By Tom Black, Amateur Strongman

     On December 19, 2000 I performed my First Annual Bend-A-Thon, with all proceeds going to charity. Basically, I advertised that I would bend ten 60-penny nails and steel bars for charity and that people could pledge on a per nail basis, much like a walk-a-thon. I did stress to people that I fully intended to bend all ten nails and that a one dollar pledge would be a \$10 total gift to charity. It was exciting that before the first nail was bent I knew that we would bring in approximately \$80 per nail, for a total of \$800. I believe this was our most successful charity function ever. All of the pictures that follow are actually of different nails being bent. The photographer moved around between each nail and took different angles. I bent all the nails in 10 minutes, plus levered a 10 and 12.5 pound sledgehammer over my head between bending some of the nails.

      The first picture above shows an unusual angle at the end of the bend, when the nail is almost U-shaped. I have very few pictures taken of my actual nail bending and I was surprised at the angle of my forearms and upper arms here. I think it illustrates the final point of torque on the nail before switching to the crushing position. This particular bend may be the strongest piece of steel that I bent, which was actually a cold rolled steel bar 1/4"x6". This bar is described by the company who sells them (Ironmind) as "a little tougher than the nails some professional strongmen use in their shows."

      In order to illustrate the difficulty in bending the nails I made them available to everyone before the show began. Quite a few people tried, but to no avail. One of the strongest guys in my group tried and failed to bend the nail. I asked him to find the biggest and strongest looking guy in the room to try to bend one of the nails before the show began. Before the bending he came onto the stage to try and bend the nail, but he was unsuccessful. I joked that I now wasn't sure I could do it because the guy was so much bigger and stronger looking than I was.

      The next two pictures show the beginning part of the bend on two different nails.

This picture shows what I call the final "Crushing" movement of the nail. At this point I bend the nail into the final U-shape. During the actual bending I went to another place in my mind and became very unaware of the crowd of over 200 people.  I only heard a friend yell out "like butter" which is my strength mantra when bending nails, forcing my mind to believe the nails bend like butter.  I would then come back from the "other place," talk a little at the microphone and grab another nail.  The next day someone joked with me that it looked too easy, as if the nails were fake.  Luckily, people had tested the nails before the show and knew they were very real.

The next picture shows the beginning of my most difficult feat. On the 8th nail bent I performed the initial part of the bend behind my back. In the picture I am trying to find the right grip and angle on the nail, I have not started to bend yet, that is why my hands are slightly separated. Because of the difficulty of this feat I would rather perform it on my 1st or second bend, however, the stress is so profound on my wrist that I sometimes pinch a nerve in my left wrist while bending in this manner. John Brookfield, who is perhaps the strongest steel bender who has ever lived, says the following about this feat "There is no leverage whatsoever and your wrists and hands are all you have to use…This feat is very difficult. I have never heard of anyone ever doing this feat with a 60-penny nail, other than myself."

As a "rest" between nails I levered a 10 and 12.5 pound sledgehammer to my nose. The photographer apparently did not realize that I would bring the hammer down to my nose and took the picture too early. The picture is still interesting because looking at my face and left hand I see that I was very calm, focused and relaxed, not an easy thing to do when you're about to lever a 10 pound sledgehammer.

The final picture shows the results of the First Annual Bend-A-Thon show -10 nails bent, leveraging a 10 pound and 12.5 pound sledgehammer to my nose - all performed in only 10 minutes.

      The theme of the show was "Bending nails for those who can't." I selected all medical related charities to give the proceeds of the Bend-A-Thon. The charities that benefited from the event were:

     Arthritis National Research Foundation
     Bone-Disease- National Osteoporosis Foundation
     Cancer Aid and Research Fund
     Oncology Nursing Foundation

      These organizations may never know the unusual way in which the money was obtained, but I hope they will benefit from my efforts.

Copyright December 2000, Tom Black