Shawn S Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 What size stock should I start with for a 1 1/2 V tongs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 how about 3/4? 1 1/2 what... Meters? Yards? Angstroms ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Versts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latticino Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Check the Machinery Handbook, pdf avail online. They have a nice chart with V bit tong dimensions, then just do the math. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn S Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 1 1/2 square, Thank you for the point towards the pdf. I have seen that and have it saved to my phone but I don’t know how to figure up the best size to start with. I will just fumble my way through it, I have some 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 1045 the I will see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevomiller Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 Definitely schritte, shaku, or perhaps cubits? Shawn, folks are asking for a unit of measure, not just the quantity of said units nor just the shape of the stock you want to hold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the iron dwarf Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 dont forget shaftments and els Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 people are clueless about the internet being world wide and not everyone uses english Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 στάδιον. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 Fathoms, cable lengths and nautical miles, barley corns, furlongs, if there is a weird measurement system out there some smith will claim to be using it...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn S Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 Inch Inch, all but one of the people that replied are from the States, But I am sorry to make you guys have to assume. I was typing with one hand while rocking my 2 month old daughter. IFI has over 47,000 members from over 150 countries, and many of them read things and do not post. Some may not read this for months. we try to post for everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 However people reading this may be all over the globe---we've had over 100 countries participate here on the World Wide Web! Remember an answer to your question may be written for people all over the world and so not be totally specific to your question. You will also see safety info posted repeatedly as we don't want folks making the same mistakes as we have done. Don't take it personally if something you well know gets "told" to you; just say to yourself---they wrote that to the new kid who's never lit a match before and knows nothing about how fire works and is reading this thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn S Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 Mr Powers thank you for the boop on the back of the head and the better way of thinking about the responses and the possible reasons for the type of replies. It is so easy to take things wrongly on the internet and all types of social media. I do want to know what a Barley corn is lol. I know now there is always a lot to learn from trial and error and mistakes however when I am working I work 7 days a week an average of 70-80 hours a week in a steel mill and I have 4 young kids. The point being is that when I do have time to forge and want to be around the heat after being in the mill all day I only have only a limited amount of time. Anything that I can do to make it successful and not waste 4 hours on a failure makes the experience more enjoyable. As of right now I am off work after having both hips operated on and can only manage to stand for a little while so I guess the same thing applies. I do a lot of ready on this site and think I have watched every video on YouTube and appreciate every bit of knowledge you guys put out there for those of us that are new to the hobby. I do realize that you have all this experience because you have all gone through the trial and error and mistakes that many of use are trying to get around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 You can forge sitting in a chair; in fact German smiths like to use a powerhammer sitting in a chair.. Almost anything suggested as good for a demo can be done in a limited amount of forge time. I've forged arrowheads sitting in a chair with a coal forge---a swivel chair is great for moving from the forge to the anvil by just turning in place. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Barleycorn may refer to: A grain of barley Barleycorn (unit) a unit of length, equal to one third of an inch" oxford dictionaries: "To a European, corn covers all the cereal crops - wheat, barley, oat, and so on." What we in the USA call corn is called Maize in Europe. We got the change from originally calling it "Indian Corn" and gradually skipping the first part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the iron dwarf Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 sometimes you need to know about different measures, at my place we sometimes make historical replicas for museums and others so we need to know about the Queen anne wine gallon, the bushel, we just made a half bushel vessel many different inches ( the US uses 2 different ones at the moment ) and the last time the inch was changed here and in the US was within my lifetime, one of us gained a millionth and the other one lost a millionth to make them the same as the international standard. inches were based on a number of barley corns originally and varied quite a bit hence napoleon was thought to be short but was exactly the same height as wellington but at the time french inches were bigger so less inches anyway I hope you have a speedy recovery and also get to spend time on here to learn lots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 There's one question that I now realize no-one has addressed: for all this talk about the size of starting stock, what is the point of half a tong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 It allows you to clap with the other hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedCustoms Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 Half tongs are for holding half-hatchets ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 And 1 1/2 tongs are for making hand-and-a-half swords? 28 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: It allows you to clap with the other hand. Sounds good to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedCustoms Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 17 hours ago, Shawn S said: 1 1/2 square, Thank you for the point towards the pdf. I have seen that and have it saved to my phone but I don’t know how to figure up the best size to start with. I will just fumble my way through it, I have some 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 1045 the I will see what happens. Shawn, it mostly depends on the type of steel and whether you want robust tongs or gracile. Also whether or not you will be using a power hammer, press or hand hammer. I have made tongs for holding 1 1/2" square stock from 5/8" round 5160. If I were going to use mild I would want them to be a lot beefier and in that case I might start with 3/4" square stock. The 1045 water hardening you mention should be plenty tough so you can afford to trim weight where you can. 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" is way more than enough material and if you are hand hammer will give you a bit of a workout! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 Note when stock gets large it's sometimes better to just weld a handle to it. (When I was forging some 2.5" sq stock using a good size powerhammer, I used a piece of 1" stock welded to it instead of tongs.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said: (When I was forging some 2.5" sq stock using a good size powerhammer, I used a piece of 1" stock welded to it instead of tongs.) This is a good tip Shawn but some of us do this with smaller stock, I usually weld tongs to anything 3/4" or larger. It REALLY saves your grippin muscles. If you haven't noticed yet we'll start funnin at the drop of a hat. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn S Posted July 25, 2018 Author Share Posted July 25, 2018 Thanks for the tips guys and guys will do some ribbin’ on just about anything, I will have to be alittle more prepared next time lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 Feel free to ignore us; there is even a forum function that lets you ignore people's posts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranchmanben Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 3/4” square mild steel will be plenty stout enough. I prefer to make most of my tong from 3/8”x1” mild steel or 3/4” round sucker rod. How are you going to be using the 1.5” material, on a power hammer, with a striker or solo on the anvil? What are you wanting to make? Those sorts of things help decide how robust these tongs need to be. I’d save the 1045 for other projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now