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Gary Moss gave me these ascenders in 1979.
The Roehr & Katon is 100 mm. tall, 58 mm. wide, 31 mm. thick, and weighs 137 g. This ascender’s frame was made from 2.5 mm. aluminum bent to form a U-shaped channel. The cam is cut from 1/2-in aluminum plate. The cam teeth are formed by a series of hacksaw cuts crisscrossed by cuts from a finer saw. The axle is a steel bolt drilled to accept a hitch pin clip.
The overall cam shape is very similar to Homemade Version B’s, and is reminds me of the same NSS News article as that one did.
Gary provided the following information on the history of these cams:
I saw the cam I gave to you many years ago and thought you might like to have a little history on it. Roehr & Katon Cam Item (95) Tom Roehr NSS 8281. Katon. ( I don't have any more info on Katon) They made these cams in the Summer and Fall of 1967 at VPI in Blacksburg, Va. I think you are right in that I believe they did used the NSS article to pattern the cams from. It was from these cams that a lot of people in the Blacksburg area started to develop rope walking methods to use these cams, then latter other ascenders including rope knots. We started using the cams as rope knot replacements at first. I used a set of three cams (one of which you have in your collection) in a three knot climbing rig (cams to replace knots) to climb out of Cass Cave in Dec. 1967. I don't remember how many were made, but I don't think it was more that 30. They had access to a local machine shop where they made the cams.
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