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I bought this ascender at the NSS Convention auction in 1999. Bob Thrun got the other one of the pair. We don't know its history, but one glance at the cam and one cannot help thinking of figure 1 in Henshaw & Morehouse's article in the November 1965 NSS News. The shell on this ascender is made from 2.9 mm steel sheet bent to form a U-shaped channel. The cam is cut from 1/2-in (13-mm) steel plate. The eye was drilled, countersunk, and then rounded. The cam face has 5 V-shaped grooves, forming 5 distinct teeth. The cam pivots on a 3/8-in bolt which is secured by a hex nut. The bolt and nut were drilled to accept a cotter pin.
This ascender is quite functional, but being made of steel, it is also heavy.
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I have no information on the history of this ascender. This ascender was clearly patterned after an early Gibbs Ascender. The shell is bent from 1/8-in aluminum. It looks like it was professionally done, but the dimensions are not the same as a Gibbs shell, so I assume it isn't one. The cam is handmade from 5/8-in aluminum plate. The cam teeth are particularly crude, consisting of a number of hacksaw cuts spaced about one blade-width apart. Many of the "teeth" are broken. When I received this ascender it had no pivot. It is shown with a 5/16 inch bolt, although the holes are drilled to accept a 3/8 inch bolt.
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I have no information on the history of this ascender either, but the initials "LWO" are engraved in the shell. The shell is bent from 1/8 inch aluminum plate. It appears that either a scrap piece of aluminum was used, or the lowest grade sheet metal was sought, because the finish is horrid. The cam is built from two pieces of 3/8-in aluminum plate made into a 3/4-in thick cam by clamping the two pieces together, drilling and tapping them, bolting them together, and then cutting the bolt heads off. The cam teeth are formed by a series of hacksaw cuts, done with more care than on the preceding or following ascenders. The axle is a steel pin with a hole at the end. It is secured by a spring wire retainer that appears to have come from a Gibbs ascender.
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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 overall cam shape is very similar to Homemade Version A's, and is reminds me of the same NSS News article as that one did. The cam teeth are formed by a series of hacksaw cuts criss-crosses by cuts from a finer saw. The axle is a steel bolt drilled to accept a hitch pin clip.
Gary Moss gave me these ascenders in 1979. He 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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