Tongs

I needed tongs recently to hold flat bar, 1/4"x2" and thought I'd show the process here: Starting stock for both was 1"x4" square bar.

Made these tongs out of two rail road spikes. Holds 1/4" flat and 1/4" square. Not bad I thought. If you would like this pair of tongs, you can get them at the live auction taking place at the 7th annual combo/demo at steep hollow forge here in town! Also made a tong clip for assisting with holding stock. Pleased with that design, looks nice and functions well. Obviously though a piece of pipe or square tubing will due the same thing. Littleblacksmith

Just had to toot my own horn. Been using long pliers for tonges so I got some round bar 3/8. (I think I should have gone bigger) and... I just made my first set of tonges. They are sloppy and the rivet s lopsided but they hold a piece of steel and feel good in my hand, so this is a win for me. Thank you to everyone who has given advice on how to get started. More help than you can imagine. And thank you everyone who has answered all the newbie questions. Lots of great reading. I have learned so much I now realize how much more there is to learn.

Made a new tong rack out of an extra blower stand.

I have watched a lot of Alex Steele videos and have noticed that he uses a pair of tongs at the head of them is diamond or triangular-shaped when making large tools such as Hammers and axes my question is does anyone know what these particular tongs are called or where you can find plans to make your own or buy

So I'm having a bit of trouble and not sure if it has been addressed, but pinning tongs isn't quite working out as well as I think it should. I've made a few pair, but after those 3, I just haven't been able to get it right. The trouble I'm having is as I punch the hole, the boss caves into the pritchet and it may crack. I don't beat too thin but it still may be. Thickness suggestions? I read about using a nut underneath the boss as I punch. Using 1/2 in rebar, heating to a orange/yellow, moving it down to just over 1/4 inch.

I need y'all's expert help on this one , can anyone tell me what the use of this set of tongs is , I got several sets of tongs from a junk store but don't know what these are used for ? I may reshape these for another use . Thanks for any help On a second note the jaws are incredibly thick and heavy. Why so thick?

Made this pair of box jaw tongs from a pair of farrier nippers that I bought from an antique store for $5. I took them apart , drew out the reins, straightened out the jaws, and split the end of one of the jaws for the box part. I burnt part of the reins of, so they ended up a little shorter than I was wanting!these didn't take long at all, and were very simple to make. Hope I explained well enough, but you know what they say, pictures are worth a thousand words, so here they are! Littleblacksmith

Just wondering if anyone knows where i could get a pair of tongs for cheap in the UK or at least an equally as good alternative. Currently im using vice pliers but im not having much luck with gripping the metal due to the smaller surface area

Hey guys I want your opinion on these. I've made about 15 pairs now, and I am still having an issue with the tongs having a little wiggle- it's not a lot, but even this pair while I hold one rein I can move the other probably 1/8" one way or the other. When I rivet it I set the rivet, then open and close them until they are free moving, then put my material in the jaws and make it fit. I take another heat and go to the vise (while holding the 1/4" in the jaws) and adjust the reins, then I slightly tap the rivet 2-3 times to get it tightened back up, then free them up again with the open close motion. I also open and close quickly when they go in the quench bucket. …

Just finished up these ugly new tongs. I saw a picture on another forum where a guy was trying to sell them and I said to myself, 'those look good and useful but not $xx good and useful, I should be able to make some for much less.' Well let me just say they don't look anywhere as good but they do hold, I'll give them a try when they finish cooling enough to handle. I made them from some of my weaving blades since that's what they are meant to hold I thought it might be ironic but then I couldn't decide the correct word cause ironic wasn't it, maybe 'fitting' would be a better word. Well let me show you some pictures before I ramble to much more. Up first is a picture of …

today I made my first pair of tongs. not so beautiful, and I should have used a bigger diameter material but they woks and hold well a blade on the anvil. when I'll make an other pair of the same kind, I will make them slightly bigger. now let's see how long they will last.

So I made my first pair of tongs so I don't have to use my Chanel-locks anymore. Used half inch rebar, not perfect but I think they will work for what I'm doing

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 …

Finally cool of enough down here and has some free time to get the forge out this weekend. Finish my second pair of tongs. Built these for hold railroad spikes and similar shapes. Almost hot enough

Most of the tongs I've seen tend to be fairly straightforward in design: heavy boss at the pivot, straight reins tapering gently away from the boss, and whatever shape the business end happens to be. Basically like this: I've recently encountered tongs with a pretty hefty shoulder behind the boss, like the ones being made in this video or the ones in this image. I'm curious what the rationale is behind this alternate design. Is this just a farrier thing?

After a couple of frustrating months of not being able to fit smithing time into my schedule, I was finally able to get into the forge and finish up a pair of tongs I'd started a while back. There's a LOT about these that I'm not happy with: some parts are too thin, they don't open and close smoothly, there are all lot of asymmetries and irregularities, and there's one significant possible weak spot right where they grip. All in all, though, this was a great learning experience, and at least I have some tongs that should last long enough for making the next pair! N.B.: The reins are different lengths because one of them burned and broke off. But …

Hello there, I am helping the local Colby Curtis museum and Stanstead Historical Society identify and label some blacksmith items. I do mostly small forge projects for fun so my worldly knowledge is limited. Any idea what these tongs would have been used for? I've also got a similar set at home. Thanks.

Open Mouthed or Closed Mouth PickUp/Flat Stock Tongs. That is the Question?????? Plz help

Finished my 11 th set of tongs tonight and thought I would share the progression from bad to useful. The tongs are listed in order from top to bottom in the order I made them. Like most misinformed beginners I made tongs as my first projects and pretty much failed miserably for quite a while . There was 3 sets of tongs that I made before the ones shown here but they were either scrapped or repurposed. I wish I kept them for reference. Well here they are tell me what you think. 1) first tongs that I still have flat bit for 3/8" made from 1/2" round never use these anymore 2) these tongs are for 3/8 round still use them but they are pretty crappy made from 1/2" ro…

I'm a new smith. Its a hobby that I don't want to sink too much money in. With that said, I'm hoping to make most of the tools I need. The way I understand it, there are a ton of types of tongs out there, all with different functions and jobs. My question is what types should I focus on first? I got started as a way to get into knife making. I'm playing around with small trinkets like bottle openers, key chains, ect... to give you an idea of my needs. I've been using vice-grips when the material is too short for me to hold on too for now. But I want to make things easier for myself and this will also give me practice. Also what are good stock sizes and metal types for ton…

I've just started in blacksmithing. Watched a few videos on how to make tongs and I've made three pairs. All of which broke at the jaw. I've used mild steel, rebar and really cheap metal. I try to keep them cooled off but it seems the shock of the hammer breaks them. Any help would be appreciated.

just finishing up my first pair of v-bit tongs and they ended up with w few hairline cracks which seem to have shown up in up expected places. hoping to get some thoughts on what caused them and how to avoid in the future. i started w 10" of 5/8 square stock hot rolled mild steel .... purchased from speedy metals so pretty confident the material is as advertised. i dont have a power hammer so the reins were drawn out by hand. used a hot chisel and square stock to forge the bits. any thoughts would be apprecsiated. thanks

It was awful stormy yesterday, I ended up retreating to the shop all day and addressing an issue I've had. It's a challenge to make a separate set of tongs for every flat bar in the shop. After remembering to stay hydrated, I started sketching, then forging and machining, and the thing works. The tong design came from some notes I took at a Mark Aspery class, 10+ years ago. I revisited the idea recently, and I really like them for square and round. I incorporated the removable bit idea to deal with differing widths and thickness of flat stock. The hex bolts thread to and fro to keep the reigns at a comfy gripping space. Started with 1/2 x 1" flat bar. More pics

so, I've been wondering if any of ya'll have ever tried making wolf jaw tongs. it just seems like a lot of grooves and curves in the jaws that I'm not sure how to make, do you grind them?, fuller them?- are they even worth making or should I just buy them from somewhere else, if so where should I buy them? Littleblacksmith