Tongs

I saw Gundog48's post of the tongs he made, with the swivelable head and thought "I gotta make me some of them!", so today I did. I used some 16mm (5/8) vehicle coil spring and belted it into shape and fabricated the movable bit out of angle iron. I attached the head bit with a piece of high tensile rod, hammered into the tong, (tight fit) and loose at the swivel, if that makes sense...... ...and I think I'll be using these alot. Just picking up stuff in the workshop impressed me, the are really very versatile. Thanks for posting Gundog :D. Oh yeah, and as the topic suggestes, I tried my hand at making a rose. It's made from sheet metal, cut out, heated, pounded, a…

I've been messing around on the forge for a couple of weeks now, and I finally decided I needed some tongs to forge some bigger stuff. I've been reading a lot of books about bladesmithing, so believe it or not my first actual project was a knife. I've read all there is to read about it, but I figured to understand it properly I'd have to try it. I'll be posting that later. Anyway, I finally got some square stock to forge a pair of tongs which I'll need for working on some bigger stuff to forge cut-off hardys and things. Looking at most blacksmiths, they seem to have over 20 pairs of tongs for different sizes of metal. Not having the time to forge them, material to make th…

Here's another one heat video. This is a tong blank like I saw Bob Patrick do several years ago at Tom Clark's school. This is one of the best forging exercises that you can do. Once you get the steps down, anyone can do it in one heat. Everyone I've seen try it can do it in a heat before they've done ten of them. http://picasaweb.google.com/brianbrazealblacksmith/TongBlank#

Forged from 1/2-inch round spring steel 18-inches overal length 14-inch reigns Made for holding 1/4-inch round or square. They took an hour and twenty minutes to make. I made about a dozen pair back to back a few months ago and got them done much faster, but it's been a while since I made a pair of bolt tongs. I need to make one of the jigs for the jaws. I think Spears posted some sort of jig a while back. Anyway, they are smooth and I am pleased with them. I'm making a couple pair as a gift to someone.

Hello there! Today I made my first set of tongs which I forged out of one foot of 1/4" x 1" mild steel flat bar. I decided to do twist jaw tongs and I had an issue with some small cracks that formed just below the jaws on the twist. I am wondering what caused this since initially they weren’t there to my knowing until I was making final adjustments. Perhaps my eyes failed me. Anyway, do any of you know what the reason is behind this? Any information would be very much appreciated and thank you in advance. Jakob

I don't have an anvil yet but I just couldn't stand it anymore. I used a hammer head and a peice of scrap and made these tongs. I guess you could say my anvil is a piece of scrap. The tongs work is about their only saving grace. But now maybe I can use them to make some better tongs. I punched the hole for the rivet and used a blue steel machine screw. Punching was work and I think I'll mount those two tiny little plugs as a trophy!

I forged these right quick before I came in for the night. Probably took an hour, but I didn't rush and I didn't time myself either. I hand forged the jaws, boss, and the beginning of the reigns. I usually do that on the power hammer with an edge-of-the-anvil tool, but I was in no hurry, and wanted to swing a hammer for a bit. The reigns I tapered on the power hammer. I also made the start of another pair on the same pieces of metal, but they will need the reigns forge welded on. These are made from coil spring and hold 1/4-inch square, round, and flat.

Forged a pair of box jaw (hope thats what they're called) tongs and a little punch. Tongs are forged from 1/2 inch square stock. Punch from a tire tool. Used the punch to make holes for rivet in tongs. Thanks for looking...comments encouraged...bart

Never seen a pair before, but I can sure see them being useful. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blacksmith-tongs-self-adjusting-/130687827094?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6d99fc96#ht_500wt_1021

This is my first pair of tongs, my first project really. I'm not finished, however it got too late to continue. I couldn't resist drilling them and running a bolt through them to see how they looked. I'll finish shaping them and cleaning them up, then rivet them and put up another picture. i plan on shaping the jaws to hold square bar.

I have some 1 1/4 in round bar , I need to order some tongs for it, The set I am looking at are some Off center chain maker . Should I get the 1 1/4 in size or the 1 1/2 inch pair? Thoughts please.

Had a guy stop buy the shop tonight to see if I wanted to buy these tongs. The handles are 43 in and the jaws are 16 in. I would think the are for sheet metal work. But would be intersted in more info on how they were used. If any one has any info

I was fortunate enough to come into the possession of a few pairs of rusted old tongs recently. I need to free them up and remove the rust, so they become usable. Any tips?

Here is some of the finished tongs from the methods shown in the tutorial, forged from A36, 3/8" thick by 1" wide by 8" long. 16" reigns, shown in this photo are pickup tongs, bolt tongs for 3/4 square and round, and flat bar tongs for 3/8" thick by 1 1/2" wide.

Has any one ever seen a pair of tongs like this one ? found on ebay at http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260955853179 Looks like you could make the pierced part and several differant sized hook parts to fit differant size/shape stock

After I finished mounting the tire hammer today, I made a pair of 3/8-inch, square bit, bolt tongs. The tongs are part of an order of four; 1/4-inch, 3/8-inch, 1/2-inch, and 5/8-inch. They are made from 11-inches of 1/2-inch coil spring. The total length is 18-inches and it takes me between an hour and a half and two hours to forge a pair. The coil spring makes a stout pair of tongs. Nothing fancy, but a strong, sturdy, tool.

Show me your tongs. The idea is to post photos of the tongs (from the rivet and the jaws or working end) so we can either build our own or use yours as a starting point for the tongs we need. A second overall photo is ok too, particularly if the reins are different in some way.

The following pictures show a tong fixture which basically only puts in the offset and marks where the hole will be. It also enables a visual picture of what the final shape will be. This fixture bolts into my power hammer but could just as easily be set up for a treadle or sledge striker. Use of the fixture isn’t going to complete the tongs but rather take a good portion of the work out making it easier to make two pieces the same and visualize the final result. The Adobe files are of the dimensioned drawings showing a fixture for both 5/8” and 1/2” bar stock. The fractional sizes should make it easy for a welder to cut and fabricate should someone try this for them…

Some different type tongs.

Hello IFI! I've started blacksmithing about two months ago, and the first thing I wanted to make were a pair of universal tongs. A lot harder than expected for me. Since it was a project for school, I had to include some things like twists, welds, tapers, flattens, textures. Which is why they look a liiiittle flamboyant. I had trouble forging the whole thing out of one whole piece, so it was done in sections and welded together. Hopefully they last..... Thanks for looking! -Don Nguyen

I'll just leave this here... -_-

i am looking into buying some tongs from blacksmiths depot, and came across their universal v bit tongs, does anyone have any veiws( for or against) on these tongs? thanks

My first attempt at tongs. Functional but not very pretty. I will be trying again once I get my forge built.

How can I make a pair of bolt jaw tongs to hold round stock without a swage block? I've made a few tongs and know a fair bit, but the jaws are frustrating me right now.

Maybe I forgot them at the demo I helped with last weekend, or they could be hiding somewhere in the garage, whatever, I haven't been able to locate my good general purpose tongs for days now. I finally got sick of trying to make due with the miserable pair of twist tongs I made back when I'd been smithing for two weeks and decided to whip up a small pair of bolt head tongs I've been wanting. After rummaging around in the scrap pile for a while I managed to come up with a length of 3/4" round mild steel. A liter and a half of water and three hours later I've a working pair of tongs. Out of sheer perversity I decided to draw the reigns out just to see what kind of suff…