Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Where to get kurkonogi picks?
|
Can’t find these cause of the sanctions on Russia but I was wondering if anyone knew of any retailer that still sells these with some inventory in the US or anything comparable to them? |
|
Being upfront here I am co-owner of Furnace Industries just to get that out of the way first here. We use to be a fairly large carrier of Krukonogi gear until the sanctions went into effect. Just like any other US and/or western business we can no longer get anymore gear from them or Russian based business until those sanctions are lifted. With that said we started carrying Mixed Picks and Frontpoints from Kuznia Szpeju for anyone who is looking for alternatives. Our stock of picks are already sold out and currently putting another order in which we should hopefully have in before the new year. If anyone is looking for something specific that you do no see listed on our site, this week would be a very good time to email me at Nick@Furnace-Industries.com with what you are looking for and we'll see if we can get it for you. I would also recommend checking out Sport Steinle out of Germany their gear is fantastic as well. I've seen a few folks post up used kruk picks for sale on various fb groups they had lying around but I think most of those have been snatched up at this point. Hope this helps everyone! - Nick |
|
Kruk is on the verge of obsolescence in my opinion. They're challenging to order from, limited availability, fit-up and machining was hit or miss, even pre-Ukraine conflict they couldn't ship direct to the US (in my experiences anyway). Sport Steinle is doing really impressive things (with a premium price!). Grivel has their own version of armor picks and and front points. And there are other 3rd party providers (Kuznia, Howey) that I wouldn't seriously consider Kruk a contender going forward. I bought probably $2k worth Kruk gear in the past and still use some regularly and probably have a few random unused stuff sitting around but going forward most of my money will be going to Germany with Sport Steinle. |
|
To reiterate above comments . These picks are awesome  |
|
Not to derail your thread Ray but I'd like to see if anyone can comment on something I've been curious about. I did some reading on steel when I was shopping for pocket knives- I've had a Benchmade knife with listed 58-61 HRC for several years and it does hold an edge fantastically well but it is a total chore to sharpen with a stone. The Steinle picks are listed as being 52-54 HRC, a bit softer. I'm assuming hardness and brittleness have trade offs and swinging a pick into potentially rock is a significantly different application than maintaining a sharp edge. I've also seen comments online that very hard steels can be rough on manufacturers tooling, which drives up the price. What I do know is that CAMP/Cassin picks are all very soft and prone to curling over. At what point does a pick chip instead of deform? Further, while I understand knives are sharpened with stones commonly and that's a detriment with very hard steels, it seems like most folks sharpen their picks with a bastard file and usually not much finer than that, so is the sharpening as much of an issue here? Anyway if anyone knows enough to comment I'd love to hear your thoughts. |
|
Nick, any chance you can begin stocking the kuznia Blade Runner front points? They seem to be the only company other than Camp that makes points for the Blade Runner and I'd be interested in trying something with harder steel. Not to mention that the stock front points are unavailable everywhere right now. |
Ryan Colewrote: Yes, we are and have them included with this next order. |
scott pedersenwrote: + 1 for https://www.sport-steinle.com/ I really like the Dart front points I bought last year |
Fabien Mwrote: This is interesting feedback. Am I the only one who isn't impressed with these picks and front points for the price I've paid? I'm particularly unhappy with the Dart front points. They are too short, and do not have enough teeth. I've found that I don't get stable penetration with them and switched back to stock front points. |
Evan Gerrywrote: My knowledge/experience here comes from kitchen knives. A harder treatment and/or alloy will hold a finer edge. As you noticed with the benchmade blade, it resists sharpening as much as it resists deforming. My single bevel Japanese knives (I think around 64hrc) take forever to sharpen and can’t be used around bones, nuts, or seeds otherwise they will chip or crack. Dept store knives know that folks won’t treat them well, so they are softer (mostly around 52hrc I think). This resists chipping when running into things but now can’t support a keen edge, so they are sharpened at a significantly less acute angle. Think 40 deg compared to the 10 deg of a single bevel knife. But I don’t think knife hardness has much to do with pick hardness other than them both being metal. Because it would be silly to sharpen a pick to as keen of an edge as a knife. If a pick is rolling (and you’re not slamming the tip directly into rock repeatedly) then I would suggest the angle is too fine. I suspect some folks when sharpening think they can get a little more performance out of a pick by reducing the angle. I’d trust the major manufacturers to have matched the bevel angle with the hardness for the “sweet spot” you’re mentioning. tl;dr it’s a total design package, and not about an “ideal” harness number. |
NateCwrote: You re right that their front point is shorter than the fully extended stock front point, but it's longer than the fully retracted stock point, it's just inbetween. |
|
Rock and Resole had some Grivel picks and a pair of PN5’s last time I looked. Unlikely any other US retailer has any Kruk stuff in stock. I’d reach out to them and see if you can order from them directly: https://krukonogi-ti.com (“Контакты” is “Contact”) or @krukonogi_titanium on instagram |
Evan Gerrywrote: Chipping is a function of more than just hardness. In engineering terms, when the “stress intensity“ exceeds the “fracture toughness” of the material, you get chipping or cracking. Hardness is easy to measure, so it is often used a proxy to gauge fracture toughness. Stress intensity is a function of the pick geometry and how you use your tools. Most stock ice picks have hardness values from 42-45 HRC (source: https://www.ontarioclimbing.com/News/Howey-Tool/). If you want thin picks that will not chip or fracture under any circumstances, except perhaps due to fatigue, you will probably want picks in this hardness range. Howey says he says that he dialed back the hardness of his picks from 48 HRC to 46 HRC, and he probably wouldn’t have done that unless he was experiencing more fracturing at higher hardnesses.
Don’t use steel files for the high hardness steels. You will likely dull the edges files very quickly. Harder abrasives are needed. It seems that Steinle recommends using Diamond files for his products ( sport-steinle.com/accessories). Any low grit stones or belts designed to grind or sharpen knives should work. |
|
I reached out to Kruk through their website a month or so ago for replacements for my X-Dreams, to see if there was any creative solution. Very unlikely that we will be able to get them to the U.S. in the foreseeable future. They cannot accept SWIFT payments, so any payment would have to be to a private bank located somewhere else in Europe, and then they would have to ship out of a border country (e.g. Finland). I've also been in touch with Stas to see if he has any NOS up in Canada and/or can get some more over here from other contacts, still TBD on that front. I was ready to give some of his new Wild Ice picks a shot, but he's holding sales on those at the moment as they work through some technical issues. I may give Howie Tools a try in the meantime, my Mixte picks are pretty much done for at this point. |
|
The hard steel Krukonogi uses snaps the pick before it chips. Most angles on picks are on a bevel similar to a cleaver, since most climbers are blunt chopping, not slicing. The angle of the bevel on Krukonogi is closer to the range of that of a chef's knife that slices. The angle makes it easier to scratch in to the ice and using delicate or technical tool placements. It's a great tool for NE ice/cold brittle ice conditions. This is why the steel needs to be harder so that it will hold a sharper edge on the tool longer. If you are swinging the majority of the time, you deform the edge quickly, in which case, you probably don't really need Krukonogi picks for those conditions. Steinle's picks are very hard, but his picks are thicker, so while they are more durable, you displace more ice. An argument I have heard from CAMP for softer steels, is that some of the stress of the impact from swinging is absorbed into the steel rather than into the ice....I'm not sure about that as it doesn't make a lot of sense to me yet. I don't think there is a one-pick fits all solution for all ice conditions. Krukonogi picks had benefits that the other pick manufacturers do not. |
Ray Lovpalwrote: Which one are you looking for? I might have it. Verticallstore.com had the best selection so far, not only for picks but aid gear too, but the sanction changed everything. |
|
Hey Marc-Oliver - do you have any x dream picks? Looking for px5 or px7s |
Gregory Lovewrote: Unfortunately, not for Cassin/CAMP. The best option I have for Cassin and drytooling is https://verticallstore.com/products/camp-cassin-dry-pick If you want cheeks then I think you should look for Steinle. |
Marc-Olivier Chabotwrote: Looking for petzl nomics |
|
SOLD |
|
I have a pair of PX0A picks for X-Dreams which I would sell for $230 shipped now that Christian has set the price range :) I guess these are ice picks? Been a while tbh. |
