Search the Community

Hello, I have some nippers I have no use for and I want them to become tongs. I saw the $2 nippers to tongs post but I don't see instructions, just the results. The nippers are very thin on the end as they are meant to snip, so how can I get enough material from this thin chisel like end in order to form a shape to hold onto stock? If anyone knows of a tutorial or could give some instructions how to do this that would be great. I also am not sure I can take the rivet out of one pair as it is completely flush on both ends so I don't know how I would get it back in effectively. I figured doing this would be an easier introductory tong project rather than going full bore into making tongs from scratch. I would like to make tongs that can hold square stock. Thanks for the help.

Hey Fellows! Here you can watch the tutorial that I made on how to forge Brian´s pick up / hammer making tongs. The video is part of a series of videos Alec and I are going to make to support Brian´s "Tools to make Tools" curriculum the International YoungSmiths team will be going through during the event at Tannehill Forge School of Blacksmithing Summer 2013.

Hi guys, here is a little guide on how to forge a rams head wall hook. I am not a professional instructor and this is just the way I do it currently. I made a video and extracted the most important frames (full video on the bottom of the page): 1. Take a sqare bar (here 12mm) mild steel and draw down about 2 1/2 inches to half parent bar thickness 2. Split the set off section with a hot chissel along the middle 3. Fuller inbetween the horns and clean up with a file 4. Taper both horns (fold one horn back so you can work on the other)

Hey Guys, just me showing one possibility to make a hammer eye punch. I used C60 tool steel in 20mm round stock: Here are the different steps: 1. forge the round bar to an octagonal shape 2. create a teardrop shape about 1 inch below the top 3. create a light taper that starts of at the end of the teardrop and gets thicker for about 2 - 3 inches 4. then cut off additional 4 inches and create a light taper that gets thinner to the tip 5. taper about 1 - 2 inches at the tip thinner than the rest 6. planish and make everything nice and straight 7. dress the striking face 8. dress the surface of the rest of the tool and remove remaining sharp corners (optional) 9. heat up the whole tool above the transition point and let cool down slow (eg. in sand or on coals) to anneal it 10. grind the tip 11. heat up about 1 inch of the tip to cherry red colour and quench it in water or in oil to harden it (optional) ATTENTION: NEVER harden the striking face!!! 12. temper the hardened portion and a bit above to sky blue colour 13. clean it and touch up the edge 14. look out for cracks, test whether it is shatter proof 15. have fun with it :). Here is the one I made in the video: Well I hope this was helpfull. Yours - Daniel

The other day, someone messaged me about how to make chainmail. So I created a tutorial and sent it to him. this is that tutorial. I hope that my diminutive knowledge of the maille making craft can at least help some of you who aspire to make some. I found out how to make maille by youtube, and www.mailleartisans.org. I in no way pretend to know a lot about Chainmaille, I just feel that knowledge is best used if it's spread. so here is how to make European 4 in 1 chainmaille, enjoy :) materials: steel wire (anything 12 gauge and below is too big to work with, and 18 and above is too small.) two pliers (I find that needle nose work best) cutting device (there are many, and they all produce different types of cuts, search mailleartisans.org for great in-depth information. for my chainmail, i use a pair of small bolt cutters.) straight, cylindrical object (most people use wooden dowels, but i had none left around so i used a screwdriver. the reason people use dowels is so they know the size of the inside of the rings. i didnt really care, so i just used a screwdriver. I later found the diameter of it to be 5/16".) gloves are optional, i wear them because the tip of the wire hurts my fingers. how to do it: first, unravel a bit of wire and place it on top of the screwdriver perpendicular to how it's laying like so: second, proceed to coil the wire around the dowel or screwdriver for however long you see fit. third, cut off the coil from the spool of wire at the base of where the wire starts to coil around the dowel. fourth, cut the coil in a straight line (important!) to produce rings fifth, slightly open one ring with pliers. sixth, weave two rings inside the open ring, and close all rings. seventh, repeat steps five and six as many times as desired. eighth, open a ring that's holding two rings, and weave it into two rings that are attatched to another one ring. so the rings follow a 2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1 pattern. nineth, repeat step eight until desired length is aquired. tenth, make a separate chain of 2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1 eleventh, take a single open link not connected to the two chains , and weave it where two of the top "two" rings and two of the bottome "two" rings overlap. twelfth, repeat step eleven until you have a nice lattice of european 4 in 1 chainmail :) if you have any questions, contact me, or see youtube and mailleartisans.org thank you for reading, I hope this tutorial is helpful to at least one of you! :)

Hey fellows, after I published my guide on how to forge a rams head wall hook some people asked me how to make the punch for the eyes of the rams head. Due to the fact that there isn´t any video covering this very type of punch yet, I decided to make one on my own. I hope it can give you an idea how you would forge one on yourself. Please bare with me, it was -10°C and gloves where an absolute necessity in order to be able to forge anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCkMiVZR8Pw&feature=youtu.be Here a little written description: 1st heat: forge a square taper 2nd heat: dress up the taper 3rd heat: dress up the tip of the punch 4th heat: punch a dent into the tip of the punch using a ball punch 5th heat: take off two opposing corners of the tip, if you want the eye ball to be round, only use a file, if you want it elliptical first upset it horizontally with the hammer and then dress it up with a file 6th heat: cut it off at desired length 7th heat: make the strike end of the punch octagonal and forge a teardrop shape about 1" below the striking face, dress the striking face 8th heat: anneal the whole punch 9th heat: harden the tip of the punch at cherry red color and then use the spare heat to temper it to sky blue color last step: test if it is shatterproof and test the punch on a piece of steel. I hope you enjoyed the video and learned something new! Your - Daniel

Hey Guys, in this very video I explain the procedure to make box jaw tongs that fit for 25x10mm flat bar. Due to the fact that a lot of people saw TechnicusJoe´s tongs videos to be mirrored in my video I watched his and yes, I can also see the similarities. But this must have happened unconsciously and I, although I sure have been influenced by his work, did not try to copy him on purpose. My main source for the box jaw tongs and the welded on rains was Mark Aspery´s video, for the flat jaw tong what I was taught in France and for the drawing out Brian Brazeal´s video. The purpose of this video is to show people that are keen to learn the technique to make a pair of box jaw tongs and I think it - as well as Joe´s videos do - suits that purpose very well. I took to note that this problem is in place and I will watch out for it in future videos. But I don´t need ten or more additional people tell me this over and over again ;). That being said I hope you will have fun and benefit from watching it ^_^. Yours - Daniel

Hello people, on Thursday I have been out in my shop forging a pair of farrier-style tongs for holding 20x5mm flat bar. I´d be glad about some critique and advise. The tongs work good although I had to grind of some of the boss and jaw material in order to make them work... Here you can see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Drq9aLOeE And here is a picture of the finished result: Regards - Daniel