Tongs

Ok, hi all I am a beginner bladesmith and for holding my steel I have using needle nose vice grips which wear out quickly. So I have been planning on getting a pair of tongs. Most of time I keep the bar stock long so that I can hold it and have better control over the steel. But when it comes to the point where I have to cut the steel, I am having a hard time hold the piece that I cut with the vice grips. It either moves while I am hammering it or I have it so tight that I have hard time breaking it loose. And then when it is super tight I break it loose and it goes flying(very dangerous). I mostly work with 1 x 1/4 bar stock, but I was wondering if there is a good pair o…

Hi. A lot of people complain about forge welded tong reins being a weak point. There is a web site which says that you should not use borax to weld them (unless you are a "hobby" smith), else they will eventually come apart. I always thought that as long as the weld is in the right place and orientation, there is not all that much stress on it, and it is not being peeled, so it should be OK. I have even seen tongs with the reins protruding over an inch past the weld point because the maker just laid two bars together and whacked. These tongs looked like they had served well for decades, even though misaligned. Well, I finally saw some tongs with broken forge welds …

Hi I am new to blacksmithing, but i am in the process of getting my first anvil and forge and was wondering just as a beginner what type of tongs to get and what hammers to get. Wanting to get a couple of each to start.Thanks

Same old story: Old ones are failing, demo coming up, need a new pair. The first try failed. I made a functional pair, but they were large and clumsy. Turns out they work great for 1/2 square and round but don't fit the bill for the smaller 3/8" work I needed them for. They are bolt tong type. So I used the first pair of tongs I made to hold some half inch square so I could make a smaller pair for holding 3/8." This is the result of my endevours!

Got the chance to play around this weekend, and this is what I came up with. I made them from two railroad spikes. I think they will work fairly well as pickup tongs. Sorry about the bolt and nut- the rain was comming in, no roof on the work area, and i got in a hurry. I had alot of fun making them, and definately learned alot. not the prettiest you'll see... Any suggestions would be great!

A quick video of the first step in making my tongs.

Well, I guess I might as well go through the step-by-step. Here is kinda the main shaping of the tongs:

Made a small pair of tongs today. Used http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tutor/hm_tongs/index.htm as the starting idea. I used 8mmx10mm stock cut a piece off and welded it to the reign. I used high amps so that I got good penetration. Then I forged to shape, drilled and riveted. Lightweight tongs for helping making rose buds.

Ok so here is my second try at making a pair of lightweight tongs. Here is one half ready for punching and forming. I started with a 3/8ths bar and put two dents halfway through it with the corner of the anvil. Then I flattened out the pivot part of the tongs and then flipped 90 degrees to flatten out the jaws. I then bent the pivot and jaws to 45 degrees and then bent the jaws back 45 degrees. I have another side to do then drilling and riveting. This is my first real smith project that is more than just messing around. What do ya think? One question I would have for some of the experienced smiths is how I can reduce the number of hammer marks and make a smoother su…

Anyone used a jig like the one in this video? Seems real neat to me.

Hi, Grant. I am considering picking up some duck bill style tongs for flat stock. On the Blacksmiths Depot sight it says that they can handle up to 1 1/2" thickness, and depending on the size tong, up to 3" wide. Does that mean it would also work for larger square stock? Would a 1" tong handle 1" square? Also, what's the range that the tongs can comfortably handle? For example, can that 1" handle 3/4 and 1 1/4? Lastly, 16" vs 18". I would guess that the 16"s are lighter and springier? Thanks. Eric

Hi, All. After getting a taste of smithing in the Fall, I finally have a small smithy set up at home. I've been forging for a few hours a day for about a week now. One of the things that I sometimes find frustrating is using tongs. I have a few pair of decent tongs (Grant's OC brand 1/4" V Bit, 1/2" Gooseneck V-bit and Wolf Jaw to cover the rest in the smaller sizes). I also picked up a box of older tongs in assorted shapes and sizes. Grant's tongs are great. They really hold well with the square stock that I'm using. My biggest trouble seems to be after the shape changes a bit. The end is dressed in a taper, or ribbon and getting a good grip on the material can…

Recently we were in Germany at a flea market (the border is just close). There an older man sold a forge tong (3 euros)... Intrigued by a date on the tong, I bought it. At home I cleaned the old tong. Here are pics : The tong is 30 cm long, and dated from 1937.

so for some reason i am incapable of making tongs, everytime i try they end up some horrible convoluted non-working mess. so i kinda got sick of it and decided my work is going to keep suffering until i get a good set of tongs. only problem is a can't afford to buy a set. so i decided that since i've been welding longer that smithing i'd give that a try. so here they are, uglier that sin but they actually work and work darn good.

I made these tongs a few years ago to forge anvils and tank turrets. They hold both round square and Zeus's big toe.

Any of you good folks know what these are for?

I got these along with a bunch of other good looking tongs,all company punched "ATHA" and "CHAMPION" exept for these heavy jaw-ed no name never seen anything like it before tongs. The jaws are 1 1/8" square.Has any one out there ever seen a pair similar to these and do you know what they are(were) used for ? I ended up thinking they were blanks for the user to modify. Thanks for any information ! Naz.

so i just began forging about 4 months ago and mabye its just because im a newbie but i notice that when forging (mostly larger flat stock) my tongs jump and the stock evently wiggles loose. today a larger piece flew out of my tongs and bounced off the garage door. lucky me it didnt hit me or set anything on fire. so is there a way to hold your tongs or piece on your anvil to prevent such things?

Okay, here is the skinny. When sized for the intended stock they hold very well, tight. I changed the design a little from the picture I saw on another web site by adding a curve in the handles just down from the rivet where the transition is. (See picture in the original post). This in effect added more of a pivot point increasing clamp pressure. I like the way they hold larger stock on the diamond, better than any of the other tongs I have. On the down side.....Due to the design, only straight stock may be held effectively. They are a little cumbersome to me when grabbing stock from the forge. If you drop the stock on the floor, forget it! Grab another pair of tong…

Today I forged these tongs for no other reason but to experiment and see how well they worked. I saw tongs like these on another web site and thought I would give it a go. I used 3/4 X 3/8 stock from my scrap bin. Total length is 14.5 inches. After forging the business end I hammered out the reins. I stopped forge welding reins on tongs along time ago, they seem to last longer now that I forge them out. These are a lot different then the standard tongs I usually make, I probably will not make another, however it was fun! I probably could have made at least 2 pair of standard tongs in the time it took me to make these. I will say though that they are heavy dut…

Well, this is my first post as I'm new here and to the black smithing in general. I happened across this site while researching foundries for my aluminum casting project and thought I'd give it a try! Anyway, I have no black smithing tools so I thought I'd start by making a set of tongs. They're ugly as sin but they seem to work. Here they are, feel free to comment!

Here are some tongs I made the other day. Took two hours using a mixture of hand hammer, treadle, and I let my little brother strike some. They are for holding 1/4 to 1/2 working best with 3/8ths inch round. It will also hold stock perpendicular to the tongs. Forged from two, eight-inch pieces of 5/8ths inch square! 1/4 inch rivit! Thoughts??? Dave

i would like to make a new pair of tongs like a farrier's fire tongs. i would find them in the blueprints section but i can't find it. could someone tell me how to make them or PM me?

Just got these for my bday- wondering what their application might be. They're big beasts, up to 30" long- definitely 2 handers. Steve

Well, this is my first post as I'm new here and to the black smithing in general. I happened across this site while researching foundries for my aluminum casting project and thought I'd give it a try! Anyway, I have no black smithing tools so I thought I'd start by making a set of tongs. They're ugly as sin but they seem to work. Here they are, feel free to comment!