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The Ultimate Tongs


brianbrazealblacksmith

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I'm new to this site and to black smitning. If anyone makes these tongs please contact me I would like to have 2 sets one for me and another for a friend. Brian where in Miss. do you live and if my friend and I could made it out to you what do you charge for a few days of lessons? I live in AZ so if we could get out your way we would want to stay more than just a day or two maybe 3-4.

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I'm new to this site and to black smitning. If anyone makes these tongs please contact me I would like to have 2 sets one for me and another for a friend. Brian where in Miss. do you live and if my friend and I could made it out to you what do you charge for a few days of lessons? I live in AZ so if we could get out your way we would want to stay more than just a day or two maybe 3-4.


I'll have Karen E-mail you about classes. We're in Brandon, Miss., just east of Jackson, off I20.

I don't know of anyone making those tongs. I just made that pair the other day for LDW, for his birthday. If you come out we can possibly make you and your friend some.
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Yes, a crowbar would work, but you can also use coil spring or jackhammer bits. I wanted at least 3/4" for the V-jaw, so I used the hex I had. The 3 point contact is what makes the tongs work with such a wide range of stock, so I wouldn't change that. Also, I forgot to mention that the V- jaw is less than 90 degrees. I never make V-jaws with a 90 degree angle.

I,too, would rather buy a pair of tongs than have to make them.


Would upsetting some 5/8 do a similar job? or do you think the rest of the tongs would end up too light for use with 1 inch?
Phil
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  • 3 weeks later...

Brian;

I found this tong jaw trying to crawl out of it's pry bar shell out at the forge! It looks like a heftier version! The V jaw is 3" long... I am hoping that these will serve for forging up to 1 1/2" round or square stock. As you can clearly see my finish is a bit rougher than yours... but I don't feel too bad as I think that could be said of a pretty high percentage of smiths. There is some work remaining here as these need to be drifted out more for the rivet and then there is another jaw and rivet to forge yet. I acquired this pry bar at an antique shop over the weekend (it was too rainy to fish) at the very reasonable price of $2. I keep a good stock of this type material all bought at quite favorable rates whenever I find it.

post-5493-1272457268474_thumb.jpg

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I'm glad to see you trying these tongs out! I had to make me another pair last week, because I sold my pair to Dave Browne.


Brian made me a beautiful pair of his ultimate tongs last week. These suckers are light and springy and really lock down on stock. Because they fit so many sizes, this one pair easily replaces a half dozen pair of tongs or more (plus they hold tapers). They are the Swiss Army Knife of tongs.
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks, guys. I have already made me another pair, and I use them all the time. Grant, you've got to make some of these for the market out there!




I love those tongs and........

http://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/Templates/cart_templates/cart-detail.php?theLocation=/Resources/Products/Tongs_and_Pliers/OC_Universal_V-bit

there are some there!


alec :D


Grant knows his market!
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  • 5 weeks later...

Funny, I didn't start out trying to make a "universal" tong. I was just looking to make a pipe, angle iron & square tube tong. I kinda took the idea from Lillico, but wanted to use parts I was already making. That was the result. Now everybody's calling it a "universal" tong. So I'm now tooling up to put a small groove in the other side to make it a little more "universal".

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think the key to Brians is the radius and the groove that allows one tong to hold a variety of widths of material, pinching all the way from the front to the back of the radius. Now guys if I could just get a pair with a little offset and mabe a little larger groove for blade work I think these would fill the bill for most of my bladesmithing .


Jerry Fisher

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  • 7 months later...

Maybe, Grant will start making some. I'd rather buy a pair than make another. These one's are LDW's now.


Ok I finally broke down and made a set of these tongs (well a similar set at least). I have been making bottle openers and after I cut it from the parent stock it is a bugger to hold on to in order to work over the horn. So armed with one side of a blank that Brian gave me on my trip to his place last year, I set out to make the tongs. Also another post on here by John at Gearheartironworks was quite helpful, he showed a jig that he made to forge the jaw area- V jaw.
So to forge this pair of tongs I used 6 inches of 3/4 inch coil spring. I separate material for the jaw, rough out the boss area, then draw the reigns. Once the final shaping and finish is done I turned the jaw area, forge an offset to align the jaws, made a hole for the rivet and use a bolt to hold for final shaping. Once that is don set the rivet and grab some whiskey.
I see what you mean Brian- this is a lot of work even with a power hammer
post-10376-0-42309600-1302012681_thumb.jpost-10376-0-28956300-1302012687_thumb.jpost-10376-0-95608900-1302012692_thumb.jpost-10376-0-07866900-1302012700_thumb.jpost-10376-0-12657200-1302012669_thumb.jpost-10376-0-17657100-1302012675_thumb.j
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Brian,
I herby dub them the "Ulti-Tong" copyright Door County Forgeworks 2011 pending transfer to Brian at his discretion....feel free to send me one as a thank you.

I picture them in two sizes...
normal and
"why the hell you wanna pick that up?".

I need a pair of the second version...in titanium...colored purple.

Ric

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Funny, I didn't start out trying to make a "universal" tong. I was just looking to make a pipe, angle iron & square tube tong. I kinda took the idea from Lillico, but wanted to use parts I was already making. That was the result. Now everybody's calling it a "universal" tong. So I'm now tooling up to put a small groove in the other side to make it a little more "universal".
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