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I Forge Iron

My first "complicated" set of tongs.


Chris C

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:D:lol:

Well, they were complicated for me. 

They aren't pretty, but they danged sure work.  Started with 3/4" sq bar, 8" long for each half.  That's a piece of 3/4" bar in the jaws.  They securely hold from 5/8" square to 1 1/4" square............and the same with round.  Top jaw is split like a snake's tongue.  I'm happy with them and they'll fill a gap I have in tong sizes.  Reins are 16".  These sure do make a guy yearn for a power hammer! ;)

20200806_150439.thumb.jpg.fe0e8d1e81ffe7054b31b9471feb390d.jpg

 

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Looks good, I made up a pair that looked similar at the beginning of summer. Its nice when you can get one pair to fit a variety of stock sizes? Especially when you are forging your own tongs, so much less drawing out. (Although I still have the dream of walking into the 'shop' with a battalion of tongs.)

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Thanks, guys.  I think they'll work a treat for me.  It's funny..............thought these were my own design, but took them to a friends shop for suggestions during the making and he had a pair hanging on his rack. :D  Does anyone know what these are called?  (friend didn't know) I've had a couple of people ask, but I have no idea.

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Thanks Chellie.  If my memory were better I'd know the name.  The video I stumbled onto that gave me the general idea labeled them with some country's name.................like Egyptian Tongs.  (but that wasn't it.)  I've tried every search word I can think of to find that video again to no avail.

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Well, while I "thought" they were my design, I actually saw a pair at a friend's forge.................so someone made them long before I.  I was just prompted by the ones I saw in the video.  But like you say, they will be versatile, I think.

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That is a problem in Blacksmithing: 3000+ years of creative people all over the world  with the skills to make and modify their tools.  Hard to claim to be first with an idea---why I suggest trying to be *BEST* with it instead.  (There has been several times I came up with a neat idea only to find that others had come up with it, sometimes centuries before.  Puts a different look to things when one person claims another copied their design---especially when I remark that there is an example in a museum in Germany; so *they* must have copied it too!)

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Probably even today people name them after the job they do 

I use that style to work hinges. The barrel goes inboard and the tongs clamp the hinge body. 

So I call them hinge barrel tongs.

Lol, I use them for other things as well, but made them for forging hinges.

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