A friend came by the other day and we were forging and he was having trouble finding tongs that worked well for him on flat knife blades so I made these. I took a little more time than normal and tried to make them look a little better. I don't sell my tongs so I have really not been in the practice of making them presentable. I think I need to change my ways.

   These are the 6 I made.

    2 of them were box jaw.

    2 of them were these edge grippers that pass by I don't know what they should be called.

    I also made 1 for gripping flat 1/8 stock and a rivet tong just because.

Nice work. I think holding the stock is underemphasized. When I get lazy and use tongs that are ill fitting, the work really suffers.

Those are really nicely made!

Those are certainly "fit for purpose"   don't undersell yourself!

Good tongs!

 

I've had a couple of accidents at my place resulting from ill fitting tongs, and the hot pieces hit the operators in the head. There is lots of blood from a head wound.

I call the ones that grip the material as it passes the joint "offset" tongs and all of those look quite serviceable. If you feel they aren't pretty enough then that is your call, but function first, then beauty in my opinion.

Good work on those tongs mate, they look well made.

Thank you guys, I am thinking that these are nicer looking than many of my past tongs, but then I think of how nice some people make their personal tools and realize I have far to go. I do think they grip well and are functional.

Hey Gang, the club usually goes silent when Mark does a tong making demo. He doesn't put a lot more than robust function into his personal tongs but they work the way they are supposed to. Mark's tongs are typically 4140 or sometimes coil spring so they're plenty stout enough to be light and have a great grip. He's also been central in getting us power hammer owners to standardize our  dies so they're interchangeable.

 

Metalmangler, Mark is one of our charter members and an active conspirator in getting me elected president. I had to hit the bathroom, next thing I knew I was pres. <sigh> So, don't kid yourself Mark's a crafty guy I'm proud to call friend.

 

Frosty the Lucky.