It followed me home

[ladysmith]

Irn,

Thanks for the information. Yep that must be brazing tongs, as it's flat inside. Makes me wonder how it would work for brazing copper.

Nolano, I can see the loop handled bowled tongs being used to either adjust coal, or to light a pipe. The holes would make it easy to hold over the pipe bowl and light the pipe by sucking air through the pipe. In either case, I suspect you are correct in that they are really rare.

The other two seem to still be sort of mystery tongs. Irn, you may be right about the one, but I just can't picture what you are describing.

Thanks for the education,

Pam

[BT]

Nice find ladysmith. I'm sure you will like the electric blower. I picked up an old Buffalo electric blower 20 years ago or so, and haven't missed my old hand crank blowers a bit :-) .

The stake is a very nice addition to any shop also.

The tongs - I think the first pair (needing adjustment) is for flat iron, like picking up a wagon tire for installation, etc. I have several similar pairs.

The second pair could be used to hold any piece with a head, like a bolt, or like Jr says a socket type tool, or as someone else said, like a railroad spike.

The third pair is probably like Jr said, brazing tongs.
The last pair, I have no clue. Probably not originally designed for blacksmith use, but you never know . . .

But all in all, a very nice find.

BT

[ladysmith]

BT,

Actually, I'd like to trade the electric blower for a hand crank one. Most of the time I'm blacksmithing, I don't have access to electricity.

Pam

[Nolano]

Well, they very well could be the pipe lighting tongs. But for many blacksmiths, I think they would better serve as a coal and clinker rearranger.

[frogvalley]

The ones on the left may be like the ones that I have for working bowl shapes. They would hold the deeper bowls by the lip, after initial forging over the anvil or the depressions in the swage block, the shape requires a different set of tongs. A comfortable angle for the tongs changes with the shape of the forging, therefore one would use these after using regular tongs.

The ones I have are homemade by me. Your mileage may vary.

Irnsrgn is also right, you can reforge them to be another shape if you wish. 50% of all tongs that I buy, I reshape to fit my needs.

[Thomas Dean]

OK. Back in March I called about some BS tools a gentleman had>> 127# Swedish made anvil in near PERFECT condition, 4" leg vice "IronCity" excellent condition, Chicago blower in good condition. We talked for some time, he never giving me a price as he wan't real sure he wanted to sell any of it. I encouraged him to go with me to our next monthly meeting but he declined. finally when I was getting ready to leave he told me to back up to the shop and he would help me load the stuff, "Heck, I'll never do anything with the stuff and you can get some use from it" so I did. Paid the man $180.00 for it all and he was glad. (so was I) He also has a postdrill but it is froze up tighter than Dick's hatband. He said he would play with it and get it freed up and give me a call....who knows....

I was at a junk/trade shop and a man had an anvil. Wanted $75 for it, offered $50 we settled on $60 (he told me he had paid 50 and needed something for carrying "the d____ed thang around"! Got it home, cleaned it up and it is a 60# Hay Budden in great shape, well a few small chips on the edge but no problem to work around, especially for $60!! My traveling anvil.

Most paid for an anvil...$325 --180+haybudden (at auction); $75--6" leg vise; $150--Canady-Otto forge (weighs 200#) with blower.and hood

These buys are out there, ya just got to be patient, keep an eye out and when they do pop their little heads up snatch them up. When you get more than you need or can use help out a newbie and sell him/her one of them.

[Glenn]

No, sadly it did not follow me home, but I did find a nest of anvils. The one bottom front is 372 pounds. Ahhhh, to choose just one and offer it a new home. Decisions, Decisions.

[FredlyFX]

Ladysmith:

I have a set of tongs like the second from the bottom. I was able to tweak the forked jaw a little so that it holds a RR spike very well. It gives me complete access to the main part of the spike under the power hammer.

[Hillbillysmith]

I went to the scrap yard yesterday and found a BRAND-NEW set of semi truck leaf springs!! I only found the main two leafs, but like I said, they are brand new, they still have the paint on them. I also picked up a barring sleeve it's 3" long, 1-1/2" diameter with a 1/2" hole in it, I got a small coil spring off an old piece of farm machinery, and my father picked up a 6 foot long pry bar made out of wrought iron. (i think it's wrought iron 'cause it's really light for it's size. i'll have to do a chemical test). when I get a trailer that my aunt is giving me, I'm going back for more stuff! I paid aonly $9 for all of the stuff. Well, I paid for the leaf springs and the guy told me I could have the rest.

[Dale Peters]

Thomas is right. A few months ago I advertised in a weekly shopper that I was looking for an anvil. After about two weeks and after I was about to give up on that route, I got a call from an old gent who said he had a 100lb anvil that he wanted a $100 for. He just happened to live only a couple miles away, so I hotfooted it over there. The guy said he used to be an auctioneer and stated "we always started anvils at a $1 a pound and that's what I want for it." I didn't argue with him and payed him. After we visited for awhile, I took the anvil home and did some further checking up on it. Turns out it's a 132 lb Trenton in pretty nice condition. So the deals are out there, you just have keep your eyes open and be patient.