Yes the bending will certainly not help. If you have a split die like that one on the right in Nick's last picture, you can expand it slightly by screwing the clamping screw in the dieholder into the gap. This makes it less of a tight fit for the first run then if the nut is still tight, can be adjusted to suit to some extent. Good you got it sorted one way or the other after all that. Happy bandsawing.