Buying tongs - Questions

[remist17]

I decided to buy two tongs to start out with, then make my own. Several people have been nice enough to recommend V bit tongs and box tongs as the first ones to get. Any other suggestions? And what place is priced ok and secure to work with?

Please tell me if the items below are ok to work with A36 metal max ¾”, truck coil springs, and RR spikes. Once I get better I will be moving to flat stock.

I have two place I have found to offer what I need at cheaper prices:

Quick and Dirty tool

V Bolt Tongs / 18” in length- $33

Flat Jaws / ¼” - $30

 

Blacksmith supply

Tom Tongs Wolf Jaws /   $35

Tom Tong Bolt Style/ 5/16” - $35

Tom Tong Bolt Style / 3/8” - $35

 

Please let me know if I am wrong or if a better design would work for me. Again I have no clue what to get.

[Charlotte]

My first pair of tongs was a pair of vice grips I found at the bottom of a bucket that a garage had been throwing rusty broken bolts and nuts into. Still got them <shrug> My second pair of tongs was my first attempt a blacksmithing,  Making tongs is an excellent way to teach your self the basic skills of the smith,

Draw out, upset, punch, etc.

Good Luck.

[arkie]

remist17,

V-bit tongs in 3/8", 1/2", and 1" will do just about anything else you need to do.   Your bolt tongs are good to have.  I have bought tongs from Pieh, Kayne, Quick and Dirty, all very good and reasonably priced.  I have about half my tongs bought, half self-made.  I am making more now myself for specific tasks that you might not be able to do with store-bought types.  Most new smiths want to make tongs right out of the gate, but might get discouraged in that making tongs is often not the easiest to master.  A good beginner's tong is the Dempsey twist method (search for it).  Easy to make and useful for flat stock.

[remist17]

I understand most people make their own, I decided to buy my first set. I was hoping someone could confirm the ones I have listed are not wasting my money for the size and design. If there is something better that would work for me until I can start making my own even better.

I am pulling how to make tongs as I write this.

Thanks

Edited August 5, 2015 by remist17

[Everything Mac]

Those all sound good to me bud. 

 

Andy

[dickb]

I understand most people make their own, I decided to buy my first set. I was hoping someone could confirm the ones I have listed are not wasting my money for the size and design. If there is something better that would work for me until I can start making my own even better.

I am pulling how to make tongs as I write this.

Thanks

I would go along with the "old vice grips theory", or maybe check out Harbor Freight and buy a big pair or pliers.

The prices you quote are too high to begin with and do not include shipping. Count on another ten dollars for shipping.

For a beginner, it's easier to work with a long piece of stock held in your hand than it is to work with short pieces of stock held with tongs, My suggestion would be to make the jaws and the pivot on the end of one long piece of stock and then make a second identical one.  I suggest you drill the hole for the rivet and put off learning how to punch holes or later. It's easy to mess up punching a hole and then the entire piece is lost.

While you're at Harbor Freight check out their hammers. They are a much cheaper than anyplace else and they will be good enough for now. Just double check the handles.

Some professional blacksmiths with money to burn may scoff at this.

 

 

 

 

[remist17]

Thank you for the posts. I understand and my wife was a little nervous about $80 for two tongs... She still thinks that is a funny word. She pictures me flipping hot dogs and pulling metal with the kitchen equipment. 

I will see what I can make once the clay hardens in the forge. I will be adventurous ! 

 

[Frosty]

There's nothing wrong with buying tongs, especially when getting started. I have a longer reply but am Forbidden.

Frosty The Lucky

[ThomasPowers]

I have made tongs---including a set of hand forged titanium ones but have found it much cheaper to buy them at junk sales and fleamarkets.  My most recent pair was US$5 for a set of diamond brand tongs in very good condition---I had rather buy tongs and modify them than make them as it takes about the same amount of time for me to forge a patternwelded billet as make a nice set of tongs and the billet is worth a heck of a lot more!

[Glenn]

Use long stock or weld a handle on the stock. Knock the handle off and clean up the weld when your finished. Cost - $0.

Vise grips are a good place to start. Clamp hard and cool the grips is they get past warm.

[Charlotte]

One  source that wasn't mentioned but the place that I bought the tongs I actually spent money on was at meetings of blacksmith groups.  For me Louisiana. Mississippi. Alabama, Texas. Most smiths will be eager to help a new smith out and the pros usually have some for sale or Iron in the Hat .

 

[remist17]

Thanks. I'm looking now

[Quarry Dog]

  I have to agree with you on the twist tongs Arkie.  My first pair of tongs was a set of twist tongs sized for 1/4" square.  They were the 3rd thing I ever forged, right after my center punch and cold chisel.  The hardest thing about them was drawing out the reins.  Well, that and letting my hands heal after I grabbed the wrong end.

  All three of those tools are actually in my profile pic.

[monstermetal]

Kind of a middle step is we (Quick and Dirty) sell a set of tong blanks that are pretty much done except for the jaw area.    It gives you the option to do the important part without spending all day drawing out reins by hand.

 

We also sell just raw  18" 1/2" 1045 blanks to make them from scratch.

 

[arkie]

Great idea, Q&D.  BTW, your tongs rock!!

[monstermetal]

Thanks!

As a side note,   If you buy the V bits in the 6 pc set they are less than $27 a pair :-)

 

All of our stuff is priced quite a bit cheaper if you buy a set.

[ThomasPowers]

My second pair of titanium tongs came from Quad-State a dealer had a whole pile of grungy tongs for US$10 per.  As my buy point is usually $5-8 I walked by them then stopped and said "I'll pay $10 for that pair!"  A commercially made set of Ti tongs had found it's way into that pile and I had recognized the color.  Short reins too which I like for knife smithing.

[Alan Evans]

For a beginner, it's easier to work with a long piece of stock held in your hand than it is to work with short pieces of stock held with tongs,

...snip

It is easier and a more positive grip to work with a long piece of stock whatever your skill level. I always try to do that.

Often I will cut a length from which I can get two or more pieces and make them on either end using the first forged as the handle, then cut the bar after forging.

By the time you have all your PPE on (AKA sensory deprivatory equipment) gloves, ear muffs, glasses you have reduced the possible channels of feed back informing you what is happening to the workpiece. Tongs are just another layer of insulation from the job.

Alan

[VaughnT]

Don't forget that v-bit bolt tongs always hold the next size down.  That means you're getting two tongs for the price of one.  I use my 1/2" v-bit bolt tongs to hold 3/8" stock all the time, and they do a great job of it.

As for holding flat stock, I'm a big fan of Quick-n-Dirty's box jaw tongs.  I was skeptical at first, but I really like how they completely enclose the metal.  Their 1/2"x1" box jaw tongs work perfectly for anything 1" wide.  I just used them to work on a knife I made from some 1"x1/8" stock.  Between my 1/2" bolt tongs and the 1/2"x1" box jaw tongs, I had no problem holding the metal by tip or by tang.

That's two pair of tongs to securely hold 6 different sizes of steel.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

If money is an issue, I would agree with the above mentions of long stock, and vise grips.

I have yet to make any tongs, as I have purchesed dozens of them at swapmeets, fleamarkets, garage sales, Craigslist for $3-$5 a pair.

[arkie]

You guys are gonna laugh, but when I got into blacksmithing and built my forge I realized that I had no tongs. I looked around, found an old pair of slip-joint pliers, welded some reins on them and those were my first tongs!  It didn't take long for me to buy a couple of tongs after using those!  Onward to making and buying whatever I needed.

 

[Charlotte]

Nothing wrong with those!   There was a thread a long time back about making scrolling pliers out of old tin snips.  Actually worked quite well.  Many of threads here point out that smiths have traditionally repurposed things for their own "better" use .

I like them>

[ThomasPowers]

I have a set of hideously ugly tongs that I repurposed from a quite old set of smith made pincers.  The pincers had very wide jaws and very large bow behind them and were made from steeled wrought iron.  Anyway I forged them out and reshaped them and now they are one of my most used pairs as they are the "Hot firebrick tongs" and are mandatory for every trip with the gas or coal forge.

[Everything Mac]

Nothing wrong with repurposing old tools. Or buying a set or three of tongs either. 

 

Quite honestly I think tongs are a bit like knives - I CAN make a perfectly good pair/knife, it would serve me very well and do exactly what it needs to. BUT there are companies out there who specialise in making them, who will make a far better tool that I can. There's no shame in spending a bit of cash to get something you know is decent and works well. 

 

And it has been said before, making tongs is not a beginner project. Far from it. I would encourage all beginners to buy their first few sets of tongs rather than mess about with something that doesn't quite do the job and could lead to them getting severely burned. 

 

Andy

[Frosty]

Thanks for posting pics of YOUR slip joint pliers with reins welded on tongs. Some years ago I bought a pickup truck full of smithing tools from an estate sale in an all or nothing sale. While I was going through the nice pile of tongs I found the slip joint tongs and promptly hid them where nobody would see them. Seriously no REAL blacksmith would have such a thing would they?

Then a couple years later I needed a pair of tongs like nothing I had and really needed them right then. Looking through the pile of tongs I spotted the slip joints laying at the bottom of the pile and what the hey they looked like they might work. They worked a treat so I hung them near my forge and found I was grabbing them pretty often so moved them to the tong rack on my forge where they've stayed for a couple decades now.

No shame in buying or improvising tongs, use what works.

Frosty The Lucky.