Nail Bending

[Guest Youngguy]

Please tell me some deep details about nail bending. Also talk aboout it in general.

I have been looking at the forums none is about nail bending that I have seen.

[Tou]

Read all the Black's logs. Tom Black is one of the greatest steel bender of our time.

[terryduty]

Here's a link to an excellent site about nails: http://www.sizes.com/tools/nails.htm

Regarding nail bending technique, I use 3 different styles:

 1) "Slim the Hammer Man" style: Hands at chest level, palms facing down, thumbs under the metal and as I bend the metal, my hands rotate to end up with my palms facing each other. Then I get my fingers out of the way and finsh the metal off by crushing the metal together using arm and shoulder strength. (One word of caution: when I first started bending using Slim the Hammer Man's technique, I suffered some mild tendinitis in my elbows and my training partner suffered major tendinitis in both elbows (he was bending much thicker steel).)

 2) "Spike bending style": this is best described in the chapter "Spike Bending with the Hands" found in Charles MacMahon's book "Feats of Strength and Dexterity" (1926). A link to this can be found at the http://www.naturalstrength.com/history/spike.html web site.

 3) "Over-the hand" style: With my dominate hand, I hold and anchor the nail vertically - as if this hand were a vise. This leaves about half the nail still standing up in my hand. I use my weaker hand to bend the nail down over my First Dorsal Interosseous (the fleshy part between the base of my thumb and the base of my index finger). Then I get my fingers out of the way and finsh the metal off by crushing the metal together using arm and shoulder strength.

To improve your nail bending, set a goal on what you want to U-Shape (e.g. the Ironmind Yellow "nail" = 1/4 in. x 7 in.) and then you might want to try one of these approaches:

 1) tackle metal the same thickness as your goal but longer and then bend progressively shorter pieces until you reach the length of your goal or

 2) tackle metal of the same length as your goal but thinner and then bend progressively thicker metal pieces until you reach the thickness of your goal or

 3) tackle metal of the same length and thickness as your goal but easier-to-bend metal (easy-to-hard ranking: aluminum, brass, hot rolled steel (HRS), cold rolled steel (CRS)) and then bend progressively harder metal pieces until you reach the same toughness as your goal or

 4) a combination of two or more of the above techniques.

After you reach your goal, raise the bar, set a new goal, and go after it!  

You can usually find various rods of metal for sale at the larger hardware stores.

Train smart!

(Edited by Strongman at 9:35 am on Oct. 28, 2001)

[Guest woody36]

Youngguy, There's a Big Fella on the board named

Strongman, who is also a very keen steelbender.

He gives exellent advice and encouragement to new

benders of steel,you may wish to ask him questions

as well as  Tom Black resident SteelMaster.

Tom Blacks page

 http://www.bigsteel.iwarp.com/

Strongmans Page

'>http://home.talkcity.com/WorkoutPI/stronggrip/

You may also wish to read through this website of

some of the Greats from the past,some steebenders

among them.

And'>http://www.geocities.com/count_iblis.geo/strong.html

And

if your lucky that nice man Joe Roark will post

some Titbits on Steelbending Legends from yesteryear.

[Guest woody36]

Beat me to it!

 Told you he was a nice Guy.

[Tom Black]

Youngguy,

  There is a search function on the gripboard, see the top menu to the right.  There are a ton of old posts regarding steel bending.  Try some different key words like "bending" and you will find much to read.  Tou, I don't feel I'm one of the great steel benders of our time (yet ), but I think my contribution is that I've devulged most of my "secrets."

[terryduty]

Thanks for the kind words, Woody!