Tongs

I made the bolt tongs for a guy that wanted them. They hold 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch square and round stock, inline or perpendicular. Entirely forged to finish with the exception of rounding off the ends of the reigns and jaws with a grinder. The scroll tongs were not on the "to-do" list, but I burned the end off of one of my tong blanks, so I had a short piece. I torched a matching short piece off the coil spring, and made the scroll tongs. I did not use the power hammer at all on these. They were forged entirely on the anvil. The ends of the reigns were hot rasped instead of ground. They still need to be wire wheeled. I use a similar pair on a daily basis. I use spri…

I figured the first thing I made should be tongs, since I'd need them for most everything else. They're ugly, rough, and they could still use a lot of work, but I guess you have to start somewhere. Thanks to all of you for answering questions and pointing us new guys in the right direction. You have all helped so much in getting me started.

This is a video of making a pair of tongs.

Hi, Sam Salvati's tongs really caught my eye the other day, especially the flat bar tongs. The design was totally new to me, but looked really handy. So... I decided to try and forge a pair. Started off with 1"x3/8" flat bar stock. The finished pair grabs 3/16" thick bar with a width from 1 3/16" to around 2". I added a slight offset to the reins to make them parallel. Lets hope this can encourage someone else to make a pair!

I have just set up a forge, its probably as basic as you can get, and im making tongs. the idea is to make tools that will help me make MORE TOOLS. lol anyway so i decided to make a pair of tongs after watching a tutorial video made by one of the members here, it took me 2 days and i had to make three halves lol i made the 2nd pair today, i didnt bother squaring the handle this time so it took me much less time. I should mention it takes me quite a while to do anything Because im burning hard wood so the fire is reasonably inconsistent anyway here is a picture of the two tongs i made. the one on the top is the 1st one i made, it is a total of 20 inches long however the sh…

Ok, in my last "Tools" post ('More Tongs, Well of course') I floated the idea of tongs with inter-changeable jaws/bits/what-ever-ya-wanna-callems, and posted a drawing; So, today I thought I'd have a go at making them a reality. They're forged and fabricated, as in I used an arc welder to join and attach the 'sockets' I'd made the tongs up and when I wanted to tap in the bolt thread, I found someone needed the Tap and Die set more that I did, and it weren't there, so had to oxy weld on some nuts to make it work. I then thought , well now I've got the tongs I thought of, better make some other bits to make them useful, so made a 'crimping' set for edge of light she…

Hello there, Im pretty new here and practically just as new to Blacksmithing. Ive been on a tong making spree since ive started and It's not going to end any time soon. Ive come to really enjoy making these and every pair seems to get easier and better, but I have a long way to go yet :-) Just thought Id share with you this first bunch and see what you guys think of them... hmm I tried to upload a photo but apparently im unable too...

The tong collection is slowly growing, as new shapes are required. Like these box-jaws I needed for 1" square bar. Then I followed a 'Tongs' post that lead me to Brian's 'Hold everything' tongs and I just had to make me some. These have got to be the absolute best tongs anyone can have in a shop. I've picked up all sorts of odd shaped bits of steel with these babies. They really are the Ducks nuts when it comes to tongs. They got me thinking about how many tongs we seem to need, and how often particular tongs get used. I regularly pick up two or three sets that cover most jobs and if they don't do it, I have to stop progress and make another set. So I was thinki…

I've been playing around with different styles of reins and materials for tongs, and have yet to use any medium carbon stock for tongs -- though I'm leaning toward sucker rod if I can find it. I also lean toward a medieval look, which is what guided the shape of this set, in the attached photo. Cheers, Clay

I used the style from Sam S's tong tutorial for these, no power hammer though, ouch.. They work great though, now I can forge out some old ball peins into other tools.

I recently bought a set of 4 hand forged tongs. There is 1 pair iam not sure what they are but my friend royce unruh said that he thought they were rivit tongs. The top part of them is round with a shollow indenction in the center can any tell me what they are and how there use?

Well Its time I show some of my smith work, I posted about everything but smithing so heres a couple pears of tongs I made to flat and 3/8 stock

i made a new pair of tongs today i still need to grind a vee in the one side they are for holding tapers

First attempt at bolt tongs, 3rd set overall. Made from 3/4" x 3/8" cold rolled. I made them to hold railroad spikes and other mid-sized square stock. Work pretty well so far. The jaws need a touch more tweaking, and the reins need adjusting - they don't seem to close quite enough for a comfortable grip in the hand.

A tong I just did for a sculpture I want to do with 12mm square bar. Crits welcome

Made my first set of tongs today! Made from 1/2 inch rebar. The grips are 10 inches long. I have not completely finished fitting them and tweeking yet though. Thoughts on how to finish or improve these are welcome!

I'm trying to taper the ends of 6-12" lengths of 7/16" hex rod. I need to be able to rotate it quickly while maintaing a decent grip. I also need to be able to grab one of the tapered ends (maybe 1/4 inch hex). What kind of tongs would be best for this? I'm also looking for tongs for tapering short lengths of 1/4", 5/16" and 7/16" square bars.

Made a pair of box jaw tongs yesterday. Glenn Reese was the striker.

Tongs blueprint! The tongs I made today did not turn out all that great and I'll explain why towards the end of the BP. However, I took pictures of the entire process, and I think this might be a help to some folks wanting to make tongs. I use 10-11 inches of 1/2-inch round coil spring. Spring makes a tough, strong, springy pair of tongs. I usually get an 18-inch pair of tongs out of 10-11 inches of 1/2-inch coil spring. So first things first! Cut some spring. I use a torch but you can also use a cutting disk on an angle grinder. Another option would be heating the end of a whole spring, straightening it, and then cutting it on a hardy. Any way you do it, cut 10-1…

This is hopefully the last estimated value question that I will post, having posted one regarding an anvil and one regarding a post vise. I picked these (plus an anvil and post vise) up from a buddy of mine that wants to trade toward me building him a flintlock longrifle. I have no clue to what a fair value is for the 8 sets of tongs that was in the batch. All 8 are free to open/close easily. Rivets are in good condition. I believe all were blacksmith made tools. What fair value should be for the lot. Here are photos: Thanks Dennis

Hi, does anyone have an illustration of home made tong rings they will share? Would a S shape like camp fire hooks work? Thanks...................~~~Johnny~~~

I have to make a confession, I never use tongs. They just aren't sturdy enough for me, I end up putting most of my effort into gripping the product or holding it steady than the hammer work. So when I can't weld a bit of rebar onto it to hold it solid, I use mole grips. I absolutely love them, they give a great grip and I have so much control over the piece, although the downside is pretty obvious, my hand gets hot! Because they are short, they heat up quickly and are difficult to remove and reattach while the piece is in the forge, so they just end up getting hot. Not to mention my hand's proximity to the piece itself! What I really need are mole grips with a nice long…

Forging some tongs for a fellow having a hammer in at his shop that has no tongs, so two full basic sets here, 20 pieces making 10 tongs 5 per set. Sets includes two flat bar tongs for 1" and 1 1/2" wide by 1/4" thick, two bolt tongs for 3/8" and 3/4", and one set of fine pickups. got these all forged in about 4 hours today. Going to get them all jaw formed then drill the holes for the rivets, then hot rivet them all tonight then final fit and tweaking tomorrow. Shipping monday overnight to Alaska for the 1st annual Arctic Fire Hammerin live web broadcast! Info here: http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=22731&st=0 and photos:

So here is a link to a video we made last Saturday of the forging of one complete tong half and partial work on the other using a smith with two strikers. Hope you all enjoy.