they are light, cheep and effective but tricky and not as solid in your hand. the trigger just dosent feel as good as many of the other single stem SLDC's avalible. the forged stem makes it tuff to place on horizantals and a sling must be conected just below the head for them to be safe. the cams are effective but not as versitile as the camolots or other cable stem SLDC's.

these are great cams! theyre lightweight (really lightweight!), cheap, well-made, and sturdy as hell. they are not very prone to walking, which is always good. the downside: i find these cams to have an inferior reach to say, camalots. the stems are not all that long, and the lobe-to-trigger length is pretty short, too. what does this mean? --you cant reach as high for a placement, and when cleaning or placing in well featured rock, they can be a pain. this is especially evident in granite, where most of the time youre placing/cleaning in flared cracks. of course, theres that whole discussion about range....these do have less range than camalots, period. but if you know your gear well, this is never really a huge problem. also, the larger pieces - 3.5 and 4 - can be pretty unweildy sometimes--the connection points from the trigger wire to the cam lobe are very near the axle, instead of towards the tips of the lobes. well, this makes it harder for you to activate the cam--there is added torque because the cam lobes on these sizes are rather large. this is kind of annoying sometimes, but ive found if i keep them lubed nicely, they activate well.

The rigid stem on Forged Friends in the smaller sizes can be a disadvantage over single cable cams if the crack is uneven & the stem prevents an optimum placement. From about size 2 up, though, Forged Friends are a great value over camalots - lighter & cheaper. I've never had the problem another reviewer mentioned with the trigger cables - I really like forged friends, always have.

These cams are tricky, and in my opinion, you cannot afford for your climbing equipment to be tricky. I own the forged friends #1.5 thru #3.5 (1998). The design on these cams permits the entire camming assembly to be over-rotated. What then happens is the cables, which connect the trigger bar to the cams, can slide through the trigger bar, effectively locking the cam in its now useless state. If this happens after the cam has been placed, it makes it next to impossible to remove, so you're faced with leaving gear. If it happens when you're on an overhang, with strength rapidly running out of your fingers, and sweat in your eyes, then the consequences could be much worse.
On the brighter side of things, I've used these cams for 2 years and most of the time they've been very nice. They've never pulled out on a real fall, for which I'm thankful. But when I buy new cams, I'll make sure to inspect more closely, and spend a few more bucks if necesary. (The BD camalots do not have this problem, but are a lot more expensive).

Similar Products Used:

Black Diamond Camalots, Metolius 4-Cams

These cams are pretty neat. They feel good when you place them, and they are actually a little lighter than the WC Tech Friends. Make sure to put some spectra through one of the upper stem holes though, that way they can placed over an edge.