Im cheating and i know it :-P

[Savage]

Well the tongs are done and are alot stronger than my bad attempt at tongs i made using thin stainless tube and round punchings. Pics will be tonight after work.

[Bentiron1946]

I guess some of us are into self flagellation, get over it, LOL.

[Timothy Miller]

I don't think its about tradition.  Its about mastering forging and being able to make the tools you need on the spot as needed.  I make my tongs in a gas forge with a power hammer that's hardly traditional.  If you wanted to be traditional you would use wrought iron and forge weld on the reigns.  In terms of effort the "traditional way" it is far less work than forging them out of mild steel from one piece.

[John B]

Traditional as I see it is from now forward.

 

Blacksmiths have always pushed technology forward, its about using what materials, processes and skills you have available to achieve what is wanted, we are problem solvers.

 

Having said that, IMHO there is a practical skills base to start from to be termed a blacksmith,

 

But that's an old can of worms, that will never will be resolved.

 

For myself, I always aspire to be a better blacksmith than I am today and pass on what limited knowledge and experience I have so far accumulated to others.

 

I can feel one coming on, so, Rant stopped now!

[Alan Evans]

snip... i always try my best to do things the hardest and slowest way to gain skill and most importantly patience,

 

 

Well I certainly don't. Quite the opposite. The fastest and easiest way to gain skill and patience every time for me. :)

 

I always learn fastest when I am working on a real project toward a finished object, rather than doing an "exercise" for the sake of it.

 

The reason I am (and I think Timothy) intrigued by this is that we find forging (tongs) is the most efficient way. There is nothing wrong morally with using a plasma as I tried to indicate in post #8. BUT... if your interest is in blacksmithing you're cheating yourself of an opportunity to do something pleasurable in exchange for sucking in plasma fumes and using an angle grinder and or linisher. Those processes, that while they have their place, do not give me the same buzz as forging.

 

If your interest and enthusiasm is oriented towards reductive work processes, cutting, carving, drilling and grinding then, equally pointlessly, one could say you would be cheating yourself if you pick up a hammer.

 

Well the tongs are done and are alot stronger than my bad attempt at tongs i made using thin stainless tube and round punchings. Pics will be tonight after work.

 

You have not responded to my queries regarding the problems you had with your many  failed forging attempts. Show some pics of those as well as the plasma cut ones, so we can help. Give you some pointers.

 

 

Serious, important, waxing philosophical bit....

 

I think that forging tongs were the basis of my career as both an artist and a blacksmith. Both the practical forging lessons they afforded and the aesthetics inherent in the process of the manipulating by heat and hammer. Through them I learnt the fundamentals of using the anvil, of hammer control, of left hand control, of fire welding, of punching, of the beauty of radical changes of section. I learnt how much faster it was to achieve a form buy hot manipulation and addition rather than carving from solid. The subtleties of using a radiused anvil edge to leave a strength-giving fillet at the root of the section change. The love of simple undecorated functional forms. The pleasures of using and looking at a well balanced tool. The love of forms and surfaces which record the process of their shaping by heat and hammer. Making tongs opened my eyes to the beauty of industrial blacksmithing forms seen in ship and locomotive furniture which are derived from the efficiencies of the forging process. See Lillico.

 

Bentiron1946's post reminds me of the my early days when I did feel there was a morality involved, I too was in the non-traditional camp, but possibly a more radical faction. I would use electric welding and deliberately leave the fillet displayed it in its own right as just another decorative bonafide jointing technique...celebrate it, not grind it flush or cover it with a collar!

 

Happily I now allow myself to grind welds off where appropriate! Now my focus is on the end result. All the techniques and process employed are used to in an attempt to support and contribute to the spirit of the piece.

 

Blimey, who would have thought a pair of tongs would prompt that outpouring!

 

Alan

 

P.S. John B posted while I was writing this, sorry I didn't resist the rant onset! 

Edited June 4, 2013 by Alan Evans

[Savage]

As for the failed attempts i have no pics, to explain how i failed, well everytime i went to forge the steel i end up doing it the wrong way or the one piece isnt anywhere near the same as the other.
Dont get me wrong i do like blacksmithing and when i have thetime to do that then i will but at the moment i am focused on getting a few knives done to sell and try get the word out there. Once i have got some more people wanting knives and such i will be using the money to set up a bit more of a workshop.
These tongs i plasmer cut didnt have long enough handles so i simply drew them out a little, im probly gonna need to shape the jaws a bit smaller to make it easier to pick up knives but im happy with the outcome and they got a heap of strength in them.

[metalmangeler]

I think most could have made tongs any way faster than all the typing in this post. :)

[Savage]

I think most could have made tongs any way faster than all the typing in this post. :)

im a fast typer lol well i got my tongs so im happy. Probly ganna thin out the jaws a bit to make it easier to pick up stuff.

[Ten Hammers]

Timothy really covered it for me.  Skill building is the thing.

[homeshow]

If your making tools your not making knives (money). Is what .my knife making journeyman instructor tells me.

[Timothy Miller]

If your making tools your not making knives (money). Is what .my knife making journeyman instructor tells me.

There are things beyond making money.  If you wanted to get rich, forging metal is not a good career choice.  The other side of the coin is being a flexible well rounded blacksmith/metal worker keep the doors of our shop open in hard times when others failed. 

[metalmangeler]

I have had a number of people tell me that they would rather make their product than tongs, or dies, but I have never been in the shop of one of these people who really had a good selection of these tools. Seems like often the tool is not availlable to buy that is exactly right for the job. It is also in my world at least a lot quicker to make a pair of tongs that I need now rather than wait a week if they do not need to back order them. It is true that if you really have a niche you get to where you can forge that item more effiecently than a one off pair of tongs etc.

[Dale M.]

IF you are a contemporary blacksmith and just need tongs....

 

http://kensiron.com/quick_tongs.html

http://www.polarbearforge.com/for_sale.htm

 

If you are a traditionalist, hammer on....

 

I personally want to make some tongs for the experience, but also have purchased some tongs so I have decent tools to work with...

[Larry H]

I purchased a pair of tongs about fifteen years back,... once i held them in my hand............

 

 

 

 

nuff said.....once,........ to much work to make them serviceable