This might be a dumb question and I tried searching but couldn't find an explanation that worked with what my brain is telling me but here goes.

When making tongs, do you forge the 2 pieces to be exactly the same?  Or do you make them a mirror of each other?  I've almost come to the point where I'm going to pull apart a pair of pliers to just get my brain to understand.  

I've tried drawing it on paper but when I make the jaws offset from where the pivot is, do I make them both the same or do I flip one to the right and one to the left when I'm forging them out?  

You forge them both the same (depending on jaws, but the boss is forged the same). When you flip one to assemble then they fit together. 

What Daswulf said.

Think about shaking hands: a right hand shaking a right hand is fine, a left hand shaking a left hand is fine, and a right hand shaking a left hand is awkward as all get out. Same thing goes for tong halves.

That is the greatest explanation I've ever heard!  Thanks!

Edited November 6, 20205 yr by Mod34
Excessive quoting

You're welcome! And welcome to IFI!

Excellent explanation John! 

Welcome aboard Ahl3rs, glad to have you. I could be wrong but I believe everybody has made the same mistake and made mirror halves. Unless there is an experienced smith at hand to correct the mistake. Then we do it later and slap our heads repeatedly when we realize the mistake.

There are lots of little things like that blacksmithing. One of the most common is turning the finial scroll on the end of a coat hook backwards or sometimes turning the coat hook itself backwards so the counter sunk screw holes are facing the wall. 

These intuitive but wrong things are a good way to generate fun material for your wall of mistakes. 

Frosty The Lucky.

(Or your scrap pile of frustration and despair...)

That isn't a scrap pile!  Those are preforms for potential future projects. <sheesh!>

Frosty The Lucky.

43 minutes ago, Frosty said:

One of the most common is turning the finial scroll on the end of a coat hook backwards or sometimes turning the coat hook itself backwards so the counter sunk screw holes are facing the wall. 

That's when you add a "decorative" twist!

Yup, been there done that!

Lol, horses feet are pretty close mirror images, front to front, back to back. 

Being a lefty and slightly dislectic(sp) sometimes I would turn the first shoe(near side) and get it backwards. So there I am with the owner and the rest of the peanut gallery watching my every move. Cool as a cucumber, I'd toss it over by the off side without mising a lick. Then turn the nearside shoe again and nail it on. I'd walk around to the offside and if I was really lucky, just nail it on! Made quite an impression. Never let them know I screwed up! 

I'll have to remember that analogy JHCC. One time I made a pair and did the mirror image (head slap) so I made another pair just like the first and swapped both sides. Came up with a pair of right hand and a pair left hand tongs. I hate throwing stuff on the scrap pile.

When someone notices I've made a bone head mistake and says something I'll do it a couple more times with little variations. "I'm experimenting," on occasion I'd find a better product or method. The real win was it got people to leave me alone or at least not point out what they thought were mistakes. Half the time they were finding fault with unfinished products. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone and thanks for all the advice!

My first tongs are pretty terrible but they do hold stuff so I'm happy with that.  I'm practicing on rebar till I'm confident enough to buy some decent material to make some longer term tongs.

I had to replace the torsion springs for my garage this year as one snapped so I've been practicing making "S" hooks and just hooks in general over and over again with all that material.  

Tons of good info on here, I'm really enjoying this new hobby of mine, I'm just completely amazed by the talent on here!