Ranchmanben

It looks like it's been covered here but I use four on the outside and three on the inside. If I'm going to be riding in rocky country I use four and four. No idea where this comes from, it was just how I was taught. I'm not a pro, I only nail iron on my horses and those of the ranch I work for. These are ranch horses and only a few of them get ridden weekly if not daily. The other couple I keep shod in case the owner or their kids want to come out and tool around. During the winter I only keep shoes on a couple of my own work horses.

Been done plenty of times but I'd never done it til today. 3/4" square all cuts made with a hot cut, next time I'm going to use the band saw.

I'll check that out. I haven't got a power hammer but I'm always looking for ways to make things easier.

Thanks LBS. That's a good looking pair of tongs and a mighty nice looking draw knife! Thank you Alan, I didn't really need this set of tongs but I like making them. That ring is how I do my offset. I'd seen it done similarly on Riley Kirkpatrick's tongs and decide to incorporate it into mine.

Thanks Mangler. I talked to Jay's son a few weeks ago and said that another guy actually started putting that shoulder on the tongs but Jay is the one who popularized it.

Arkie, thank you very much! There are many more failures than I've shown. I'm trying to blend the farrier style tong with a more blacksmith oriented tong. There's not a whole lot of call for a bolt tong in the farrier world. I think the main reason most professional/competition farriers use tongs of that style is that most all of the best tongs have them, flatland forge, Jim Keith and so on. Anymore is sort of rare to find fire tongs without it. Craig Trnka is an awesome farrier and a great guy. He's as precise with each hammer blow as a surgeon with a scalpel. As far as me shoein horses, I only shoe my own and those of the ranch I work on. I do six a month during the busy times like now and run most of them rough shod the rest of the year. Shoeing horses is not something I like to do but I like to pay someone else to do work that I can do even less.

Got a little time this afternoon to beat out a set of 3/8" bolt tongs

Thanks fella. The wife was pleased too.

A little trivet experiment.

I think Thomas has answered my question best. I was under the impression that better but wasn't sure in what way. Cleaner and more uniform would be better without being better in every way. I guess I can always heat a piece up, quench it an see what it does. Might be useful for something. Thanks for the responses.

Yep, it's another rebar thread. I've done quite a bit of reading through the forum and found that large rebar has to meet higher standards than regular rebar and that it can be quite good for top tools, bottom tools and possibly even hammers. My question is what is considered large rebar? Is 1" large rebar? I've got a selection in my scrap pile ranging for 1" to 2". I assume the 1.5"-2" is large but I don't know how small still fits in that categorie. Thanks Ben

Thanks fellas. Jlp, which style are you talking about? I'm guess you are talking about the style with the shoulder by the boss. There is a very particular reason reason I'm building that style, I like the way it looks. I guess it's a little more involved process but like I said, I think it looks sharp and sets them apart from all the "normal" blacksmith tongs. Right now I'm using mild steel although I've been tinkering with some sucker rod. Once I'm comfortable enough building these I'd like to start using a higher carbon steel and start streamlining them some.

Looks like you could pull wooden posts with it. On second glance, it doesn't look very big judging by your hand on the handle.

That's some mighty fine work! What nail did you start with, looks bigger than my city head 5. Ben

I wouldn't say that bolt tongs would be easier. You are still going to be using the same methods for bolt tongs as flat jaw tongs plus you're going to be adding in slitting the jaws for your stock. Don't get discouraged! I think we've already found your problem. You've got to get your anvil attached to something solid! If not, it's moving around every time you hit it with any blow that isn't directly down in the center and probably bouncing some then too. So every set down blow you are swinging you are moving your anvil away from you or towards you depending on the side you're using and that would easily account for why you're having problems. It hasn't got to be anchored so good it will hold back a tank but the better you anchor it the better ALL your work will be and easier. You're on the right track but if you can't straighten some coil spring without having your anvil move your setting yourself up for failure. Get you anvil secure at a workable height and you'll be amazed at the difference it will make.

I'm new here but I thought I'd show my tong progression for some of the other folks who are starting out making tongs. More often than not I find my self working on tongs than anything I could potentially make money on. These were not my first try. I was so angry at all the earlier tries that they ended up in the trash. This was the first pair I riveted together and deemed usable. Made from 3/4" sucker rod and 3/8" round This was my first attempt at building a farrier style tongs. Not exactly what I had in mind but still a set of tongs that can be used. Not shown is the opposite side where a valuable lesson was learned, don't quench sucker rod with any sort of color! Started making some progress here. These are some 1/2" bolt tongs in the works and finished. It took me a lot of tinkering and making a lot of scrap to start getting that shoulder right between the boss and the rein. Made from 3/8"x 1" That last pair made me realize I need some tongs to make tongs. 3/8"x 1" Scrolling tongs Sometimes you get distracted and your tong disappears. These are a recent endeavor I've been working on copying from Robb Gunter. A friend lent me a pair of G3 built tongs and I decided I had to copy them. Needless to say, mine aren't near as nice as the originals. A few weeks ago I was traveling down I 40 near Albuquerque and thought it try to get ahold of Robb to see if I could get some pointers on these since I happened to have them in the bed of my truck still. Not only did I get ahold of him but he invited me to his house where he deemed my tongs perfectly acceptable but gave me some aluminum templates for building the originals. I haven't had a chance to use the templates yet but I have been working on adapting his design with the farrier design and adding the shoulder. 1/4"X1" This is one of my most recent sets. I've been using these as pickup tongs and hammer eye tongs for making smaller wood handled tools like hot cuts, handled center punches and hammer eye punches. 3/8"X1"

I'm no expert but it looks to me like your material is traveling as you are setting it down. Or your using a very large radius. When you initially make your set down blow use a half on half off blow you'll create a lip that will hang off the far side of your anvil. After the first blow or two you shoul be able to pull your stock towards you to keep that lip on the far side of the anvil and get a more perpendicular set down. The same holds for using the near side of the anvil, get it started the push slightly against it to hold it in place. Hope this helps. Ben

That looks great! I see them regularly any you got the pose of a turkey vulture sitting on a fence post perfect!

I read everything wrong and was pretty excitited to see a european's take on forging a javelina head. Not what I expected but good watching none the less.

I'm with you on the hands, don't ballerinas keep their fingers together? Other than that, looks sharp.

Thanks Das. It's actually the same rose from different angles. I was really pleased with the heat color I got.

The Coleslaw on a mesquite stump and the small Brooks on a higher stand for finer work