Tong Suggestions?

[Cole Cross]

I am looking for a good pair of general purpose blacksmithing tongs. I want something that will be good enough for a beginner (me), but will also last me into further progression of my hobby. They would mostly be used for knife making as that's what I like to do. I was looking at some wolf jaw tongs, but I need some input as to what more professionals would suggest I use. Also what length would should I get?

[bigfootnampa]

I know that Grant won't say so himself but he does make a very nice set of tongs for quite a reasonable price and they are superior to most that can be bought at prices that a beginner would consider. His brand is "Off Center" tongs and they are sold at Blacksmith's Depot (and many other outlets). I would say NOT to get wolf jaw tongs as the ones that I have are rarely used and I do not like them for ANY job. I only use them if I cannot find anything else that will work... I am desperate before I will turn to them. I would say get EVERY other kind of tong before you buy wolf jaws. Look at the "OC Universal V-Bit Tongs" or the "OC Blade Tongs".

Blacksmith's Depot tongs

[divermike]

well for a beginner, I will tell you what I did, I bought a very cheap set of farrier nippers, and drilled a round hole in the end jaws, and that was my beginning pair, then I ground a diamond in another pair, for square stock, 2 pairs for 5 bucks, I still have the round ones, and still use em. Very good for beginners, as you get better, you will want ones that do not mark up your work, but by then, you will be making your own. That's what we do!!

[maddog]

I'm with bigfoot on this. Wolf jaws are not the way to go for a first pair. It may seem that general purpose tongs are the most useful choice but in fact, they are probably the least useful. A gripping tool that can grab anything, will not hold anything well enough for serious forging. Not even vise grips come close to the gripping power of blacksmith's tongs. Tongs are a simple tool that give a firm grip because their jaws are closely matched to the work they are intended to hold. They are inherently specialized and that means you have to have a lot of them. There's no way around it. Look at the tool racks of any real smithing shop and you will see a forest of tongs. I suggest you buy a couple of pair for the stock sizes you use most often and start learning to make your own. It takes while to be able to turn out a pair of workable tongs, perhaps 10 tries, and longer before one can make something that looks nice but it's worth every minute you invest in it. Making tongs is a cannonical blacksmith exercise and it will advance your skills tremendously. Not to mention, the money saved.

I still have the first pair of useable tongs that I made. There were at least seven that died stillborn before them. This pair took me a day to make, they look awful are really only barely useable. But they represented a big step forward in my skill and confidence. When I look at them and compare them to the ones I make now, I get a boost because I can see I have learned a thing or two since then.

If you have only a limited selection of tongs, and no one really has all the tongs he needs, there are a few work arounds that can sometimes help.

1. Forge on the end of a long bar and dont separate it from the bar till you are done.

2. Start with a long bar and forge the end down to size that fits your tongs before separating it from the bar.

3. Arc weld on a stub to grab with your tongs.

4. Arc weld on a long bar so you can hold the piece without tongs.

[Luke March]

When I first heard the advice that it would take at least 10 tries to make a working pair of tongs, and many more to get a good pair, I figured it wasn't worth the bother, since tong-making wasn't the reason I got into blacksmithing.

When I took a blacksmithing class, I found out how mistaken I was.

In fact, tong making is not as hard as some people make it out to be. It's just a series of steps, like everything else in blacksmithing. If you can use a fuller, draw a taper, drill or punch a hole, and make a forge weld (or if you have an arc welder), than you can make a pair of tongs. There are some youtube videos which demonstrate different versions of the tong-forging process; take a look at them to see what you're aiming for.

My first pair of tongs is useable. You can see them below.


Now, I admittedly had previous experience making forge welds and drawing tapers, and I had a little bit of coaching, but I don't see any reason why it needs to take a person 10 tries to get a working pair of tongs.

I figure its kind of like forge welding; some people have (or had) a lot of difficulty doing it, and have given it a bad reputation. So don't be discouraged like I was; give it a try - it is possible.

Luke