The solid, top beam of straight brakes allows them to make one or two simple bends along the length of sheet metal workpieces. They are commonly used to bend the edges on large sheets of metal. Also known as leaf or cornice brakes, they hold a piece of sheet metal on their bottom plate and clamp the top beam (clamping leaf) onto the sheet along the selected fold. The hinged, forming bar (bending leaf) attached to the bottom plate rotates toward the top plate and bends the sheet against it until reaching the desired angle.