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bender

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I finnished The Spiritual Journey of Joeseph Greenstein last night, and have been motivated beyond imagine. An incredible book, an incredible man, and an incredible way of thought that falls with in what I've learned to be true. What an inspiration!

This morning I sat down with twenty 6" spiral nails (very easy 60D's) and bent them all completely in 9 minutes, 32 seconds. I had another hand full sitting in a cup on my desk, but stopped at 20. Most of the time was spent wrapping and un-wrapping the wash-cloth. Next time, I'll get a few assistants to do that part for me so I can focus on the bend.

If anyone hasn't read this book yet, do so. It changes the way you think about strength.

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Bender,

Your story of easy 6" 60d's sprials reminded me of a little error I made. I found what I thought was the easy 6" 60d spirals at a TSC. With some effort I was able to U four of them yesterday....but it turns out they were 5" 40 or 50d's spirals :blush

Is that book you mentioned the one about the Mighty Atom??

Jon@han

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Yes, it's The Mighty Atom life story. It still has my mind racing over many thoughts. I bent a 5.5" piece of 1/4" square stock and a 5" x 1/4" carriage bolt this afternoon. Still motivated.

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Strength wise, I feel it won't increase strength at all, but I noticed three things.

1). Lots of soft-tissue damage. My palms were red and throbbing after bending. A few more bends and I would have had some serious blisters. This will obviously lead to tougher hands. More scar tisssue, less sensative skin.

2). No after-bending muscle/tendon/joint soreness. After bigger bends, I'll always have a sore muscle or two, usualy in my left fore arm. Some times there will be a hot spot on my left thumb or right fore-finger. After the bendathon, my entire lower arm felt warm and fresh; hence the two more bends later that day.

3). The hard part of a bend for me is right after the 5-10 degree mark. During the bendathon, I noticed that even with an "easy" nail, that part of the bend became VERY difficult during the 15th nail or so. It allowed me to be more aware of the bend and how to over come that sticking point.

Over all, it will lead to total hand health for bending, both by greatly toughening the hands and then by flushing and refreshing the muscles and tendons used in bigger bends. It also has made me mindful of the bend and my weak point, and how to over come it.

I'm buying another 30lb bucket of "Timber Ties" this weekend for sure.

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Great report Eric, thanks :)

I'll try the 20nails bendathon again soon with the same nails in order to:

-measure the time (to try to beat it next time).

-check if my hands have toughen up or not.

Amaury.

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Went back to that TSC and picked up a 50lb box of the 5" spirals they are only 40d but it's the Goldilocks bend for me at present (not too hard and not too easy) ;)

I've yet to locate the "timber ties" in this neck of the woods. Are they located somewhere else in the store instead of the nail section???

Jon@han

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i wish i was good at bending my thumbs are to weak for it :cry

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Bender, I must say I'm really shocked that you haven't already read the Mighty Atom book. I actually study mine, there must be 30 post-its in there and hand writing in the margin. I have 4 copies, one for reading, one mint one just in case I wear out the first, one signed by Slim and one original hardcover one.

On the 20 nails, good job. Just remember "The Bendathon" is my coined phrase, you can use it, but give me credit if you do :) The unwrapping is a problem. I unwrapped in my Bendathon show so the people in the audience could see each nail, also, they were medium 60-pennies (around 260-275) and one blue bar as I remember. I bought a whole pile of shop rags in the local warehouse store recently, I think I'll go to break your record as soon as my arm heals (don't ask, it's a mess). I found some of those easy 60-pennies in a scrap bin at Lowes and can bend them bare handed, that would be a fast way to bend, but tough even for me. Probably not worth it to bend that way.

Strong Man, I don’t use my thumbs at all, but try bender's style, everybody tells me my way is somehow harder (not too me?)

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Sorry Tom for using the term bendathon without mentioning it was your original idea to name that type of bending endurance feat a bendathon. With time it may become like the "strap holds" : nobody mentions John Brookfield anymore while talking about it :blush

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Jonathan, if I'm not mistaken the "Timber ties" are very much like the "Pole Barn" nails. If you can't find these in the nail section, try the landscaping section - it the store has one.

BTW, the Pole Barn nails come in 2 flavors. Ones that bend and others that break. I've found that the darker ones ("Oil Quenched" or "Hardened") are the ones that snap in two instead of bending. I've actually managed to bend a few without breaking by bending the nail extremely slowly - even then, some still snap. :blink I recommend getting the lighter-colored ones that bend - if you can find them. Eventually you'll be bending these just for warm ups. Then you can proceed to bend 2 taped together and even cut down.

Happy bending!

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I'm starting to bend now. I remember my dad brought me home a 60 penny nail a while aog and I just got it out to bend about a week ago and i put a pretty decent bend in it. Not without great effort. I was jsut wondering if this was "good" for a 15 year old. I know goods a relative term but you know how those things go. Kepe in mind this wasnt a Full Bend reall I got it at sort of a 90 degree angle mark before i stopped. Whcih I know now was a bad place to stop becuase it cooled down and my hands were tired.

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I know I disgraced the bending world by not reading TSJoJG but it was on my "to read" list since December. Finally getting it, I wish I bought it back then. And yes, I started re-reading it, this time with pen and paper in hand.

The Timber Ties are landscaping 60D's. As far as 60D's go, they are very easy. When I find them, they are usualy sitting on the floor, benieth the wall of nails, screws and bolts. Oddly enough, the real 60D's I find are in a different section all together by the wall mount screws, brackets, and hooks.

Strong Man! What are you doing! By God, don't bend with your thumbs! Check out the different techniques on Mr. Duty's webpage, and find what works for you. If your thumb is a limiting factor, you are doing something horribly wrong.

As for the warp/unwrap issue, I bought 4 new cloths this weekend. I'll also try the real 60D's for the next "high rep" bending session.

About the "bendathon", I believe I did infact see it first on Tom's site, where he raised money for the Arthritis foundation? I can't recall, the site is still blocked for being hate/crime/drug/sex/gambling related... :erm

Tom, if you could, I would be greatly interested in knowing how many of these easy 60D's you and any other experienced bender could crank out consecutivly. I fear you will be limited only by the number of nails available, and not by soft tissue tenderness, as was I.

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I find the thumbs extremely helpful to bending. I don't know how you guys are getting everything out of your vice grip while discounting the thumbs. As the difficulty of the material that you are able to bend goes up, the thumbs become even more critical. I guess I must be doing something horribly wrong too.....

Be careful with the Timber Ties, as they are very batch sensitive. A trained eye can pick out the different ones, but I will tell you that there are some that look virtually identical to the wimpy ones and are easily harder than the 60d's that Tom used for his original bendathon. If I remember correctly Tom, you had a 50lb box from Home Depot, origin Chile? The pictures you posted seem to substantiate this as these are some of the most common and easily recognizable 60's out there.

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For a bending newbie to find the thumb to be the weak link, it leads one to assume that he's useing the "Breaking a pencil" style. Something 'horribly wrong'. Terminator, I'm pretty sure that this is not your case.

As bends get bigger, I'm sure every last weakness in the hand is exposed, and the thumb plays a much larger role. Last January, I noted a slight soreness in my left thumb, and have started training more bending-specific thumb strength to counter this.

Last weekend at home depot I noticed that the Timber Ties were different. Instead of the dull finish, their coating looked thick and was much brighter than the old ones. Upon bending in the store, I noted these were noticably harder than the old ones I have. If this variation included what you've noticed... Wow. It makes IronMind look like quality/consistency control experts.

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Terminator, I think strongman was trying to bend a nail “pencil style.” I agree strong thumbs make a difference for bending, but no one I know puts there thumb pads on the nail when bending, which is the way I see people try to break a pencil.

I did not bend timber ties in my bendathon. I used a nail not available at Home Depot, “Timco” brand made in the United Arab Emerates and they are not that common. They vary from about 260 to about 275. The harder spirals are not “easily harder than the 60d's that Tom used for his original bendathon.” Some are actually harder than the Ironmind blue (old stock). I actually bent an Ironmind blue during the bendathon too, in order to show they were basically the same as the blue. I’m very familiar with the Grip rite “hard” spiral and the ones in the Bendathon range from the same to a little harder than those. At the time of the Bendathon I don’t think I even had found those spirals yet.

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Thanks for the shopping location tips guys! Also I will have to check for barn pole nails as well on my next outing!

Jon@han

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  • 4 weeks later...
Terminator, I think strongman was trying to bend a nail “pencil style.” I agree strong thumbs make a difference for bending, but no one I know puts there thumb pads on the nail when bending, which is the way I see people try to break a pencil.

I did not bend timber ties in my bendathon. I used a nail not available at Home Depot, “Timco” brand made in the United Arab Emerates and they are not that common. They vary from about 260 to about 275. The harder spirals are not “easily harder than the 60d's that Tom used for his original bendathon.” Some are actually harder than the Ironmind blue (old stock). I actually bent an Ironmind blue during the bendathon too, in order to show they were basically the same as the blue. I’m very familiar with the Grip rite “hard” spiral and the ones in the Bendathon range from the same to a little harder than those. At the time of the Bendathon I don’t think I even had found those spirals yet.

yeah thanks guys i checked out terryduties site, and i recently bent a 5" nail that's 1/5 of an inch thick with the verticle style i think

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