Reviews - Nuts: DMM Walnuts Set - Heason Events

Nuts: DMM Walnuts Set

9th Jun 2006

DMM Wallnuts

There's not a whole lot to say about nuts. At the end of the day the principle is pretty basic: a tapered chock on the end of a piece of flexible wire. Said chock is wedged into a crack in the rock and the rope attached to it as a running belay by means of a karabiner. So what have DMM done to make their design stand out from the rest? First and foremost they have anodised them, meaning that each different size has its own specific colour. It's no big secret that DMM and Wild Country are the two most popular hardware brands in the UK. Fortunately for us they are friends with each other and have decided to use the same colour-coding system for their respective sets of nuts. For those climbers who carry an assortment of brands on their harness this is a real bonus and helps avoid confusion when selecting the right nut (it obviously takes a while to learn the colour / size combinations). The main difference between the Wallnut and the Wild Country Rocks is the shaping and tapering of the chocks. Where Wild Country have opted for a smooth curved nut, DMM have sculpted out a groove on each of the two main faces. This means that they grab a placement very quickly - and sometimes too quickly, proving difficult to extricate and place properly - and sit very snugly, but on the other hand are a little prone to sticking and often need a tap with a nut key.

I'm not sure exactly what the terminology means, but they use different methods of production for different sizes. 1-6 are Hot Forged, whereas 7-11 are Extruded. The difference in weight is pretty impressive:

1 16g
2 26g
3 28g
4 30g
5 34g
6 40g
7 33g
8 43g
9 47g
10 52g
11 57g
Total 406g

We wonder how long it'll be before they can apply the same methods to all sizes and bring down the weight even more.

A superb set of nuts.