PaulKrzysz

I'm going to be making my first tongs soon as well. What size stock did you start out with?

There are three main handle woods which where used depending on your geography. In America hickory was used, in Canada where hickory was not available or ash, Sugar maple was used, and Europe Ash. These are the main woods but of course there were others as the people above will tell you.
The cheapest way to get handles is to pick wood which others have cut down. Here people usually leave it on the curb so others can take it as firewood. All you need to do is split it, season it and shape it when you need it. all you need to shape is a hatchet, rasp, file and if you want it to look pretty some sandpaper will help.

What size stock do you start out with?

I have the wood split up into small pieces so it will convert into charcoal, i forgot to mention that.

I finally got around to completing my forge. It is 35'' high to the table, around 12'' wide and 15'' deep. The whole thing has a wooden frame (it had to be im a carpenters son!).
The base has cement patio bricks and the sides are clay fire bricks, i know i shouldn't be using cement bricks but i lined the whole thing heavily with clay.

I plan on making a hood for it because i noticed i will be blowing out lots of little pieces of ash and such.

I will be using wood as fuel, mostly red oak and pine with some birch and honey locust thrown in.

The air source will be a hair dryer for now. I plan to buy a old boiler fan, they are shaped much like forge blowers so i want to add a fan in there and a hand crank so i can run it without electricity. This is at the end of my yarrd and i don't want to be wrapping extension cords every day

The anvil is 75lb and cast iron, my dad bought it a while back, i am working on buying a new anvil soon. Just the other day i worked out a deal for a english 85lb steel anvil but the guy lives quite a way away so no deal until he runs into Toronto.

Back to the forge. If anyone as any tips on how to change it or improve upon it please share your advice.

Thank you