Ice climbing is a risk-taking sport, which involves patience, strength, motivation and obviously, a tool to climb ice covered mountains. The equipment needs careful manufacturing and has to be light, stiff, flexible enough for shock absorption, and cheap enough for dirt bag climbers.
As according to Gizmodo, traditional metal normally either steel or aluminum with a sharp steel pick, have been used previously for Ice Tool. But that makes it too heavy for climbing waterfalls. On the other hand, some companies and rogue materials engineers have experimented with an alternative material, carbon fibre, which was a better option but still possessed disadvantages of being quite expensive and complicated and a little fragile.
As previously used materials had lots of disadvantages, a company called Furnace Industries has created the Kronos, a technical climbing tool with a shaft made from wood. All the climbing tools have to pass a rigorous set of tests to assess their strength. Comparing a wooden tool with aluminum in a strength-test is not that easy. But the wooden material is preferable over aluminum as a tool that's lighter, has better vibration damping, and is warmer to the touch.
As mentioned by NEice, the Kronos is the World's First 'T' Rated CE Certified Ice Tool made of wood. there are set standards including T ratings and CE Certifications, which technical ice axes must be able to achieve by withstanding an extreme forces and abuse, according to Ben Carlson co-owner of Furnace Industries. He also added that it is an achievement for them to be able to make a wooden ice tool passed. Furthermore, they are really enthusiastic about sharing the Kronos with the world.
Doug Millen said, "Just amazing, a 'T' RATED wood ice tool. The future is here!"
As explained by Dry Ice Tools, the Kronos uses a non-impregnated, densified beech wood laminate developed for a variety of extreme industrial uses. The grade used to make the shaft of the ice tool is constructed to the highest density possible using thin veneers producing a dense, stable, high strength laminated board with excellent wear resistance.
The shaft is CNC machined in two parts that enables the machining 'islands' inside the handle halves that fit into spaces of the custom designed pick. The halves of the tool are bonded together using extremely strong adhesive, Aerodux 185, a 2 part epoxy.
There is a 0.3mm gap between the islands where the pick is inserted. Holding it in place by the islands and wood shaft, distributing forces evenly and avoiding stress hotspots.
Kronos picks and spikes are CNC plasma cut from 4mm tool-grade steel. They are then hand finished and afterwards heat treated to increase its strength and durability. They are then individually inspected for their sharpness.
Moreover, in order to check its strength life, these have about 2.5 years of heavy dry tooling and ice climbing use and have been abusively used in an experimental trial at 4 ice climbing festivals during the 2014-2015 ice season.
Join the Conversation