Graded Bolts - The Perfect Stepping Stones to the Red Nail

For many new benders, their ultimate goal is to bend the Red Nail from IronMind.com. If you are not familiar with the Red Nail, it is a 7-inch piece of 5/16-inch diameter Cold Rolled Steel. The Red Nail is the grand daddy of the succession of IronMind's nails.

Here's the Complete List of IronMind's Nails

White Nail - 3/16" x 6" CRS
Green Nail - 3/16" x 5" CRS
Yellow Nail - 1/4" x 7" CRS
Blue Nail - 1/4" x 6" CRS
Red Nail - 5/16" x 7" CRS

What many do not realize is that there is a huge jump between the Blue Nail and the Red Nail. Going from 1/4-inch diameter to 5/16-diameter is huge. So if you are planning on climbing the IronMind bean stalk in order to bend the red nail, if all you have is a bunch of blue nails to bend, it's going to take you a while to get it done.

However, there is a very easy and economical option for you to bridge the gap between the blue nail and the red nail, and these are graded bolts, especially the Grade 5 and Grade 8.

What are graded bolts? I found an article that does a great job of describing what graded bolts are in fairly reasonable layman's terms at RockCrawler.com. Click here to read the article.



In short, Graded bolts are a type of fasteners that are designed to meet specific and well-defined load ratings under a variety of stresses, including "Proof strength (about 90% of yield), ultimate tensile strength (bolt fails in stretch), yield strength (bolt begins to get a permanent set and changes cross-sectional area typically) and shear strength (bolt prevents parts from separating by using it’s shank or body as a stop)," according to the RockCrawler.com article.



The most common graded bolts used by benders to get from the Blue to the Red are the Grade 5 and Grade 8 bolts. In the image above, you can see that Grade 5 bolts have 3 lines around the diameter of the head and Grade 8's have six lines.

Also called cap screws, the Grade 5 and Grade 8 are tempered to resist bending and will actually fight you back when you try to bend them. The Grade 8 will bounce back even more than the Grade 5.

Bending these graded fasteners will train you squeeze and push as hard and as long as you can in order to defeat the recoil. Just as I suggest in my Bending eBook on How to Bend Nails, Bolts and Stock, it is important to load the upper body with radiant tension before exerting force on the nail, and then once this radiant tension is loaded, it should be unloaded in a long, controlled fashion. This elongated force generation will negate the bounce of the graded bolts and will also keep your power directed efficiently into the nail.

So, there you have it. If you are finding that you are having trouble getting the Red Nail to do your bidding, then get your hands on some Grade 5 and Grade 8 bolts, cap screws, whatever you want to call them and start bridging the gap.

Here's that link again for the Bending eBook ===> How to Bend Nails, Bolts, and Other Forms of Steel.

Any questions on bending, please leave a comment here. Adam and I would be glad to help you in the right direction.

Thanks and all the best in your training,

-Jedd-