First Bend

[egg_uk]

Received some leather today and made some wraps, then got round to bending this nail that i had that i was waiting to bend. Was a nice feeling to bend it, i felt the kink was definitely the hardest bit. Bent a 6" nail today, no idea what it is or how low it would calibrate, but im happy. Now the bending odyssey begins, im going to look for more nails, see if i can find some harder ones, and look for some lengths of steel for bending.

[wscorpion]

Nice work! please post a picture of the nail as well

[ox3782]

Glad to have you as a brother of steel,as many would say welcome to the addiction.Great job look forward to seeing some of your bends!!

Brendan

[Tim71]

Welcome! Word of advise, save your first bends and date them because later on you'll want to look back on them.

Let us know how it goes!

Tim

[ObsceneJester]

Great job man..

[dimmers]

Good work matey! I agree with Tim, it is well worth keeping hold of your first bends so you can look back on them.

[Cunny]

Good work

I think a 6 inch nail is around 160kg as per David Hornes calibration

[GetAGrip87]

Good Job!

[egg_uk]

thanks for all the responses, ill try and sort out a picture later on. I went to B&Q, Diy shop, and bought 2.5kg of nails to practice on and some different thickness pieces of steel. I wanted to try some more nails to make sure that wasnt an easy one, i tried another nail and it did seem harder, got blisters to prove it, but thicker wraps and it went down fairly easy. The bug is catching.

[egg_uk]

Finally got the images posted in my gallery, thanks for those who are interested. Think this is the link, otherwise they are in my gallery.

[cjsta]

Very nice.

Chris

[ObsceneJester]

Great man.. looks really good, especially that really off centered one

[crobb1320]

nice bends,keep up the good work. :mosher

[egg_uk]

Thanks for all the encouraging words, had another go at bending a minute ago, warmed up with another nail, then a 7" 6mm round steel bar and then a 6.5" 6mm round steel bar, which ended up well off centre. Gonna try for a 6.25" 6mm round bar next. Cant remember if its HRS or CRS, says drawn on the label. Getting in to this bending. Wont be able to take any pictures for a couple of weeks though, hopefully there will be a lot of bent steel after that.

[egg_uk]

couldnt resist, went for the 6.25" 6mm as well, got it. Still working on my technique though, i had been trying to push down with outside of my hand, near my little finger and up with the inside, near the thumb. I remember reading something by bencrush about pushing inwards, by pushing on the ends of the bar. That seemed to make it easier.

[gazza]

Thanks for all the encouraging words, had another go at bending a minute ago, warmed up with another nail, then a 7" 6mm round steel bar and then a 6.5" 6mm round steel bar, which ended up well off centre. Gonna try for a 6.25" 6mm round bar next. Cant remember if its HRS or CRS, says drawn on the label. Getting in to this bending. Wont be able to take any pictures for a couple of weeks though, hopefully there will be a lot of bent steel after that.

I assume you are refering to B&Q stock if so its CRS if it says drawn on it.

Congrats onwards and upwards mate.

[gazza]

couldnt resist, went for the 6.25" 6mm as well, got it. Still working on my technique though, i had been trying to push down with outside of my hand, near my little finger and up with the inside, near the thumb. I remember reading something by bencrush about pushing inwards, by pushing on the ends of the bar. That seemed to make it easier.

Yep as you push in on the ends of the bar and you begin to feel it flex pull up/back into the kneck/chin area with the index fingers and wrists so you are useing the index fingers as a fulcrum to bend over and pulling up with the wrists think of trying to touch your neck with your little fingers so you really are trying to get the wrists more involved.

[egg_uk]

thanks for the advice, ill work on it next time i have a go at some bending.

[egg_uk]

got a 6" 6mm CRS today, so thats a little mini milestone on the route to bending some 8mm steel, which i bought today. thought i would have a go at some square stock, that was a lot tougher, barely moved it, and now my hands HURT. may have another go at it later, after some other training.

[egg_uk]

come to think about it, maybe it was a bit ambitious so early in my bending. Ill work to shorter lengths of 6mm round first, then see if 8mm round or 6mm square is tougher.

[ox3782]

You will like the square tough stuff Great bending keep it going strong!!!

Brendan