[rodma]

Has anyone else been foolish enough to buy the talc-in-disguise that is bleaustone chalk, or is it just me being a stereotypically-tight-fisted-scotsman  Or maybe it's just me who's had problems with it?

Not that I'm saying it isn't magnesium carbonate, just that I got better grip (even on plastic) by just using the sweat from my hands to improve the friction.

Still, at least I haven't wasted much money 

[andybfreeman]

The chunky bleaustone chalk (£7 for 3 at rock and run) seems better than than the pure powdered chalk  (£6.50 for 3) but special offers aside I'd still buy super chalk every time!

[rodma]

The chunky bleaustone chalk (£7 for 3 at rock and run) seems better than than the pure powdered chalk  (£6.50 for 3) but special offers aside I'd still buy super chalk every time!

It was the cheap chunky stuff and its total shit, or else I suddenly lost the ability to hang off a campus board with both hands let alone one.

I can't use the metrolius stuff, the drying agent makes the skin on the back of my hands crack and makes my tips sore.

It's block chalk all the way for me (with nightime antihydral treatment)

[dave]

get the cheapo oldschool Camp stuff from decathlon.

[slackline]

I can't use the metrolius stuff, the drying agent makes the skin on the back of my hands crack and makes my tips sore.

I can't use that either, dries and cracks the palms of my hands (why are you putting it on the backs of your hands?  ).

I was going to try the Bleaustone chalk, but CragX had sold out and weren't going to get any more in for a while, so instead I got some Moon Dust and haven't suffered any of the problems I had with the Metolius Super Chalk.

Perhaps worth checking out.

[Adam Lincoln]

On a similar note, not sure exactly what Metolius have started doing to their Super chalk but it comes very damp now and have been told it needs drying out before use. (This from Metolius team member)

[dave]

wet chalk? thats genius.

[slackline]

wet chalk? thats genius.

Almost as crazy as liquid chalk 

[Adam Lincoln]

wet chalk? thats genius.

Not wet, but feels moist to the touch.

[dave]

maybe they've misheard someone talking about "sid's jizz" and added their own special ingredient. makes no odds to me as i thought superchalk was wank anyway.

[Somebody's Fool]

A friend in America said there was a bad (i.e. damp) batch of Super Chalk knocking about because of a fuck up in their factory. Something to do with spilling something in the chalk making room if my memory serves me correctly, which it probably doesn't if I can only be that vague.

[GCW]

get the cheapo oldschool Camp stuff.

I use that.  I find Metolius plays merry hell with my skin for some reason.

[dave]

ditto on the skin thing. it was like being the mayor of split city.

[rodma]

ditto on the skin thing. it was like being the mayor of split city.

Glad I'm not alone with the bad skin due to superchalk.

get the cheapo oldschool Camp stuff.

I use that.  I find Metolius plays merry hell with my skin for some reason.

I used to like the camp stuff too, but like the blocks a little better. I know block chalk is cheap (or used to be) at boulderuk, bought some today in Edin but it was £12 for a box.

[GCW]

I meant the Camp blocks.  Still get it for a quid a block or less.




Call me old if you like, but I like having lumps in the chalk bag to crush into my tips

[a dense loner]

i can only use superchalk, everything else feels like talc to me

[Mike Tyson]

I'm with Dense on this one. Superchalk is the shizz-nizz.

I have heard a fair few people moan about it to be honest, same thing about it drying and cracking the skin.

[GCW]

Maybe Dave and I just ain't as sweaty as you guys

Or we've got sensitive girly skin 

[tomtom]

I meant the Camp blocks.  Still get it for a quid a block or less.




Call me old if you like, but I like having lumps in the chalk bag to crush into my tips

Decathlon do large bags of it for a fiver - which contains plenty of chunky lumps :-)
I've never had any problems with it. T

[GCW]

All the smashed bits when some Italian guy dropped the blocks on the floor, swept together and sold to English muppets.

So is it kinda like broken biscuits? 

[Monolith]

Metolius superchalk works the bomb for me. Alas, I have uber bad eczema at the moment and the doctor at the walkin just winced it was so bad. Driven me to antibiotics that shit has. Suppose, in the localised sense, liquid chalk will have to remain my best friend for now.

Also, a bit of micro beta I discovered; liquid chalk works amazingly for me in the cave when the air is above 60% saturation or thereabouts.Makes damp turn sticky. Et voila, DIY sticky damp.

[Andy B]

I've found my last couple of bags of superchalk damp too. I'm planning on changing to moon or back to camp blocks. The only other chalk I've found the damp problem with was bleaustone chalk, when I tried it.

I meant the Camp blocks.  Still get it for a quid a block or less.

That sounds cheap. It was a quid a block eighteen years ago.

[dave]

maybe this is 18 year old chalk.

[rodma]

I've found the damp problem with was bleaustone chalk, when I tried it.

Maybe that's what my problem was with it 

Buggered if i'm gonna dry it out though, it's going in the bin

[benj_d]

seriously.. isnt it all the same. I bought some of the cheap stuff from rock n run but I find its all the same.. except from chalk blocks, they seem a bit greasy.

[rodma]

seriously.. isnt it all the same. I bought some of the cheap stuff from rock n run but I find its all the same.. except from chalk blocks, they seem a bit greasy.

Everyones different

I had my first session last night after ditching the blowstone stuff in favour of block. They are worlds apart.

[psychomansam]

seriously.. isnt it all the same. I bought some of the cheap stuff from rock n run but I find its all the same.. except from chalk blocks, they seem a bit greasy.

I have to agree with this. I personally think all chalk is equal, and none are more equal than others! I suspect there's very little too it apart from superstition anyway, altho everyone is of course entitled to their own superstitions! 

I've had various balls, blocks and am now using rockrun bleaustone with no problems... maybe i'll do some more rigorous comparisons on our fingerboard slopes tho!

And i'm also really liking some (beal?) liquid chalk i picked up the other day. Makes a great, even base layer...

[Jaspersharpe]

I'm still unconvinced by the variations. Superchalk is in no way super in my experience. Liquid chalk is good although only in conjunction with some decent crumbly stuff. I might point out that I love chalk and really had high hopes for the advancement in anti sweat technology on my return to the sport. Monolith you have mail (or will do if I can continue to be bothered typing on this little keyboard in the dark for much longer).

[psykx]

I managed to spend an hour travelling to the bouldering wall today and managed to forget my kit ( ) after hiring shoes and later buying tape and chalk I reckon the DMM chalk I was using before is the dog nads and the much finer powder of what ever bleaustone chalk  I bought today is crap.

or at least that is my excuse for climbing rubbishy today

[Jaspersharpe]

I managed to spend an hour travelling to the bouldering wall today and managed to forget my kit ( ) after hiring shoes and later buying tape and chalk I reckon the DMM chalk I was using before is the dog nads and the much finer powder of what ever bleaustone chalk  I bought today is crap.

or at least that is my excuse for climbing rubbishy today

You have a perfectly good excuse without resorting to blaming the brand of chalk used. Should I point it out? 

[Dr T]

maybe he hired some boreals and so decided to do campus training....
 

[psykx]

actually I did do that too , although I found I'm too weak to do campus training  . Ordered a powerbar pull up thingy and a powerball when I got home 

[sjw]

We met a Cadandian bloke in Font a few years ago who swore by Franklin White Gold. He was so positive it made the difference that when he ran out (he was staying for a few months) he got some shipped over from Canada. Extreme 

[moose]

I'm a tight git but I do have a preference for loose Super Chalk, despite the price.  Maybe I'm a deluded slave to Metolius' marketing, but I'm sure that it sticks to my hands better than the competition and seems to keep them dry for longer.  The Camp block chalk feels especially talc-like in comparison: falls off instantly and I can never get a good coating on my fingers. 

The Wild Country Pure Chalk is pretty good too though; similar feel and cling to Super Chalk but without additional drying agents.  I won a year's supply which has been getting a lot of use this summer grit bouldering season (unemployment and free chalk, the nearest I'll ever come to being a sponsored hero).  As I've been ticking along better than ever, even during what passed for a heat-wave in Yorkshire, and my skin hasn't split it must be pretty good.  Hell, considering my normal form I'd be tempted to ascribe voodoo powers to the stuff.

That said, it probably is my imagination and chalk is just chalk.  Saying otherwise would be a bit hypocritical given what I found on an old thread; really sorry but I couldn't resist it.  Behold, King of the Chalks - Moon Dust:

Congratulations to Ben for managing to market chalk as Moon Dust

I hope you are not insinuating that Moon Dust is a shallow exercise in brand-name attachment!

I'll have you know that, between tackling boulders, Ben Moon has trained his mind to become one of the world's leading inorganic chemists.  Moon Dust is the result of an extensive private research programme that required Ben to plum the structure versus property relationships of every conceivable calcite; investigating the effects of hydrate coordination on the mysteries of grit friction.  If you look closely at the training videos on his website you can see the X-ray Diffraction Spectrometer he built from old car parts and a disused TB testing station, found junked behind a hospital.

The effort nearly drove Ben insane.  He is still often found looking bewildered and muttering "....magnesite.... barringtonite ... nesquehonite ....and lansfordite" on street corners.  The respiratory problems he developed whilst personally mining and purifying dolemitic minerals will blight his future.  But it was worth it: Moon Dust is truly chalk par excellence, utterly distinct from anything else on the market.

[SA Chris]

liquid chalk works amazingly for me in the cave when the air is above 60% saturation or thereabouts

Do you carry a wet and dry bulb thermometer around with you?

[richdraws]

We met a Cadandian bloke in Font a few years ago who swore by Franklin White Gold. He was so positive it made the difference that when he ran out (he was staying for a few months) he got some shipped over from Canada. Extreme 

That Canadian fella is briefly in The Players spotting Daniel Woods. He is very thin.

[ww]

is the Frank Endo block chalk available in the u.k.   seems its for sale in every gym and climbing shop in the u.s. for quite cheap.   

[ferret]

i bum super chalk, anyone who doesnt think this drys yor hands more than "normal" chalk, why do you think some people get dry cracked skin from using it?
if conditions are cool it makes less difference, any chalk that isnt powdery flour like crap is fine for me but i still tend to buy SC for the placebo.
in hot humid conditions i tend to apply liquid prior to super chalk once im ready to crush! (wish this was more often)

[slackline]

Chalk is cheap 

[Greg C]

I feel I must reply to this, as I bought all that cheap chalk for R+R on the basis that I trialled it and found it perfectly usable. I have compared it to Megagrip Block Chalk, Super Chalk, Camp Block Chalk and the Wild Country Chalk. Other than Super Chalk - which is a different product - it is, in my view, at least as good as all the the others mentioned. Perhaps you got a couple of duff bags, as I have used around 8 bags of it and not had any issues? Do you really think that there are hundreds of chalk refineries in the world, sifting, tending and distilling the stuff like fine wines? At the end of the day, 90+% of all these chalks are mass produced products, coming out of the same few factories in China. Even if you disagree with my assessment of the Bleaustone chalk, logically I don't really see how they can all be so different from one another.

PS: I would add that I haven't used the 'Fine' version, so I can't factually comment on this. However it is supposed to be the same chalk just sifted to a finer level.

[SA Chris]

Double blind testing required. Only way to know the answer.

[SA Chris]

Chalk is cheap 

Not sure if that deserves smiting or wadding, so will leave it neutral.

[Houdini]

Double blind testing required. Only way to know the answer.

Indeed

[oyyou2]

Moon Chalk all the way!! No drying agent just pure chalk.

Tried the Metolius stuff but got really deep cracks down the edge of my fingernails, Moon Dust and Climb on solved this problem!!

[rodma]

I feel I must reply to this, as I bought all that cheap chalk for R+R on the basis that I trialled it and found it perfectly usable. I have compared it to Megagrip Block Chalk, Super Chalk, Camp Block Chalk and the Wild Country Chalk. Other than Super Chalk - which is a different product - it is, in my view, at least as good as all the the others mentioned. Perhaps you got a couple of duff bags, as I have used around 8 bags of it and not had any issues? Do you really think that there are hundreds of chalk refineries in the world, sifting, tending and distilling the stuff like fine wines? At the end of the day, 90+% of all these chalks are mass produced products, coming out of the same few factories in China. Even if you disagree with my assessment of the Bleaustone chalk, logically I don't really see how they can all be so different from one another.

PS: I would add that I haven't used the 'Fine' version, so I can't factually comment on this. However it is supposed to be the same chalk just sifted to a finer level.

Maybe the stuff I got was just from a duff batch, I've given the rest of it away at the wall for free (or tried to anyway) 

[fatneck]

I bought a bag of this stuff off Ebay last month and have to say, I'm impressed! Have used it on lots of different rock types as well as indoors and it goes on well, stays on and with free delivery, is pretty cheap.

[tomtom]

I bought a bag of this stuff off Ebay last month and have to say, I'm impressed! Have used it on lots of different rock types as well as indoors and it goes on well, stays on and with free delivery, is pretty cheap.

50p cheaper than decathlog...

[DAVETHOMAS90]

I bought a bag of this stuff off Ebay last month and have to say, I'm impressed! Have used it on lots of different rock types as well as indoors and it goes on well, stays on and with free delivery, is pretty cheap.

"Psychi Loose Chalk Shot for Rock Climbing Gymnastics Bouldering Pole Dancing"

Does it help with sweaty cracks too? 

Great research there Fatneck.

+1

[fatneck]

Ha! Not so great with mine but apparently great for reducing cleavage glare under stage lights...

[Coops_13]

Three bags have just arrived, cheers for the link!

[fatneck]