Sometimes They Break

I've bent quite a number of this particular brand and style of hammer and they had all bent really nice...until this one.

Something New

While out shopping yesterday I came across these 4" adjustable wrenches. Immediately I thought "that would look cool bent", so of course I had to get one. Notice how the wrench bent right on the end, that makes a lot more difficult when they do that.

Leverage Lifting

Yesterday I had a photo shoot and performed a wide array of feats for several hours. Some of which were closing heavy duty grippers, double hub lifting, all sorts of tearing feats and lots of steel bending. Along with the still shots, I also had these feats captured on video. I ended up getting some great footage of the chain break with my hair, bending a framing hammer into an "S" shape, bending a 12" adjustable wrench, and "paper-clipping" a 3/8" x 1" #5 steel draft horseshoe to name just a few.

After all these other feats were performed, I grabbed my big show hammer and headed outside. Performing the hammer lever is a great all around workout for the hands, wrists, and arms. If your not doing these in your training routine your missing out on a great exercise.

Performing

Here are a few video clips from a performance I gave this morning. Some of the other feats I performed while there were tearing phone books, tearing decks of cards - tore a deck hand cuffed as well, bent a horseshoe, and broke chain with my HAIR. The video was rolling and we captured this crazy #8 break, I ended up breaking a total of 27 links on this one! Stay tuned, this one will be on my upcoming DVD release - it's almost complete and you won't want to miss it!

Being Unique In My Feats

This is something that I had thought about doing since I first started performing strength feats. I would ponder to myself, how cool would it be to bend/break a C-clamp?! A tool that is designed to hold other objects down under serious pressure. I don't know, I just think like that. I figured that since I can bend those big nasty draft shoes, why not. Plus I have never heard of anyone else ever attempting this.

This is one of those feats however, that I would strongly caution everyone against due to an extremely high danger of serious injury. When this clamp let loose, the sharp, jagged, broken edge actually sliced through the top of my pants and cut my leg. Not exactly a pleasant experience.

Are you stuck in a rut doing the same old thing? What things could you accomplish by thinking outside the box?

Open End Wrenches

In addition to bending adjustable wrenches, I also perform with open end wrenches. These wrenches are unpredictable, sometimes they bend and sometimes they break very violently. When they do break, everyone nearby knows it as a loud SNAP is produced. Pictured is a complete set of top brand open end wrenches that I have bent, along with one I broke of the same brand in the 11/16" x 5/8" size.

Scrolling an "Odd Object"

Scrolling - multiple bends in the same piece of steel.

Odd Object - implement other than one traditionally used in a performance of oldetime feats.

One of the feats that I have become known for is the scrolling of a tool, in the case at hand, a framing hammer. This is an extremely difficult feat of strength due to many factors. First off, hammers are not supposed to be bent in this manner or even at all. They are tempered steel and are very tough. When putting the power to an implement of this type, the steel wants to "load" on itself like a giant flat spring. In addition to this, the bends are made in opposite directions. As one bend is being completed, precision needs to be applied as to not undo the other.

Another hindering factor is the length. The general thought is that the longer the object the greater the leverage. This is true, however when dealing with complex designs the increase in length also transfers into an increase in difficulty because of the distance from the bend to the hand and the ability to control the piece. Think of it this way, what is easier to hit a nail with? A hammer grasped near the head or grasped near the end of the handle? The farther away from the target area, the more difficult to control.

Pictured above is a 24 oz. tempered steel framing hammer. It's overall length was 15-3/4" prior to being scrolled.