The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
1080.2013.1(a-b)
Homemade pitons.
03/05/2013
Hermione Cooper
03/05/2013
Two homemade 'P' shaped pitons. One is flat- a'blade' and the other is Z shaped- a'leeper'
a - steel b - aluminium alloy
a-15(l) x 5(w) cms b- 14(l) x 4.5(w) x3(h) cms
2
brown
Things of the homemade variety have always been of special interest to us, reflecting an era when mountaineers and hillgoers were less well off and equipment was hard to come by. A prime example of this can be found in our nearest town, Fort William, which boasts five outdoor shops in 2013 but back in the 1950's our old pal,Bobby Corson, tells us that they would eagerly await the next consignment of ex-War Department goods arriving at the local ironmongers to see what outdoor gear was amongst it.
These two, lovely, homemade pitons stem from that era and have been carefully crafted by someone(unfortunately we don't know who) planning great things in the mountains. The 'leeper' - that's the wrinkly one - seems to be made of an aluminium alloy whereas the 'blade' is cut from some very hard steel. We've clipped them together on a standard karabiner as we haven't come across a homemade karabiner yet - now there's a challenge!
03/05/2013
03/05/2013
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
03/05/2013