Maybe I was a little naive but I thought that wires made by different companies would have sizes that were equivalent.

Having finally received my set of Zero G wires for the bargain price of £35 (Thankyou Feargear) I put them with the few Wild Country Rocks on Wire that I already own and find that the Wc no 3 is the same size as the zero g no 5.

In the grand scheme of things this doesn't really make a difference but I thought that there would be comparable sizes and colours which are also different.

<shiny,shiny>

Ben, WC and (I think) DMM use the same colour coding because they have links. Sure I read somewhere that DMM even manufacture hardware for WC.

Other companies are competitors, so not as likely to match their colours with "the competition's"

I decided last night that slings should also be colour coded. I know that my short ones are red, the long black. Until I use Jez's which are all sorts of colours in all sorts of lengths. Grrrr.

It come to something when a mans rack isn't safe from female interference in an attempt to make it look pretty. :p

I never have a problem with my slings Cara, but always get confused with yours!! But a colour system for slings isn't a bad idea for my next set...

Anyway, its all to do with who makes them and causing maximum confusion and choas on the crag thus leading you to buy the same manufacturer for all you gear hence the colour codes work. Cynical, me never!

Personally I actually don't know what colour any of my DMM or HB nuts are, I just grab the karabiner and stick in the one that looks like it will fit. I think after time you get used to which nuts correspond to each other.

To me anodising the nuts themselves in different colours seems pointless as after a few uses they'll be scratched to hell and back anyway. In the same way, my hexes no longer have their sizes printed on them after use.

I think Needlesports detail which nuts match up to which in their product descriptions.