So after a year and a half of working over 90 hours a week i finally managed to drop down to one job( only 56 hours a week now LOL) and can finally get to some long over due blacksmithing projects!  But as i found out, sometimes before you can start a project you have to make the proper tooling. Now sure i could have fumbled around with my wolf jaw tongs trying to hold flat bar but lets be honest, dropping hot steel every 30 seconds really isnt much fun so i bit the bullet and decided to take on something that i have always struggles with. TONGS! Box jaw tongs at that

Now seeing how i have only made 1 set of tongs that actually worked i figured this project would end up in the same place as all my other attempts at making tongs, the scrap bin. But i figured why not give it ago and out popped the old coil springs from my truck and away i went. id like to say these actually turned out fairly decent since they didnt break and the work pretty darn good. i could stand to do some more refining on the jaws tho. BTW that isnt a crack in the flat jaw of the tongs its just where i hot cut it and never cleaned it up with the file.

The flat bar is being turned into hooks for a coat rack/shelf im building as a Christmas gift for my aunt

So, since the deployment of your new tongs, have you continued to drop stock??

Robert Taylor

nope, they work great! only problem (if you want to call it that) is that the flat jaw is a little thick so it makes it a little bit harder to get the stock out of the fire

Then you have achieved your goal, less a bit of tuning, so, Well Done!

I would, were they mine, just file or grind a chisel bevel on that flat jaw.