I need some tongs and I dont have the money to buy any right now. What is the best material to make them out of. I have some mild round bar about the size of a sharpie marker. I gonna try and forge some. I know this will be a task for me because I am just starting but Im not going for looks I just need a pair that work to get me started. Thanks.

Yes! The best material is whatever you can find. The last pair of tongs I made (or bought for that matter) were made from Ti, it was what I could find.

Now if we knew more we could tell you more.

Great size for basic tongs. Look on YouTube for Brian Brazeal's tutorial on tong making. Two of them: One in Clay and one in steel...

Here's one of the threads that was made on tong making. It will give you some good ideas and if you do a search in the "tools" forum, you will find a bunch of threads on tongs. Good luck with your tongs and tools.

Every wrecked car has a lug wrench, that is good medium carbon tool steel.

Another way to go, other than forging more proper tongs is twist tongs. Twist tongs are purely utility tools to get you up and working say like welding long handles to a pair of slip joint pliers. One of my most used pair of tongs is just that, handle extensions on slip joint pliers.

On to twist tongs. Find about 3' of flat stock in the 3/4" x 1/4" range, doesn't have to be exact but this is a decent size to hold in your hand. Now, cut it in half so the halves match in length. Mark a spot about 1 1/2" - 2" from one end, clamp the halves together and drill a 1/4"-5/16" hole on the mark, both halves will be drilled in the same spot.

Now for the tricky part. Clamp the short end in a vise and put a heavy duty Crescent wrench above the bolt. Make sure the bolt holes are matched closely and twist it 90*. Heating it is fine but you may be able to twist it cold if the vise is bolted to something really solid and you put a big honking cheater on the wrench. Now put a bolt through the holes and a nut on the end.

That's it, twist tongs. They're not pretty and not custom fitted unless you fit them of course but they'll work for general smithing.

Frosty the Lucky.