Alex K Posted April 29, 2022 Share Posted April 29, 2022 (edited) Hello everyone!  Since joining this forum I have been actively sharing my training progress in the workout reports sections. However, I have also received a few requests to share insights on my current gripper collection. Since I am also involved in collecting grippers, I have decided to start posting a little bit about my grippers in the form of short reviews on the equipment section! I am eager to hear your opinions or suggestions on this topic!  To start things off, the first gripper I'm going to talk about is a "collectible gripper in disguise", the Double Stamp - in this particular example, the CoC#3! I have come across the so called "Stamped" Captains of Crush rather recently. The history on those is quite interesting, there have been numerous generations of both single and double stamped grippers. There's also a rather large thread on the forums on those. One particular generation which I find interesting are the GR8 Double Stamped grippers. Out of all stamp Captains of Crush generations, those have existed for the shortest period of time - less than a year somewhere around 2005. What's very cool about those - they look just like a modern CoC, however, there is just a number stamped on each handle, no CoC writing. The knurling on those is comparable to older CoCs produced until 2013, it is much sharper than on modern CoCs though. Here's an awesome GR8 Double Stamp CoC#3 I have acquired recently: Edited May 4, 2022 by Alexander Koss 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex K Posted May 4, 2022 Author Share Posted May 4, 2022 (edited) Today's gripper highlight - THE AtomGripz 6 Band Knurled Gripper: This gripper was one of my earliest collective goals - I always appreciated the look of AtomGripz, which have basically gone extinct a while back. Produced by Lloyd Kelly in the early 2010s, those have existed for a few years before fading away. Now, they are a relic of the past, and very hard to find. Similar to those seeking Tetting grippers, the oversized hard AtomGripz 5-6 Band are much harder to find, than the lighter 1-4 Bands, which could also be used for training. This is the hardest one of the line - the 6 Band, a magnificent gripper with a very large 9.5mm (0,374 inch) spring. It is much larger when compared to the spring of a CoC#4: AtomGripz are well known to have very sharp knurling. I can only confirm the fact, that the knurling of AtomGripz is not just sharp, it's literally spiky and has teeth! Overall, it's a very beautiful collectible gripper, and is for sure one of my favourite grippers of all time!  Edited May 4, 2022 by Alexander Koss 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared P Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 That thing is beautiful. Pretty jealous, not gonna lie. Any guesses on an RGC? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex K Posted May 4, 2022 Author Share Posted May 4, 2022 16 minutes ago, Jared P said: That thing is beautiful. Pretty jealous, not gonna lie. Any guesses on an RGC? This gripper used to be around 60mm wide and was rated by Matt Cannon to be 290 lbs. I have expanded the gripper the same way I reduce resistance on grippers, with heat (below 100°C not to mess with the temper) and resistance. I just thought the wider version of the gripper is cooler  It's around 70mm wide now, I would guess it to be around 300lbs or more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fist of Fury Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 That Atomgripz 6 would be awesome to have as a chest crush gripper. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex K Posted May 4, 2022 Author Share Posted May 4, 2022 20 minutes ago, Fist of Fury said: That Atomgripz 6 would be awesome to have as a chest crush gripper. It certainly is! It would be awesome to have more grippers in this strength range for collectors and for chestcrushing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex K Posted June 23, 2022 Author Share Posted June 23, 2022 Today's highlight - Single Stamp Captains of Crush: Today I'd like to showcase the first generation of the Captains of Crush, the single stamps! Produced from around 1995 to 2002, those were the first grippers labeled called Captains of Crush (before that came the exact same grippers but with steel handles with less sharp knurling and stamps on each handle, but those were still called Silver Crush). Those grippers are unique in a special way, not just their age. The knurling is very different when compared even to double stamps which came right after the single stamps. It has amazing bite, but isn't aggressive at all. The springs are oil tempered, and of really good quality. They have a really good feel to them and look very good for their age. I currently have the Single Stamp CoC Trainer (unrated as of now) and a CoC #4 (Rated 213lbs by Cannon). I previously thought I would be selling the trainer since finding more single stamps would be impossible, but after getting the #4 I have faith that, in time, I might find the remaining 3 grippers  Here are some images: In the last picture you can see the knurling, it's very pointy and sharp, but the knurling isn't very large which makes it epic. Hopefully I will find more in the future to update the collection  5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Knowlton Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 nice looking grippers 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex K Posted June 24, 2022 Author Share Posted June 24, 2022 21 minutes ago, John Knowlton said: nice looking grippers Thank you! I've seen your post earlier about your first CoC grippers, those are some awesome single stamps! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Knowlton Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 Thanks, if I remember right I purchased them in the mid 90s 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.