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.