A class on spoon-bending
- Thread starter galla
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JollyRoger
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=YSfJjdnqfOo&
OK she's good but I'm still thinking their hasta be a metallurgical or slight of hand explanation, unfortunately this video Kinda fouls up my bismuth alloy theory.
the good part starts a little after half way through the video
OK she's good but I'm still thinking their hasta be a metallurgical or slight of hand explanation, unfortunately this video Kinda fouls up my bismuth alloy theory.
the good part starts a little after half way through the video
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This is the video referred to above. The spoon she's using is a cheap thin one. Read my comments under that video as "galla1968" and her replies to them. In a later video she gives her explanation in defense of why the spoon already had a slight bend. Note the way she avoids addressing my point though, even when I throw her own words back at her - that the spoon was a "light" one with "a lot of give". Instead she says it was a "normal" spoon to divert attention from the fact that she already admitted it was easy to bend.
Most of us assume a spoon is hard to bend by brute force, and even find we can't do it when we try. But give someone a spoon and a strip of metal of exactly the same weight/thickness and I suspect they'd easily bend the strip but not the spoon - because they subconsciously don't want to destroy the spoon.
However, spoons are easily bent, especially light ones like the one in her video. We've all bent a spoon just by pushing it into hard ice-cream! I twisted a much better quality bevelled dessert spoon into loops after warming it for 2 minutes between my fingers. It really wasn't that difficult. Using her method, where you hold the spoon between your hands for a while and "meditate", you do in fact lose biofeedback, the sense of how hard you're pressing on the spoon - hence, I believe, the reports of the metal "turning to putty". Similarly if you hold a spoon at the neck between finger and thumb for a while, you can no longer feel the spoon, and then when you wiggle the spoon it feels paper-thin.
Most of us assume a spoon is hard to bend by brute force, and even find we can't do it when we try. But give someone a spoon and a strip of metal of exactly the same weight/thickness and I suspect they'd easily bend the strip but not the spoon - because they subconsciously don't want to destroy the spoon.
However, spoons are easily bent, especially light ones like the one in her video. We've all bent a spoon just by pushing it into hard ice-cream! I twisted a much better quality bevelled dessert spoon into loops after warming it for 2 minutes between my fingers. It really wasn't that difficult. Using her method, where you hold the spoon between your hands for a while and "meditate", you do in fact lose biofeedback, the sense of how hard you're pressing on the spoon - hence, I believe, the reports of the metal "turning to putty". Similarly if you hold a spoon at the neck between finger and thumb for a while, you can no longer feel the spoon, and then when you wiggle the spoon it feels paper-thin.
rjh01
Gentleman of leisure
I agree any thin spoon that is straight across the width is easy to bend. I have just done it myself. Someone must learn how to bend a knife. That would be impressive as someone said it was impossible.
Edit - Almost forgot. It is getting hard to impress people now. Anyone ready the last page of comments know she is talking BS. This will be more common in the future.
Edit - Almost forgot. It is getting hard to impress people now. Anyone ready the last page of comments know she is talking BS. This will be more common in the future.
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I agree any thin spoon that is straight across the width is easy to bend. I have just done it myself. Someone must learn how to bend a knife. That would be impressive as someone said it was impossible.
Edit - Almost forgot. It is getting hard to impress people now. Anyone ready the last page of comments know she is talking BS. This will be more common in the future.
I saw Banachek do a knife "bend" when I was seated at his table during the cruise.
It was not an extreme bend, but it was clearly noticable.
And the untensils were quite hardy, made to last as it were, I couldn't bend the desert spoon unless I grabbed it firmly with both hands and applied a lot of force.
So I came up with a lame version of the bend, or rather the "bend" and straighten. (nothing new under the sun)
Only got it to look good once of twice though.
You cannot tell a "psychic" how to do what he does. If you try to change the setup, he loses his "powers" and the spoon doesn't bend. You must catch him out doing it the way he says it must be done in order for his "psychic" powers to work.
If I believed in this stuff, I could come up with any number of reasons why handling the spoon was essential in order for the spoon to bend.
The cute thing about this is that when a "psychic" is bending a spoon for you, he needs your inattention for it to work. But when you're at a spoonbending class and you're doing it by brute force (even if your relaxed state of mind makes it feel somewhat effortless) there's really no need for inattention. I think they just say that to be consistent with the necessary inattention while watching someone else bend it. Or, I suppose, to ensure you're not concentrating on how hard your muscles are straining.
Galla,
Have you read that other thread yet?
If not, just read the early bits where there is a very good exchange between Flyboy and Mercutio. It would be sufficient to read just their posts. Mercutio then drops out, but continue to read Flyboy's posts till he reports on the spoon-bending party he attends.
The rest won't be of much use to you. It consists of a rather annoying exchange between Claus Larsen and Flyboy, a series of quite silly posts by our friend Ian and an unnecessarily nasty attack on Claus by a Dr. Adequate.
BillyJoe
(I accidentally posted this on another thread)
Have you read that other thread yet?
If not, just read the early bits where there is a very good exchange between Flyboy and Mercutio. It would be sufficient to read just their posts. Mercutio then drops out, but continue to read Flyboy's posts till he reports on the spoon-bending party he attends.
The rest won't be of much use to you. It consists of a rather annoying exchange between Claus Larsen and Flyboy, a series of quite silly posts by our friend Ian and an unnecessarily nasty attack on Claus by a Dr. Adequate.
BillyJoe
(I accidentally posted this on another thread)
Yes, I did read the first part of the other thread. I think my main point here is that there's a big difference (in terms of "what's going on") between people learning to spoonbend (ie. fool themselves) at workshops, and watching someone bend a spoon (ie. being fooled by others). The techniques and psychology are different.