Ally Swinton on a 15 hr ascent of the Colton- MacIntyre, GJ, 9-. photo courtesy of Dave Searle 
The 1st gen Nomic and Cold Thistle hammers. Dbl click to get the full effect of Daves' photo.
Below Colin Haley photo of Bjørn-Eivind Årtun on their new route, Dracula, Mt Foraker, June ."The old
Nomic and a pair of C-T hammers"
Up front...the old Nomic is every bit the equal for climbing difficult ground as the new Nomic. No need to panic. (and thatremains true)
Info on th current thiord generation Nomic is at the bottom of this article..which was firstpublished last fall .
Major change on the new
Nomic? It is the new pommel that has a serrated stainless blade. It will add some stability on hard ice and can be used to give the pommel some stability as a cane on easy terrain. Better yet just use the top of the
Astro or Dry pick while reversing the tool in that same easy terrain. Not suggested by
Petzl but the new pommel can be retro fitted to the old
Nomic. Just bolt it on...no issues what so ever.
Biggest over all improvement? New pommel fits bigger hands and thicker gloves much, much better. But it can be bolted
right on no fuss, no muss to the older tools if that is something you want to try. The new Pommel offers a tiny bit more support and more coverage and hand protection on the upward curve towards the ice. Maybe the most important improvement is a metal to metal interface where they mate up on the end of the shaft. BUT...the metal to metal female/male fittings have some slop in the mating surfaces so they move backwards and forwards a bit even when cranked down tight . That is not an
improvement. You won't get every advantage of the size improvements for big hands using the new pommel on the old tools but a good bit of it. Worth buying that piece of kit and trying it on your old tools. It is an option now.
I don't like the serrated blade in some places on hard technical climbing...it gets in the way during extreme rotation. I put the old pommel on my new
Ergos because of it. But I do like having the option.
Hammer and
adze? Yes you can add either the hammer or the
adze designed for the new Quark to the
Nomic. A small bit of round file or
Dremel work to the tool head will allow you to fit the new
Petzl hammer to the old style
Nomic head. (see the detail photos below) But why would you? Needing a hammer is one thing, using the one
Petzl made for the Quark is another. There is a better answer that is about to get even better shortly. That would be the Cold Thistle, 4mm,
Nomic hammer. If it was not a LOT better than
Petzl's offering I wouldn't bother making it. C-T hammers will also be much, much easier to change in the field using the newest
Petzl picks or older style picks we cut for you. And the C-T hammer will fit the old and the new
Nomic head with
NO changes. Having it difficult to fit the
hammer or change picks with the required spacer is a down side to the newest
Petzl pick/hammer design. The new pick and spacer is truly a bitch to change in the field if the pair of
Nomics I have here is any example.
C-T hammer info and pricing can be found in this link:
http://coldthistletools.blogspot.com//08/ice-climbing-gear.html
The new umbilical attachment? Good move on
Petzl's part but if you want it to hold more than TOOL weight on your
umbilicals you need to do a small mod on the newest
Nomic's pommel. There isn't enough clearance between plastic and aluminum to get even 3mm cord through which you'll need to opened up for 4mm + cord. The hole
Petzl drilled in my samples are 5.9mm. But these
samples had some threads showing internally which will need to be taken out if you want to use 4 or 5mm cord there. The edges of the hole are well chambered on these but I would check that as well and do it if there is a sharp edge on either side of the shaft. Easy enough to drill out and
chamfer the hole. I like 5mm cord there because you always know what the knot will do and it is easy to inspect cord for wear. Again easy to modify the older
Nomic and now even easy enough to modify the new
Nomic as well.
After cutting up the pommels on my first new set of
Nomics I might modify these a bit different the next time around and cut up the grip a bit instead of going under the pommel. Looks like to me that you could now easily run a cord from the full strength hole in the handle and go behind the new smaller pommel. Done right it might be a better answer. I'm undecided at the moment. But the new tools are easy to cut with a
Dremel or a round file where I used a vertical milling machine on the original
Nomic's pommel. The best answer on the new tools is still a work in progress. What ever the answer the factory version isn't it for me.
New picks...DRY and ICE? Same materials, same heat treat, slightly different designs from the
Astro and the Cascade. Still great picks...all still 3mm tips. Now rated as T picks instead of B picks. Little or no change in strength more likely just the label. Truly awesome picks, old or new!
Old picks fit new tools, new picks fit old tools. New picks require a spacer...which is a major PAIN to replace in the field. Buy the old
Astro or Cascade if you need to carry spares and think you'll break or bend a pick or need to replace them on a climb. I like the original Cascade pick design on pure ice better
FWIW. Either way buy the old picks because they are easier to replace and no spacer required if you aren't using a hammer.
Is it worth selling your old
Nomic to get the new one?
Obviously not....no way in fact. Worth making a few mods on either tool to suit your own climbing...you bet.
My old
Nomic and
umibilical about to pull a bulge on Curtain Call
Here are the details:
Tool weights:
old shaft 366g (+4g)
2nd gen.shaft 362g
3rd gen shaft with 4mm steel insert 362g
pommel old 20g (-4g)
pommel 2nd gen(one tooth) 24g
pommel 3rd gen (2 teeth) 28g
old Cascade pick w/weight 188g (+8g)
new ICE pick w/weight 180g
Old
Nomic is 8g heavier with the old pick design. Old
Nomic is the same weight with the new "ICE" pick design. 3rd gen has gained 4g of that back with the new pommel.
8g = 1.4 oz. 4g= .7oz Few, if anyone, will ever know the difference climbing on them . Dbl click the pictures for the details where required.
The same change inthe first tooth profile on the ICE and DRY pick can been seen when you compare an older Cascade to a new ICE here.
Myappreciation to Daniel
Harro for loaning me his new
Nomics for this review :) But..... you'll need to get in line for the hammers!
The link below is worth a read as well.
http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/947206/Re_New_Nomic
More on the newest version. Comparison photos are 1st gen and 3rd gen here. Bigger umbilical hole is easily seen. Teeth are now bigger and more square on the cut than the 2nd gen version.
The flip side of 1st gen and 3rd gen tools shown belowwith the pressed and swagedsteel insert clearly visable.
Below is the 2nd gen pommel on the right and the newest version 3rd gen on the left.Same thickness of tooth but biggerteeth over all and a second one added for security and durability.
They look good to me!
The one who loves attention spots Mom with the camera! Hi Mom!
Those of us below are saying oh look, they are having so much fun!
Here they go all the way upside down! I bet they are loving this!
Wait a minute, Austin looks....scared??? sad??? sick???
Living the life in fun Florida!
Somervillain brought his meticulously restored 1984 Shogun 2000, which he built up as a classic randonneur. The Co-Habitant brought his 1976 Motobecane Super Mirage (a lower-end model than the Shogun - but still nicely done up) to compare.
And compare they did.
This went far beyond test riding each other's bikes, and gradually turned into what seemed like a millimeter by millimeter comparison of various measurements.
There was a question of whose top tube was longer and no effort was spared to investigate the matter. I wish I were joking.
My 
Having resolved this issue to their satisfaction, a discussion of component choices ensued.
I think the conclusion is clear: Both bicycles are gorgeous, because I helped choose the accessories when they were being built up. Obviously! I will post more about Somervillain's newly built up randonneur soon - it really is something, and I took detailed pictures.
The same morning, 
Cotter press in action.
Cotter.
Crank.
And 
Boys. Bicycles. Boston.
