Bolt tongs

[Donniev]

This is my 4th pair of bolt tongs I've made, the pair I kept are only about 14 inches long and I felt they were kind of small, so decided to make a beefier pair this weekend. These are 20 inches long, the reins are just shy of 1/4 inch. The jaws are a bit off, not a lot but enough to be noticeable. Not sure if I'm gonna fix em or not, they work great as is.

Of note is the fact that I did my first forge weld on one side. I was working one and had the other in the fire, and yup, just as I pulled it out of the fire about 6 inches fell off the reins. Ugh. I hadn't planned (and didnt want) to forge weld but here I was, probably 20 seconds too long in the fire. Didn't use flux and it turned out fine, I've only tried it once before, (read: epic failure) but since my last try I've watched a few videos on forge welding, did my best to put it into practice. Tried to find the weld after I cleaned em up and waxed them, but I can't find it, so I'd say I did good for a 2nd try

 

 

[rockstar.esq]

Donniev,  Congrats on the forge weld!  I can't tell from the picture, did you kick the bits inward to align?  It looks like the handles aren't offset to move in plane with the bits.  You might find it's easier to grasp stock without accidentally rotating it if the reigns are in plane with each other.  That being said, I could see how having them able to bypass one another would potentially give you greater range of motion.