Help my date my wild country friends!

No, not in a romantic way. I picked up these friends recently and trying to figure out what year, generation and size they are.

The yellow has 719 stamped on the stem and the turquoise has 723. My understanding is this means that they were manufactured on the 19th and 23rd week of either 1997 or 2007.

Anyone care to chime in?

Cheers,

D

Post 1993, but before Helium friends came out. Your Friends are 2nd generation Technical Friends, made concurrently with Forged Friends. They were manufactured for many years. 

the schmuck wrote: Post 1993, but before Helium friends came out. Your Friends are 2nd generation Technical Friends, made concurrently with Forged Friends. They were manufactured for many years. 

So Helium friends came out in 2011, meaning these could be either 1997 or 2007... am I correct?

1st generation tech/flex friends were discontinued in 1993. Yours came out after that. They may be of the older variety as they have nylon slings. They got spectra slings and anodized lobes later on. I'm not sure when Heliums came out, but they did replace Tech Friends.

the schmuck wrote: 1st generation tech/flex friends were discontinued in 1993. Yours came out after that. They may be of the older variety as they have nylon slings. They got spectra slings and anodized lobes later on. I'm not sure when Heliums came out, but they did replace Tech Friends.

Maybe his are from 1987?

Look, you can love your gear, just don’t...LOVE your gear.  Certainly brings new meaning to the term “gearhead”!

Delaney Bray-Stone wrote: No, not in a romantic way. I picked up these friends recently and trying to figure out what year, generation and size they are.

The yellow has 719 stamped on the stem and the turquoise has 723. My understanding is this means that they were manufactured on the 19th and 23rd week of either 1997 or 2007.

Anyone care to chime in?

Cheers,

D

I have an identical looking yellow (#1 I believe, about the same size as a .5 Camalot).  Based on my memory, I'd estimate the date of mine as being consistent with '97 than '07.  I'm pretty confident, but no guarantee.  It was never really a part of my every day lead rack (and I haven't really used it all for a long time), but I recall generally liking the cam, it was just a "one off" for me. 

2007 would have anodized lobes and spectra slings. '97 seems about right. The plastic sleeve was added to Tech Friends in '94, so definitely NOT '87 as one above poster suggested. 

Get a good look at them. those cams are good at getting welded.