A lot of people I've climbed with have these strong feelings about used gear being super dangerous, yet I don't think I've ever heard a firsthand story about some piece of gear looking OK but turning out to be flawed. Since this site supports a pretty brisk second-hand gear trade, I imagine if this actually happened, someone here would have a personal experience to relate. So, have you had a piece of used gear fail?

About 90% of my gear(hardware only) I've bought used. Never had a problem.

I just don't by softgoods (webbing, ropes, etc...) but that's just me. Any softgoods new in the package are probably more than fine. For hardware I wouldn't worry, but give it a thorough inspection. Just think, biners pull tested after being dropped off El Cap broke at their rated strength. For the most part, gear is bomber. It's just forged aluminum. But remember, it's your a$$ so you make the call.

Do you ever lead with a friends rack? Cause that's used gear.

I personally use almost any 2nd hand gear I inspect and consider good. Exceptions are definitely ropes, which are typically the only singular/non redundant peice in the system, and slings. This is a fairly oft posted and responded to sort of thing on MP in regards to mirco fractures in biners, cams, etc. and you could probably do a few searches and find some first hand data on this sort of thing. A machinist buddy of mine told me micro fractures in modern (last 25 years) climbing gear are almost completely mythical. The metals that current camming devices and biners are made from (mostly aluminums and alloys) are those that literally shear once they meet a "breaking point". If there is some sort of bad spot on hardgoods, it should be visible to the eye. Steel on the other hand will deform and warp, hence the reason some solo bigwallers like them for backup biners at the hard points of the harness. Better to forever weld a biner to your harness in a fall than have it shear and break outright.

However, the things that we play with are those that we trust our life to. Cant really put a price tag on that, which is why I totally understand your partners take on the subject. A simple rule like that will definitely always save you from used gear failing and you taking "the plunge". Personal choice in the end really.

I never understand why people state that a cam "has never been fallen on" like it's a selling point.

I have no problems with seconhand hard gear and have never had a problem with it. I only have a few pieces that were seconhand, thouogh, just because I can usually get close to as good of deals on new gear through sales etc.

I wouldn't trust softgear as it is just a little more susceptible to mistreatment/improper storage/age. I'm also really paranoid about my personal ropes.

All in all, I think that used gear is 100% fine. If it wasn't we'd all have to toss our rocks after each outing.

posted many times before, but interesting and with PICTURES....

http://www.geir.com/mythbuster.html

I bought quite a bit of used gear when I started out and I haven't had any problems. Especially my old Chouinard ice tools which I bought off the bulletin board at the old Boulder Mountaineer years ago. I would recommend buying used gear from a reputable company like Black Diamond, Petzl, Wild Country or Trango over new, cheap no name knock-offs. The only gear I had trouble with were some Korean-made tcu's called Spider Cams. Two falls; popped out both times. I suspect something was amiss with the cam angle or alloy, who knows.

I agree with others' comments about the soft gear though, harnesses in particular.

The Geir site has some good stuff. The gri-gri mythbust was definitely the most interesting to me. I have heard that the gri gri will finally begin to slip once it reaches a load of 12kn. Hence Dan Osmans (RIP) use of a gri-gri in his rope jump setups as a "piece" that acts much like a screamer. Ive also heard that tests done on screamers found that the ultimate load placed on a piece does not lower when a screamer deploys. Rather, it causes the length of time it takes to reach the ultimate/max load increase, thus decreasing the "shock loading" placed upon the sketchy piece. Anyone know anything about this or have any data to support this? I suspect I read this on MP at one point ...

Thats exactly what I was looking for. Thanks fellas!