Seems like a guy called Hiatt started making felons leg irons, gang chains, metal neck collars and other nasty things for the slave trade back around 1780. The abolition of slavery in 1833 meant a change to manufacturing handcuffs along with other slightly less savoury metal items.

It was probably around 1960 that another change came about and Hiatt started making steel karabiners, several of which we have elsewhere in the collection, along with lots of Hiatt pitons. The steel karabiners were pretty nasty things – heavy, with sharp edges to nip your fingers, so a slight relief came in 1974/5 when they produced a lightweight alloy version, two fine examples of which we have here in the collection, a lighter version appeared in 1977 in conjunction with Troll, as we can see from the advert above.

We’re not sure how many of either versions were produced, probably not many as they are a bit of a rarity. These two were kindly donated by Ken MacTaggart in 2024 – thanks Ken.