Abstract: A tool for straightening bent steel sheet piles and a method for efficiently operating the tool which has a movable top jig and a stationary bottom jig. The movable top jig has a surface contoured to the normal shape of one face of a pile to be straightened, and the stationary bottom jig has a complementary surface contoured to the normal shape of the other surface of the pile. The top jig is moved in a vertical direction by rams attached to its upper part and in a horizontal direction by rams attached to its side. The method involves vising a pile placed between the complementary surfaces of the jig by alternately activating the vertical and horizontal rams. The top jig is then moved away and the straightened pile is removed.