The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
1327.2016.1
Troll Hexagons - early versions
22/06/2016
Hermione Cooper
22/06/2016
Two solid and one hollow Troll hexagons each with 4 holes.
aluminium alloy
a - 3.8 x1.5cms b - 4.3 x 1.5cms c - 7.4 x 3.2 cms
3
On a and b " TROLL"
silver
Troll
Wales
Early Rock climbers jammed pebbles and chockstones in cracks and fissures which they could thread a rope around, to make an anchor or a belay. They then started threading nuts - as in nuts and bolts- on rope realising that the hexagonal shape of a nut wedged well in the rock. Not only did this latter idea give a generic term for things which climbers jammed in the rock i.e. 'nuts', the hexagonal shape was used for the first commercially produced nuts which were made of aluminium rather than iron or steel.
The U.K. Based companies of Troll and Clog were the first to mass produce these new 'nuts' which they called Hexagons or Hexes.
We've got a collector's dream here in the collection with two very early Troll Hexagons dating from 1963/64, two or three years earlier than their arch rivals Clog produced something very similar.
These early Troll Hexagons were longer than subsequent versions with straight sides and no numbering/sizing system which came along later. We have a nice set of the later, shaped and sized versions elsewhere in the collection.
We've added an even rarer prototype, or possibly homemade version, to compliment the two. Not quite sure of its provenance but it seems to be professionally made, with the large hole drilled through the centre to make it lighter.
Mick Tighe acquired these three items somewhere along the way, but he's not quite sure where.
Donated by Mick Tighe
22/06/2016
22/06/2016
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
22/06/2016