Short version: what size stock would you recommend using for tong reins if forge welding them on?
So I have a decent amount of 5/8” round stock, mild steel. Seems like good stuff for making tong blanks out of, but it’s pretty thick stuff. I’d imagine that a 12-14” pair of tongs with 5/8” reins would be a nice heavy duty set of tongs, but overkill for what I will be needing. A big heavy set of tongs seems unnecessary for my current skill level, and projects that I’ll be doing. I thought about drawing the reigns out on every blank like I have done with smaller square stock, seems like it will be more work than it’s worth. I’ve been testing out forge welding on some random scraps, and I think I’m ready to try and forge weld reins into a set of blanks. For those of you who go this route, what size do you use for the reins?
thanks for the info!