Tag Archives: karabinerhaken

We all know and love carabiners for their multi-functional utility and ubiquitous appeal. But what do we really know about carabiners themselves? Let's take a dive into the world of carabiners to discover more information about their origins and how they became the beloved apparatus that they are today.

While we here at Wholesale-Carabiners.com specialize in supplying bulk quantities of custom engraved carabiners for use as keychains and promotional purposes, they actually have a more diverse history of applications. The name derives from the German term for "spring hook" which is Karabinerhaken. Further supplementing the etymology of "carabiner" is that the karabinerhaken were used during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) by the carbine riflemen, aka "carabiniers" to attach items to their belts; with carabinier, itself, being a French term.

Now, carabiners are used for everything from climbing, to scuba diving, to hot air-ballooning. While there are different shapes and styles of carabiner, they are all characterized by the swinging spring gate. Perhaps you've seen a similar item where instead of a latch there is a threaded sleeve to open and close the hook. These are actually called maillons.

They Did The Math

How many carabiners would it take laid end to end to circle the earth? A lot. Here are the figures calculated for our 3 most popular carabiner sizes:

50mm - It would take approximately 801,500,000 of our smallest carabiner size to go around the earth. That's nearly three times the population of Brazil!

60mm - Only slightly larger in size, it would take about 667,916,667 of this size carabiner to engulf the circumference of our fair blue planet.

80mm - This is our largest size of carabiner and it would take a measly 500,937,500 end-to-end to make a trip around the globe. Can you imagine the savings you could achieve by ordering in that quantity? (Please don't order that many, though. It would probably take over half a century of non-stop engraving to fulfill your order)

Strength Training

Remember the hit 1995 movie "Operation Dumbo Drop" starring Danny Glover?

The American National Standards Institution has set a standard for load bearing carabiners to support a static weight of 5,000 lbs in a fall protection system. Do you know what weighs, on average, 5,000 pounds? An adult male Asian Elephant.

(Note: Our carabiners are for keychains and giveaways. They are not for weight critical applications and to not adhere to the ANSI standards mentioned above.)

What is your favorite fact or trivia about carabiners? Please share in the comments!