Objects Database

Titanium Friend

Accession Number

1467.2018.1

Object Name

Titanium Friend

Created

15/11/2018

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

15/11/2018

Brief Description

Spring loaded titanium ‘friend’.

Materials

Titanium

Dimensions

14(L) x7(W) cms

Number Of Objects

1

Inscription Description

"WILD COUNTRY FRIEND ½ "

Colour

silver

Maker

Wild Country

Object Production Place

UK

Provenance

Ray Jardine invented his spring loaded camming device for rock climbing back in the 1970’s and while attempting to hide the prototype from his climbing pals during the development stage, he nicknamed them ‘friends’ and the name stuck.
Having failed to get a commercial backer in his native America, Jardine turned to a guy called Mark Valance in the UK. He owned a company called Wild Country so the two got together and a star was born.
You’ll find some of the original rigid stemmed ‘ friends’ elsewhere in the collection but the one we have here is the titanium version which was designed for greater strength and durability.
Flexible Friends came along soon after the titanium version and pretty soon captured the market, helped in no small part by Wild Country ceasing to produce the trigger repair kits which kept the old ones servicable.
This particular one came from our fellow collector, Art McCarthy, in America, which means it’s probably gone from the UK to the USA and back again!

Acquisition Method

Donated by Art McCarthy

Acquisition Date

15/11/2018

Condition Check Date

15/11/2018

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

15/11/2018

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Related Items

'Friend'
Friend -(anodised)
'Friends'
Friends - Anodised - Wild Country