Mark Aspery

My argument is one of pragmatism. Sometimes the only tongs that will do the job are not available commercially. Certainly I can try and adapt an existing pair of commercial or flea-market tongs, but then I am starting to invest time and money. I have spent the time to develop my tong making so that when I do need a pair of specialist tongs, I can make them without too much gnashing of teeth or sharp intakes of breath. I am developing some Acanthus leaves at the moment. In order to form the box for forge-welding, I have a couple of options. The more traditional is to close the box over a mandrel or... I can make a pair of collaring style tongs. The tongs have two different jaws. The top one in the picture allows the sides of the box to come up without interference. The lower jaw is the same as the material to which the leaf will be welded. This allows me to close the box without too much time involved. Without these tongs, I would be spending too much time closing the box to make it worth the customers while. The tongs make the job! These style of tongs have to be made or adapted.

This is an interesting debate. Of course it comes down to personal preference or circumstance. I like to make my own tongs. I probably pay more for them if I work at a shop rate (which I do) than if I bought them directly from a supplier. My skill development and maintenance is strong when making tongs. My first few pairs were pretty rough and hopefully still buried in a secret location. These days my tongs are what I want them to be: left handed for at the anvil, heavier and right handed for at the power hammer, spring reins, tools steel or mild depending upon the application and perhaps the most important thing - the jaws are oriented correctly for the job in hand. Too often do I see someone using diamond bit tongs where box jaw would offer a much better working circumstance. In these cases the user saved time and money initially by buying the tongs but then looses much more of both while using the tongs in an ineficient manner. The skills of isolating material and manipulating it to your desired specifications is a strong one. Making the jaws what you want them to be. The old addage of; "If you can't hold it, then you sure as xxxx can't hit it" is a good one. Making tongs is the language of a journeyman smith. Blacksmithing is such a broad term, it's like calling someone a scientist. What sort of scientist are they? Our common language is one of hammer and tongs. Regardless as to our style of smithing, we all appreciate good tongs. I get a little more out of it because there is a good chance that I made the tongs myself. A frustrating experience at first, making tongs is a very good way to develop your blacksmithng skills. Looking at the word count, this may be 3 cents worth!

I have an old #5 fly press. I can punch a slot (flat ended punch) 1 inch by 1/8 through a 1 inch square bar with 7 bumps. 6 from one side and 1 to clear the slug. The big issue for me when I started to do this was not the size of the press but the thickness of the table on the base and the amount it flexed under load. I started with a 1/2 inch plate and quickly went to 1-1/4 thick. The next problem was one of slop in the flypress. When fully extended so that the business end of my punch rested upon the plate I had some 'wobble' to the tool. I did tighten up the ways a little -but I also move the table up another 2-1/2 inches. That removed the wobble and gave me the accuracy that I wanted. Make sure that you have some method of stripping the hot bar from the tool welded to your table.

For those with high speed internet access (and the inclination of course) I have an acanthus 'how to' video on YouTube url... YouTube - The Forged Acanthus Leaf It's a bit rough around the edges but it conveys the general idea.

I remember you quite well. That was a few years ago now. I saw your hammers that you had made on another thread... Very nice. It's good to know that you are still smithing.

There are many ways to find the 'right' height for your anvil and all are about as good as the next. Just when you have it adjusted to draw out points on the bick, you reach for a top tool or a chisel and there goes the perfect anvil height. I think it's about the 'average'. For me that equates to a piece of 1/2 inch stock on the face of the anvil. On top of that I place my normal (in my hand most of the time) hammer and look at my arm. I don't want it too straight as I might hyper-extend the elbow. I don't want it too bent as I will not be maximizing the attainable force of my hammer blow. And of course this measurement has to be within your inside seam measurement if you want to hold the tongs between your legs when you want to use both hands free of the tongs. I like Kevin's idea about the twist in the square stock until you make your box-jaw tongs. As far as hammers go - I like a 1/16 rise in the center of the face with rounded edges. It's a personal preference thing.

Hello Kevin, You can see the difference in your work from the first project (the chisel) to the last projects (the tongs and the rose). Hats off to you! Enjoy your blacksmithing, cheers, Mark

Hello Glenn, I have no problem with any pictures or the content of any and all of my classes appearing on your I FORGE IRON web site. This permission is good for any class in the future and I will rescind, in writing, if I should change my mind at any time later on. Thank you for your time in this matter. Mark Aspery.

My apologies, I couldn't find a way to edit my last post to attach some more photographs. I'm hoping these photos will show the tool and how to deal with a stuck tool.

TOMPW I’m looking at your photograph 14:16. I see where you have drifted and I also see the remnants of what looks to have been a square hole. This may be the result of stretching the eye with the drift in place and not re-drifting with a larger drift or punching with too small-a-hole. Drifts push and don’t pull for the most part. There need to be some correlation between the size of the initial hole and the final drift. For example. I make a hammer. The end result is that the eye needs to be 1 1/16 long and 5/8 wide as that matches the handles that I have bought. I know that I am going to draw the eye (see photo) to get more of a disc shape. I will use the peen for this – with the drift in place. In drawing the eye most of the material will be spread perpendicular to the centerline of the parent bar. Some, however, will be spread along the axis of the parent bar creating gaps at either end of the drift. I re-drift with a slightly larger drift (from both sides to get the hour-glass shape) to a final size of the handle. My initial punch is a slot punch (my tool of choice when I am making a hammer eye) It is 7/8 long and 1/8 wide (the same length as my initial drift). I make this from

My apologies, I'm new to the high speed thing and I thought I was the last hold out. Cheers, Mark

Hello Herman, forge-welding is not a thing of the past, in fact it is quite current. There is a look that you get from forge-welding that you cannot get any other way. I have a 5 minute quicktime video clip on my web site (www.markaspery.net) that shows some forge-welding up close. In essence, metal will bond provided nothing is in the way -such as mill or fire scale. To remove the scale you can either super-heat the bars and melt the scale (slag) rather like forming a puddle in a oxy/fuel weld. The bars should not be sparking, that is too hot. The other way (a must for the gas forge) is to use flux. Flux (borax) is slightly basic and will dissolve the scale into solution at a lower temperature, as it is a glass, it melts and forms a protective covering around the metal preventing the oxygen present in the forge from forming more scale on the work. When you unite the bars together and GENTLY hammer them together (initially) the molten scale or the flux/scale combo is ejected leaving the hot metal (read now clean) to join. If there is a secret to forge-weld it is to prepare the scarfs (a prep to the bars) so that they fit very well together. In this way you don't have to use blows from the west side of hell to unite the bars. You are bonding metal on an atomic level - big blows will blow the weld. Hammer blows come perpendicular to the welding surface until you are sure of the weld. You can E-mail me at if you think I can be of further assistance. You need a pile of shame before you can weld your way to a wall of fame! Mark