I have recently transitioned from sport climbing to trad, so I have a bunch of sport draws I want to use. The thing I worry about is that the carabiners that usually go on the bolts have been marked up and somewhat chipped from the bolts. Now I know it is a bad idea to run a rope through carabiners that are used to go on bolts, but I'm wondering if its ok to use these to extend cams by clipping them to the slings? has anyone else ever wondered about this?

Polish off any nicks and youll be fine

Use em, dont worry about itand go climb

Its that simple ;)

according to pretty much eVERY carabiner manufacturer, ANY blems or defects in the metal could and can result in failure. Carabiners aside, if there are burrs or subtle "rigosities" these will, over time, abraid the supple nylon fabiric of cam slings (or any other nylon counterparts for that matter.

also, depending on how you are "polishing off" it's possibly to increase the temperature of the carabiner again, compromising its structural integrity.

Finally, is the doubt as you clip into that shiny new cam as new trad climber really worth the $5.25 for a new biner? You will find your self on mixed and, yes, even sport routes again, long after you transition into the trad world. Keep em handy and I recommend buying a carabiner for each cam that is unque to that cam, that way you can look down at your racked gear loop mid route an pull the exact peice you want/need.

if it's gouged or chipped- toss it.

I think it depends on how big the gouges/nicks are. I've had several biners get noticeable gouges from bolt hangers and I've just smoothed them out with a file or a bit of sandpaper and haven't thought about it since, but if it does make you nervous, $5 is pretty cheap peace of mind.

I do think it's best to not use them for clipping slings with appreciable nicks and gouges because it could cause damage to the sling of a cam.

I suppose you could always just clip the thumb loop of the cams but that seems like a PITA to me, unless it's a short term solution.

Dafuq. Some of these responses blow my mind. I see no reason to chuck good draws. Use judgement... Should be fine.

Wow, I can't believe how paranoid people are. I've been using my sport draws for trad for a few years now and they work great. The small edges that resulted from clipping bolts or taking whips on bolts have not worn the slings of my cams at all. Save yourself the money (to buy more cams, or even better, offset nuts- they are amazing) and use your sport draws. You may find yourself switching to wiregate binered draws to cut weight though.

Thanks for all the advice, guess I am being a little paranoid. I'd rather that than die!

Relevant: Carabiners and Potential Rope Damage

Not really relevant as hes not clipping the rope end to it .... And a simple polish of those nicks will solve the "issue" regardless

I use two different color carabiners to differentiate between bolt/gear end and rope end. It's not that big of a deal either way. Just like everything else in climbing, it depends. Also, +1 for offset nuts, best buy ever. I use them on at least %75 of my climbs.

He's being *told* to polish out nicks and I get a load of crap from several people about polishing out an imperfection in a few of mine that I got from Gear Express. I posted in the review section a while back. Where are those azzhats on this thread???

A good way to get a nice smooth edge on them is to hang the draw on something with the "nicked" end down. Then take an old piece of rope or cord you don't use anymore and run it back and forth through the basket of the biner while applying pressure. Takes a shorter amount of time than you'd think to get rid of any burrs or nicks. Even if one is pretty heavily gouged, it's still a good biner that you can use elsewhere. Try it out.

Yea just get an old retired rope and get it all wet and muddy. Then run it through the bolt end of your draws w/ body weight. They'll end up nice and smooth in no time.

just to add my 2 cents as you polish off those burs you are removing material from the carabiner and creating a smaller crossection to distribute the load. This will the reduce the strength of the carabiner, but it is impossible to tell by how much. most of our gear is designed with a huge safety factor and can take some abuse, but I would caution against removing material from any piece of equipment that is expected to hold in the case of a fall.

use those old carabiners to hold your water bottle and shoes. or give them to some one who kayaks that is where my old ones end up.

Are you guys kidding me???? Look at how the rest of the world climbs and how OLD and beat their gear is. A little bit of body weight polishing will destroy your biner... Seriously???

how much "material" is lost by a slight polish ...

WAY less than what you lose off your belay biner in a few months of use ... guess those people here who project their irrational fears onto others replace their belay biners every 6 months ;)

after all a belay biner IS a single point that is keeping someone alive ....

THINK people =P

We had a rule in Thailand. If It took you more than a half a second to decide weather or not to toss a biner off the side of the boat, then it was still good to climb on.

I really should have taken pics of the dirt bag Chilean climber's racks to show y'all. Many of you would have a fit.

On the topic though sport draws for cams are semi pointless. The alpine draw is far superior. For a little extra weight you gain a ton of versatility.

Favorite trick throw some doubled slings over your shoulder with 1 biner on each sling. Plug cam clip sling clip rope done.