BALTO Chetki | Russian standard form

Unleash your inner slav with BALTO Chetki, a unique chetki set which doubles as a comfortable bracelet.

Corn allergy warning: POWDER material is a corn based biopolymer. We recommend our JET material which is polyester based if you are sensitive to touching corn.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Tile: 20mm wide, 9mm long, 7mm thick, 1.2g
• Paddle: 21.5 + 1mm wide, 35mm long, 9.5 + 1mm thick, 6.8g
• Bead: 10mm outer bore, 3.5mm inner bore, 3g
• Includes: 14 tiles, 2 end paddles, 2 beads, 4ft paracord. We will include complementary paracord color, if you would prefer a matching color please let us know in the order notes.

Check out the BALTO accents to add weight or a personal touch. 

THE NAME

Balto is a reference to the standard Russian style of chetki commonly know as "boltushki" which roughly translates to something that dangles or rattles.

THE DESIGN

Born of a desire to introduce additional options for  Russian style chetki play for the Begleri and EDC community the BALTO went through 90+ design iterations before it was ready. The last few revisions had notes along the lines of "please stop making changes". Luckily we listened.

The core design goal was to respect standard chetki sizing and tension while allowing them to be worn comfortably.

This proved quite challenging as the slack length for correct tension was different for play vs wear. Friction based bead methods would move after some play, and would require precise placement for repeated tension.

Our solution is a patent pending bead system which allows multiple fixed tension settings. Once you find your preference you can easily switch between flipping mode and bracelet mode.

THE MATERIAL

Created from a composite material via modern 3D printing methods the BALTO beauty is in the balanced randomness of layer lines and colour variations. 

The exact blends are selected after touching numerous material print samples in varying stages of post processing.

The final selection for Powder materials contains carbon fiber blended into a propriety PLA which results in a beautiful molted finish with varied levels of pigmentation. 

Jet material contains carbon fiber blended into a propriety PETG base.

"Raw" parts are gently post processed to bring out the natural aesthetics without removing the texture. Printer lines and imperfections will be visible.

"Satin" parts are heavily processed to a semi gloss finish. It could also be described as a beach glass finish. Minor imperfections will be visible under close inspection.

"Smooth" parts are heavily processed to a smooth finish. Minor imperfections will be visible under close inspection.

A note on durability: Powder (PLA) is a very rigid material offering high surface hardness relative to other thermoplastics such as ABS and PETG. This is increased further when combined with carbon fiber. Durability of non filled PLA is a step under Delrin based on the Rockwell R scale. 

Jet (PETG) offers a lower rigidity and scratch resistance while increasing UV and temperature resistance.

Long term UV exposure as well as high heat (above 60c, 140f) should be avoided for the "powder" materials.

3DEE metal is UV resistant and will not deform up to 100c under no load conditions.

Alternative "JET" materials with high heat and UV resistance is also available.

TENSION SETTINGS - Patent Pending

The first tension setting is with the snake knot facing outwards. This is perfect for raindrops and wearing the BALTO.

The second setting is with the double snake knot inside the paddle and the paracord running out around the bead.

Addition tension can be achieved by pulling the bead with knots back out, twisting it once, and putting the snake knot back inside the paddle.

We suggest using our insert to set the first tension point and check if your can find a good second point. You can adjust from here. Remember that your first tension is your initial "zero" position, or bracelet mode. Your second tension position can be either: only the bead flipped, or the bead flipped + X turns; this is your play position.

This product video above explains this process in detail.