Wooden holds

What is considered quality when it comes to wooden holds? Does anyone have experience making them? I've made some juggy crimps to drill into the rafters of my basement but a pocket knife only gets you so far.

If you're making your own a spoon-carving knife would allow you to make concave shapes.  The three tools on the left.

Paging Dr. Burch, Dr. Adam Burchey Who Will Fight Anyone Nahmean?!, line one.

Same issue here and I can't find any solutions.

Webfoot wrote:

If you're making your own a spoon-carving knife would allow you to make concave shapes.  The three tools on the left.

Good to know, thanks!

Get scraps from furniture makers. Quality wood, weird shapes. That's what we did back in the early 80s before plastic holds existed.

I have a wood lathe which makes it very easy to make round hold which I can further refine. Cabinet shops are great places to find small cut offs to hand shape into something you want. The spoon carving sets shown in the photos work well but having a small saw/axe/chisels for the rough out really helps if working with unsurfaced wood, Dremel tools and/or power carvers on angle grinders are also excellent for this purpose. 

Generally these tools can be found for lower costs at pawn shops if you are on a budget. Hand carving tools seem to be cheapest on Ebay as they tend to be more rare/hard to find in 2nd hand stores due to the small market. If you're hand carving I keep a spray bottle of water to keep the surface just slightly wet which helps with the cutting action. Get a cut proof glove as well while you're learning or pay the consequence. 

As far as quality are you talking about wood types? Poplar is fine, really any hard wood works. Pine is ok, but tends to absorb a lot of chalk due to the open cell system and dents/crack very easily in thin layers. Softer woods such as soft maple, boxelder and poplar will be easier to hand carve. You want your pulling surface to be parallel to the grain orientation and use "clear" wood which is free from defects such as knots. Consistent grain orientation is much more important in small crimp holds, while there is some wiggle room in larger pinches and round holds.

There's a video from Dave MacLeod on how to make on making climbing holds at home. His use of tools is way more dangerous than any of the climbs he's done.

Bolting Karen wrote:

There's a video from Dave MacLeod on how to make on making climbing holds at home. His use of tools is way more dangerous than any of the climbs he's done.

Haha I didn't even pay attention and thought you were being hyperbolic. Nope his hand is inches from the blade the whole time. Dam!

A lot of people recommend using scraps of dimensional lumber. I was skeptical and rightfully so. Dimensional lumber is way too flexible for my fat ass, I broke most the holds at least they were free!

Princess Puppy Lovr wrote:

Haha I didn't even pay attention and thought you were being hyperbolic. Nope his hand is inches from the blade the whole time. Dam!

yeah its definitely E14 tool usage

There is a Facebook page on home made holds.  (DIY Climbing holds on FB)

Probably some discussion on this in the 'show us your woody' thread.  Lots on YouTube etc...

Useful tools:

Miter saw, table saw, drill or drill press, orbital sander, belt sander, grinder with abrasive wheel.

Simplest holds are just a block screwed on.

For more complex shapes, cut a rough shape with saws and fine tune with grinder and sanders.

TBlom wrote:

There is a Facebook page on home made holds.  (DIY Climbing holds on FB)

Probably some discussion on this in the 'show us your woody' thread.  Lots on YouTube etc...

Useful tools:

Miter saw, table saw, drill or drill press, orbital sander, belt sander, grinder with abrasive wheel.

Simplest holds are just a block screwed on.

For more complex shapes, cut a rough shape with saws and fine tune with grinder and sanders.

Unfortunately I'm broke. I may be able to borrow an orbital sander though.

Hank Hudley wrote:

Unfortunately I'm broke. I may be able to borrow an orbital sander though.

While all the stuff listed above makes it faster with a hand saw, sandpaper, and some hardwood you can get a lot done. The only fancy tool that is a must have is a countersinking bit but if you make everything screw ons you don't even need that. Just straight up block holds are also underrated. 

Angle grinder and a wood carving disk.

Honestly, you could take apart old free furniture and screw the legs and other parts on as holds.   Pieces of logs, scraps from jobsites, etc.  The only limit is one's creativity.

Bolting Karen wrote:

There's a video from Dave MacLeod on how to make on making climbing holds at home. His use of tools is way more dangerous than any of the climbs he's done.

That is a very specific zinger that would only work on a few people (of whom Dave MacLeod is one). Amazing

Cobble made by gluing two 2x6 sections together, band saw for basic shaping, table sander (wear gloves!) for smoothing it as a cobble. Drill press (two bit sizes) for countersinking the bolt hole, washer in the bottom of the hole. Many foot chips made from simple plywood. The chips disintegrate over time but you can replace them easily and cheaply. Hardwood molding for incut crimps. I don't have pictures to post, but lots of possibilities for making jugs with 3/4 or 1" hardwood slabs glued to hard or soft wood bases. Wood holds are a pleasure to climb on and a lot of fun to make.

Angle grinder, wood carving disk, sander. Poplar shapes quickly and can be purchased from Home Depot in reasonable little pieces. They also have oak which is harder and more coarse grained.

A good lesson from the OG School Room board - they don't have to be pretty, they just have to work. 

Edit to add: I will say that good wood holds are beautiful to climb on and get you worked. If you ever have the chance to climb on tension or beastmaker holds, those are good ideas of what to emulate. We have some on our basement spray and a few homemade ones my roommate made. I'm definitely looking forward to being part of the next batch of homemade ones

Guys, if I remember correctly, I think Hank is high school age and probably doesn't have access to a woodworking shop...

Home Depot or other home improvement stores usually have a cart full of scraps and off cuts for super cheap. There's usually even a hand saw and miter box right there for cutting trim that you can use for free. A few bucks and some sawing and you can make up all kinds of little blocks of various thickness. Won't be fancy, but something. I've made some holds out of handrails as mentioned above - works great.

There are some great examples of what may be considered "quality" in this thread - from get 'er done hacked off scraps or beautifully sculpted works of art. quality is subjective, depends what you want from them!

M Wolf wrote:

Guys, if I remember correctly, I think Hank is high school age and probably doesn't have access to a woodworking shop...

Home Depot or other home improvement stores usually have a cart full of scraps and off cuts for super cheap. There's usually even a hand saw and miter box right there for cutting trim that you can use for free. A few bucks and some sawing and you can make up all kinds of little blocks of various thickness. Won't be fancy, but something. I've made some holds out of handrails as mentioned above - works great.

There are some great examples of what may be considered "quality" in this thread - from get 'er done hacked off scraps or beautifully sculpted works of art. quality is subjective, depends what you want from them!

Quality is dependent on what you want, I make furniture so I usually go way overboard on everything which is why it took so long to build my house lol. Love the handrail idea simple and brilliant. I remember Chris Sharma in a video mentioning just screwing branches on his home wall cause they feel just like tufas. Natural edges make great slimps and slopers too. Probably would want to flatten the side attaching to the wall first

Some simple holds made from scrap.