carlson Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Some time ago I ran acrossed a thread with plans for a simple pair of tongs using flat bar stock. I want to say the name started with a P but can't for the life of me remember. There was a picture that showed step be step. They had v groves cut into the edge which was upset to thicken it I believe. Anyone know what I'm thinking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Whitesmith made those tongs when he was 10 years old in April 2002. . Start with 2 pieces of 1/4" x 3/4" x 20" long flat bar. Drill, or heat and drift, a 1/4" hole, 3 inches from one end, and in the center of the bar. To be sure both pieces match, clamp the bars together and make the hole in both bars at the same time if you use the drilling method. Insert a piece of 1/4" round rod into the hole. Put a vise grip on the handle end to hold the two pieces together.Heat the tong end to orange in the forge. Place the tong end in a vise. Put a crescent wrench just under the piece of 1/4" round rod and adjust the vise so there is about 1 inch of space between the bottom of the wrench and the top of the vise. Turn the wrench 90 degrees or 1/4 turn. You are turning BOTH pieces of bar stock at the same time, and in the same direction. Remove the rod. Heat the tong end in the forge and then shape it for what you want it to do. This set of tongs was being built to hold 1/4" round stock. The tongs can be taken apart and worked easily in the forge. When you want to see how you did, put them back together with the rod. When you have the tongs shaped the way you want, heat the end of the 1/4" round rod and put it in the hole in the tongs. Clamp it in the vise and pein the end of the rod to form a rivet head. Once you have made a rivet head from the end of the rod, cut the other end of the rod off, leaving enough rod to make a rivet head on that side too. Put the whole thing in the fire and get just the end of the rivet hot. You can make the rivet head with the rod cold, but a little bit of heat makes it work a lot better. Put it on the anvil and pein the end over to form a rivet head. Be careful not to get it too tight. You can always make it tighter later, just pein it again, but you can�t make it loosen up by hitting it with the hammer. Note: For the rivet, leave about 1-1/2 times the diameter of the rod to make the rivet head. These tongs have just about the right space at the end of the handle to work for me. You can heat and bend the handles to adjust the space to fit your hands. These are not heavy tongs, and will not do the work of heavy tongs, but they will do a lot of work and are quick and easy to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Some time ago I ran acrossed a thread with plans for a simple pair of tongs using flat bar stock. I want to say the name started with a P but can't for the life of me remember. There was a picture that showed step be step. They had v groves cut into the edge which was upset to thicken it I believe. Anyone know what I'm thinking about? It's an old method but some people refer to them as "Pozniak" or Poz tongs. Glenn provided a good explanation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> IForgeIron has many answers to many questions. You just need to use the search engine. Your search for the term "poz tongs" returned 16 results Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlson Posted December 8, 2013 Author Share Posted December 8, 2013 thanks Glenn that's the thread I was looking for. I found the Whitesmith tutorial searching google for simple tongs among other combinations but Poz didn't come up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 When I first started blacksmithing I ran across Whitesmiths tutorial before I ever knew IFI existed. It was the first set of tongs I'd made. I have made two different sets of tongs based on that tutorial. They are my general use tongs and I still use them every day that I forge. I have made many other types of tongs but these are my favorites. Make yourself a set of Sean's twisted tongs. You'll be glad you did and they will be one more set to add to your growing inventory. Mark <>< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokey07 Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Poz tongs--- Richard Pozniack was a blacksmith for the city of Chicago. was a demonstrater at one of the Northwest Blacksmith Assoc. conferences many years ago. he showed us how to make his favorite tongs. can be made to handle many different sizes of iron. Hence the name--Poz tongs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> IForgeIron has many answers to many questions. You just need to use the search engine. Your search for the term "poz tongs" returned 16 results Glenn, I checked out the link you gave, but further down the thread I noticed the links to the Best of "The Forge" which had three volumes of GREAT information on blacksmithing. It'll take a long time to work my way through all that info.!!! Thanks for the indirect reference to some great stuff. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Arkie, there are many references on IForgeIron.If you go to the downloads tab there are entire books that can be downloaded. We tell people to pack a lunch and a cold drink before you enter IForgeIron for a reason. (grin) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Arkie, there are many references on IForgeIron.If you go to the downloads tab there are entire books that can be downloaded. We tell people to pack a lunch and a cold drink before you enter IForgeIron for a reason. (grin) Glenn, over the months I have downloaded a BUNCH of them...great resources. Still reading them. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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