Cheap tools or Bad band?

Unreal, I had no idea. I've seen curved spring bars before but never curved friction pins.

When you find yourself with a stuck link etc. is best to stop before you scratch the watch/bracelet and find another solution. Also if you look at the second picture you took the pin from the wrong side. The arrow tells you in what direction the pin needs to come off. Common mistakes we all make but is best to learn now vs when you have a more expensive watch.

I know which way the pins are supposed to go, the pins were just really tight in the stock Vostok band. I tried putting the pins in from both sides.

If you buy a vostok pls go with the rubber or nato band 😭

Or the Vostock mesh which is actually pretty good for what you pay.

I have no actual experience with this sort of thing, but ....

I get the suspicion that a relatively malleable cotter pin like this may want a sharp impact to dislodge and not react well to a slow, even force as provided by a screw drive. And of course you have to push with something that almost perfectly fills the hole or you risk an unwanted rivet effect.

If anyone can confirm or deny this suspicion, it may prove useful some day.

I'd say both, but any pin can bend.I'm looking at the link and the arrow denotes which the pin comes out,which looks like you've done it the wrong way round, but here's the rub, the pin looks like it's been put in the wrong way as the solid end ie where it curves round, so you have pushed it the right way. Maybe vostok use the arrow to denote the way the pin goes in.

It's so easy to bend those pin pushers as the slightest misalignment with the hole can start to bend it and then with the pressure of a tight pin you bend it. Don't worry I bent 2 this week and that was using a 'quality' £17.99 amazon kit.

I was trying to push the pin in along the arrow with the round tip in first. Is that wrong?

The round tip is the widest part of the pin so should come out first and go in last. On bracelets the arrow indicates which way the pin comes out(usually anyway) so when refitting a pin you push the pin in from the arrow side of the link smallest end (non round end) in first,hope this helps.

Okay I see now. Thanks! But when I put the pins in the other way it was still very difficult to get in.

That looks horrible!

I had once bent my pin removal tool just like yours and the reason was simple. I did not align it properly, it was pushing at an angle resulting in the bend. Although yours seem like diff problem altogether.

Maybe try it with a hammer next time. Some pins like to be pushed gently, others only move with some nice hits of the hammer

I have two Vostok watches with bracelet in my collection and never had to change or resize the bracelet. They were exactly mi size. Good to know this. Thanks for sharing!