No matter what the angle formed by both sides of a crack, the Rocks have always a three-point contact instead of only two for the pyramidal nut. By coincidence, at about the same time, Geoff Birtles, the Editor of High Mountain Sports, worked with Tom Proctor on a closely similar design. They offered Mark Vallance the name Rocks which was what their device was called.

Another English maker, Faces, from Matlock, went even further a few years later, with his Gemstones. Curved from top to bottom but also from back to front, this complex shape keeps three point contact in flared cracks.

With Hugh Banner (today HB Climbing Equipment), the problem of the flared crack is tackled from a different angle. « A real goldsmith of the bronze nut », he created the HB Nuts in 1983, later renamed the HB Offsets. Cracks in rocks, particularly small cracks encountered on difficult climbs, are often narrower at the back than where they emerge on the surface. To deal with this inconvenience, the Offsets have a double-transverse taper which allows subtle placements in flaring slots and old piton scars.