Kouba Micro Nuts - which ones?

Being currently in the Czech Republic I can easily, and cheaply, get gear from the Czech brand Kouba. I can't find any review and have to judge on looks and stats. I have WC Rock 1-10 and DMM Offsets 7-11. I need general micros for protecting harder routes. Kouba gear is good value, well made, CE certified to EN norms. I have no experience with micros and need help. Given the choice and going on what you see here, which set would you buy?

KOUBA STOPPERS DUO - Alloy

Size: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
Strenght (kN): 6-3 / 6-3 /6-3 / 10-6 / 10-6 / 10-6 kN
Range (mm): 6-10,5 / 6,8-11,5 / 7,8-12,5 / 8,7-13,5 / 9,8-14,5 / 10,6-15 mm
Material composition: hard aluminium alloy, steel rope

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KOUBA STOPPERS MOSAZ - Brass

Size: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Strenght (kN): 6-0 / 6-0 / 7-0 / 7-4 / 8-7 / 8-7 / 9-8 / 9-8 kN

Range (mm): 5-9 / 6-10 / 7-11 / 8-12 / 8,8-13 / 9,5-13,8 / 11,8-14,8 / 13,8-15,5 mm

Browsing their catalog; they have metal wire tricam lookin things. Buy those. I have no clue how they perform but they look awesome

Really though, the TOP set would probably do you well along with what you already have in mind

Erik Strandwrote:

Browsing their catalog; they have metal wire tricam lookin things. Buy those. I have no clue how they perform but they look awesome

Those Kouba Abalaks are crazy looking. I climb with a German climber who places these. I don't own any, but have placed and cleaned them. I have some Camp tricams and they are comparable. The wire is springy and it makes each piece hold in place better, but its stiffness would want me want to extend to limit rope interference. I felt the Abalaks placed better than the tricam in vertical cracks, but only slightly less well passively. The inventor was a russing called Vitaly Abalakov.  

Looks like a good deal.
just look over the cables and swayed. Better if you could get a few extra and pull test. The reason I mention this is many years ago as Soviet gear was making its way West. I worked with Ushba and Red Fox North America on bringing in Soviet gear, to include pull testing hardware. Ushba used to bring in nut sets, but our tests proved that the cable and swaying was not on par with what we were using here in the US. We even had some cable that was wrapped around a “PAPER “ core! Ushba would bring in the sets and we would clip the cables and re-swage with 7X19 cable and copper nicopress swages and gage them and randomly pull test each batch. Again I have no recent information and would hope that they have improved!
there is great gear coming out of former Soviet block countries. The IRBIS (former Soviet military), Ural Alp, and Ushba stuff is all good. Irimel was stuff we had low rated failures and bizarre issues with. (Had a titanium bent gate, that broke into many pieces at 1500 pounds! After it made crackling noises and split down the spline, were we could look through it right before it blew apart!!
 I have a similar set of the Soviet wired Tri-Cams from MONT in Bulgaria that are in my Soviet gear collection (Wires are rough and blackish in color). I also have a titanium nut where the cable is “Spliced” instead of swaged. 

jc5462wrote:

Looks like a good deal.
just look over the cables and swayed. Better if you could get a few extra and pull test. The reason I mention this is many years ago as Soviet gear was making its way West. I worked with Ushba and Red Fox North America on bringing in Soviet gear, to include pull testing hardware. Ushba used to bring in nut sets, but our tests proved that the cable and swaying was not on par with what we were using here in the US. We even had some cable that was wrapped around a “PAPER “ core! Ushba would bring in the sets and we would clip the cables and re-swage with 7X19 cable and copper nicopress swages and gage them and randomly pull test each batch. Again I have no recent information and would hope that they have improved!
there is great gear coming out of former Soviet block countries. The IRBIS (former Soviet military), Ural Alp, and Ushba stuff is all good. Irimel was stuff we had low rated failures and bizarre issues with. (Had a titanium bent gate, that broke into many pieces at 1500 pounds! After it made crackling noises and split down the spline, were we could look through it right before it blew apart!!
 I have a similar set of the Soviet wired Tri-Cams from MONT in Bulgaria that are in my Soviet gear collection (Wires are rough and blackish in color). I also have a titanium nut where the cable is “Spliced” instead of swaged. 

These are Czech, not Russian. They have CE certification, and the Czech Republic has been an EU member since 2005. Kouba has made climbing gear since at least the early 70s. I don’t think that there is any danger of these things being inherently unsafe as they are required to meet  the same standards as gear from Italy, Spain, Germany, etc. 

Frank Steinwrote:

These are Czech, not Russian. They have CE certification, and the Czech Republic has been an EU member since 2005. Kouba has made climbing gear since at least the early 70s. I don’t think that there is any danger of these things being inherently unsafe as they are required to meet  the same standards as gear from Italy, Spain, Germany, etc. 

good to know.

As I did say. It’s been a while and I was hoping that things had improved, and appears that is so. I also know there is all kinds of stuff floating on the internet. The Soviet tri-cam has been sold under various names and various former Soviet block countries. I am sure if it’s from a reputable company and certified it’s probably good to go. My advice is always take a closer look at your gear (Good Advice regardless of the manufacturer). There are people who make a living off counterfeit products and I’m sure if it will make them more money they will put a CE sticker on it!  I had not heard of this company. 

jc5462wrote:

I have a similar set of the Soviet wired Tri-Cams from MONT in Bulgaria that are in my Soviet gear collection (Wires are rough and blackish in color). I also have a titanium nut where the cable is “Spliced” instead of swaged. 

Do you mean ViaMont? These Abalak (small sizes) or Tri-Cam Combi (big sizes) were also made in Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic is a treasure chest of climbing gear makers. As an EU country everything is tested to the relevant EN standard and then receive an CE certification, is then labelled with country of origin.
Some of the Czech made gear I already own include these brands: Singing Rock, Omega Pacific, Rock Empire, Ocun, Rock Pillars, Escape Route, and Tendon. I like Kouba's approach to protection: varied, no fuss and affordable with a mix of classical forms and novel ones. Buy protection, place it and keep moving. If you have leave it behind then buy more. 

Because some Czech manufacturers cater for the needs of Czech and German ethical sandstone climbers, where no metal gear is allowed, some very interesting gear is produced. Check out OBRWork or Restday where sewn webbing-based (even slightly dynamic) chocks are made. These are a vast upgrade from the notorious and unpredictable knoted slings. I have placed the Restday ones which have rubber and dyneema extendable slings. Even these are EN tested. The idea: the climbers falls drawing the tope webbing-wedge, which sits just inside the bottom cup when placed and expansion is created. In Germany, the bottom type, with rubber is banned. It's considered damaging to the rock - even though its the same material as the shoe sole.

http://www.obrworks.cz/e-shop/

https://uforing.eu/de/home-page-de/

What about Mirco Nuts? Any judgements? Brass or aluminium? I have never placed one and can't judge. 

Brass ones first. Hard to tell from one pic but it looks like they may have a bit more of a “chunky” shape to them (top being more square, less rectangular) (more like RP’s??? I have never held an original RP)  as compared to DMM or BD micros/offsets, or even this Czech brands aluminum micros. If true this is good as I find having a variety of different shapes or nut geometry is key with micro nuts. You want the best fit possible with these small things, and they are so light it’s no problem carrying 2-4 sets of micros of different manufacturers (maybe not all the time on you base rack, but whenever you expect thin cracks)... so maybe get both? Also do eventually get the DMM offset brass. 

Do they make small offset nuts? I use those a lot more than symmetric.

Kouba only makes regular sized offsets called Vector. More similar to DMM's than Black Diamond's. Unfortunately no offsets though in micro sizes. In regular sizes I have offsets and regular and like both. I'm guessing its the same with micros: sometimes regular, sometimes offset. Right now I'm leaning towards the brass set which starts with 5mm/6kn. The larger ones ist 13,8mm, can that still be considered a micro nut? In the future then maybe a set of DMM brass offsets, because they're offset and by then I'll know of I like placing brass nuts.

The "TOP" set of nuts looks like micro offsets. 

Edit: nevermind, it's just 1 side tapered 

I found some more images which are a bit more telling. The aluminium ones are convexed and the brassies wedge-shaped and notched.

They both look really nice and different for the other manufacturers offerings. Both sets cost roughly the same as one 5-piece set of DMM peenuts.

Kouba Catalogue

nutstorywrote:

Do you mean ViaMont? These Abalak (small sizes) or Tri-Cam Combi (big sizes) were also made in Czech Republic.

Is this Stephane?  From The Nuts Museum?  If so, then obviously you would know much better than I. I was just trying to recollect from having got them over 20 years ago.

Yes, I believe I had it wrong and it was ViaMont! (I would have to go pull them out and look at them. I just remember that I ordered them off the internet back in the 1990s and the seller said they were made in Bulgaria and I know they shipped from Bulgaria. They look like the top picture, NOT the ones in the bottom picture. Wasn't there more than 4 sizes?  Now I am going to have to go check.

Noel Zwrote:

The Czech Republic is a treasure chest of climbing gear makers. As an EU country everything is tested to the relevant EN standard and then receive an CE certification, is then labelled with country of origin.
Some of the Czech made gear I already own include these brands: Singing Rock, Omega Pacific, Rock Empire, Ocun, Rock Pillars, Escape Route, and Tendon. I like Kouba's approach to protection: varied, no fuss and affordable with a mix of classical forms and novel ones. Buy protection, place it and keep moving. If you have leave it behind then buy more. 

Because some Czech manufacturers cater for the needs of Czech and German ethical sandstone climbers, where no metal gear is allowed, some very interesting gear is produced. Check out OBRWork or Restday where sewn webbing-based (even slightly dynamic) chocks are made. These are a vast upgrade from the notorious and unpredictable knoted slings. I have placed the Restday ones which have rubber and dyneema extendable slings. Even these are EN tested. The idea: the climbers falls drawing the tope webbing-wedge, which sits just inside the bottom cup when placed and expansion is created. In Germany, the bottom type, with rubber is banned. It's considered damaging to the rock - even though its the same material as the shoe sole.

http://www.obrworks.cz/e-shop/

https://uforing.eu/de/home-page-de/

What about Mirco Nuts? Any judgements? Brass or aluminium? I have never placed one and can't judge. 

These look really awesome (very simple concept). Are these available outside of Czech Republic?  I would be interested.

jc5462wrote:

Is this Stephane?  From The Nuts Museum?  If so, then obviously you would know much better than I. I was just trying to recollect from having got them over 20 years ago.

Yes, it's me   Greetings from Corsica jc5462!

To be clear because these nuts are attached with swaged wire loops, and not silver soldered directly to the wire, they are not comparable to what we commonly call micro nuts. 

timothy fisherwrote:

To be clear because these nuts are attached with swaged wire loops, and not silver soldered directly to the wire, they are not comparable to what we commonly call micro nuts. 

Not comparable to micro nuts... why? I can see that they are made with a swaged wire loop, but so are DMM Peenuts and DMM Micro Wall Nuts and others. Are those not "micros" either? Is the swaged loop not always preferable because they kinks less provided the end result has an acceptable braking strength?
The term "micro" always relates to size and not how a thing is constructed. Regarding size, the smallest Kouba brass nut is 5mm with a braking strength of 6kn. That's impressive given that it's 1.5mm less than a DMM Peenut 1 and has a 2kn great braking strength. Both Kouba and DMM conform to EN 12270 so the Kouba nuts are some junk. I can't form a judgement on which from I like best as I've never placed micros. 

Swaged wires get in the way of some placements. 

Any US importers? Shipping is a bundle.