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Bob Handley Cool Eights

Thin-walled

Thick-walled

Thin-walled Thick-walled
Thin-walled Thick-walled

Overview


Thin-walled
(#319, 2407)

Front Rear
Front Rear

Technical Details

I acquired this eight from B&C Wunderwear in 1991. I acquired another in 2017 as part of Bob Thrun’s collection.

Bob Handley's Thin-wall Cool 8 is made out of welded stainless steel tubing. Mine is 158 mm. tall, 164 mm. wide, and 19 mm. thick. The rope hole is 66 mm. high and 80 mm wide. The top center thickness is 18 mm. The shaft length and width are 10 mm. and 59 mm., respectively. The eye measures 37 mm. by 41 mm. The ears are 33.5 mm. long. My Handley Cool 8, Thin-wall weighs 108 g.

There are no markings on this eight.

Comments

Bob Handley's Cool Eights are welded steel eights with ears. The stainless steel tubing gives them excellent wear resistance yet keeps the weight low. My biggest complaint with this eight is my normal complaint about ears - they could have been eliminated, or else they could have been relocated to the base of the rope loop.

Will Ray sent me the following note on August 30, 2018:

I don't think I noticed this in the writeup on your site:

I'm pretty sure the Handley Cool-8s were designed so that water could be run through them to cool them while descending. I crossed paths with Bob and Todd Handley a few times on-rope in the early 90s, and I'm almost certain I remember seeing these used with a nalgene lab squirt bottle and a length of tygon so that water could be flushed through as needed. I have no clue whether that turned out to be a good idea in practice.

I had a brazed, possibly prototype version of one of these kicking around in my box of random crap for a long time. Can't for the life of me remember where it came from.

Best, Will Ray

This is an idea that I had forgotten and have not had a chance to test.


Thick-walled
(#320, 2473)

Front Rear
Front Rear

Technical Details

I acquired this eight from B&C Wunderwear in 1991, an another from Bill Leibman at the 2017 Old Timers Reunion.

Bob Handley's Thick-wall Cool 8 is made out of welded stainless steel tubing. Mine is 126 mm. tall, 141 mm. wide, and 19 mm. thick. The rope hole is 60 mm. high and 78 mm wide. The top center thickness is 19 mm. The shaft length and width are 10 mm. and 59 mm., respectively. The eye measures 39 mm. by 41 mm. The ears are 23.2 mm. long. My Handley Cool 8, Thick-wall weighs 173 g.

There are no markings on this eight.

Comments

This eight is essentially the same as the first version, except that thick-walled stainless steel tubing was used. It weighs much more than the thin-wall ersion, but is still relatively light for a figure eight with ears.


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