Knurling and being a coc?

[Guest Jeff Roark]

Hey JM brought up a topic about his hands needing to toughen up which led to knurling of the grippers. Then Joe said something to the point of haveing a lightly knurled gripper could be used as a stepping stone to a higher one. Then I thought of when I got to try Richard Sorins #3 and #4. The handles on his were so much slicker than mine that if I put grease on mine it would probably be easier to hang on to. Was this normal of alll the early grippers? Could this have been one of the reason there was less people being certified? When did the handles actually change?

[Guest mg6680]

I'm sure the knurling played a role.  My guess would be the main reason is when those grippers (silver crush) were made in the late 80's/early 90's not many peeps knew they existed.  A friend recently found two of his silver crush grippers he bought in the late 80's and I'm anxious to try them.  I want to buy them from him (good luck) cuz one is ~a 2.5 and the other is ~a 3.5 (so he says).

[Sybersnott]

Knurling DOES make a difference, especially when closing the #3.  It hurts!   :crazy

O.K., wouldn't you train longer and harder with the grippers when it seems like it won't cut into your hand?  ???  Of course!  Why take on additional pain when you don't have to?  The knurling felt like tiny razor blades cutting into my hand when I was closing the grippers.  And my skin didn't "toughen up"... it started coming OFF.  So I decided to do something about it.  The only thing that worked for me was taking the sharpness out by sanding it down.

I did use a unmodified, unaltered #3 gripper when I qualified (per Wannagrip's instructions), but that was about it.  No sharp grippers for me!