Review > Black Swan > Worms, Paw-Kets & Warblers

Dalton over at Black Swan wanted to surprise us with some new shapes... but he forgot our address so he had to ask for it :) He was keen to see what we thought of his new shapes that he has put up onto his site the last month or so... we review holds, we like surprises and despite knowing shapes are on the way he didn't tell us what was actually going to arrive.

The postman knocks and we get a box... oh sometimes it's like Christmas when the postman arrives and to be honest this box was something we were really keen to see. Now those of you that read Climbingholdreview will know that we reviewed Black Swans first offerings a while back and they were under par in a bunch of places, that being said what was in this box made people stop and take a second look. From unwrapping to that first special touch, we knew that Black Swan and Dalton had kicked it up a notch!!! What did we get?

Paw-Kets

Warblers

Worms

Paw-Kets, Warblers and Worms; we didn't get the full sets (except in the cast of the Paw-Kets) so we decided to put them all together and to set some longer routes and see what we could see... and feel :)

Let's kick off with:

THE WARBLERS

We only got three of these shapes and from the start you see the sharp edges and think "oh crap these are going to hurt"... but they don't and we kind of wish we had the full range. You can think of these shapes and cubes that have been twisted a little with a nice sloped edges. They climb really well and have way more grabbing and matching options than you'd expect

THE WORMS

We have three of these, the two larger ones and the top middle one. These guys allow you a variety of pinches any way you set them and the grooves allow your fingers to slot in for a little more grip and pull-ability. They have some nice screw holes as well

THE PAW-KETS

Pockets, argh, they're either going to be nice or they're going to be crappy and hurt. You can get at least three fingers into all of the holes and they're positive.... AND get this, they're pretty deep so you can be a little silly when you set because you have so much skin on them. It's a nice thing to see... some pockets that don't actually suck

Like we said we wanted to set some longer routes with these guys, so that's what we did, we decided to go from one side of the wall to the other using these holds and the Molecule (there are another set of Black Swan holds in there as well but they're for a later review) Getting across the door and out of the Molecule that was stationed at the bottom of the 45 degree wall was going to be the trickier parts. Despite what the video looks like we did move the holds around on the two routes that we filmed (there were many more that we didn't film) if you watch closely you'll see some of the Paw-Kets change positions and the Worms get turned. What ended up happening is a route that was technical without much of a chance to stop and rest... pretty much what we wanted.
INSERT VIDEO HERE
One thing that was apparent from all of the climbing we did, and we spent a good long time on these holds and just climbed on these holds some evenings, is that they're friendly to the skin and to the tendons. They're good training shapes, they may not look amazing but they climb superbly....

SUGGESTED USES:







If you look at the sets we're reviewing the stand outs are the Paw-kets and the Warblers. The pockets are finger friendly and you can go up to 45 degrees without too much bother, they're deep enough to allow some steep pulling. The Warblers are pretty well the same, on a 45 they're hard but fun to grab on, it's a shame we don't have the full set because we would have set some much longer routes with just those holds

We'd suggest the Warblers and Paw-Kets for a home wall and a bunch of fun. 

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 
• Paw-Kets: 3
• Worms: 5
• Warblers: 8
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt on
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds):
• Paw-Kets: $20/3 = $6.67 per hold
• Worms:$50/5 = $10 per hold
• Warblers: $55/5 = $11 per hold
• Color: Black
• Bolt placement: Good
• Sanding: Good
• Hollow backed: No
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Fine but grippy
• Set size:
• Paw-Kets:Medium
• Worms: Larger to medium
  
• Warblers: Medium
• Versatility:
• Pre-drilled screw holes: Yes on the Worms
• Shaper: Donovan Craig
• Weight: Various

From the little Black Swan logo on the tops to the fine texture that gives them their grip there isn't much to complain about.... except that we feel that the set screw holes on the Worms are a little tighter than we'd really like, they're also not pre-drilled so you have to drill them out yourself.

The quality of the holds and shaping has gone up 1000%, they're all sanded nice and flat, the texture is fine but it shines through when they're chalked up to all hell, and the shapes allow you to play around with a route and tweak it out more so than some other holds. There aren't any flaws with these holds their mix is good and strong (we dropped a bunch of holds whilst setting) and there wasn't a problem

As the holds are deeper than what we saw originally you don't need to worry about how ape handed you are with a wrench, tighten them up as much as you'd like and don't worry about it.

As usual the holds came in Black, which is something we like as you can see how you're gripping when you first touch the holds you can leave chalk prints on them and figure out how you did it the first time and then you can play with your grip to climb the route in a different style just for fun

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Polyurethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Good

RATING:
Noodles:
I read Routesetter.com a bunch, and I've spoken to Donovan Craig the shaper of these sets of holds. When I saw he posted this on there:

Foam blanks of the Worms: Donovan Craig

I was kind of... "Oooo those look like fun", three months later I get some of those holds :) Donovan is an up and coming shaper and I think you'll be seeing more of his shapes from various companies in the future... mark my words. Shapers are rare breeds and they generally don't disappear :P

Off topic as usual... Black Swan have totally got their shit into shape. Our first review was something that was hard (for all of us here) hard to write, but we pride ourselves on being honest so we went ahead and said what needed to be said. This time there is little to complain about, the shapes climb really well, the mix is solid and as usual the holds are black lol. So really no worries. My only concern is the screw holds on the Worms as they look a little and are a little too tight for my liking... but seriously if that's all I can really point a finger at then they're doing a pretty stand up job.

On a different (and more praising note), Dalton who lets face it took a bunch of harsh criticism from us has great big balls to send more holds! Think about it, if you sent something and it got a bad review you'd not do it again. Dalton is a rare creature, like Donovan, he listened to what we said and then he did exactly what needed to be done... that needs some praise and a tip of the hat.

I will and I suggest you should keep an eye on these guys, they're not a big name company and they don't have many sets (YET) but I think that in the future they will produce some shapes that you're going to want to look at. For me the Warblers are sublime, love em... Paw-Kets are pockets that don't hurt (yey!) and the Worms, well they're pinches... a little different from the rest and fun to play with, they're strangely a little Hueco in style

Oh yeah, they look kind of pretty when your camera over flashes:

Chris:
I've been busy so I've only spent a little time on these holds, I climbed the routes when they were there (and when I had time) and there are a couple of things that stand out. The cubes (Warblers) look like they will hurt but they don't at all and the pockets allow you to crank down and stick a move and then pull through really well. The route that Noodles set had a crux that went from the Molecule to the pockets to a Worm as a finishing move... Mark fell off of the last move HA!, as he was too casual with his hand placements... me, I ripped through it and it was fun.

There were some other holds in there that is another review for Black Swan... but I'd say between the holds I can't really talk about and the Warblers, I'd get the Warblers as they are versatile and have a really clean style to them.

Bobby:
The Black Swans, I climbed on them a whole lot on them, I did really enjoy the route we had set up, mostly cause there was a nice little variety to the sets, Pinches, crimps, even some small juggy edges. As for their texture.......Great! They offer plenty of friction without sanding your skin off. I never felt my fingers hurting on these, and I find that to be important. climbing is supposed to be fun, and in a nut shell that's what Black Swan offers with this sets.

PROS:

• Nice and strong
• Good price

CONS:

• The set screw holes on the Worms are a little tight and not drilled

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Review > Kando Holds > Erosion

Unless you're European, or probably more likely specifically Italian you've (we're guessing) not heard of a company from Italy called Kando holds. We had, in fact we added them to climbingholdreview a while back, we checked out their stuff and liked the look of it, so we grabbed a couple of sets to see what those sneaky Europeans were up  to :)

The first set we're looking at are called the Erosions...

Review > Core Climbing > Font Mini Slopers

There are a bunch of Font inspired shapes on the market, today we're taking a look at Core Climbing's (from the UK) Font Mini Slopers

The word mini is a misnomer in this case as these holds roll into the medium / large size range of most normal climbing holds, but the word sloper fits very very well. If you've climbed at Fontainbleau or are looking to train to go and climb in Font then right now (and considering we've seen a lot of Font inspired holds) you're looking at some of the best on the market. If you want Font on your wall you have in our opinion a couple of options that we've climbed on... you have the Project Holds Shellshocked series which have a simple take on a Font texture, Pusher Gears Font sets and of course the Boss and then there is Revolution Climbing that have their Font range and their Font Huge (which is very like the Boss) there are of course lots more sets from other companies out there that you can order from.

From the get-go the first thing you'll notice is that these holds are heavy, they're definitely not the lightest holds on the market for sure. Each hold comes with a nice pre-drilled set screw hole and an inset Core Climbing logo... but what you'll really notice is the texture and the detail of that texture. We were half sure that these holds could have been molded from the rock in France so we actually checked to see if this is the case; unfortunately it's not, someone has just put a lot of TLC into shaping these holds to be as realistic as possible when we say a lot of time we mean it, the level of detail on these holds is amazing. Another thing you'll notice is that when you climb on them they have a subtle way of spitting you off, you have to hit them with balance and poise, and then you have to be in the right position with your body and hands to get the most out of them. There are of course downsides to this type of climbing, it means the holds are pretty hard to stick so when you're climbing on steep angles you have to set for the holds and the moves you want to replicate, on anything steeper than 30 degrees these holds are super hard and the amount of  body tension you need to use to execute a move is hard.

We played with these guys a lot and really had to work the routes in order to complete them, none of the climbing was particularly easy and was just what we were looking for, from simple traverses to no break V5's everyone ended up on the mats at one time or another. As we took so much footage and there was one route that was just shutting people down we made a second climbing video, a great deal of that footage is us failing on a couple of moves. The route had two cruxes, one on the 60 degree roof where you have to execute a hard foot match and then foot movement where the Font's were on some volumes and the second was getting down and matching the last hold... we set feet sparingly on this route... there were enough feet to get it done but none of them were particularly large :) Needless to say it got done by a few of us, not all of us, but it did get done. It only took about 3 weeks of on and off trying, some bets and a bunch of hard pulling :)

SUGGESTED USES:













If you keep these holds on simple shallow angles you'll have an interesting time, you're going to learn to place your hands carefully and to move slowly between moves. As soon as the angle gets steep (45 up) you're going to be using the meat of your palm to stick onto them. We'd say these holds are technical and will be hard work for beginners to use, but if you're nice with your setting a beginner will be challenged and even stronger climbers will have to think about what and how they're climbing.

Steeper angles are going to make you work harder than you think as these holds are slopes and basically you'll end up pinching them; basically on anything over 45 degrees you want to be mentally strong :)

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 12
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds):
• Color: Ours are neon yellow
• Bolt placement: Great
• Sanding: Great
• Hollow backed: No
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Grippy
• Set size: Medium / Large
• Versatility: Ok
• Pre-drilled screw holes: Yes
• Shaper: TBC
• Weight: TBC
• Distribution:
• US: TBC
• EU: http://www.coreclimbing.co.uk/

Composite resin in a way of saying resin with fillers, we checked with Core about this and the answer they replied with is long and complicated, the short answer is yes they use fillers but they are careful with what they use to not degrade the strength of the shapes in anyway of form. From the bolt hole that takes any bolts, to the pre-drilled set screw holes (that are taped for the screw head) these holds are very well made.

The sanding is good, the shaping is amazing and the set consists of lots of slopey fun. One the downside is the weight of the holds, they are heavy and they will weigh down a setter bucket... but we think the extra weight is worth it the holds feel very very solid to the touch

Colorwise you can choose from a mix of the colors Core have, we were surprised to see these guys in neon yellow as it's not easily shown on their website. All of the holds have a Core logo so they're easy to pick out of a bin of holds (that's if the color didn't tell you what they were anyway!)

On the texture front you're looking at something that very closely resembles Font, so much so we thought that they'd been molded from real rock. Even when extremely chalked up the texture is enough to hold onto without skin burns or feeling like you're going to slip off, well until you slip off :P. If the holds get super super chalked up a good brushing brings the texture back quickly.

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Composite resin

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Awesome, holds were vacuum packed onto cardboard and arrives with no problems

RATING:
Noodles:
Ah my favorite place to climb... and now some of my favorite holds! Why? Fontainbleau teaches you to climb delicately and the rock / types of movements used to climb there are unlike anywhere else. If you want to replicate a Font route then get these holds and the smallest smeariest feet you can find and the go set, I don't think that you'd be disappointed!

I've seen enough Font holds and enough of Fontainbleau in my 20+ years of climbing to be able to know what a good Font inspired hold is... these are exactly that, they're well shaped and they feel like the rock. But I do have a small issue with them... nothing major just something that irks me a little. These holds, although superbly shaped and poured are of a size where you can get the meat of your thumb around the hold... this is something that I can't remember doing when climbing there. Sure it gives the holds some extra use and extra grip for the climber but I'd have liked to not have been able to do this... that being said, in some cases I was super happy that I could grip them like this because when you're on a V5 with no breaks you need to pull out every trick you can think of to get through the moves.

I spent more time than I care to think about on the bonus / extended route that I set... every time I walked away from the wall tired but not hurting. To say I was tested with these holds is an huge understatement to say the least. I think I'm pretty strong and I can climb some alright grades but I got my ass kicked a number of times when I thought that I had the route, had gripped the hold in the right manner and was feeling like I was kicking ass... infact I got my ass kicked time and time again, and then I went back for some more and I'll keep going back for more as these holds are brilliant replicas of Fontainbleau and what Fontainbleau, for me, means.

Chris:
I have yet to go to the French bouldering Mecca of Fontainbleau, but this classic climbing area has inspired many a climbing hold. I’ve seen these shapes in the gym and we’ve received quite a few sets of these kinds of holds, notably the 60 pound box we got from Atomik climbing. I’ve noticed that each company who makes these holds has their own spin on the shapes. The aggressive,  bulbous texture of Climb It fonts are full of surprises while Atomik made their fonts slopey and open hand. Our latest edition to our font collection is just as unique as the rest. Now I’ve heard about the climbing in Fontainbleau and the emphasis on the technical quality of the problems mainly from the fact that the place is littered with slopey holds. Although Core’s font holds have that bulbous look, there are a lot of crimps found in the set….are there crimps found in Fontainbleau? I’m sure there is and this is what I would imagine them to be.

I’ve only been recently introduced to Core and their shapes and I am really impressed with the workmanship in the shapes and the quality of the holds. The holds are poured in resin, like many European made holds, and I prefer the feel and texture of resin holds. You’ll probably disagree with my preference have to lug 50 hold up and down a ladder. I also like the bright colors. We received a box full of holds and they were all bright and vivid colors.

The shapes themselves are awesome. They’ve managed to stuff all kinds of grips into one little hold. If yopu can’t get a good pinch on it, well switch to an open hand or better yet, you might find yourself a good crimp. Being bulbous (I know, I’ve used this description a bunch of times, but it best word I could find) makes for small, comfortable crimps and it gives the set a nice dynamic.

We made good work of this set. I wasn’t around for some of the stuff that Bobby and Jeremy set but I climbed my fair share on the holds. They have a lot of chalk on them and the texture still has a good grip. I like these holds and the only downside is they aren’t found on routes in the local gym.
 

PROS:

• Some of the best Font holds on the market
• Will test most levels of climbers
• Awesome neon yellow color

CONS:

• Heavy
• You'll have to set carefully, don't think you can just power through on these holds