Rizzler

Thanks for the tip, arkie! I'll see if I can get my hands on some for the next set.

Very kind of you to ask, Dave! But that would put me back with handling hot iron with channel locks, which I've found to be dangerous on a good day. Thanks matto! It's been really frustrating for me, too. I'm going to try to make another set soon. After working with channel locks and vice grips that just can't cope with the abuse from the hammer and anvil, I feel like I need to have a few very decent tongs around to attempt making much of anything without a headache.

Hello, folks! I had some trouble connecting to these forums a while back and was worried they were offline. Glad to see that's not the case! I haven't been smithing as much as I'd like since my last posts here, but I wanted to post some tongs I've made since then. This was to be my first set. The material was altogether too thin and they were destroyed while punching. This is the first set that were "successful". They weren't long enough, though, and rather uncomfortable.. I wanted to try something different for the next set, so I tried a pair of v-bit bolt tongs (with help from a design on anvilfire). They were successful but my stock material was too small, they're too flimsy for anything substantial. I still find them useful for small pieces such as leaves, though. (no hating on my marred up, haggard old anvil!) Finally, my last set. I just made these about 2 weeks ago out of a couple railroad spikes. They're the sturdiest and best formed ones I've made yet, but there are many imperfections. The bits aren't very uniform, one is much thicker than the other, and was much longer before a trip to the grinder. They do seem to be getting better, though. Any thoughts? I'm trying to improve their form but I could really use some pointers, I don't want to keep any bad habits.

My forge is set up outside so ventilation is not an issue.. I'll just throw them on and walk off while it burns away.

Here's my meager brake drum forge and my temporary outdoor setup (until I can get the wife to part with some of the stuff in the shed).

I'm not sure if you can see it well from the original picture I posted of the cut and bent square stock, but it has some type of plating and I was hoping someone could identify it for me. It's very thin and brittle, and it burns off quite easily, but I'm worried about toxic fumes since I'm not familiar with the substance. I'm very new to metal working, so if anyone could help me identify the substance I would be most appreciative. If you need more pictures let me know.

Thanks for all the responses guys! And yeah Frosty I'll get my settings updated, I'll probably be lurking in these forums quite a bit.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Oh well, it's steel for me to practice on at least!

I recently found a bucket of what appears to be salvaged square stock, all cut into around 6-8 inch pieces while salvaging my family's old barn for scrap metal. I'm very new to blacksmithing, and I got very excited at the prospect of this being wrought iron. I took a hacksaw to a piece, cut it halfway, and then bent it. Here's a picture of the result. From what I've seen, it doesn't look like wrought iron, but I think I read that in some triple rolled wrought it's hard to see the markings. What do you guys think?