Small nuts: Brass vs. Copper

For small sizes of nuts, BD runs a line with copper nuts
( blackdiamondequipment.com/e… )
whereas most other manufacturers go with brass
( outdoorgearlab.com/Climbing… )

Does any have an advantage over the other?

Note that the BD nuts are not copper; they are an iron/copper (might be steel/copper?) mix. Big difference; copper by itself is very soft, bence making copperhead (bashies) out of copper.

Overall, I think that the shape of the nut is of greater consequence than the metal it is made of.

Have a set of the BD offsets. Love em.
Can't really comment on the difference between these and stuff like HB's, as I havent noticed much difference at all.

I bought a few Brassies to test them out and find them amazing for the smaller placements (sized in between or near the BD sizes). I use them to supplement my BD offsets. Offsets are incredible, buy a brassie or two and check them out too...

the brass ones generally conform better to the crack in a fall as the metal is softer ...

the DMM offsets dont last as long as regular aluminum or even brass non offset nuts IMO, not so much because the metal deforms ... but because the offset nature means that the wires kink VERY easily should your partner not be highly experienced in cleaning em ... and even then the wires still kink ... and theyll eventually break

the metal last just fine in hard squamish granite

after 20 or so falls ....

i tend not to use my offset brass anymore unless i need to ... the DMM peanuts last MUCH longer

make sure your partner doesnt yank em outwards and cleans em by whacking the bottom with the tool ... if they need to hang to do so and wreck their "clean top rope ascent" so be it ... unless they want to pay the 16$+ for the offset brass ;)

if yr just cragging it also helps to carry a large hex or small hammer around ... its amazing how much nut booty you can recover in season on thin cracks =P

I'm not sure that the wires on the DMM offsets wear any faster than on any other stopper. Yanking one out instead of popping the bottom w/ a nut tool is always going to kink the wires which leads to prematuer breaking.

Like bear said, make sure your partner isn't yanking on them. Many stoppers can be removed by hand without much force, but if they are in there, they need to be taken out w/ a nut tool. It will save the wires. And yea, if you know what you are doing, you can build a rack of small nuts just by cleaning stuff that others couldn't. Even just hitting the end of the tool w/ a biner works well - I never thought about using a hex but it would probably work better. Anything works better than your hand...

the shape of the offset makes it a certainty that any strong yank on the wires will kink em ... even one good hard cleaning yank ...

the peanuts can take more cleaning abuse as the shape isnt as offset, thus the wires dont kink as much ... the wallnuts even less as they are symmetrical

the alloy offsets have the same issue ... but generally the wire are larger and can take more abuse ...

you can see my 3 peanuts which have taken anywhere from 10-20+ falls each look less kinked than the larger brass offset (which replaced the blown one) which only took a fall or two, but is more kinked already

inexperienced partners cleaning contributes mightily of course ;)