Who Today Can Bend A Red Nail The Old Way?

[OldGuy]

By the old way, I mean hands held away from the body, no bracing and minimal wraps. I believe this is how Brookfield did it.

[yummy]

you mean hands out in front just straight bending it do? Noone I bet I doubt he did it that way.

[OldGuy]

you mean hands out in front just straight bending it do? Noone I bet I doubt he did it that way.

I think he did. Red nails were not being bent by just about anyone until the Holle brothers started using the style that most use now. I do remember seeing a red bent double underhand.

[hellswindstaff]

By the old way did you mean double underhand? It's my preferred method of bending... but I'm on the yellow nail

[OldGuy]

I mean double overhand, reverse grip, or double underhand. No contact with the body upper or lower. No finishing with a chest crush.

[Jedd Johnson]

I just bent one last summer reverse in suede to 40 degrees in under 30 seconds.

I have never read exactly how John Brookfield bent the red for his cert, but in an old copy of Milo, he demo's a technique where he holds the red nail down by his waist.

[Alawadhi]

I believe people who saw John in action said he braced the red with his waist.

[FrankD]

Old Guy, have you seen any of JT's bends? Someone put up his Gold Nail bend and he bent a red nail in 4 seconds. He has done much harder stuff on the bendersbattlefield as well. Not sure if this exactly qualifies as the old way but this is pretty nuts:

[Jedd Johnson]

I mean double overhand, reverse grip, or double underhand. No contact with the body upper or lower. No finishing with a chest crush.

How would the red be finished if it were not done with a chest crush?

[Shoggoth]

I mean double overhand, reverse grip, or double underhand. No contact with the body upper or lower. No finishing with a chest crush.

How would the red be finished if it were not done with a chest crush?

Brookfield chest crushes them on his DVD's. I can also reverse a red nail in suede to past 40'.

[hellswindstaff]

Jedd that's what I was wondering... maybe crush it like a gripper?

[RichardBean1]

Well it's funny that you mention "the old way" of bending a Red nail because it is only recently that a Red Nail requires the thin IM pads we are all used to for certification purposes. The original men who certified on this nail were allowed to use thick stiff sued and leather wraps to fully bend then nails. They too utilized a double overhand style grip hands held high or at chest level and then finished the nail to 2" or less with a chest crush. So actually the Red Nail certification now is a lot harder than it originally was. Much the same as the CoC gripper certs going from a parallel set to a credit card set.

As far as John Brookfield bending a Red nail, he bent it with a more traitional grip hands touching in the middle of the bar but he braced against his wasit and or upper thigh to get the bar moving and then finished up high with a chest crush. I love John Brookfield and have read several of his books and believe me I could not bend a Red nail in the fashion he did but it was far from unbraced. Actualy it is the exact definition of braced. Still required a hell of alot of wrist strength which John had a ton of thats for sure.

[OldGuy]

So without bracing of any kind, nails much harder than a 60 D would not be bent? I have seen 60 D nails bent without bracing, or chest crush, wrapped only in a handerchief.

[Shoggoth]

So without bracing of any kind, nails much harder than a 60 D would not be bent? I have seen 60 D nails bent without bracing, or chest crush, wrapped only in a handerchief.

Getting reds and tougher to 40' and beyond reverse isn't so bad but to get that final crush to take it to less than 2" is where all styles end with a DO crush.

[cemery]

LOL . . . . the old way . . . . . . LOL

Is there a video of the old way bending, then these guy's can try and replicate the feat.

[jad]

The way Brookfield bends on video is much different than what he describes in his book. I've always been a JB fan but this idea that he holdsthe nail down by waist and just applies downward pressure with wrists to U it, is pure fantasy.

[Jedd Johnson]

I think there is some kind of myth going around that before the rules were implemented with the blue IM pads, that people were bending the Red Nails differnetly than the DO style. This is simply not true.

Were you under the assumption that Red Nails were not bent DO-style, Old Guy?

I watched John brookfield bend in person in 2005. He was not bending red nails, he was bending either 40D or 60D nails, and he braced every single one of them down near his hip flexor for the kink. Now, as I point out in my Nail Bending eBook, he was also doing crazy stuff in combination with the bends, such as balancing ladders and other items on his chin, so he could have been doing the brace because of this.

In what videos or DVD's have you guys seen John Brookfield bending red nails. That is something I have never seen, but I have seen lots of great benders over the years bending red, and even seen their cert videos and still shots of the certs and I do not remember ever seeing anybody bend one in a technique other than high DO.

[tja]

I've bent a red using reverse style, although in double leather warps. Haven't been bending for quite some time, but hope to get back at it.

[OldGuy]

I think there is some kind of myth going around that before the rules were implemented with the blue IM pads, that people were bending the Red Nails differnetly than the DO style. This is simply not true.

Were you under the assumption that Red Nails were not bent DO-style, Old Guy?

I watched John brookfield bend in person in 2005. He was not bending red nails, he was bending either 40D or 60D nails, and he braced every single one of them down near his hip flexor for the kink. Now, as I point out in my Nail Bending eBook, he was also doing crazy stuff in combination with the bends, such as balancing ladders and other items on his chin, so he could have been doing the brace because of this.

In what videos or DVD's have you guys seen John Brookfield bending red nails. That is something I have never seen, but I have seen lots of great benders over the years bending red, and even seen their cert videos and still shots of the certs and I do not remember ever seeing anybody bend one in a technique other than high DO.

So who was bending like the Holle brothers prior to them. Were they not the first red nail benders after Brookfield?

1995

John Brookfield

2003

Gavin Holle

James Smith

Craig Holle

Jay Holle

And after that a great many red nail benders using the Holle style. All I am asking is can anyone bend a red nail without holding the nail high up under their chin and braced against their chest. You said yourself you have never seen a red nail cert in whcih the high Do was not used, which confirms my suspicion that nobody can bend a red nail any other way.

Edited March 21, 2012 by OldGuy

[mightyjoe]

Tommy Heslep bent a G5 bolt that's much harder than a 60D straight out in front of him.

Often referred to as a Heslep style bend.

I thought it was very impressive myself.

[Paul Knight]

If we are not talking wraps ... dozens of guys can double underhand and reverse a red nail ... short answer

[gerryg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov-XiqcQWUY

[climber511]

John was (and of course is) a very strong man - but during the period in which he was doing his best bending the "rules" of the game weren't all that well defined as they might be considered today. Wraps were all over the place with no standardization in place. He was a strongman is the showman sense of the word - as far as I have been able to find he did not compete so his best bends were probably never documented very well. The videos that I have seen (and being a fellow old guy, I have looked) do not show anything that I have not seen by quite a few others over the years. John has very tough hands which allows him fairly minimal wrapping but this also kept him from bending the really big steel that many others have done recently. The DO list for the Red is pretty long even on the IM site but it's very long when you go with leather wraps - ether double or singles. It's not as long with Double Under or Reverse styles but still quite a few people have done Red Nail or better in those more difficult styles - even myself in my 60s. John is one of the guys I admire but what he has done as far as just plain big bends is no where near the levels some of these guys today are doing. This takes absolutely nothing away from him - times change is all - records are meant to be broken - John showed us the way.

[Jedd Johnson]

I think there is some kind of myth going around that before the rules were implemented with the blue IM pads, that people were bending the Red Nails differnetly than the DO style. This is simply not true.

Were you under the assumption that Red Nails were not bent DO-style, Old Guy?

I watched John brookfield bend in person in 2005. He was not bending red nails, he was bending either 40D or 60D nails, and he braced every single one of them down near his hip flexor for the kink. Now, as I point out in my Nail Bending eBook, he was also doing crazy stuff in combination with the bends, such as balancing ladders and other items on his chin, so he could have been doing the brace because of this.

In what videos or DVD's have you guys seen John Brookfield bending red nails. That is something I have never seen, but I have seen lots of great benders over the years bending red, and even seen their cert videos and still shots of the certs and I do not remember ever seeing anybody bend one in a technique other than high DO.

So who was bending like the Holle brothers prior to them. Were they not the first red nail benders after Brookfield?

1995

John Brookfield

2003

Gavin Holle

James Smith

Craig Holle

Jay Holle

And after that a great many red nail benders using the Holle style. All I am asking is can anyone bend a red nail without holding the nail high up under their chin and braced against their chest. You said yourself you have never seen a red nail cert in whcih the high Do was not used, which confirms my suspicion that nobody can bend a red nail any other way.

John,

After you posted those names, I can say for sure that James Shrug Smith certed Double Under and Gerry G also posted the clip of Ostlund certing Double under.

I stand corrected from earlier statement - those guys totall slipped my bind. Sorry about that.

Still curious what you are counting as the "old way" seeing how only one guy bent a red before the Holle's, which was John Brookfield.

Jedd

[Mike Rinderle]

I can reverse a red out away from the body. But I doubt anyone can finish one out there. Tommy H has some sick strength out away from his body, so maybe. I'll never say never.