I have both the BD and Metolius brand, greatly prefer the BD ones. Even better now that they're colored.

The original stoppers for many people, these old school standbys still belong on any trad climbers rack. Supieror cable swageing, they now even come color colded (annodized) for even easier selection when the gripped get gooey.

These are the best stoppers ive used so far, they are great, never had any fail yet, and they fit almost in every crack i try to place them in. They hold up well after falling as well. My size 5 stopper has taken a beating and i still trust it.

Fantastic all around product! The only other nuts I ever need are HB offsets...and of course I don't have any.

The way this nut is curved (vertical arc) is way better IMO than the Metolius nut (horizontal arc) because with the BD nut you can really see where your nut is making contact with the rock.

The new annodized ones are probably a good idea, as it is sometimes tough to tell the difference between the sized (8 vs 9, etc) even when you know which one you want. Mine are not annodized.

A beginner might go size 4 and up, rather than get the whole set, as 1,2,3 are pretty small...but fine for aid. However, the width of these mean that some of the smaller nut sets, like RPs kick butt in aid, vs the BD small stoppers.

Before I picked a few of these up I thought it was all hipe. After useing them I can see why everyone thinks these are the best. Skip the gimky crap and get these!