Red Nail Taken Out!

[liam.mccaffrey]

I just bent a brand new red nail, i must admit that i did use fairly big wraps on the kink. but i finished it from 90 on small wraps.

it doesnt matter though, i bent "the RED NAIL"

I would like to dedicate this to my grandfather who is fighting for his life in hospital at the moment, he is quite simply the toughest man i have ever known and despite almost insurmountable odds is fighting tooth and nail and looks to be pulling through. SO the least I could possibly do was smash a red or 2. Get well soon Grandad

thanks to all who have given me advice on here, especially Ben and Gazza.

Reds Linky

Edited April 16, 2007 by liamcafs

[boland magyar]

well done mate....ill have a red this time next year.

hope your grandad gets better my prayers are with you and your family

boland

[acorn]

Big Congrats Liam! I knew it wouldnt be long.

- Aaron

[liam.mccaffrey]

thanks guys, appreciate you kind words

[judoboy]

awesome mate, chuffed for you. hope grandpop gets well soon.

[gazza]

A big congrats Liam thats a nice bending level reached so far and my thoughts are with your grandfather.

[egg_uk]

congratulations, hope he gets well soon

[liam.mccaffrey]

again thanks for the kind words guys,

i was feeling a bit greedy, so i just did another one

i bent the 2 nails, but im not really happy with the size of wrap i used, it was leather 5" wide and 1.57" when wrapped around the red nail

what do you guys think? is that a bit big?

[acorn]

again thanks for the kind words guys,

i was feeling a bit greedy, so i just did another one

i bent the 2 nails, but im not really happy with the size of wrap i used, it was leather 5" wide and 1.57" when wrapped around the red nail

what do you guys think? is that a bit big?

Thats pretty huge. I consider mine big when I'm using wraps that are 1 1/8". Gazza of course uses hardly any wraps. You just have to toughen up your hands over time to use smaller wraps. as my favorite wraps get more torn up on the end I just cut the bad area off. that way I can slowly decrease the size of my wraps.

- Aaron

[Cannon]

again thanks for the kind words guys,

i was feeling a bit greedy, so i just did another one

i bent the 2 nails, but im not really happy with the size of wrap i used, it was leather 5" wide and 1.57" when wrapped around the red nail

what do you guys think? is that a bit big?

That seems a bit large. But, c'mon, you still bent a Red.

In my own mind, I have always thought of thicker than 1" as "bigger" pads, especially with leather. I've noticed that it's not just an issue of padding for pain, but the really thick pads almost make the nail feel longer, like you can actually have less of the nail in your hand and be farther out toward the ends, which can really help the kink. I wouldn't worry about the width too much. I started out with about 1.25" thick leathers and have slowly cut them down to where they are a little below 1" right now. That has been feeling pretty good lately, but even then it feels a bit squishy on the crush and I end up unwrapping about half the wrap on 1 side at least. Of course, I'm also not bending Reds and I consider myself pretty new to bending so This is just what I have experienced as a relatively new bender.

[liam.mccaffrey]

i have kinked a red with less than inch leather wraps, and i have kinked a red with IM wraps

i totally agree about the huge wraps. i want to go smaller and cert on the Red Nail. ill just have to work on my hand toughness, i have only been bending for 6 weeks afterall.

what i did today was double wrap my original 1" thick wraps up to 1.57" when i had the nail at 90 deg i took the extra wrap off and finished it off like that.

Edited April 16, 2007 by liamcafs

[Booyah!!!]

Outstanding Bend Liamcafs!!!

[GetAGrip87]

Congratulations!!!

[liam.mccaffrey]

in reply to earlier comments, i have started to cut down my wraps and did another red, they are now down to 1.4" and to be honest it made no real difference

I will ocntinue to cut them back

thats 3 reds today

[dimmers]

at this rate Liam, you won't have any reds left to swap me!

seriously though, well done mate! looks like you're making massive gains recently! I wouldn't worry too much on the wraps and how thick they are at the moment, your hands just need to toughen up some more so they can take the force and power you apply to those nails! More ISOS work with small wraps will sort that out i'm sure.

keep up the great work

Edited April 16, 2007 by youdimmers

[EricMilfeld]

Congrats on your Red bend!

I said a prayer for your grandfather. I hope he's better soon.

[cjsta]

great job on those reds!

chris

[Tim71]

Awesome Job! I just got my first Red a couple days ago and I know how you feel. I kinda did like you on the wraps too.

I'll tell you up until a few weeks ago I used pretty small wraps that were just slaped on the nails and my best bends were 9/32 drill rod and 5/16 zinc plated and maybe a grade 8 bolt. However, every time I bent it was trashing my hands and out of my 10 month unbraced bending "career", I've spent more time healing and less time bending. The final straw was when I realized that I have a numb spot on each index finger because I was actually bending the nail around my fingers on the kink plus I had and still have an "inflamed?" nerve or something in one index finger that hurts like crazy when I touch it.

So, a few weeks ago I got sick of not bending and I've seen a few videos of guys using thicker pads that were wrapped much better so I decided to try it and I've never looked back. I've done like others and slowly trimmed them back in the past but I'm in no hurry right now because I always have a tough time finding good leather so why waste the life out of it? I still keep some small wraps if I want to bend a 60d or something for somebody and I've even used a washcloth but I'm definately a thick wrap convert on the tougher bends and I don't thick they're illegal but somebody can correct me if I'm wrong plus you still have to have the strength to crush the nail because any advantage you might gain on the kink goes away on the rest.

Ben can tell you that my former philosophy was that I want to be able to slap a quick 5 second wrap on anything I bend but no more buddy I've seen the light. And since I'm not torturing myself like I was and can put all my strength into the bar now I've shot up to bastard, 445 lbs CRS, then the red nail plus I don't need hardly any time to heal now other than the standard soreness.

My idea now is that I allow myself enough wrap to meet the needs of the bar for my hands. I can't bend a KOAB no matter how much and what kind of wrap I use so it's not really cheating. To me if I'm going to bend 3/16 square then it would look ridiculous for me to use 1.5 inch wraps, chalk and rubber bands. Tough 60d I'll allow myself a little more wrap but no rubber bands no chalk. G8 bolt we might start breaking out the bigger guns in the wrapping arsenal and if I'm going to try to take out the hexabastard then I'll use whatever feels best for the moment. For me I want to keep the feat of strength aspect to the bending so I don't want to wrap up an easier 60d with my thickest wraps and chalk and all that because I usually let someone else try the bend.

That's just my philosophy though that I've gotten off nobody and might be worth nothing to anybody but me but that's just my mindset. Anytime somebody is going for some sort of record in weightlifting or whatever they're going to get really prepared and that' what I feel like we're doing. 3/8 steel is so huge to the average onlooker that you could get away with virtually any wrap and still keep the "wow" factor.

Little wordy but I've actually been thinking alot about that lately.

Tim

[gazza]

When i 1st started bending i used canvass or denim whilst the norm then was a tea towel rolled up i felt that useing canvass or denim would allow the hands to feel more pain which would toughen the hands quicker i was not useing leather at this time then the rules were laid down and leather became the norm so i got small off cuts of leather 6" x 4" and very thin i used to give these to people i 1st introduced to bending to see if they could bend with them and not wuss out i figured that if the person trying them carried on with them then they would probably stay a bender for a long time as they would not let the pain discourage them its worked with a few people and some others have quit because they were to week to overcome the pain.

Later on like others i experimented with wraps of all sizes some quite

[David Horne]

I like using the leather I have now. I have no pain of my skin being punctured like the old tea towell days, and now I can concentrate and make my wrists stronger with tough bends more often.

David

[gazza]

Meant to put this post in not the above

When i 1st started bending i used canvass or denim whilst the norm then was a tea towel rolled up i felt that useing canvass or denim would allow the hands to feel more pain which would toughen the hands quicker i was not useing leather at this time then the rules were laid down and leather became the norm so i got small off cuts of leather 6" x 4" and very thin i used to give these to people i 1st introduced to bending to see if they could bend with them and not wuss out i figured that if the person trying them carried on with them then they would probably stay a bender for a long time as they would not let the pain discourage them its worked with a few people and some others have quit because they were to week to overcome the pain.<BR><BR>Later on like others i experimented with wraps of all sizes some quite thick which i found did not suit me for 2 reasond firstly i could not feel the steel and the wrap absorbed the power into the bar and secondly in my eyes it aint as true a test of bending notice i said bending and not strength as obviously the strength is still there otherwise the bar would not bend but i like to keep my grass roots as close to the people that paved the way as much as possible pat does not use big wraps or chalk or elastic bands and he set the standard i personally aim for so lately i have tried to duplicate my hardest bends with small wraps no chalk or elastic bands others are free to do as they choose and use what ever they like i personally no that my hands adapt quicker if i destroy them its more painfull but i like pain and its part of the feedback process to me.

Everybody has a different pain threshold so you have to do what works for you but call it being big headed or whatever but i get a big kick out of handing a person a hardish piece of steel and small wraps and seeing them nearly cry with the pain only to not even put a kink in the bar then i give them big wraps and ask them to try again and again they squeel with the pain i then take the steel with really small wraps and destroy it whilst they think look at this foreyed geek i then say dont let the glasses fool you as superman wears glasses lol.

Personally i would always try to slim down the wraps if i were you guys also do away with the elastic bands and chalk as you can then compare your bends with pat as how can you if you are not useing the same materials and methods.

V=bar has 2 types the one Arne sells and the one John sells so there pretty standardised.

Pinch has the Euro setup.

Grippers you got the Mash Monsters

So why should bending be any different we sort of have a standardised stock with fbbc and ironmind so like the v-bar,pinch and grippers we can compare we have the bending stock no we need to standardise the materials further i think especially on cert bars a set sized wrap with no chalk or elastic i think is the way to go for training purposes use whatever but to really compare we have to be equals.

[liam.mccaffrey]

thanks for that gazza, very purist as usual. thats why you're as good as you are

my goal was a red and now ive done it, i feel like i can take my time a bit more.

for a start im gonna have a month off to sort the shoulder out, thencome back and smoke some fbbc stock. that is of course if i can stay off that long

i will be doing some hand toughening exercises in the mean time though and some isos, and ill continue to cut down the wraps

my grandad looks as though he is making progress, my thanks for all the kind words and prayers

Edited April 17, 2007 by liamcafs

[dimmers]

I think the issue of wraps that has come up in this thread is quite interesting! Using thick wraps vs thin wraps, chalk vs no chalk, and elastic bands etc etc counts towards a lot when bending big steel i think. I have to agree with Gazza and Tim that no matter what size wraps you use you still have to have the strength to finish off a big piece of steel, but i do think that big wraps is a bit like cheating at times (which i'm guilty of, hands up i confess

Since i got my IM pads it's been like learning to bend all over again, and i'm glad for getting them. I'm all up for a bit of pain when bending - no pain no gain i suppose - but there is a limit to what you should do in case of injury! For me at the moment, i think that developing a good technique and finger/hand pain tolerance one important aspect of bending, which i do with easy stock (lots of volume) and then the second aspect i focus on is big steel with big wraps for ISOS and STRENGTH building! hopefully in time, the finger/hand pain threshold will catch up with my strength and at this point i will be happy (and put together some vids for youtube). just thought i'd mention that i don't use chalk or elastic bands when bending either, simple reason really cos i don't have any - makes it tricky with the IM pads though

anyway, enough ranting on i'm gonna go bend something

(I'm glad to hear your Grandad is making progress by the way Liam, hope things continue to get better)

Edited April 17, 2007 by youdimmers

[Tim71]

Alot of the reason my current wraps are thicker too is because I just bought the leather and I cut them oversize when they're new because #1 I don't really know exactly how thick they're going to be until I can roll them up on a nail and #2 because if you bend lots of stuff with a point they will tear up quickly and need to be trimmed. Plus, since I do some spike bending there are spikes that will puncture through a suprising ammount of leather.

I do keep some though that are about 1/2 inch when wrapped around a nail faily loose and I'll continue to use them if I want to knock out a tough 60d for someone but as far as restricting myself to that sort of thing like I used to I'm a changed man for the moment.

Now I will say that I have went from thick wraps back down to small wraps once before to some good results so I think thin wraps can be pretty good for some as they were for me. I could bend really good in them actually. I did notice that the thinner wraps actually felt better on the shorter stock.

I think though that experiementing is a fun part of it though.

Tim

[Booyah!!!]

"to really compare we have to be equals." We are equals, we use what ever we want.