January 20, 201511 yr Tongs, you can never have too many. Often with new commissions you'll be like: "ooh.. I need to make another". It's part of the trade, hardly any escaping from it. Your tools have an impact on your body, some hardly, some severe. Tongs are quite noticable. Do you ever feel like your hands are "raw" or as if the top layer of skin has been peeled off? This either comes from dry hands or wear, or maybe both. if you take the time to observe when your hands start to hurt, it became clear to me that I got sore hands from my tong reins. The roughed out forgings and texture will rub in your hands, as if it were a file. This obviously starts to hurt soon. If you take the time to make your tongs and reins nicely and smooth them out. You will become faster at making them and nicer as well. If nicely finished well proportioned, you will get less tired and sore hands will hardly ever occur again. At least, that it did for me. Here are a few pictures, old tongs and more recent tongs. Working with them on a daily basis will certainly make you notice this. My old tongs. The first one from the left was the second pair of tongs I have made in my life. I gladly still have it to this day! Here are my newer tongs which are better proportioned and with smooth reins.
January 20, 201511 yr Nice smooth reigns definetly make a difference I am only working with a few pairs 2 that I have made one was from 1/2 inch round for small stock which I just left alone for the reigns and they feel great after using for awhile. The others were from. 5/8 which I drew out the reigns and are not nearly as smooth or even and after awhile your hands can feel the difference being a little more sore after.
January 20, 201511 yr My favorite pair has gleaming shiny grips from use! I do tend to sand off the rust on old tongs I buy and then heat the reins and wax them very lightly to be smooth on the hands.
January 20, 201511 yr I have come to the same conclusion, I blister easily, so rough handled tools are not good news. Hand tools act as an extension to the hand (there is a clue in the name!) and I think the comfort with which they can be held is vital to their effectiveness. I consider it to be the anthropometric part of the equation. The corresponding ergonomic bit covers their weight, balance, configuration and fitness for purpose /efficiency of effect. My first tongs had round bar reins fire welded on, with the aquisition of a power hammer they have been forged from one piece. The first few were lumpy following the dramatic aesthetic power hammered fashion of the day, but very rapidly those were reworked and the form reverted to the refined smooth surface texture. When I was working as a jeweller I always took a great pleasure upon buying a new pair of box jointed pliers to take off all the sharp corners around the joint and to mirror polish the jaws. When using them for jewellery you tend to "throttle" them wrapping your forefinger around the joint, and the polished jaws maintained the surface of the workpiece and reduced the clean up at the end of the job. Alan
January 20, 201511 yr As a full time electrician, I am well aware of good vs. poor tool design and handle comfort. Working 12 hour days 7 days a week til the job is finished is standard, so anything not smooth in the handle will be noticed and effect what gets done. It is hard to work with blisters on the hands. The little extra time I take to get a good finish is more than worth the effort in any tool. Good point to bring up Joe, too many never stopped to think about this.
January 21, 201511 yr less so for the hobby smith, but id imagine that rag tag tools thrown together in a hurry to 'git-r-done' would reflect poorly on the reputation of a professional smith to any visiting customers as well. thanks for bringing up the thought and those are some mighty fine tongs you are producing as well!
January 21, 201511 yr Greetings Joe, Nice work on the tongs... I have made several and lately I prefer to add smaller stock ones to my inventory. One thing that I have tried with success is rounding the reigns and than flatting the grip part to a oval. They seem to fit this ol boys paws just fine with great sideways control... Give a set a try.. Forge on and make beautiful things Jim
January 21, 201511 yr I always use rings on the reins. My hand strength is normal but several years of production forging convinced me to use the "blacksmith's vice grips" method. Smooth reins and cleanly forged tongs are still a good idea - nice work.
January 22, 201511 yr Smooth reins are definitely better. An oval shape does give better control at times. As a sidenote, I have noticed that some beginning smiths want to texture their hammer handles (grooves, dimples, checkerboard, etc.) to get a "better" grip. They usually grind or sand them down smooth very quickly!!!!
January 22, 201511 yr Smooth reins are definitely better. An oval shape does give better control at times. As a sidenote, I have noticed that some beginning smiths want to texture their hammer handles (grooves, dimples, checkerboard, etc.) to get a "better" grip. They usually grind or sand them down smooth very quickly!!!! a little grip is nice, but you dont need to rough it up all to much, i usually just dont sand my handles to much just hit em with 60 or 80 grit and oil them and you get nice grip but still comfortable for long use.
January 22, 201511 yr Smooth reins are definitely better. An oval shape does give better control at times. As a sidenote, I have noticed that some beginning smiths want to texture their hammer handles (grooves, dimples, checkerboard, etc.) to get a "better" grip. They usually grind or sand them down smooth very quickly!!!! That sounds like blister city to me!
January 22, 201511 yr I always(almost always) jump welded on my reins so they were smooth 3/8" round to start..
January 22, 201511 yr a little grip is nice, but you dont need to rough it up all to much, i usually just dont sand my handles to much just hit em with 60 or 80 grit and oil them and you get nice grip but still comfortable for long use. That's just about perfect for a handle....I usually go down to around 120 or so. Everybody has their own taste.
January 22, 201511 yr Along the lines of better tools making you more efficient and not damaging your body, I got to use a pair of tongs that had been forged from Titanium and was just shocked at how light they were. Not only were they light but is it also seemed they provided more tactile feel and finesse of movement. If I ever get to do this professionally and find I use a few pair of tongs more than any other I would defiantly consider making them from Titanium.
January 23, 201511 yr That sounds like blister city to me! That's why I mentioned it. It happened to me with my first hammer and first forging. I thought I needed to insure a good grip, so I used my hand drill and drilled a few rows of dimples about 1/8" deep all down the lower part of the handle on a 3# cross peen hammer. After about 30 minutes of good, hard hammering, I had BAD blisters on all fingers, thumb and palm!! :( Sanded that sucker smooth, oh yeah!!!!!!!! :rolleyes:
January 23, 201511 yr This is one of the reasons I always council beginning smiths to buy their first few sets of tongs rather than trying to make them. While making tongs is a noble aspect of the job, the crude tongs that a beginning smith can make will only hold them back rather than help them advance. We can all relate to the difference in weight, balance, appearance and general quality between a mass-produced pair of tongs and the first five or ten pairs we tried to make on our own. Heck, I just bought a pair of 1/2" v-bit tongs from the one supply house and they are head and shoulders above anything I could hope to make for the same money. $40 is small potatoes for a pair of tongs that will hold both 1/2" and 3/8" stock as solid as you please. Should you know how to make a quality pair of tongs? Sure. But save that for after you've had a year or two of solid forging time under your belt. When you're just starting out, buy tongs to cover your main stock sizes (1/4", 3/8", 1/2") and a few pair for working with flat stock. It will make your life a sure sight easier, and you'll actually enjoy forging more.
January 23, 201511 yr If you like making tools, and you aren't intimidated by how much work it is, they are actually a really good way to improve your patience, if not your hand forging;-) I personally don't care for the welded on reins. So drawing out by hand and forging a nice long smooth taper is good practice. With good guidance and coaching you can make a nice set of tongs once you have the strength, endurance and hammer control. It is certainly not unattainable
January 23, 201511 yr I can't say if its the right or wrong approach, but I don't own a pair of "mass produced" tongs and don't plan to. I have the luxury of doing this as a hobby and enjoy making tongs. I am at about 20 pair now, they have much improved but have much improvement to go. The only thing I'll add to the finish of the reins, although I think it was perhaps not the intent of this post and is a given for most, is proper fit. Making do with ill fitting tongs has all sorts of downfalls.
January 25, 201511 yr I've made a few pairs of tongs. They are absolute dogs to look at but they have improved my technique. I have noticed the problems Joe talks about - rough reins. I want to make a swaging tool with a spring loaded top die i can have in my hardy hole to smooth out stock i've tried to forge round.
January 25, 201511 yr I keep a couple pair of my very first ones around to remind me were I come from but boy are they painful to look at :blink:
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