My first usable tongs, a flux spoon, and an anvil hold-down. Made from 5/8" coil spring, the tongs are sized for 1/4" flat and are not pretty, but they work!

Flux spoon is from 3/8" mild steel, I squared a section & twisted it just for practice.

Anvil hold-down is mild 1/2" steel, It works, but I am going to try coil spring for the next one.

Nicely done! a whole heck of a lot better than my first pair.

Good looking work all round. My first pair of tongs were near perfect for turning hot dogs on a grill, not so good for forging. <grin>

 

The holdfast looks like it'll do well. At a recent clinic the demonstrator (who's name escapes me right now but I can blame the TREE) used holdfasts with a cross bar welded as a foot. They worked exceptionally well you can hold long pieces in the middle, along the anvil's edge, etc. Very handy mod. I only made one little mod and used/forged a longitudinal curve, like a slice lengthwise of pipe so the holdfast foot wouldn't mark the work.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks! My first try (1" x 1/4" twisted jaw) went so horribly wrong I didn't even try to fix it.

Tried drawing these out of round, and it worked although it did take me quite a while.

great start you are on the right track

Frosty the demo was done by Gordon Williams.

Gordon Williams, yes, thanks Mark. If you spot typos and such within a few hours of making the mistake you can click the "Edit" button at the bottom right of the post next to the "Report, Multi quote and Quote" buttons and correct mistakes. I know I use it all the time. Like right now. <grin>

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Nice work! Keep it up.

Okay, I am feeling lazy (also I don't have the use of a forge either) and our tong making class isn't until May 30 so I thought I would buy a tong kit but I cannot remember who sells one. Help please! Thanks!

You might be thinking of Ken's Custom Iron.

 

http://www.kensiron.com/store.html

 

Those are still a "twist" type of making one.

 

Best though, is to keep working on making your own.  Sounds like you have plenty of time to practice.  You won't learn much about smithing by buying and not working your own iron.  "Practice makes perfect" (or nearly so).  Good luck :)