I acquired this eight from Bob & Bob in 1987.
The DMM Anka is forged from aluminum alloy. Mine is 142 mm tall, 84 mm. wide, and 47 mm. thick. The rope hole is 39 mm. high and 51 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 54 mm. and 17 mm, respectively. The eye measures 25 mm. by 25 mm. The ears are 18 mm. long. My DMM Anka weighs 188 g.
One side of the Anka has "DMM" in raised forged letters, and the other side has "WALES," also in raised forged letters
The DMM Anka falls into my miscellaneous figure eights with ears category. I prefer to orient my eights so that the rope loop lies in a vertical plane as I am standing with the eight out in front of me. Since my seat maillon is oriented horizontally, a standard eight configuration works fine, but some harnesses orient the maillon vertically. The DMM Anka has the eye rotated 90 degrees to the rope hole, making it a better choice for these harnesses. The Anka is asymmetrical in that the center of the eye is not in the plane of the rope loop. This means that the Anka can be rigged in two ways, one for lower friction and one for greater. The rope hole is shorter than normal, so the Anka may provide too much friction on stiff or muddy ropes.
The ears on the Anka are located in a sensible place, and are not oversize like the ears on many other eights. All in all, there seems to have been more thought put into designing the Anka than was done for many others.
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©2007, Gary D. Storrick