ICE tongs

[mcraigl]

I can't remember who asked. I apologize. It's been a long time, but my sister finally came through with the pix of my grandfather's ice tongs. I don't know if he made them or not. My mother grew up on a ranch in northeastern utah in the Bear River Valley. The ranch is at about 6800', and they had no electricity. The river was only about 1/8 mile from the ranch house, and they had an "ice house" I think they were called. Anyway, my grandfather would go out with a horse drawn sleigh to feed the cows and would take an ice saw and these tongs along with him. After the cattle were fed he'd go down to the river and cut blocks of ice and load them on the sleigh and put them in the ice house / cellar. I've always loved these tongs, they were originally in my house growing up, then they were hung from a rafter at our family cabin, and finally my sister has ended up with the. I have a whole new appreciation for them now, and can see that they are indeed hand forged. Anyway, just wanted to share, and I do remember someone wanted to see pix of them. My bro in law put a ruler in some of the pix for scale. There are more pix in the gallery, but here's a teaser.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/1543/cat/591

[Blacksmith Jim]

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing :)

[Sam Salvati]

AHH, nice. They look well forged!

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

We have a couple pair of these around the farm, except the shanks are a little straighter and they terminate in a heavier point. My grandpa and great uncle used them to skid logs out of the timber to the sawmill they ran. We still use them on occasion if a log is on too steep of a hill to cut it (safely) for firewood, or if we need to drag out a whole tree for whatever reason, just hook up a chain and go. Simple, but strong!

[Sam Salvati]

It's a cool design, the pressure of pulling on the handle makes them hold tighter.

[Chris Pook]

I've seen them used for logging, actually had a smith do Demo on making some a few NWBA conferences ago.