Steel Grippers

[Ben Helms]

I recently purchased an old RB gripper and found out that the handles were made of steel. Super heavy, and beefy. Does anyone know where I can find more steel grippers? It doesn’t have to be RB. Thanks!

[Cannon]

There are few floating around, but nothing currently in production. Some I can think of:

The rebranded China 100-150-200-250-300-350 grippers offered by GNC had thinner steel handles. These had a rather smooth suggestion of knurling. These are an inexpensive option if you can find some. They were sold under the name Pro Performance Ultimate Power Grips. 

Very old pre-1990 Tetting grippers have steel handles. These are exceptionally rare. He did continue to make these on a custom-order basis throughout his productive years. The handles were virtually always smooth steel with very rare exceptions having beefy, chonky knurling. He also made many extended handle grippers with one knurled aluminum handle and a longer smooth steel handle. 

Many FBBC grippers had smooth steel handles. Pretty hard to find now.

The oldest and highly collectable IronMind Silver Crush grippers had chromium plated steel handles. Then for a short time there were IronMind grippers with stainless steel. Expect to take out a mortgage to get either if you can even find them. 

From a production standpoint, aluminum makes more sense for virtually any consideration there can be. Therefore steel is far less common. 

I will say that we have plans to do Standard sets with all sorts of special handles. This is an "eventually" project after the full line is back up an running. We would like to do steel, stainless steel, brass, those kind of special editions. I think these will be cool. All engraved and pinned like the current line. Maybe serialized.   

[slazbob]

I’ve only seen a few, but there were some home made grippers made with the handles of York dumbbells that were cut for blobs. Very cool 

[josé adalton]

A few years ago a Warren Tetting family member was selling his line with handles of steel on eBay. I bought one "Master" (is engraved with just an "M" or "W" upside down just in a handle). This is the only Tetting gripper I have.

.

[matek]

I have two; 

The first one is a gripper made in Japan by a small business (Fukuhatsu Metal), so the springs are not the usual Chinese ones frequently seen on off-brand grippers. The handle diameter is 18.23mm (23/32"), so it's a narrow-handled gripper like the Grip Genies. The spread on mine is 76.5mm (3"). The weight of the gripper is 491 grams (1.1 LBS) - about the double of a CoC #3. It's not RGC rated, but my estimatation is that it's in the low 170s. Looks good but the knurling is too smooth for my liking. 

The second is a one of a kind stainless gripper I designed (mainly based on Standards), more info here, if you're interested. 

Edited July 28, 2023 by matek

[Douglas Carney]

19 hours ago, Cannon said:

The rebranded China 100-150-200-250-300-350 grippers offered by GNC had thinner steel handles. These had a rather smooth suggestion of knurling. These are an inexpensive option if you can find some. They were sold under the name Pro Performance Ultimate Power Grips. 

...

I will say that we have plans to do Standard sets with all sorts of special handles. This is an "eventually" project after the full line is back up an running. We would like to do steel, stainless steel, brass, those kind of special editions. I think these will be cool. All engraved and pinned like the current line. Maybe serialized.   

19 hours ago, slazbob said:

I’ve only seen a few, but there were some home made grippers made with the handles of York dumbbells that were cut for blobs. Very cool 

Yeah...the GNC grippers were neither burly nor knurly.  Thin and almost as smooth as IronMind Zenith grippers!    But hey...I like them.

[Apparently they put up a fight when filing them.  But Matt was able to work it out and get me exactly what I wanted.]

Also in the photos below are a couple of dumbbell handles that eBay sellers "gifted" me when I purchased a blob or block weight.

Agree that they could make cool custom handles but unfortunately they're noticeably different diameters.  Not sure how well that would work...

[josé adalton]

On 7/27/2023 at 1:56 PM, Ben Helms said:

I recently purchased an old RB gripper and found out that the handles were made of steel. Super heavy, and beefy.

Of curiosity, what's the spring diameter of this? 20 mm handles?

[RiotGrip]

I'll add a few more:

The HG 500 and HG400 made by heavy grips had steel handles(1" diameter), supposedly only 500 of each were made.  They were available in 2003-04

A company called BoneCrusher briefly made copies of the HG400 and HG500(again 1" diameter") and were called the "BoneCrusher" 400 and 500 maybe available in 2010

AtomGripz did do some steel handle grippers probably available in 2010-11 and possibly more rare than any of the other examples--I would love to know if anyone had production numbers on their products.

Dennis Rogers sold a limited run of steel handle grippers to mimic the old ironman grippers, but those were made by Warren Tetting.  Maybe went for sale in 2006-07

Edited July 31, 2023 by RiotGrip

[mmc]

Here is my solid steel handled gripper I purchased here in New Jersey almost 40 years ago. There are no identifying markings on it but I believe it to be one of several sold through the pages of Ironman magazine in the 60s and 70s. I've had dozens of guy try it over the years and no one has been able to close it. I've only recently decided to strengthen my grip and will be purchasing some COC grippers. I'll report back after doing so to see which number is equivalent to my Ironman gripper.

[RiotGrip]

1 hour ago, mmc said:

Here is my solid steel handled gripper I purchased here in New Jersey almost 40 years ago. There are no identifying markings on it but I believe it to be one of several sold through the pages of Ironman magazine in the 60s and 70s. I've had dozens of guy try it over the years and no one has been able to close it. I've only recently decided to strengthen my grip and will be purchasing some COC grippers. I'll report back after doing so to see which number is equivalent to my Ironman gripper.

I’d bet money that gripper was made by Warren Tetting.  Other than the small number of grippers made by PDA in 2001 and 2002, I don’t think anyone else did pinned handles.

[Cannon]

1 hour ago, RiotGrip said:

I’d bet money that gripper was made by Warren Tetting.

I think you guys are on the same page. Tetting made the Ironman grippers which he believes is the origin. It’s a Tetting for sure..and a VERY valuable one. 

[mmc]

I paid $10 for it. With inflation that's about $30 today. Not that im looking to sell it but it's good to know it might be worth more.

[gripmaniac]

Matt,

Have you ever rated one of these? Spring diameter?

I'm wondering how hard they would have been - somewhere closer to a IM2.5 than an IM2 would be my guess (ie. achievable with a some committed training).

Just curious 

[Cannon]

12 hours ago, gripmaniac said:

Matt,

Have you ever rated one of these? Spring diameter?

I'm wondering how hard they would have been - somewhere closer to a IM2.5 than an IM2 would be my guess (ie. achievable with a some committed training).

Just curious 

I rated the one that @VintageWeightsPGH made a video about cleaning up. It had a 0.234" spring I believe, Rob can you confirm? Same as a IM1, Tetting Advanced, Zinc, etc.

Rated 85 and was dummy wide. Rob, can you also post the spread?  

@mmc Can you measure the spring on yours? Looks like 0.234".

[VintageWeightsPGH]

1 hour ago, Cannon said:

I rated the one that @VintageWeightsPGH made a video about cleaning up. It had a 0.234" spring I believe, Rob can you confirm? Same as a IM1, Tetting Advanced, Zinc, etc.

Rated 85 and was dummy wide. Rob, can you also post the spread?  

@mmc Can you measure the spring on yours? Looks like 0.234".

I’ll check and get back. 

[mmc]

5 hours ago, Cannon said:

I rated the one that @VintageWeightsPGH made a video about cleaning up. It had a 0.234" spring I believe, Rob can you confirm? Same as a IM1, Tetting Advanced, Zinc, etc.

Rated 85 and was dummy wide. Rob, can you also post the spread?  

@mmc Can you measure the spring on yours? Looks like 0.234".

I don't have a micrometer so I did a rough measurement with a metal ruler. By eye it looks like 1/4".