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Wagner Brake Bar

Rigged for Use

 

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In 1975 Kelly Wagner filed for a patent on a unique brake bar design, and received U.S. Patent 4,019,609 in 1977. The Wagner brake bar is unique in that it rides on two carabiners. This effectively eliminates most of the concern over side loading a carabiner's gate, without resorting to contrived methods like the Carabiners as Brake Bars. By the time Wagner developed his brake bar, carabiner brake bar methods were already in decline, having been effectively replaced by figure eights and rappel racks. As far as I know, Wagner never produced his brake bar commercially. After I got my milling machine, I decided to make one for myself, using the patent as a guide. I milled my Wagner brake bar from 6061-T6 aluminum plate. I added some relief on the unloaded side of the brake bar to make it easier to rig onto the oval carabiners I use, but other than this, my Version Is a faithful copy of the original. It works well, and rides nicely on the opposed carabiners.