Michael Cochran Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Just finished up these ugly new tongs. I saw a picture on another forum where a guy was trying to sell them and I said to myself, 'those look good and useful but not $xx good and useful, I should be able to make some for much less.' Well let me just say they don't look anywhere as good but they do hold, I'll give them a try when they finish cooling enough to handle. I made them from some of my weaving blades since that's what they are meant to hold I thought it might be ironic but then I couldn't decide the correct word cause ironic wasn't it, maybe 'fitting' would be a better word. Well let me show you some pictures before I ramble to much more. Up first is a picture of the starting stock, notice the hole for the rivet conveniently already in place for me. Next picture is the rough forged blanks the rest I think you can figure out. By the way the last one is a full size weaving blade held with two fingers and a thumb. You can't see the bottom of the blade because I didn't want in the picture and I couldn't spread my arms far enough to show it dangling (and that far away I wouldn't have been able to see the button on my phone to take the picture lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackdawg Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 I have never seen a set of tongs that grips like that before. Quite an interesting way of doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Cochran Posted September 25, 2016 Author Share Posted September 25, 2016 If you need tongs for flat stock they work great. Mine need some more adjusting to be better but truth is I'll probably just make a new pair later instead of spending too much time adjusting these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 They are very handy for forging strap stock on edge. That pair looks kind of like a couple tendrils or little snakes wrapping around the stock. Cool beans. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Cochran Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 I used them this weekend to forge out a rough knife blank I'll need to ask the experts how to fix and they handled well. Like I said before they definitely need some adjustments lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 The American Bladesmith Society's YouTube page has a pair of videos about making a similar version: Part one, Part two Also check out the IFI blueprint for Uri Hofi's "woop" tongs (especially starting about 1/3 of the way down, as he starts to shape the jaws): BP1004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Cochran Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 3 hours ago, JHCC said: The American Bladesmith Society's YouTube page has a pair of videos about making a similar version: Part one, Part two Also check out the IFI blueprint for Uri Hofi's "woop" tongs (especially starting about 1/3 of the way down, as he starts to shape the jaws): BP1004 Those videos make it look harder that it really was. The hardest part was drawing out the HC steel I used. I don't have the fancy tools like in the be you mention so I used my pritchel hole to help with some of the bending and used a pair of 1/4 v bit tongs for some of the fiddly bending. They really aren't that hard to make and they could've been much nicer but I got in a rush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 14 hours ago, Michael Cochran said: Those videos make it look harder that it really was. Actually, I think the guy in the video made it harder for himself than it needed to be! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Cochran Posted September 27, 2016 Author Share Posted September 27, 2016 That too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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