My hands, my hands, my haaaaaaands

They're so raw right now. Haven't been this raw since 'Nam (if 'nam was when I first started to climb) - And I reckon it's cos I've got new chalk. I dunno about this chalk, it's new and I'm not used to it and I don't like it as much as my old chalk.

What's in a chalk I hear you cry! Well, truth be told I don't know. What makes one chalk expensive and one chalk cheap? Packaging, more than likely, but there's probably a bit of science behind it too. All I know about chalk is they come in different packaging. I shall go into detail about this: now.

This is a chalk ball. It is a sack made of material that you can fill (witch chalk (or something else if you wish))

Loose chalk. You can use this as is, or even re-fill your chalk ball (see above) with it.

This is a generic picture of a man rubbing his hands with chalk. This shows you what to do with climbing chalk.

This is a chalk bag. You can put your chalk ball in this, amongst other things (marbles, possibly) There are handy to keep chalk off your other climbing gear.

Riveting, I'm sure you'll agree.. However mundane and boring it might actually be, though, chalk is quite a nice tool to use while climbing. It dries up your hands if they're moist. You don't want moist hands on rock. You could use something known as "pof" but I have no idea what that is so I won't bother going into it.

Anyway, tldr: The chalk I bought is different from my last chalk and my hands hurt and I think it's the chalks fault but I can't be sure.

I love climbing.