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Barbell Bar that’s completely knurled?

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Steve Freides

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Does a bar exist without any smooth sections, IOW, knurled all the way across?

TIA.

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@Chrisdavisjr, I'm hoping for a USAPL spec bar, which needs to be 28-29mm in thickness. (I have their Ohio bar, which is 28.5 mm.)

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I found this - 29 mm, fully knurled.


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I found this - 29 mm, fully knurled.


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That's very cool. I'm intrigued as to what you'd want to do with a fully-knurled bar. Is it for very narrow grip sumo deadlifts?
 
Looking at the picture, it still looks like it has the two smooth areas.
If we're looking at the same pictures, I see rings that are smooth, and that's OK for my purposes because they're narrow areas.

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I am working on my sumo deadlift, @Chrisdavisjr. It's not something I'll likely ever use in competition, but if I truly just let me arms hang straight down, I get only my ring and pinkie fingers on the knurled part of my Rogue Ohio bar. Since we have a bunch of bars here, I'd like to give away on of the lower quality ones and try sumo DL on a bar with knurling where I need it.

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I thought that might be it! There is a barbell specifically designed for the sumo deadlift. Took me ages to remember who makes it:

Sumo Deadlift Bar

It's got a wide (2ft) center knurling but no knurling on the rest of the bar so it won't scratch your shins. Seems to severely limit the usefulness of this bar, especially when a decent pair of socks will keep your shins safe.

With seemingly so much variety in the barbell market it makes me wonder what one would have to go through to get something custom made...
 
@Chrisdavisjr, that is exactly what I'm looking for, right down to the 28.5 mm thickness. It's probably too much $$$ to have it shipped across the Pond but I am going to look into it.

Many thanks.

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Steve this would have knurling narrow enough for your sumo deadlifts: Products | OBX-20KG | Ivanko - Official Website of Ivanko Barbell Company

We have one at our gym and it's a great bar. You can see three rings in the picture, the middle one is the normal power ring and they have additional ones that are wider and narrower (I believe this is primarily used to identify different bench press grip widths).

The knurling goes in significantly farther than a normal bar, and you'd definitely be gripping knurling for sumo DL. I don't know if the knurl goes in so far specifically for sumo DL, or if it's there for close grip BP, or both, but regardless it would work for you.

Ivanko is a premium brand, so it doesn't come cheap, but you get great quality.
 
@Chrisdavisjr, I noticed that these people have a US online presence, so I emailed them after noticing the sumo DL bar was available in the UK but not here. They told me that it might be available in the US sometime next year but, for now, I couldn't get it.

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@Tony Gracia, thank you very much for thinking of me. My guess is that because it's an Olympic bar, it'll be a little bendy and I'm trying to avoid that. I don't know for sure, of course, and you're also right about the price tag!

@Eric Addis, thank you very much, too. The first bar you give a link to is indeed 27mm thick and bendy, and that's not something I'm looking for at this point. Even with my relatively light DL's compared to what these bars can handle, they do bend before the plates come up and, especially for someone like me who is weakest off the floor, that's not how I need to train. This one sounds a lot like the Okie DL bar I used to use - great bar for what it is, without a doubt, just not the right tool for me now.

And the Kabuki bar seems almost identical in spec to the Rogue Squat bar - 32m thick, longer, 25 kg. Not quite the right tool for this job.

For the moment, I'm good picking up my Rogue Ohio bar in my sumo stance using a fingerhook depth grip, so that'll be what I use for now.

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@Tony Gracia, thank you very much for thinking of me. My guess is that because it's an Olympic bar, it'll be a little bendy and I'm trying to avoid that. I don't know for sure, of course, and you're also right about the price tag!

@Eric Addis, thank you very much, too. The first bar you give a link to is indeed 27mm thick and bendy, and that's not something I'm looking for at this point. Even with my relatively light DL's compared to what these bars can handle, they do bend before the plates come up and, especially for someone like me who is weakest off the floor, that's not how I need to train. This one sounds a lot like the Okie DL bar I used to use - great bar for what it is, without a doubt, just not the right tool for me now.

And the Kabuki bar seems almost identical in spec to the Rogue Squat bar - 32m thick, longer, 25 kg. Not quite the right tool for this job.

For the moment, I'm good picking up my Rogue Ohio bar in my sumo stance using a fingerhook depth grip, so that'll be what I use for now.

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Ivanko uses the term "Olympic" to describe the size of plates it accommodates (2-inches) compared to "Standard" which is the smaller 1" opening. They do not use it to designate Weightlifting vs. Powerlifting. The bar I listed is 100% a powerlifting bar. We have lots of Weightlifting bars too, and I can assure you this would be a TERRIBLE weightlifting bar haha.
 
FWIW here is that same Ivanko being used for a 700lb bench press:

You can be the judge for how much whip / flex there is to it. Obviously a different grip width than for a sumo DL, but this should still give a good picture.

One of the highlights of my career up to this point was actually being one of the three judges for this lift. I was to the lifter's left, so I don't think I made it into video, but I swear I was there ROFL
 
That is some big bench press! The bar was bent a little in the stands before he even moved it, according to my eye, but I believe that happens at 700 lbs with even the stiffest of bars, and it's much easier to see in the BP than it is with the bar on the ground for a DL.

Good info, Tony, thanks very much.

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To answer the original question, my gym has these black barbells that are knurled all the way across. The metal feels really "hard" as well, but the bars still flex when the pros load them heavy. They have "Aussie Strength" on the side of the rollers, so I think they might be custom made domestic brand. But if you do a google search and look on the website you might see that there is an option for "Center Knurl" to help with the bar shifting on the back when squatting. Its an option, some barbels have it , some don't.


problem is their stupid website only has pictures of the ends of the barbells, not of the entire bar so you can't see what they completely look like, but in person it was knurled the whole way across so you can buy them out there, but not all barbells with "Centre knurl" are knurled all the way across, they still have a smooth section on either side of the center, like these rogue barbells:Screenshot_2021-05-09 Rogue 28MM IWF Olympic Weightlifting Bar w Center Knurl - Bright Zinc.png
 
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