Homemade Bag Of Nails From Tsc?

[Jonathan McMillan]

Sorry I can't give credit to whoever posted it first -please chime in so everyone knows, I'm too lazy to look it up :sleeping

But I got the right diameters as listed for a homemade Bag of Nails at a local TSC store. What I don't know is if it's cold rolled or hot rolled. It is galvanized if that helps. After I log off I'm going to go cut it up into the appropriate lengths and give the rookie ones a go!

Jon@han

[RSW]

I only have experience with the Crown Bolt Co. HRS (found at Home Depot), I didn't notice any difference between the regular and galvanized except the price. IIRC:

7"x3/16" HRS=IM White

5"x3/16" HRS=IM Green

7"x1/4" HRS= IM Yellow

6"x1/4" HRS= IM Blue (some say it should be CRS, but the Crown Bolt HRS feels the same to me)

7"x5/16" CRS= IM Red (I would train on HRS, and buy some Reds from Ironmind when you are ready)

I would buy whatever HRS stock you can find to train on. The only IM "nail" to brag about is the Red anyway.

Hope this helps,

Robert

[Tou]

That red nail shuold be VERY VERY hard. I did bend a 10" piece fo 5/16 CRS but it was very tough. I did a 6" x 1/4 CRS adn it's my best so far.

Steel bending is very effective, fun and cheap. Just don't overtrain on it. Bending is hard to recover from (for me at least).

[Tom Black]

Robert,

I didn't think you were right regarding the bag of nails numbers before, but I assumed that they must have changed the bag. Now that you've written:

"some say it should be CRS, but the Crown Bolt HRS feels the same to me"

I think I've figured out the discrepancy. I've bought that Crown Bolt "Hot rolled steel" myself and it is definitively not the average Hot rolled steel, and definitely not the same as the hot rolled steel that Ironmind had in the bag a few years ago. Also, Dr. Strossen told me over the phone once (in 1999) that the yellow and blue were cold rolled, carbon 40 (I think that is the carbon amount). I think the crown bolt stock changed in the last few years, I remember it being the same as IM's. I cut a piece to 5" recently as a warm-up and got quite a shock. I bent it, but it wasn't easy like it should have been.

[RSW]

Hi Tom,

Do you know of a source of softer HRS than the Crown Bolt? The Crown bolt 5/16" HRS I bought is very tough stuff. I can barely kink a 10" piece of it.

As you noted, different HRS and CRS stocks are going to vary. It doesn't matter for training purposes, but it is good to have the IM blue and Red for a reference.

Robert

[terminator]

To simplify things, the IM nails are cold rolled steel. It is not simply enough to say cold rolled or hot rolled, because there are so many different types of steel. One type of hot rolled steel may be as strong or stronger than another type of cold rolled steel.

From my experience, the hot rolled steel I have tried is about 15-20% easier than IM's cold rolled. There was no brand information or alloy type listed.

Kinda like grippers, let your hands be the judge. If what you have is too easy, try to find harder stuff. If it's too hard, work harder. There are no automatic paths anywhere in this game, just be creative and be relentless. Too much analysis, not enough work!!!

[Jonathan McMillan]

Thanks for the onslot of info guys!!! I cut some of the steel rods I bought yesterday and of course i had to try them out.

My equivalent of the ironmind white bent realitvely easy for me I'm quite happy as I thought I'd have to start with pieces of coat hanger!!

However my green was brutal and I only managed to but a 10 degree angle in the thing. So I cut some of the 3/16" into 6 inch lengths and that was about right for me right now as I was able to fold it up after a nice struggle.

I'll have to make a trip out to Home Depot in the near future to compare the steel with what I purchased at TSC ...the tags say "National"

Jon@han