Ugly box tongs

[SnailForge]

Usually when I work with a long bar of steel, I just weld on some mild steel at the end in order to handle the last feet and a half while forging. Recently I started working with some short damascus bars that are just too precious to waste an inch from. I took some 10 mm mild steel stock and made some box tongs.

I turned the sotck into an L, and then flattened the short bit. Then I folded the flat bit around itself and back again to make a T of which the horizontal piece was a double layer of flattened steel. Then I forge welded and flattened those bits, and folded the short end of the T into a box. The other half of the tongs was more or less standard. The pin is an old piano string pin. I have a ton of them from my neighbor kid who restores old pianos.

The result is quite ugly, but it works very well. I shaped the box to the width of the damascus stock, and the grip is rock solid.

 

[matto]

the first point is making something that works to get the job done,  the second point is making it pretty. 

[HWooldridge]

Yeah, your razor in the other thread is exquisite - don't think I'd worry about how the tongs look.

I will say I built two pair of tongs many years ago for a special job that required holding short pieces of steel.  Those are very similar to your pic here.

[Francis Trez Cole]

learn to make flat jaw tongs first they work for 90% of what you will ever make. What you learn in the process is proper proportions of the Jaw, Boss and Reins. once you have that down get some 1045 that is what the tong makers use.