General Stock Progression for Unbraced Bending

If you look on YouTube or talk to experienced benders, you will find they use quite a few terms to describe a good number of different steels. One the absolute best ways to progress in short bending, besides perfecting your technique, is to get a very large range of bending stock. This stuff really isn't that expensive when you order it from companies like Fastenal or McMaster-Carr.

Below is a general stock progression(I have included the "grade" of the steel for those of you who wish to order any of this stuff below so you know what your getting and it's abbreviation)

From easiest to hardest and assuming all bars are of the same thickness:
Aluminum 6065
Hot Rolled Steel 1020 HRS(True HRS has a brownish or rust colored coating on it, it is not a smooth bar)
Brass 360(Gold in color)
Grade 2 bolts(no identifying markings on the head but are just called "Hex head bolts"
Cold Rolled Steel 1018 CRS(True CRS is a smooth bar with no dirty scale)
Drill Rod 0-1 or "Oil Hardened Tool Steel"
Stainless Steel 304 SS
Stainless Steel 303 SS(Stainless steels are shiny and do not rust)
Grade 5 bolts(These have 3 dashes on the head)
Grade 8 bolts(These have 6 dashes on the head)
Grade 9 bolts
F911 bolts(not sold in stores and very expensive, says "F911" on the head)


Most people do not bother with the Grade 9 or F911 bolts since they are rather exotic and hard to find. Generally, once you can finish off a Grade 8, you are close to bending CRS that is 1/16 thicker than the Grade 8. Grade 2 bolts are easier than CRS and so you can bend a 5/16 Grade 2 bolt before you can bend 5/16 CRS. Generally, anyone who can bend a 1/4" G8 AND a 5/16 G2 is ready for a RED nail or Bastard bend.

The general progression in thicknesses goes like this:
3/16"(Total beginner)
1/4"
5/16"
3/8"
7/16"(No one has officially bent 7/16 stock yet, though one man is close)
1/2"

For the most part, the best unbraced benders in the world are around the 3/8 CRS level with at least one man entering the 7/16 level. Your average strong bender is well into the 5/16 stocks and bending stuff harder than 5/16 Stainless 303 and beginners are just below bastard/RED benders.

0-1 Drill Rod is a benders best friend. You can get Drill rod in any thickness that a drill bit comes in. That means you basically have .002-.005" jumps between bars so you can really work on progressively tougher stuff. It's wonderful stuff and I swear by it.

Stuff like Grade 5 Titanium is also possible to bend and a very easy bend. The problem is it's springiness. I bent a 6.5"x1/4" piece of Grade 5 titanium and the ends touched during the crushdown long before it was crushed to 2". This makes it a non-practical bending stock and it's also extremely expensive.

If you want a unique challenge, you can tape two bars of steel together. Now that doesn't mean bending two 1/4x7" pieces equals bending 1/2" of steel. In reality it's closer to the difficulty of 5/16x7. Whatever 2 pieces you tape together, figure on them being about as difficult as 1 bar that is 1/16 bigger than the pieces themselves. So two 1/4x6 Grade 5 bolts would be about as hard as a 5/16 Grade 5 and 2 RED nails taped together would be about as hard as a 3/8x7 CRS piece.