Are John

More hooks, did a few J's and one S yesterday. Did a few more J's today, working on my tapers, find the spade head helps me know how even they are once they're flattened out.

Long time, no see. First go at this in months.

Felt inspired recently, grabbed some 3/8th's round bar and aim to divide it into J hooks.

Done two so far, need to do better on the taper prior to flattening it for the head. Had a light bulb moment at the end to use a 30mm pipe section on a jack frame to get more uniformity in the curve (the tool you can see in the first photo). Quite pleased with how they turned out. They both need abit of cleaning up mind you.

Long time, no see.

Had a first attempt at what will be a wall hook today, tad scaly but rather surprised how well it turned out. No hole punch so intend to drill it at some point. Until then, it's just a hook. Made from a bit of mild steel I used for a drawing out exercise a while back that was somewhere in the region of 1/4" thick. Finished product is around 3-4" long.

Also have discovered how much of an obstacle the boss to rein thickness ratios can be. Been fiddling about with them some more so that the reins don't cause the boss halves to have a gap between them.

Beautiful hammer head JLP.

Done some work on the other half of the first set of tongs, must've had a brain fart because the second piece different to the first, probably had a sub-concious slip in youtube videos i've seen regarding methods. Pretty crude looking but they do align despite the differing styles.

This first set is intended to hold some 1/2" square bar to make a better set after.

Slow and steady progress on that first pair of tongs, also gave edges of the anvil abit of a smoothing off.

Thanks for the input gents, despite not using the sharp edges thus far, grinding the edge off does seem rather inevitable for when I move up in the world.

Flat jawed ideally, I've been doing a mixture of drawing out on the horn and longways on the face, would be far easier once I have some metal tongs with better designed jaws. The wood ones I use currently are rather naff for grabbing the square bar i'm using any way other than at a right angle and on the flat face of the bar, makes hitting down the corners a bit tricky. Small steps, but once i've fashioned a more pratical pair I hope to make an even better pair.

Re the rail anvil; i'd not dare do any modifications to it as of yet. But the half that's in the shade does seem more ground down than the other, not that much but it's noticeable in person.

Done some more work on an actual pair of tongs to replace the wooden ork-tongs. Have been drawing out one end, piece started out as 1/2 inch square bar at 1' , now just under 15". Planning to do the same on the other end now.

Rest assured, they're getting there.

Thanks mate, i'll give that a shot. Wood tongs are a pioneering science.

Hello everyone, been lurking on/off over the past years & now have something to show.

After many years of interest, i've finally taken my first step into metal working proper, finished my setup tested and did a first heat and session of bashing metal.

Note the orky improvised tongs, they do the job of holding things at a distance, though I have to keep them in a bucket of water between holds to prevent them catching fire.

Trying to draw out the piece of steel I have so I can make better tongs with them to replace the combi-wood/scrap ones.

Onwards & upwards.