Making a chain of nails

[Brad Manion]

It’s been a long time since I’ve visited Gripboard, but I figured this was the best place to answer my questions.

Recently, I’ve become interested in making a chain out of 60-penny nails that I’ve bent. I figured that the best way to do this was as follows:

1. Get longer thinner nails to practice with (found 8” x 1/4” nails at a hardware store).

2. Bend it into a U and not a V. I’ve figured that out. I kink the middle a little, then put huge bends on each end before bending the middle again.

3. Once the U has been crushed a bit, I wrap the bend of the U and place a thicker wrapped nail or screwdriver between the head and point of the bent nail. I then use this to pry and twist the head and points past each other. 

At this point, I’m stuck. Not only can’t I figure out how to make the twist close up completely. Even after figuring that out, though, I’d then have to figure out how to connect closed nails. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Are there any demo videos out there?

Thanks in advance.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Brad Manion

[bencrush]

Great to see you posting again, Brad! I have no experience to help you, but I wanted to say hi. I remember when you used to bend tons of 60Ds back in the day. 

[JHenze646]

I have always wanted to know how to do this as well.

[Brad Manion]

I found the bottom picture and everything clicked. Bend the nail into a triangle. For the life of me, though, I can’t figure out how to close the triangle, let alone crushing it enough to where it’d form a close loop.

I tried it with 2” wide wraps, but that only took me so far. I’m open to suggestions.

Thanks.