[Paul B]

Peewee makes them. He sorted Cofe out recently I think.

[M1V0]

Etsy oddly has a seemingly decent selection under the search term "wooden climbing holds". A mix of established makers (liek Taylor made) and some more esoteric looking producers.

[moose]

I have a variety of crusher, hardwood and strongholds (made by rginns of this parish). All are good in their own way. Like dunnyg says the variety is good. Different finishes and styles, means more interesting problems on the board.

I have holds by all those, plus a few Beastmaker leaf crimps.  As you said - all good  when you balance price / feel / aesthetics. 

A shout-out to Strongholds / rginns for my latest purchase - a set of Sipo Mahogany 2-finger pockets.  Ergonomic with a nice grippy internal feel - not the polished slippyness of some wood holds.  As a bonus, they lend my board a note of HR Giger / Cronenberg-esque body horror.

[Bradders]

On the subject of some of the people who have setup shop selling wooden holds recently, has anyone got any good recommendations? I've got some space to fill so have been keeping an eye out.

Hardwood holds seem pretty well established, ordered some nice edges from them the other day. Also picked up some lovely pockets from Taylor Made Holds. A few others I've had my eye on but haven't ordered anything from are Lock Holds, Against the Grain and Guchi Grains. Interested in any reviews.

I've been meaning to write up a review of the holds I've got, having bought from quite a few of both the new and pre-established makers. Will see if I can get time this evening.

[Oldmanmatt]

I have a mixture of Crusher and Artemis, the latter being a relatively new producer.
Dan Ward, he’s very good and reasonably priced. Has a FB shop:

https://www.facebook.com/artemis.hangboards

[griffer]

I've seen a lot of wooden holds over the last 3 years, currently really impressed with Hardwood holds, great range and feel. Beta Blox always improving, steady range and good texture, beastmaker really interesting holds but difficult to procure, strongholds uses some really interesting wood and creates some nice jugs, About to use a lock holds board so I'll report back in a week, Crusher steady range and great value for money, pockets are good. Taylor made, not seen that many but positive report from friends.
Really they all make good holds and the best boards have a variety on them.

[remus]

I have a mixture of Crusher and Artemis, the latter being a relatively new producer.
Dan Ward, he’s very good and reasonably priced. Has a FB shop:

https://www.facebook.com/artemis.hangboards

Good shout on Artemis/Dan ward, nice selection of shapes.

[cheque]

Andi Turner has holds for sale on his Instagram. Not sure about the volume he produces them in but they look like works of art!

[Steve R]

Wow, artisanal luxury wooden holds market looks pretty crowded.  Some great looking stuff.
Important to remember though, the best board climber is the one having the most fun and sculpting their own holds.
like comment subscribe #retiredby40

[User deactivated.]

Has anyone built volumes and used them on their board?

Cranking on crimps is all well and good (and is training my weakness) but the majority of my outdoor goals are squeezing slopers. I thought having two fairly big volumes, one on each side of my board, could make for some nice compression and heel hook moves. Anyone had success with this?

They wouldn't be a permanent feature, I could potentially install them right over the existing holds with a bit of tweaking so that it would just be a case of doing a few screws.

[teestub]

I know a couple of people who have made small tetrahedron volumes for their boards and have been very happy with the results.

Not just good for compression and gaston moves but also undercuts.

[Bradders]

Yep I have 6 small volumes on my board. They make a big difference to the variety of possible moves and planes of motion you can go for.

I'd definitely avoid big ones. They'll take up too much space in my opinion and be awkward to move around.

[sdm]

Likewise interested if you find any. All the resin holds now are in lovely ergonomic shapes and textures, where really I just want some ratty little horrible things.

Shame I'm so far away, I inherited holds from both Dave P, and another friend who took their wall down, some right ratty old school things among them.

Most rat like crimps i have are these https://www.outside.co.uk/bleaustone-training-range-symmetrics-set.html

the smallest of which i can can barely hold on my board - 26 deg, so for a wad should be ideal. The others are more incut

I have some of these on my 45 (not the full set).

The easiest ones are crimpy but very positive, can use them for biggish moves but have to pull hard. The more rounded ones (middle, second from bottom) make nice comfortable crimp/pinches. Some of them are quite positive but only for 2/3 fingers so have to hit them accurately or I'm off. The squarish ones (top left or middle right?) are properly ratty.

I'm not a fan of the 2 sided ones in the bottom right: they are awkward to use as handholds and too good for footholds. But the rest are good.

[remus]

Has anyone built volumes and used them on their board?

Cranking on crimps is all well and good (and is training my weakness) but the majority of my outdoor goals are squeezing slopers. I thought having two fairly big volumes, one on each side of my board, could make for some nice compression and heel hook moves. Anyone had success with this?

They wouldn't be a permanent feature, I could potentially install them right over the existing holds with a bit of tweaking so that it would just be a case of doing a few screws.

I put a couple of these on a few days ago https://www.hardwoodholds.co.uk/store/p190/Board__Volume.html but haven't had a chance to climb pn them yet. They seem well made and psyched to have a few more options for hold angles. They're fairly small though, good for not taking up too much space but I think you'd struggle to put them over existing holds on your board.

[Steve R]

Has anyone built volumes and used them on their board?

Funny you should ask, this really great channel on youtube has a recent volume making video, might provide some inspiration/ideas:
like comment subscribe #retiredby40

[Wood FT]

Has anyone built volumes and used them on their board?

Funny you should ask, this really great channel on youtube has a recent volume making video, might provide some inspiration/ideas:
like comment subscribe #retiredby40

  liked and subscribed

[jamesturnbull97]

Likewise interested if you find any. All the resin holds now are in lovely ergonomic shapes and textures, where really I just want some ratty little horrible things.

Shame I'm so far away, I inherited holds from both Dave P, and another friend who took their wall down, some right ratty old school things among them.

Most rat like crimps i have are these https://www.outside.co.uk/bleaustone-training-range-symmetrics-set.html

the smallest of which i can can barely hold on my board - 26 deg, so for a wad should be ideal. The others are more incut

I have some of these on my 45 (not the full set).

The easiest ones are crimpy but very positive, can use them for biggish moves but have to pull hard. The more rounded ones (middle, second from bottom) make nice comfortable crimp/pinches. Some of them are quite positive but only for 2/3 fingers so have to hit them accurately or I'm off. The squarish ones (top left or middle right?) are properly ratty.

I'm not a fan of the 2 sided ones in the bottom right: they are awkward to use as handholds and too good for footholds. But the rest are good.

I also have these red crimps which are very ratty and basic.

I inherited them so don't know who made them but they could be just what you're after Bradders if anyone can identify them.

https://imgur.com/a/LmB8kjT

Think these are old High Noon holds from Swanny and Dave Cowl but I'd imagine you'd struggle to find any now.

[Adam Lincoln]

If anyone is reading this and has a set, I'd like to get my hands on the Malc Smith Trainingstone holds by Stonesmith.

😉

[daddy long legs]

Maybe not the cheapest but the yellow Moonboard holds are pretty old skool. Pretty much all small crimps and pinches.

[mark20]

My mate made some small 'volumes' by getting a cutting diagonally down a 4inch fenchpost, to give two long Toblerones. Then cutting into required sizes.
On a 45deg board you can put them on to give a flat undercut and vertical face, and put little holds on for undercuts and good crimps, or in the other orientation for incut gastons/sidepulls or a pinch across the whole thing.
Only small but gives a few options for different angled holds, gastons you get right into, crimps you can properly drape below, and positive undercuts to reach up into, etc

[Sidehaas]

I have a mixture of Crusher and Artemis, the latter being a relatively new producer.
Dan Ward, he’s very good and reasonably priced. Has a FB shop:

https://www.facebook.com/artemis.hangboards

Good shout on Artemis/Dan ward, nice selection of shapes.

I also have one of his small wedge volumes - really good quality, looks good and bargainous prices. I have managed to attach 6 different crimps on the four faces of mine (3 on the front and one on each of the other sides) so got lots of new angles out of it.
I think you could probably fit it temporarily over the top of a crimp but you'd want to check exact dimensions.

[cofe]

Peewee makes them. He sorted Cofe out recently I think.

I got some lovely handles from Pete. Tulip.

Also got some Beta Blox, Beastmaker and Strongholds, all very nice.

Got some great Core holds too as I do like resin, and their Geo footholds are mega.

[sdm]

I've got a set of leaf crimps from Get a Grip (James Tunstall).

They're nicely made small, comfy, positive crimps. Just wide enough for 4 fingers, about half a pad deep for your middle 2 fingers but smaller for your index and pinky.

Haven't tried any of his other holds but the rails look interesting.

https://getagripclimbing.com/shop/

And something a bit different: I have 2 granite Skinfarmrz edges (pictured in the red crimps post above) and 2 granite slopers from Petraholds to toughen the skin up while I can't climb outdoors. I use the slopers for hangs and currently have the edges on the board.

The edges are tough on the board. They're probably best suited for hangs to toughen up the skin before a trip, especially for people with crap skin like me. As expected, they work your skin in a very similar way to climbing on crimpy granite.

They come from Canada and are not cheap. He also does a wood and granite hangboard and a "try hard stick" for training compression but I think shipping and customs would make them very expensive for the UK.

Also does whole board sets in granite or basalt but they would be very expensive for a home setup.

https://instagram.com/petraholds?igshid=e84de43h4bbd

[Bradders]

Been meaning to write a bit of a review of all the holds I've acquired for ages, so here goes at last. I've tried to get a good variety, mainly as I think that's just generally a good approach for constructing a board and giving a decent amount of variation in the hold types you can use. All holds are on either a 45' or 25' board, and for reference I am occasionally able to cheat my way up 8Aish boulders but more usually climb around 7C in a session or three.

Forgive the massive essay but hopefully this is useful for someone!

Taylor Made Holds: https://taylormadeholds.com/
Holds used: thin pinches, 25mm 30' incut edges, 15' incut edges, campus rungs, triangle pinches
Review: all of the holds are made from tulipwood, and are finished with a really smooth texture giving very little friction, meaning you have to squeeze pretty hard on all of the holds. In all honesty I was a bit disappointed with the 30' incut edges, as I was thinking they'd be smaller and more incut than they are, but I've ended up using them as pretty hard undercuts and they work well for this. The less incut edges are really hard to use on the 45' board. The best thing about these holds is the finish, which is really exceptional and I particularly like the addition of washers as standard, which means they're nice and easy to screw onto the wall without over-tightening.


Jake's Holds: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JakesHolds
Holds used: micro wavey edges (oak & walnut), small random blocks,
Review: I absolutely love the wavey edges. The finish is brilliant, and the edges are sharp little grifters that have been really hard to come across, but I think are really valuable on a board as you have to properly bear down to use them. The wavey edge to them gives a really nice shape and a much more natural feel than a flat edge. The small blocks are really hard to use on a 45' board, ending up as kind of front 3 micro pinches which feel really unique and different to literally any other holds I've seen on a board. I also put two of them close together to create a kind of split edge that feels like something you'd find on UK limestone.


Beta Blox: https://www.betablox.co.uk/
Holds used: small slopey edges, large domes, large and small pinches, 88mm sloper (in plywood)
Review: these were amongst the first holds I bought midway through the first lockdown last year. Honestly, I wasn't all that impressed at the time, given I'd specified holds for a 45' board, and having bought circa 20-30 holds I ended up having to take the majority of them off as they were completely unusable at that angle. Not just hard, I genuinely think Adam Ondra wouldn't have been able to do anything with them. On a 25' though they're much better and more recently I bought some of the sapele domes, which are absolutely lovely to use and Nigel was great in sorting out exactly what I was after.


Crusher: http://crusherholds.co.uk/
Holds: board holds set 2 (mix of edges from small to large plus medium and large pinches)
Review: these really are the budget option. At £2.50 per hold, I don't think you can really get holds cheaper unless you make them yourself. You do get what you pay for though; the wood doesn't feel amazing quality and in an outdoor board noticeably suffers more than others, the edges are very easily "cheatable" in that you can get a lot of thumb involved given they have flat edges, and they're generally not great to look at. The smallest edges were also kind of too small for 45' in my opinion, not having much of an incut. My favourite holds in the set are the large pinches, which give a really meaty handful.


Beastmaker: https://www.beastmaker.co.uk/
Holds: incut pinches, 1000 & 2000 fingerboards, micros
Review: from the budget option to the premium brand. Again, you get what you pay for; premium finish, lovely shapes, etc. But they're just not that interesting....hard to put my finger on it but even just looking at the website none of the holds make me excited to spend money on them, such that the only ones I've ended up getting are the incut pinches, which are admittedly lovely.


Strongholds: https://www.strongholds.co.uk/
Holds: small mirrored jugs and custom made small edges 15mm with 45' incut in tulipwood, small utile (mahogany type wood) edges
Review: really, really impressed with these. The small mirrored jugs in tulipwood are just perfect for warm ups at 45' for me, giving a great comfortable shaped hold that's small enough to get your fingers pulling but large enough that they still feel somewhat juggy. The 15mm edges were custom made by Rick after I got in touch. He made them to my specifications and was really accommodating. I think he was a little reluctant initially to do such a significant incut angle, but it's worked really well and he made the edge profile perfectly so it's very small, but really comfortable. The texture on these combined with the size makes them really hard to use, but never uncomfortable which is a real achievement. He even then threw in a pair of edges in utile, which is a really beautiful wood type, and again they're just really nicely shaped. Altogether these might just be the most comfortable "hard" holds on my board.


Peewee: https://www.instagram.com/peter_hobbit_wilkinson/?hl=en
Holds: mix of edges in varying sizes and incuts, few small pinches
Review: Pete made me lots of mixed edge sizes and you can tell that he knows how to make a profile of hold that's both comfortable yet gives good hard climbing. There are lots of slopey edges that are a bit different to lots of others on the market; you've got to really bear down on them, but they're not incut at all really. Compared to a lot of others they are also much, much harder to thumb cheat; i.e. you have to really crimp down on them as opposed to pinching the sides. My only criticism is the wood type used initially isn't the best and suffers a bit in my shed, but I think he's now using more tulip and they were very well priced.


Tulip Grips: https://www.instagram.com/tulipgrips/
Holds: large slopers
Review: only have a couple of these, but the finish is exceptional and they're really nice to look at and use, whilst being very reasonably priced. Keen to get some more.


Alien Holds: https://www.alienholds.com/
Holds: First Contact full set
Review: as a big set of holds to fill out a new board I think these were a really good choice. You get a great variety of shapes including some jugs that really aren't too juggy, big slopey edges that make great finishing holds, and a bunch of slopers and pinches that are really usable for easier to moderate problems on 45'. There were I think only 2 hand holds in the set that aren't usable on 45' or on a volume on the 45', whilst if I was buying again I wouldn't have got the footholds as they're just too slopey for 45', and too big for 25'. Texture wise they feel great, slightly rough but comfortable profiles.


Core: https://coreclimbing.co.uk/
Holds: Font mini jugs, limestone small edges, 20mm geo screw on feet, "board" feet
Review: everyone should just get their footholds from Core really, they're just the best. The 20mm are probably a bit too big for really hard problems at 45' but they do mean you can use some really small handholds, so it's swings and roundabouts. The board feet are small and slopey and can turn warm ups on the larger feet into projects. I've used these on a 30' board too and they're still pretty tough there! The Font mini jugs make for very easy warm ups on 45', or are good for an unfit boulderer doing aerocap on 25'. Honestly, I really didn't get on with the limestone edges. They were very usable at 45', but I found wooden holds much more comfortable to use as the edges were so sharp they tore through my skin pretty quickly.


Euroholds: https://www.euroholds.com/en/
Holds: 16M (small slopers), 5M (one / two finger pockets)
Review: The slopers made for great finishing holds on a previous 45, but were unusable for me on the steep. They make for a difficult, squeezy circuit at 25', with lots of variety to the profiles; some are draggable, whilst others you have to really pinch. The pockets are great on the 45'; positive and comfortable to use for someone who generally hates climbing on pockets. Unfortunately last time I looked at shipping costs I think these are now pretty uneconomical.


Hardwood Holds: https://www.hardwoodholds.co.uk/
Holds: big pinches, wavey crimps, board slopers
Review: another of the most established and well known brands. It would be a bit weird not to have some Hardwood Holds on a board. That said, I've not been all that impressed and I suspect their popularity / ubiquity is more based around successful marketing and familiarity, as opposed to the holds actually being any better than others on this list. The board slopers are really good though, at 45' they require you to really squeeze all the juice out of them to make them usable, and one of my crowning achievements on my board is having done a sequence linking them together.


Silly Goat: https://sillygoatholds.co.uk/
Holds: random mix of small edges
Review: another very established brand. Again, really not that impressed. The holds are generally quite interesting shapes which is nice, but they're sharp in a bad way in places and I prefer more rounded profiles where you can't get the cheat thumb engaged. I do only have a handful of them to be fair, albeit part of the reason for that is the larger slopers and pinches are a fair bit more expensive than those from other makers, and I'm not sure are worth the extra dough.


Buzz: https://buzzholds.co.uk/
Holds: big mix of pretty much everything, i.e. the 40 hold set plus a bunch of others from when he was just starting out
Review: Garry's holds have improved a lot since he started out. The first lot he sent me during lockdown 1 were good, but some were very sharp and could completely ruin your skin. The new set I got a few months ago are much better, really nice profiles on the edges and comfortable pinches. He was happy to accommodate some of my specific requirements and gave me a really cool mix of wood types which adds variety. All at a really great price. Highly recommended.

[RobK]

Mega write up Bradders. Sounds like we have a quite similar hold setup and I agree with basically everything you've said so don't have much to add.

Perhaps the only one we differ on are the Hardwood Holds. I'm a big fan of these, I find they use a bigger radius on their edges than almost every other hold on my board which is nice for variety if nothing else. A big shout out for their jugs too. Great for longer endurance stuff on steep boards and I haven't found anything else as remotely comfortable and kind to the skin.