David Horne's Chain Of Bent Nails

[Brad Manion]

I injured my back recently and was looking at some DVDs to inspire me upon my return to training. On the Dennis Rogers bending/breaking DVD, he shows some steel-bending collectibles, and one of them just stood out and made me say out loud to myself "I want to do THAT."

Dennis holds up a chain of bent nails, sent to him by David Horne. I have a few questions for David, or for anybody that witnessed him making the chain:

1. Were those 60d nails? If so, very impressive.

2. How can one bend the nails so that the ends wrap close enough to each other that you can hook another nail through and lengthen the chain? I could envision this being done with a series of very short, off-center bends on longer pieces (7"+) of steel, but this has to be brutally tough with a bunch of relatively short pieces of steel like 60d nails.

3. How many links to the chain?

4. How long did it take to accomplish this feat?

Thanks for the help,

Brad

[gazza]

Not shure wether its the same type of chain butBen Reid an oltime nail bender of England used to do this and held a record in the guiness book of for it.

[David Horne]

Brad,

Yes they were 6" nails.

As Gazza said, an old time strongman called Ben Read showed me and others how to do it. It's pretty easy but looks good.

You basically bend 2 x 6" nails, place them together so they are joined in the middle. Then with the aid of a 3rd nail twist the top nail whilst holding the bottom nail. Then turn it the other way round, and place another bent nail in and do the same again. You slowly build up a chain. Each 6" nail will gain you an inch or so on the chain.

I have a long chain in my collection that I did on my dad's birthday.

David

[Cunny]

Any photo's of this?

[David Horne]

You can see the picture of 3 nails twisted in the link below. Obviously a chain will just be a continuation of this.

http://www.gripgirl.co.uk/buybentstuff.html

[Brad Manion]

Thanks Gazza and David. Once my back is fully healed, I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes.

[Brad Manion]

Brad,

Yes they were 6" nails.

As Gazza said, an old time strongman called Ben Read showed me and others how to do it. It's pretty easy but looks good.

You basically bend 2 x 6" nails, place them together so they are joined in the middle. Then with the aid of a 3rd nail twist the top nail whilst holding the bottom nail. Then turn it the other way round, and place another bent nail in and do the same again. You slowly build up a chain. Each 6" nail will gain you an inch or so on the chain.

I have a long chain in my collection that I did on my dad's birthday.

David

David,

I got a little anxious and tried doing this already, only to notice a few problems that I need help in understanding/overcoming. How far apart are the legs of the 6" bent nails? I took two such nails and bent both of them down so that there was slightly less than 2cm between the legs. I then hooked the two nails together and tried to use a third nail to twist the top of the bent nails as you said. I noticed the following:

1)I wasn't able to easily get a great grip on the bottom nail, causing the top bent nail to move around a lot.

2) Once I finally got a decent grip on the bottom bent nail, I wasn't able to get the leverage with the 3'rd nail so that I could twist the top of the bent nails.

Do you have any videos or still photos showing this being done? I completely understand the principles behind what you're saying, but I feel I was making some subtle mistakes.

Thanks again for the help,

Brad

[David Horne]

Holding the bottom nail is the tough thing to do in this feat, but keep at it and it'll come.

The only video is of Elizabeth doing it. It's halfway down the page, and called Nail Twisting.

http://www.gripgirl.co.uk/buyclips.html

Have fun,

David

[Brad Manion]

David,

I just bought the video and watched it. WOW!!! Elizabeth is an extremely impressive grip athlete . Looks like I was on the right track in my initial attempt, from your descriptions, and the video showed me 2 small aspects that cause chain-making to be possible.

Although my back will still hurt a little bit from doing so, I can't wait to leave work (in a mere 4 or 5 hours) and make my first chain. I have a 5 gallon paint bucket filled with at least 25-30 kg of bent steel pieces, most of them 60d nails. I'll see how many pieces it takes to make a chain/necklace for a person of my size and record how long it takes to do the assembly of the nails.

Thanks again,

Brad

[David Horne]

Brad,

I'm glad you liked it.

I promise you that once you have done your chain you will be very proud of it.

Good luck,

David

[Brad Manion]

Well, I've given it a go at making my chain. I thought it wouldn't be too bad since I didn't have to DO bend any nails. I just pulled a bunch of bent 60d nails out of my bucket of bent steel. Four hours after my start, and I only have 12 nails in this chain. The way I'm built and the way this chain is shaping up, I figure it'd take 45 +/- 5 nails to make a chain that would fit over my head and make a good necklace. Having suffered through these first twelve links already, bruising and blistering my hands, cramping my forearms, saying things that women and children shouldn't hear, I can say that David's right. I will be very proud of this chain when it's finished, and I will not make another one [any time soon].

I promise I'll post a picture in the gallery when I'm done. Couldn't post a video since the progress is so slow it can't be measured with a clock. A sundial and calendar seem more appropriate right now .

[Tim71]

Neat stuff. Word of caution. I just tried it with 2 pretty tough 60d nails and I got it but my hand slipped and I took a pretty good plug out of my hand. I knew that would be easy to do(stab myself I mean), but still managed to do it anyway.

It is a neat feat though I've got to admit. I think picking nails with a wider bend radius may be the way to go on that one. Could be wrong but of the 2 brands I experimented with the wider "U" one seemed to work better. They calibrated at 265 lbs for Eric BTW so it was a decent nail.

Thanks for clueing us in David.

Yes Brad I agree, I wouldn't do this for leisurely fun I can tell you that.

Tim

[gazza]

Tim

Yes the weeker 60ds make it alot easier i practised this with various nails a while ago and the 60ds that make the bigger U do indeed make it easier also only bend them so the legs are parallel or just over parallel not under this gives a wider base to secure the nail for braseing as you twist.

Practise it with some 40ds to get the technique/feel its alot easier then do some 50ds then the 60ds.

Ben Reid has made a daisy chain of 60d nails 166 ft long.

Some of Ben Reids Guiness records are:-

10 60ds in 24.6 secs.

100 60ds in 10mins and 3 secs.

640 60d in one evening.

I had the privaledge of seeing him in action bending 60ds at 69yrs old thats what started me off

[GatorGrip]

LETS SEE A VIDEO CLIP OF THE FIRST 3-4 NAILS IN THE FEAT OF CHAIN MAKING!

I would love to see the technique and the video would surely breath a little life into the typed directions, besides who would like to be the first to submit this feat of strength to the FOS video library on my site www.strongmanfeats.com ??? I am waiting with great anticipation my friends.

[Brad Manion]

Gazza, I just read your idea about practicing with a bunch of 40d and 50d nails to get the hang of chain making. When I get paid next weekend, I'll give that a shot. I'll also buy some weaker 60d nails (spiral timber ties instead of the GripRite bright common nails). I also hadn't thought about bending the legs of the nails down to just parallel, to have the wider base for twisting.

I then read thementions of Ben Reid's records.... As bad as I hurt right now, having just added 3 or 4 nails to my original chain (and starting chain #2, a 4 nail piece at the moment), I nearly wanted to shoot myself and end it all when I read about that world record chain length. 166 feet ?!?!?! Furthermore, his bending 100 of the 60d nails in just over 10 minutes made me want to cry as well, as I remember how tired I was after bending 50 of those nails in just under 10 minutes. That's something for me to shoot for.

My frustration with chain-making is that all the previous bends get in the damn way and I find it more and more difficult to:

1) secure the nail I intend to twist

2) get a good grip wih my left (stabilizing) hand so that my right hand can do the twist.

I made the mistake of trying to do a bunch of easy 2 and 3 nail starter pieces, and then try to attach them to the main piece. Not smart. Anyways, I have come to the point where I must put away the chain for a few days. Otherwise, I won't get anything done.

Of all the things I've tried as a strongman, powerlifter, grip-athlete, this particular feat has haunted me like none other. Can't wait to finish it, hopefully before I'm an old man.

[David Horne]

Yes, as the chain gets longer there is a lot more to hold onto.

Keep up the work.

David

[AP]

Got 7 nails together so far, cool thing about this is I can add nails 1 or 2 every week. Stabbed my palm a bit but it sure is addictive.

[acorn]

I did a couple of links out of hard Mazul 60ds when I was up at the MGC for Don. Its pretty fun but those hard ones took a while.

- Aaron

[AP]

Yeah, I've got pretty hard ones, they V when you bend them so with the ends under 1" apart they are still not at parallel. I think this will be cooler though than if I had used easier galvanized ones.

What I'd like to see would be something really tough put together, like grade 8 bolts or bastards, even if it was only two of them and not really a chain. Same rule, you can only use the same type of stock as the third nail. Maybe I'll have to give that a try next.

[Brad Manion]

Yeah, I've got pretty hard ones, they V when you bend them so with the ends under 1" apart they are still not at parallel. I think this will be cooler though than if I had used easier galvanized ones.

What I'd like to see would be something really tough put together, like grade 8 bolts or bastards, even if it was only two of them and not really a chain. Same rule, you can only use the same type of stock as the third nail. Maybe I'll have to give that a try next.

To tell you the truth, AP, when I got the first 3 links together, I had thought the same thing as you, about linking tougher steel together. The longer my chain has grown, the less likely a chain of tougher steel seems. However, I could definitely see a short 2 to 3 link chain of 6" x 1/4" Grade 5's, and maybe even Grade 8's, though it'd be very tough to get the Grade 8 down to 1" or less between the legs of the bolt.

Now, I still haven't bent an IM-Red or FBBC-Bastard, but I'd have to think that the longer length would increase the leverage when doing the twist to connect the links. For that reason, I'd say a chain of 2-3 Reds/Bastards is more feasible than a 2-3 link chain of 6" x 1/4" Grade 8 bolts. Those that have actually bent them may disagree, but this is my best educated guess.

In any event, assuming a chain of 60d nails would ever become easy to make, how awesome would it be to make a chain necklace of, say:

Reds/Bastards/70d

or 1/4" x 6" Grade 8 bolts (with that gold color to them, this would look very very cool)

[David Horne]

In the past I linked 2 bars of 8mm HRS bars.

Grade 5's are definitely doable.

Have fun guys,

David

[AP]

I'm up to about 40 nails, almost 3 feet so far. Long enough for a tight necklace so far but I'm thinking belt, or maybe bandoleer (I always thought those looked cool!)

Just for fun I linked up two 12" spikes using a third one as a tool to tie them together. It wasn't too hard but I don't think I'll be doing too many of these in the future cause I was really worried about stabbing myself!

[Brad Manion]

AP, a chain of 40 nails, huh? That sounds pretty cool. Could you please post a picture somewhere, along with a picture of the 2 linked 12" spikes? Tonight was probably the first time since I started this thread that I have done any bending, and this may be the kick in the ass I needed to really start pushing forward again.

[David Horne]

AP,

Sounds good.

David

[AP]

AP, a chain of 40 nails, huh? That sounds pretty cool. Could you please post a picture somewhere, along with a picture of the 2 linked 12" spikes? Tonight was probably the first time since I started this thread that I have done any bending, and this may be the kick in the ass I needed to really start pushing forward again.

Got a few in my gallery Brad, http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?automod...si&img=6234

Its definitely a fun form of bending. A good break from the high impact stuff for a while.