Sunday, June 30, 2013

Highlight of my Grip Career!


On June 21, 2013 after 22 years of waiting and missed opportunities I finally met in person
the man that is responsible for where I am in grip today and this is none other than Richard Sorin!

Without a doubt this was the highlight of my Grip career!!!


Richard Sorin is considered the grandfather of Modern Day Grip! He's the first man to ever certify on a COC #3 hand gripper and the man that came up with the Blob. A half of a 100 lb. York DB of the first generation of York DB's! Richard is a living icon for the sport of Grip and his many feats and accomplishments are too numerous to list without writing a short book.

I first learned of Richard from Warren Tetting in late 1989/early 1990's. I wrote Richard a letter and the rest is history! We continued to write each other and talked over the phone many, many hours! Richard sent me my first taste of real grip history by sharing copies of articles from vintage muscle magazines such as Iron Man, Strength & Health, and many others! I have every letter Richard ever wrote me and even kept some of the envelopes that contain the post mark as historical records for myself and my collection. I have many signed pics from Richard and several grippers Richard has sent me as gifts to mark our friendship and our mutual love and obsession with all things Strength and Grip related!

Below is some pics minutes after we met at the hotel in South Caroline where me and my traveled to attend the Sorinex Summer Strong VI annual strength festival in celebration of Richard's birthday! Richard and his son Bert treated us like royalty while visiting and we can't THANK them enough for such kindness and generosity!

Lastly, I also attached a few pics of the most significant gripper I own to date and will ever own that Richard gave me as a gift a week prior to our visit and our actual meeting each other for the first time! This gripper is 1 of 3 grippers Richard had custom made by Robert Baraban himself labeled as the World's Toughest Gripper! There was a limited number of these amazing grippers ever made. Richard had 3 made with the date of his birthday on each handle along with Sorin on the other handle. One gripper had 006 for the month he was born, another had 026 marking the day he was born and the third gripper he had made had 050 stamped on the handle marking the year he was born. Richard said he never thought he would separate these grippers and this is just how truly special this gripper is to me and will always be the center piece of my museum/collection!

One day I will make a blog post of Richard's feats and achievements in grip and strength he's achieved over the years! Richard has been involved in the iron Game since he was 13 years old and has never looked back!

Hope you enjoyed this story as much as I've enjoyed sharing it!





Sunday, June 16, 2013

The First Retro Heman & Beast Grippers


Here's a few pics of 2 very significant grippers I purchased from Dennis Roger's Collection! My good friend and fellow arm wrestling competitor, Dennis Rogers contacted me a month ago and gave me a heads up that he was selling his vintage gripper collection and he wanted me to have first chance at his very first Retro Grippers made in March 2009 by Warren Tetting. The Retro Grippers were to be replicas of the original Iron Man grippers made in 1964 by Warren Tetting and offered for sale in Iron Man magazine of that same year. There was 2 different strength Retro grippers offered in 2009. The Heman and the Beast! ONLY 100 each of these were produced and each gripper was stamped with the number on one of the handle ends. Dennis kept the first ones made and stamped #1. These are the 2 grippers he sold me this month along with a very nice Certificate of Authenticity! I can't THANK Dennis enough for considering me first before going public with these rare, one of a kind grippers that are now very collectable and hard to obtain!

The last picture at the bottom is a copy of the original ad that Dennis Rogers ran on his website back in 2009!

Hope you ENJOY the pics!

Have a Grip Day!!!


Thursday, June 13, 2013

Rare & Unique Spring Gripper from Russia


Pictured below is a rare and unique spring gripper that was donated by Oksana from the Ukraine!
This gripper was made in the 80's from the Malyshev Plant where the famous T-34 military tank was made
in the Ukraine!

According to my good friend and Grip legend, David Horne there was several companies that made these
grippers. One was Avon and the other was Weider. I remember the one's Joe Weider produced and are now are considered a vintage gripper that is quite rare.

I feel very fortunate to have obtained this gripper from Oksana and if you want to see some really rare,
unique and spectacular antiques from afar please visit her website on etsy.com and just type in Rarity from Afar to visit her store! Nearly all of her stuff is vintage items from Russia and many are really cool items rarely seen anymore!

I would like to THANK Oksana for this donation and this gripper will now have a permanent residence at my Grip Museum for others to see and to further preserve hand gripper history through my collection!

Thanks for your visit and come back soon!!!

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Official Grip Museum for the Grip Board!


I'm pleased to announce that as of yesterday my Grip Museum was accepted as the Official Grip Museum
for the Grip Board!

This has been a vision of mine now for at least a year or more and Thanks to Bill Piche and the moderators
of the GB my vision has now become a reality!

The Grip Board has added a sub-forum titled "Grip History" and this is the forum where I made the announcement yesterday!

Stay tuned for more exciting events as my museum grows and donations come in from all over the world!!!

In the mean time check out the gripper below that will be the gripper that represents the Grip Board's contribution to the museum! This gripper was donated by Grip Board owner Bill Piche, (Wannagrip)and this gripper has an interesting story behind it and its importance in helping Bill get his COC #3 certification in 2001 and the net discussions of this very gripper when the Grip Board was in its infancy stages. This gripper was hand made by Warren Tetting in the late 90's when he stamped the handle ends with numbers instead of letters used currently to abbreviate the name (for example, a Master gripper is stamped with a capitol M on both handles which is the same as the #2 shown here).

Hope you enjoy the pics of the gripper and Bill in action in 1989 dead lifting 600 lbs. @ 193 lbs.


Thanks for your visit and come back often!!!

I LOVE GRIP!!!

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Blob50 Donation for the Grip Museum


Gordon Vizecky from Minneapolis, MN made a very significant donation to my Grip Museum last week
with a Blob50 signed and dated by Gordon to go on display for the preservation of grip tool history!

Below is some pics of this amazing donation from a true Gripster! Gordon is not just an arm chair grip guy either! Gordon is a Certified Captain of Crush on the COC #3 gripper and a long time member of the Grip Board!

The first 2 pics are photo credits from Gordon himself showing the Blob's after they came out of the foundry and the next pic is after he has applied 2 coats of paint. The next pics are ones I took from various angles so one can see and appreciate this BEAUTY of a Grip Tool! This Bob50 weighed in @ 50.65 lbs. on certified scales I use.

I would like to THANK Gordon V. for this very significant donation to my Grip Museum!!!

If you're interested in donating a gripper or grip tool to my museum for the preservation
of grip tool history please contact me by e-mail @ joemusselwhite2@gmail.com

Thanks for your visit!!!

Enjoy the pics!!!






FBBC Hub Donation from Kevin Collen


Pictured below is a FBBC Hub donated by Grip Board member Kevin Collen for my Grip Museum!

Would like to THANK Kevin for this wonderful addition to my museum and now rounds out my
various hub collection of the most popular hubs used in the grip community!

The first pic is how it looked when I received it from Kevin and the second pic is how it
now looks after I refurbished it for display in my museum! The last picture shows this hub
(last one on the end to the right)displayed with the other 3 hubs from my collection.

If you're interested in donating a gripper or grip tool to my museum for the preservation
of grip tool history please contact me by e-mail @ joemusselwhite2@gmail.com

Thanks for your visit and hope you enjoyed your stay!!!