UKC

Related to and possibly partly explaining nut racking method, how do you select a nut for a slot? Do you look at the slot then look on your rack for a nut that looks the same size? Or do you look at a slot and think, say, "that's a 5 slot" and then go to where you rack your 5's? Or do you look at a slot and think, say, "that's a blue slot" and then go to where you rack your blue nuts?

I suspect this is an age thing.

The elderly, brought up on machine nuts will go by size.

The more mature of us born with a silver rock in our mouths will go by number.

The youngsters spoiled with brightly coloured playschool wires will go by colour.

How long before some bright spark instructor installs paint dabs beside cracks to help his charges select the correct gear?

The colour on newer nuts doesn't last very long, plus a bit like climbing wall holds, those of us who are colour blind can never really work out which colour is which anyway!

I just look at the placement and roughly know what gear is best suited.
No system involved regarding colour coding, etc. as that would mean having to remember what colours correspond to what size, etc.
By far easier, is to to look at the placement, decide which bunch of wires on a krab is most likely to fit and then fine tune it once you've got that krab in your hand.  

All my wires are grey, so colour choice is not an option.

A visual person normally, I do have a mental image of their number (1 to 7 at least) when I select one.

So you select by size then (first option).

So size or number?

So how do you select?

The "Intuition and experience - Correct nut selection just happens" option that has been added must be based on something. It can't "just happen". Subconsciously at least something must be linking the slot with the correct nut, presumably how it was done consciously when less experienced.

But between "the elderly" and "the mature" are those of us who started climbing on WC Rocks colour coded by the plastic bit wrapped round the wires. As a colour person, the later colourless ones were a real problem. I had to use insulating tape to colour my newer Rocks and continue to do so to this day. So I now still use insulating tape on all my rocks based as closely as possible on the original 80's colours, ignoring the colour of the more recent nuts. This makes my rack incompatible with any of my partners who go by colour.

Number.

I'm actually surprised that anyone does it genuinely by number since it is so hard to read the numbers on the grey plastic bit. 

I wonder whether some people look at the slot, think, say, "that's a 4", then know what colour a four is and go for that colour on their rack. So use a combination of colour and number (should probably be another voting option).

You pick the one that is going to be the best size and shape for the slot. Oddly I rarely get nut size wrong on first go but regularly still get cam size wrong first try - despite a bit over 30 years of having some and using them regularly. 

Size then!

I can make a pretty accurate guess of what number a nut is just by looking at it's size - with DMM Wallnuts at least which is what I've always used. I could probably guess with Rocks though as well. But I still think I just go from size of the slot to size of the nut. Colour seems like having to consciously translate something into another language rather than just "knowing" the word in a second language. 

I suspect that many of those who select by size or colour are really saying which is like a first language and which is like a second language.

No, if I look at a 4 sized slot, I pick the 4 sized nut. In the minds eye there's a big number 4 on it. Although I do remember that both the Walnut and the Rock were once pink....

I’m really bad at selecting the correct nut. I just grab the bunch, try to work out which will fit, then take one two numbers smaller and it‘s usually perfect.

But surely then your mind's eye must actually be doing by size and then imprinting the number on it. Or something like that.

I always thought of it as red (though it has come out rather pink in the photo). And one of the colours retained from the original as my own insulting tape colour coding system has evolved from it over the last forty years.

Edit: Just looked up the latest colours and I see a 6 is now red and a 5 is blue rather than a 3 (I mean how could a blue be anything other than a 3!) What a mess!

Personally I choose gear size based on the relation of wire/cam size to the relevant jam that would fit. For example with my anatomy on cams tight fingers is silver, baggy fingers is purple, ringlock is green etc. 

I said by size, as I started pre anodized nuts and I think in sizes. However, you are spot on in your second sentence, I look at the crack. think that needs a No. 5, I know the No. 5 is blue so grab the blue nut. I never think, "that needs a blue nut" and if someone said, "What nut did you need for the crux?" I'd say "a No. 4", not "Gold".

(I also find it annoying that the colour progression is different for cams and nuts but I think that might just be me......)

I've done one route in the dolomites which had all the gear placements marked with paint.

I look at the placement and decide whether to go for the small, medium or large bunch of nuts. I then look at the bunch and decide which is likely to be the best fit. I neither know nor care what number it is or what colour (they're mostly worn off anyway) so it's no good asking me later what I used.

Not long then

Wondering if I can downvote to signal disapproval/horror of the painting (which I do), or whether that'd be interpreted as disapproving your post (which I don't). How do these voting buttons work?

But what part of your anatomy do you jam in a Rock 1 size crack?

They don't (at least the down vote one doesn't).

In that case it was not clear what I meant by doing it by size. I meant that one would select a nut that looked the right size for the crack without thinking in terms of number or colour at all. Like Howard J says he does it.

I just looked and it turns out I voted by number! So you were clear.....

I look in my nut sack like Richard Osman

https://www.reddit.com/user/pfobwpfo/comments/18ohqi2/nuts/

Then select the one that looks about right.

I look at the slot and think "that's about a number 5", then I take the my krab of small wires off my harness, find the blue one and try it. About 50% of the time it fits.