Tongs

So, I made a forge. Finally fired for the first time today to full heat. SO, now what? I need tongs. I had a pair of old fireplace tongs - scissor style with bad rivets - pretty chintzy. So, I separated the parts, flattened the ends out a bit, and rolled the noses over to get a bit of grab and bite. Voila!! 15 minutes later, a pair of serviceable tongs with a springy grip handle to them. Nothing pretty, nothing fancy, but perfectly useful.... kinda like me....

First tongs, and my first actually useful project. Disclaimer: I started with water-cut rein blanks from Kens' Custom Iron, but at least I shaped the business end. Holds 1 to 1-1/2" 1/8 or 3/16 flat stock, up to 1/2" square bar, plus maybe a few more general purpose things. The new forge works great. This pair took me nearly two hours, and I realize a real blacksmith would have made them in 12 minutes. But everybody starts somewhere.

A budding smith friend of mine picked up two sets of these tongs at an estate sale in Virginia the other day and gave me one. Any idea what tongs this big would have been used for?

Built my 2nd set of tongs today. Sized them for 7/8 round bar. Fits 1 inch as well. Not the perfect grip into the bar I wanted. But they will do I think. Lots of practicing and lots of skills to be learned by building tongs I am finding. It is a pain to draw out the reins by hand but as I do it I am learning new technique, and proper hammer control. I went with the more extreme curvature because I think it looks kinda cool. Anyway from what I see out there they are far from perfect, but like I say, I had fun building them. Material I used is an old hex shaft that was in the scrap bin at work. Figured I'd use it. Cheers!!

I just got back from a tong making class at Adams Forge. It was a 6 hour class on Box Tongs. I had 1 previous class. A introduction to Blacksmithing. We made a bottle opener. The class was super informative. There were 10 students. One left after a few hours. Unfortunately he got very frustrated. The class entailed detailed lecture while the instructor did. We then went and tried to follow suit. Man do I have some nice blisters now. I was one of 3 people to actually get their tongs riveted to a functional state. I feel really good about that. I will need to tune them up more. But heck I made me some tongs.

Hey it’s been 3 days since I turned on my first forge, read several books but have no practice, made 3 sets of tongs horrible but they work... will read more and try to forge something better cheers

I am in the process of upping my shops tong collection, which has dwindled the last few years. I use spring steel for tongs, but getting frustrated with recycling for them recently looked up new stock from Alro. To be fair, I have never bought 3/4 inch round 4140 new before but the price I was quoted was about 10 times what I expected. I mentioned this to another Smith, who suggested re bar. Now I had an initial unpleasant response to this suggestion which long story short resulted in me at home with a formidable peice of rebar in the forge. I did a hardness test and found that it was rendered glass hard in a water quench. What really baffles me is the papers all have it…

I made these today! This is the largest pair of tongs I've ever made to date. They are sized for holding 1 x 3-inch flat bar They are 33-inches long Rivet is 1/2-inch mild steel Tongs are forged from 4140 steel These were a challenge but also surprisingly simple. Basically just all the same steps as small tongs, made big. One thing that helped was I did a rough sketch on my layout table of the box-side of the jaw so I had some target dimensions to shoot for. I also laid out the center line, as on these larger ones you want the jaws to overhang the outside edge of the reigns as apposed to being in line. These were a lot of fun!

This is a prototype of an idea I had for a universal tong clip, so I don’t have to constantly be looking for the right size. The idea is to simply slip it on and twist it until it’s tight enough. Works with lots of different sizes of tongs: Haven’t yet tried it while forging, but will report back on how well it works once I have.

Hello. I've been a member for a month or two, and I have finally built by first thing. A set of tongs to use. My question is on the orientation of how the tongs sit in your hand. I hold the tongs with my right hand a I built them in a way where the top reign is towards my thumb. And the bottom is is away from my thumb. Here is a picture of the orientation in my right hand To note this is the first thing I have forged. And in my mind I figured it is a great excersise to create the muscle memory and techniques to advance in my skill. Thank you to everyone

Been meaning to try these for quite a while-- drawn out from 3/8x1" and sized for 1/2" square. They were originally just a proof of concept, so I didn't do any measuring or layout and it shows in their lopsidedness. I tried learning from mistakes I've made with flat and V-bit tongs, namely keeping the boss, jaws, and rivet nice and beefy. This is also the first time I've tapered the reins, which I like because it keeps any inevitable flex away from areas with more structural importance or risk of failure. Definitely some room for improvement but overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and they grip much better than my older tongs.

I'm new here but I thought I'd show my tong progression for some of the other folks who are starting out making tongs. More often than not I find my self working on tongs than anything I could potentially make money on. These were not my first try. I was so angry at all the earlier tries that they ended up in the trash. This was the first pair I riveted together and deemed usable. Made from 3/4" sucker rod and 3/8" round This was my first attempt at building a farrier style tongs. Not exactly what I had in mind but still a set of tongs that can be used. Not shown is the opposite side where a valuable lesson was learned, don't quench sucker …

Today is the first day I made something useful in the forge.. I saw these simple tongs on the black bear forge YouTube channel that he had seen somebody using. Very simple with a slip ring to adjust. Had some fun trying to the ring round and now have one too small and one too large (although large one is good for large objects) will make another ring tomorrow when I am sure my forge burner is safe (another thread) Just wanted to share as it was great fun heating and beating and the new anvil and stand worked well.

I picked up most of my tongs from someone who wanted to see his father-in-law’s tools and equipment go to someone who would use them and was not just wanting to get stuff cheap and then sell it for a profit. The surface of the tongs has always seemed different than what you normally see on rusty tools, so I took the end of the reins on one of the sets that needs the rivet replaced to see how it sparked. It sparked a lot like my post vise, horn of my anvil, and old wagon tyres that I know to be wrought iron, so I cut the tip half way through and bent it. It split and didn’t break. I assume it is wrought iron? If so, almost all the tongs I bought are wrought iron. …

This is a "how to" On forging chain makers tongs.. not the only way.. just one way.. These are the tongs used in the video "How to make chain" They are made for 3/8" chain but can be used up 2 standard sizes or anything between 3/8" and 1/2". https://youtu.be/u5ZcvmwIaV8

Hello, I havent had the opportunity to forge in several months. Finally had the chance to do so. I am a beginner, so I wanted to make a pair of tongs, as it seemed good practice. It was quite the adventure, especially trying to rivet them together, which kinda failed... Overall, they are ugly, crooked, and beginner tongs, but they are still tongs.

I've been posting photographs of blacksmithing tools in our museum display (Sandy Historical Museum - Sandy, Oregon). and have been getting excellent responses. Thanks to all. We're about done. Now, I have another question. What are the names of the different parts of a set of tongs? I call the "handles" reins and the other end, jaws. But, I may be wrong. What do you call the small "balls" at the end of the reins, on some tongs? Do you call the handles, rails? Where do the jaws begin? At the pivot point? What do you call this pivot point (where the rivet goes through)? Anything I'm missing? Thanks

Okay ... after about four tries, I managed to make something that ALMOST resembles a pair of tongs. They are ugly, and yeah I used the belt grinder on them to smooth up the reins a little. I had hoped to fit these things for 5/8 or maybe even 3/4 inch stock. But I'm starting to think with a boss that's only an inch or so that won't be possible. Could I get some suggestions on where to go from here please? (I hope the pics don't cause a pickle)

Any idea what these are?

Here a scroll tongs without rivet. Fancy ???

Ok I have three peices of rebar that I can make a set of tongs out of and I'm mostly going to be using them for knives and bar stock so I need help on how to make them by hand and what jaw shape I need

Got these today from the local flea market took guy. Was looking for advice in changes I could/ should make to the bits to make them better able to hold stock. Mostly flat bar for now but also some round or square at times.

Any ideas?

Ran across these this morning and they followed me home. Chrome plated and inscribed ith USS Raven, W B Burgess, June 28,1939. So far Google told me that is was a minesweeper and its keel was laid on June 28, 1939. Apparently these were used for the keel laying

Can anyone help by IDing this set of tongs>