Abstract: A bending brake with an elongate horizontal blade lowerable onto a V-shaped ie has a fixed bed supporting the die and a pair of parallel hydraulic cylinders with pistons carrying the blade, the cylinders being mounted on brackets rising from the bed above the die. The admission of hydraulic fluid to the cylinders is controlled by electrically operated valves responsive to limit switches as well as a pair of mechanical valves, the latter being disposed close to the ends of the die on the fixed bed and being respectively operated by pins mounted on the vertically reciprocable blade in order to stop the descent of the corresponding piston in a predetermined but adjustable bottom position. The return stroke of the blade is not started until both mechanical valves have thus been operated, thereby ensuring that a workpiece of sheet material between the blade and the die is bent about a crease line having the proper orientation.