Why No Bends?

People keep asking me for XL bends and so I thought I better explain it here rather than keep on telling one person after another what the problem is. In my current designs with thumb scallops and hex cutout shapes it is not possible to do XL bends. Oh, I can do it, it's just that I end up having to fix half of them. The problem comes in anytime you have an edge that is not perfectly straight and one that has not been completely deburred and rounded over. What happens is, you get tiny stress cracks forming inside these edge features. They probably aren't a big deal in normal use and would not break but they look unsightly to anyone who is studying the piece and so they undermine confidence in the integrity of the tool. At least, that's my feeling when I look at them.

So, in order to make XL bends in any of my tools, I would have to go back to the original boring straight shapes which, to be honest, I have made tons of them over the years and I'd like to keep moving on with my current designs. Plus, they require an extensive tumbling BEFORE I make the bends because the sharp edge of a freshly sanded bar of steel is also susceptible to these tiny cracks. You need rounded corners to avoid the problem. My currently production flow does not include a pre tumble and so that would add another step and two weeks more time to get it done.

So that's why I haven't been making anything with XL bends in a while. ;) Who knows though, maybe I will get around to it at some point...I am planning to revisit some older designs this year like I did last year with the mini Prybabies and Perfbabies, just haven't decided which tools yet.