First attempt at bolt tongs, 3rd set overall. Made from 3/4" x 3/8" cold rolled. I made them to hold railroad spikes and other mid-sized square stock. Work pretty well so far. The jaws need a touch more tweaking, and the reins need adjusting - they don't seem to close quite enough for a comfortable grip in the hand.

Rein adjustment is a simple thing. Make your next pair with less length in front of the pivot though... to get more leverage.

That is a good point - it seems like it's harder than it should be to hold onto stuff with these.

Closer bits have been suggested. Rein adjusting is easy and can/will be an ongoing process in some tong's case. Nice tongs, well done and no qualifiers called for, they're much better than my first couple few pair.

Frosty the Lucky.

Thanks, Frosty. I've noticed improvement in mine since my first pair. Still not near pretty or perfect, but they are getting better, which is what counts.

Good effort Mate. You can make this set more user friendly by bringing the bits/jaws back closer to the pivot point. If 'twer me, I'd heat the curves and grab that RR nail and clamp it in a vice and then push the pivot closer to the vice. May look a little funny, but should give you more gripping power....and you're right, "getting better, which is what counts"; don't we all strive to achieve our version of 'ideal' in what we do, otherwise why strive?
Keep up the good work, it's coming along nicely.

Thanks, Whirly. I thought that is what was meant by shortening the jaws, but couldn't quite figure out how to do it. That makes perfect sense and should be pretty easy to do.

Another reason for what Whirly said is you will be able to grab the spike close to the head, with the head inside the jaws closer to the pivot. I would try to get them to almost a 90 degree bend right behind the bit if you can.

Thanks! I had a problem with not being able to grab a spike that I had started drifting a handle hole into for a warhammer - couldn't get the jaws close enough to the head to hold it in the limited space. Should solve that quite nicely.