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I Forge Iron

Unique Tongs


FuzzySmith

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Hey, Thomaspower, have you got a link to you shop so i could have a look at your stuff. Daniel.C.85 yeah i got them off his website because there a little unique, i bought a pair of the tusk tongs shown above awhile back and they have proven to be some of my best tongs, they have so many applications.

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Bottom to top. I use these for holding black iron pipe to forge. The plow share tongs have one rein common to both pairs of jaws. The top tongs are pick tongs which have a rotating square at the rivet head in order to hold the pointed end of the pick steady while the mattock portion is forged.

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Another try.

 

I never claimed to be a good photographer. Let's see whether I can describe what I've displayed.

 

Two views of the plowshare tongs. I saw them behind glass in a farm museum in Kansas and drew a diagram guessing at the dimensions. Made them when I got home. Next from bottom to top: pick tongs; 2 tongs I use to hold black iron pipe; ball tongs; adjustable jaw tongs with bolt; Hofi woop tongs. Hofi made the jaws in my shop but had to leave to go on the road. I drew out the reins.  End view of the previous tongs.

 

Next bottom to top: Turley made draft horseshoe tongs; tongs made when you're angry with someone; hammer eye tongs; link tongs for 1/2" round purchased at 2nd hand store with beautifully drawn reins; hermaphroditic tongs. End view.

 

My journeyman blacksmith helper, Daniel, is working on a flowery, leafy gate, so he fashioned some tongs for crimping flower petals. He purposely made the rein ends different one from the other, so he could recognize their use. Four of them have a split jaw with the other central jaw going in between when pressure is applied. Note his blossom and dragonfly.

 

The rule is 12 inches.

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IIRC Practical Blacksmithing, Richardson has a section on making plow share tongs in it. (It's a collection of articles from an 1880's, 1890's blacksmithing journal and so is full of "this is how I do that" and "a better way is like this" much like an internet thread these days but with much slower turn around times!

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Matt_K  are those for some kind of horse shoeing?  I'm curious.

 

They were made by a local horseshoer for jump welding a bar into a shoe. They'd be good for just about any sort of jump welding though. I have yet to need them, but someday... they're going to save my rear.  :D

 

 

Frank, those plowshare tongs are fascinating! thumbup.gif

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