[James Malloch]

I’ve got a load of flat edges on my board which i never use as they are just too small (10-12mm including the rounded edge).

I’m going to add a bit of incut into them but unsure how much to go for.

It will be a bit of faff as i don’t have the right tools so will try to do them at a friend’s. It would be good to hey some views on it first.

So I wondered if anyone had played around with different degrees of incut? I want to keep them hard, but i don’t know if doing, say, just 2 degrees would make a big difference, or if it would need more to be noticeable.

The wall is only 25 degrees so i find that even small holes with a decent incut are really good. So keen to do the minimum that will make enough difference to hold them.

[Fultonius]

Can you not do a couple at home by hand (sanding block) and tweak them until they seem right?  I found the hardest thing to get right with more incut edges on a less steep board was not making them nasty. That said, its probably good to have a few nasties to prep the finger, but mine were often just too aggressive.

[User deactivated.]

Could you set them as sidepulls that you compress against? That could make them usable, even if they're just intermediates? Otherwise, how about making some shallow volumes to subtly change the angles?

[sdm]

Can you borrow a belt sander from someone for a few days? That's what I've used and they're quick and easy to modify holds with.

When I've modified holds, it's been an iterative process of sanding them a bit, seeing how they feel on the board, then sand them a bit more. Repeat until you're happy.

I think you'll be lucky to get them right first time remotely.

[James Malloch]

Thanks for the replies. I think you’re right that I should have a play with some at home first. Maybe I’ll try and have a go at one with a sanding block tomorrow before doing a batch of them elsewhere.

I guess that as I want to take so little off maybe it won’t be as hard as I imagined.

The smallest holds are 6mm flat edge and plus 4mm of rounded bevel. I’ve tried some as side pulls but they are just too small for me (too likely to ping off whilst trying to full crimp). I added a thumb catch to one which meant I could use it as a start hold, but there’s no way I could have moved on to it.

I have quite a few on the board which I don’t use now but I think with a small tweak they could create a load of challenging holds and add lots more variety to the problems I am setting 🙂

[Steve Crowe]

It might be possible to slacken a couple of holds and pack some cardboard behind the bottom of the hold below the screws. That should have the effect of making them feel more uncut. Add even more packing until they feel just right.

[Moo]

It’s been my experience that when you get down to the hold sizes you’re talking about skin condition plays as much a role as absolute finger strength.

Have you tried a bit of skin toughening?. It’s an arduous process but can pay big dividends on the right holds.

[James Malloch]

If I’m honest i doing know if i climb enough to properly condition skin. It’s always been fine in general (and I’m great at dealing with failure whether it’s to do with skin, conditions, head or weakness)  l so i probably won’t play around with it at the moment.

I turned one of the holds back to front  once which gave it a sharp 45 degree incut. It made it very usable so I’ll play around with sanding first. I did one yesterday which i think could make it useable when I’m a bit stronger so I’ll see how it is over the next month.

I put one on the outside face of a good pinch too. That’s hard to use but having a good thumb, with the bad edge, made it a nice new addition.

[Dac]

I’m aware that it’s not exactly an answer to your query, but I’ve had some success in making small holds more usable by adding a thin piece of wood (usually 4mm ply) behind the hold.

Lifting the whole hold a couple of millimetres away from the surface of the wall obviously increases its usability considerably, and I’ve found that as long as the backing piece of wood aligns well with the top edge of the hold (or whichever side of the hold your fingers are in contact with) the shaping and finish or the rest of the backing piece of wood is not too important, so even with my cack-handed carpentry skills is a fairly easy job.

With a fairly thin piece of backing wood your fingers never actually come into contact with it, it just makes the actual hold more usable.

As I say, not an answer to you question, but I thought it was worth a mention as it has the advantage of not modifying the original hold: so if it doesn’t work, or you get stronger and want your original small hold back, you can remove it and your back with your original hold.