lnxfergy

I'm by no means an expert on forging, but I work at a scout camp during the summer and do some blacksmithing with our kids. First thing I can recommend is get a lighter hammer, try a 2 or 2-1/2 lb cross pien as your mainstay hammer. You will likely have more control over what you are doing and find that the work goes much faster because you aren't tiring yourself out as much. There are quite a few easy projects that will help you get the hang of what you are doing, and from there you can move on. Make some S-shaped hangers, all different kinds, practice drawing out the ends, rounding and squaring the material, and getting a flat face on both sides of a piece (an important thing when making tongs). Try making some screwdrivers with a decorative loop on the end (this is what our basic project is with the kids participating in our Backwoodsman program). As for your tongs, are you using any sort of direction or just winging it? There is a certain trick to good tongs - that they fit the size of the material you are using. A pair of tongs should, when gripped on the work piece, have the handles come approximately an inch or so from actually touching. If the handles touch each other you can't get the tongs to close. If they are too close to each other it will feel small in your hand you can't get a really good grip on them, the same if they don't come close enough to each other. Make sure you follow a drawing for your tongs (and make sure it is for the right size material, tongs that work great for 1/4" round stock will not work so well on 2" round stock) -Fergs