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The results of the test are also relevant to someone more skilled in bending. While I haven't tested the Ironmind Red bar yet, I will finally see how it compares to my 12" spikes, and to the Ironmind
Blue bar with some cut off when I do perform the test. The blue and the red bars have a huge gap
in between of force needed to bend them (easily the same as or more than the gap between #2 and #3 grippers). My preliminary
estimate is that the red is at least as difficult as the blue with 1.5 inches cut off, maybe even 2 inches off!
Soon I will know, but I'm not sure if I want to waste a red bar in order
to do the test.
Equipment:
You'll need a loading pin, a good amount of weight and at least a small carabineer. A large
carabineer (4.74 inches long) and a 3/4 -inch deadlifting ring are even better (see my deadlifting article for a good setup). I put the small carabineer into the loading pin, loop the large carabineer through the 3/4-inch ring and then through the small carabineer.
The Testing method:
1) Take the steel to be tested and wrap it in a 1-foot square wash cloth.
2) Slip the nail through the handle or carabineer. If you're using the small carabineer you may have to use less cloth to get the nail through the smaller hole.
3) Make sure you place the exact center of the nail on the handle, and grip tightly. This could be painful, depending on your ability and toughness of your hands. It should be much easier to bend a nail in this manner, because you are basically deadlifting the nail. You will not be able to bend it into a U-shape this way. This is for testing; it is not a feat of strength to do this! If you can't lift 200 pounds in this manner stop now, you probably aren't even close to bending a 60-penny nail so the test is meaningless.
4) Lift the weight very slowly. We've all jumped on bathroom scales as
kids. If you rip the weight off the floor it will not be an accurate reading. If you lift quickly you also will not be able to perform the same pull each time and will effect the measurements.
5) Start with a weight that will probably not bend the nail and add 10-pounds at a time. When the nail bends a little, it will probably be bent about 1/8 of an inch. Add 10 more pounds. For nails that bend at around 250-pounds, they will bend another 1/8 of an inch for a total of
¼ of an inch. For nails in the higher range you may have to add 20 pounds to get them to bend another 1/8 of an inch. This
is evident because the percent difference is closer for the higher weights.
Results:
Lets start with the Ironmind Blue bar, a "standard" in the industry. It's 6"x1/4" cold-rolled steel. I bent the blue
.125" with 250-pounds and .25" with 260-pounds. Important note: The force required to bend the
Blue past the "sticking point," which is approximately
2-inches into the bend, is higher. I completely bent one of my
nails to illustrate this point (see results below). The fully bent
nail was weaker than the Blue nail by 10-pounds, and this is probably
true throughout the bending poundage's. Notice that I've been lucky enough to find a nail identical to the Ironmind Blue, thus saving me money in finding a "medium tough 60-penny nail" as Ironmind describes their
Blue. The "tough" galvanized nail was as I expected. What a bastard! Over 40-pounds more than the
Blue for the initial bend and another 20-pounds for another 1/8 of an inch!
I do not have many Ironmind White bars left and I didn't want to waste one. I bent an equivalent bar, but from my experiences with real bending of these pieces
they are a little harder to bend than the White. If someone has a white they want to test, please send me the results.
This hot-rolled steel bar was found in Home
Depot hardware store and is manufactured by Crown Bolt. If someone
has an Ironmind White bar they want test, please send me the results.
| Steel Type |
Dimensions |
Bent .125" (In Pounds) |
Bent .25" (In pounds) |
Bent .5" (In pounds) |
| Hot-rolled Steel, similar to Ironmind White, maybe a little
harder to bend. |
6"x1/4", |
190
|
200 |
|
| Timco Brand 60-penny "Medium" |
6"x1/4" motley galvanized coating |
|
250 |
260 |
| Ironmind Blue "Medium Tough" |
6"x1/4" cold rolled |
250 |
260 |
|
| Common 60-Penny "Medium Tough" |
6"x1/4" common nail |
250 |
260 |
|
| Home Depot Galvanized (high quality) "Tough" Made by Crown bolt.
Do not confuse with GripRite Shiny Galvanized with the "waffle"
head, these are much weaker and are made in Chile. |
6"x1/4" shiny galvanized. |
290 |
310 |
|
| 10" Gutter Nails-Grip-Rite brand "Super Tough" |
10"x5/16" |
320 |
|
|
| 120-Penny Nail "Super Human" |
12"x3/8" common |
Unknown |
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An interesting thing about the 120-penny nail is that even bending them in this manner becomes somewhat of a feat of strength. Being a little tired from a tough weekend of bending and lifting, I didn't feel like deadlifting over the
320 pounds just to show that the 12" spike is hard to bend. I'm going to trust a friend who said he tested them years ago at 500-600 pounds. This seems about right; it didn't bend at all at
320. I don't even have enough weight to do this test, and it might
not fit on the loading pin anyway! 500-pounds seems about right;
it didn't bend at all at 320-pounds. The 10" gutter nail,
which I've bent as shown on the bottom of this page, bent only
.125" with 320-pounds hanging on it. Technically, I should
really measure the bend angle in degrees, and not the height of the end
of the steel off a flat surface. The 10" nail bent less as
measured by degrees compared to the 6" nails.
I was also very happy that my results were consistent with John Brookfield's comments regarding 60-penny nails in "Bending and the Bible" (July 1993, Milo). Here he said the average 60-penny requires 250 pounds to bend, plus or minus 100 pounds. He is probably referring to a full bend, not only ¼-inch as I bent. Ironmind describes the blue as "medium tough" which is about right when you consider it takes 10 pounds more than the average Brookfield mentioned to only bend it
only .25 inches. I've bent only one of my nails to the
"sticking point" at around 2-inches. I don't want to waste all my nails testing them to a full bend. My "medium" 60-penny is a little above the average. This was good to know because I'm bending these nails very
easy. I'm glad they didn't turn out on the low end of Brookfield's numbers.
I bend every week and one might think, since I destroy so many nails, that I have little respect for them. This is not
true. However, I felt funny deciding to bend one of my "medium" nails as far as safely possible in my device. From the poundage numbers measured from this nail, I have determined the full bending value as it relates to the bending value of ¼-inches.
I didn't have to waste any other bars, because I can simply bend them back straight and re-bend them by hand during my workouts.
Here are the results of the bend for the
"medium" Timco nail to the
"sticking" point. I believe that the final number is
about the highest reading I could obtain, note only 5 pounds bent the
nail .25", where earlier in the bend 10-pounds was required to bend
the nail .25". I could feel that another 5-pounds would have
completely collapsed the nail. I also discovered that these nails
varied within the same box. I even found one that bent .25"
with 260-pounds added, just like the Ironmind Blue. It was
surprising too me that these reading were so high. I've bent these
nails behind my back and almost instantly while singing a little song!
| Timco |
Bent .25" |
Bent .5" |
Bent .75" |
Bent 1" |
Bent 1.25" |
Bent 1.5 |
Bent 1.75 |
| Pounds added to pin |
250 |
260 |
280 |
290 |
300 |
315 |
320 |
The
fully bent "medium" nail was weaker than the Blue nail by
10-pounds for the first .25", and this is probably true throughout
the bending poundage's. I would estimate that the
highest reading on the Ironmind Blue would be 330-pounds. This is consistent with Brookfield's 350-pounds for the toughest 60-penny nails,
because the Blue is described as "medium-tough". The
shiny-galvanized nail from Home Depot would bend to the sticking point
at 370-pounds,
which is a little higher than Brookfield's estimates. One comment
I have about these nails is that when I bend them by hand they collapse towards the
end of the bend, maybe bringing them down to 350-pounds
to finish off. When my hands are fresh again I may update this
number. The thought of possibly lifting 370 pounds in a "Nail
Deadlift" is painful right now!
The
strongest nail that I've fully bent is the Grip-Rite Gutter nail which
takes 320-pounds to bend only .125-inches. This might correlate to
390-pounds after 2-inches, but the highest force
required may be beyond that, since the degree of bend is less at that
point. I have a box of 25 of these so by the
time I finish bending them I should be ready to completely bend
the12" spikes which I've been told are around 500-600 pounds to
bend.
Copyright March 2001, Tom Black
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