Much has changed.
All the Bastards in the pic are the 515 Hard Dark Bastards. The two bastards with red on the legs are Big 515's and the pieces directly above those are a tough piece of 5/16x7 CRS and a piece of 5/16x7 303 Stainless. Directly under the Big 515's are two pieces of 5/16x8" hardware store 303 Stainless, MUCH MUCH tougher than any Shiny. The second row from the bottom consists of, from L to R, 2 pieces of 5/16x7.125 304 Stainless, 3/8x7 National HRS, 6.5x.323 W-1 DR and two .323x7 pieces of W-1 DR. The bottom row is, from L to R again, my first piece of 304 finished months ago and is exactly 2" to show how far I've come. The golden piece is 3/8x7 360 Brass(it's actually metric and a tad smaller than 3/8). The smaller 1/4" piece is 1/4x6.5 Grade 5 Titanium; During the crush, the pads were touching and I actually held them there for well over 10 seconds, no movement. Interesting stuff that Gr5 Ti. My first Shiny Bastard is second from the right on the bottom and the last piece is a Golden Hexabastard. The Shiny and the Golden are my PR's currently but I garauntee you that a 6.5" version of both can and will fall in under 2 mins once I'm rested up from GGC.
It's interesting, my kink has always been super strong, once I throw on my "superman pads"(suede outer wraps), my kink becomes even stronger. I'm not sure what I can do with single leathers, I have no IM pads. I'm fairly certain I could take a 515 Dark Bastard in single leathers. I really need to keep going on my singles bending.
A lot of people like to bend in ONLY double pads or ONLY single pads or ONLY IM pads. I'm here to tell you, if your one of those people, your missing out. I will say that working up to a RED nail or Bastard in IM pads and ONLY IM pads is the best possible thing for you to do. BUT, after that, start using doubles and leather/suede. I like to work my kinking strength by using my pathetic first leather single wraps on easier bends. I usually work up to a few pieces of 1/4x7" Sq. which all fall pretty easy. Like I said, I haven't really "maxed" with singles yet but I plan to as soon as possible. I'm curious to see how a 515 Bastard or Shiny would feel... For my crush, and for contest preparation, I like to use double wraps. I use my pathetic, torn leather wraps(much thinner than even your wraps Adam) as my under wrap with a nice thick, short piece of suede on top. It may not be the best setup but it's my favorite and I find that it's hardly as solid as other's double wrap setups. I'm not claiming to be better or stronger because of that either, because I'm not. It's just a preferance. Anyway, with the double wraps, I can kink much tougher steel and work my crushing strength. What I like to do sometimes is take an easier piece, say a 515 Bastard, and kink it to 20-40 degrees, then remove the outer wraps and take it down from there.
Training my kink by using thinner single pads has improved my kink strength immensely since I started bending back in late '07. Using doubles to get harder stock down the crush has helped my crush come up so much in only a month of serious training that I am taking down steel that was elite not too long ago. Using the doubles to kink and then using singles from there through the sweep and crush has improved my sweep strength and my crush. It's also helped condition my hands so that the kink feels even more comfortable.
Like I said in my first post, if you scoff at one discipline in favor of another, you are missing out. You will not be able to reach your true potential because your training will always be limited by what you stubbornly deem as the "right way". I say, get out there and use every possible advantage you can find to train with.
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