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U-ing A Nail


HAMMERHEAD

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I've been able to bend 40d nails and I noticed that after the crush down the nail is not completly U-ed. It looks more like a V.

How do you guys who are better beneders than I am finish that last bit of bending. I tried placing the nail on the floor and hammering with my fist to finish the bend and it seemed to work well.

-HH

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A "V" shape is the more common end shape of a nail. Yours look as they should. There is a picture in Sons of Sampson II of Slim levering a hammer and there is a chain of nails behind him. They are perfect U shape and look just like the 60-pennies that I have hammered with my first. Of course, this in not surprising because that it was Slim who inspired me to hammer them that way!

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Yes, I have. Took awhile too! I remember it was like 90-degrees and humid in my condo, I just about died doing it! I also broke what should have been the equivalent to an Ironmind Blue once (6"x1/4" cold rolled) but I think that although it was cold rolled it was not really the same as a blue. It snapped with much less bends than the yellow (an actual yellow). I actually think breaking the 7" x 1/4 IM yellow was harder, much more bending back and forth.

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A lot of bending back and forth. It was easier to squash it closed than open it back out. I thought it was never going to break until at last I got some signs that it was weakening, and it opened out past 90 degrees.

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HH,

you can also U a nail with a simple chest crush. Just remove the cloth after the initial V bend and wrap the V in the cloth. Now you can "finish" the chest crush and U the darn nail ! ;)

Amaury.

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Interesting... I've never seen a nail look like a "V". All of them, from all shapes and sizes, strengths and materials, have ended up in a "U".

Perhaps it's a diference between bending strength and crushing strength. More bending than crushing, you get a "V", and more crushing than bending, you get "U"s.

For me, the final crush is bare handed until the head and point touch. The nail then reforms into a perfect "U". (more crush than bend)

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I thought stiffer metal tends to "V", and softer U-shape, at least with my technique ("spike bending style"). My Aluminum stock always U-shapes and my 60p nails V-shape.

Robert

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Bender, you may be right, I'm not much of a crusher, usually I stop at the "V" unless I use my fist. I also don't usually rewrap the nail like you're describing. On the wrench, I didn't spend that much more time than on a 60-penny bend to get it to the sticking point. As you can imagine it was very hard to get it to that point and so I stopped to catch my breath. Of course, the more you wait here the less likely that you can finish it off. Maybe 20-seconds later I started up again, but realized that I couldn't finish the bend without bracing. As I noted on my site I finished it with my forearms on my thighs. Later, Dennis Rogers commented in an e-mail to me that he also has to brace for the hard wrenches (of course, I don’t know if a "hard" wrench for Dennis is the same as this one). On the broken wrench, which I guess is more relevant in this thread, it was one quick bend and snap! Dennis also said the cheaper ones break, and that one was cheaper and much easier than the bent one. That shows the difference between something brittle and strong (the wrench) and ductile and weak (the IM yellow). I broke the yellow a long time ago so I'm not sure of the time, but at least 10 minutes, probably more like 15 minutes! I found the center of my back was sore the next day from pulling it apart, it's quite a workout!

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Breaking a yellow is a great workout for hands wrists forearms back chest you name it. That is why I did it. I am not a nailbender as such.

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