The word karabiner is derived from the German karabinerhaken which literally means ‘musket hook’ – the karabiner bit being what we would nowadays call a carbine or rifle. The early forms of this clip device were used by the military for clipping rifle or musket slings over the shoulder allowing for speedy attachment or more importantly, detachment in time of need. The French word for karabiner is mousequeton meaning musket. The original karabinerphaken seems to have been around from at least the early 1800’s though it wasn’t until the 1930’s that they were adapted for use in the mountains for clipping ropes. The Kong company which was owned by the Italian Bonaiti family had been making musket hooks since the 1830’s and were one of the first to produce the mountaineering version, a couple of the later versions of which we have here in the collection dating from around 1970. Quite where these two came from we are not sure – lots of folk gave lots of stuff to Mick Tighe in his early collecting days, and these were probably in a box with a pile of other gear. Like most other manufacturers, Bonaiti made their karabiners from steel and changed to aluminium alloy around 1960/65 and we suspect a couple of the later versions we have here in the collection dating from around 1970. They are definitely produced before 1977 as Bonaiti changed its name to Kong then and continue trading under that name as we write this in 2015. The advert opposite from 1987 reflects the name change by using the Kong – Bonaiti logo.