We always enjoy items of the homemade variety since they are by definition, unique, and tell of a world without fancy gear shops, massed production equipment and a breed of men and woman who had a ‘make and mend’ mentality. The items themselves often hinting at a time line, in this case we think the 1960’s. Much of the UK’s climbing gear was imported from the continent back then; Stubai of Austria being the most prolific producers of pitons. The one we have here is pretty much a copy of a Stubai leaf piton, cut from a sheet and bent to form the angle which has a large hole for a karabiner. We have never seen a homemade karabiner before but this one looks very much like a copy of a triangular shaped Haseney karabiner which you will find elsewhere in the collection. Unfortunately, we know little about either’s history. The final one is a little easier to work out as it looks like a crude version of a Peck cracker cut from a piece of aluminium rod – comparison picture opposite. Our good friend, Ian Sykes, kindly dropped these items off in a bag of ‘goodies’ which belonged to his ‘mate’….we don’t know who his mate was and whether or not he made these but thanks anyway.