixed to knob.
- [11] CMC Rescue Rack: The CMC bars have a distinctive black hard anodized finish and are often marked with “CMC.” Top bar has a hyperbar to make it harder to put into in a cave pack.
- [12] CMI Sracks: Large eye. Distinctive bar shape. Top bar has a hyperbar to make it harder to put into in a cave pack. Also available with 90°eye for the twisted harness crowd.
- [13] Bassett Metal Studios: Eye closes at a very acute angle. No manufacturer markings.
- [14] Rescue Technology: Eye closure is closer to perpendicular than most of the others.
- [15] SMC: Frames usually (but not always) have the SMC logo stamped on them. Also available with 90° eye for the twisted harness crowd.
- [16] SMC NFPA: Unmistakable. I gave this idea a Lemon Award. Their production manager wrote to me saying, “I got a good laugh out of our lemon NFPA Rack.”
Aluminum Block Eye
- [17] Glacier Sport (U.K.): Aluminum block threaded & pinned to shaft. Perhaps made by Lewis?
Strap-closed Eye:
- [18] Krok (Ukraine): Distinct shape strap closure
- [19] Petzl (France): Strap closure with Petzl logo. Unmistakable.
TITANIUM RACKS:
- [20] Howell-N-Mann: Eye shapes vary widely. Early models had aluminum eyes threaded to the shaft. Later models had a pinned aluminum sleeve closing the eye. Usually came with titanium bars with aluminum inserts. Frequently have a double hyper-bar at the top to make putting the rack into a cave pack especially frustrating.
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