In the low-temperature range, the engineering yield strength of polycrystalline bcc metals can change by a factor of 10 or more with serious consequences appearing in the form of catastrophic brittle fracture. Engineering variables known to have an important effect on the yield behavior are state of stress, temperature, loading or strain rate, composition, and microstructure. For iron, chromium, molybdenum, and tungsten, it is shown that yield behavior can be represented by a single-valued relation between two dimensionless parameters.