Are there any other names for these “blade tongs”?

[Iswhatitis]

So I don’t have stock big enough to build sturdy enough box jaw tongs for straightening out and forging railroad clips(the ones that look like a weird number 3 and are made of 1/2” thick X 1 1/4” wide spring steel flat stock.) So I started searching for a way to use my 5/8” round mild stock to build tongs which will hold up to the heavy hammering it takes to straighten one of these out in a few heats. I was trying to find pictures of a much heavier duty pair of the tongs in the pictures, but couldn’t find any name for them other than blade tongs.

Does anyone know if there is another name? Searching for extra heavy duty blade tongs or similar doesn’t yield pictures of anything sturdier of a similar design. 

I started making them even though I couldn’t find a reference so I will post a picture of them here when I finish them.

They will be ugly due to my near virginity to the sweet sexy feel of playing with fire and metal, and beating the xxxx out of it with a hammer.
 

Seriously though forging/blacksmithing seems to be more addictive than drugs. It’s awesome to be able to make something that requires tools you don’t already have with just a hammer and some steel.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Mod34
Edited for inappropriate language

[Frazer]

I only know that style as blade smithing tongs, maybe knife tongs? However, they might have another name.  Personally, I would go get some 3/4" sq stock and make box jaws. They are more versatile, easier to make and will give you a better grip on the rail anchors. Chances are you'll need 3/4" sq sooner or later. 

You might be able to use 5/8 round to make a pair of box jaws that hold the anchor's 1/2" side. You're going to be pressed for material unless you upset the end for the box.

A pair of vice grips might be a temporary solution that allow you to get things straightened out and forge one end into a shape that fits a set of tongs you already have.

If you decide to make the style above -- and they may work, they just wouldn't be my first choice -- that first image is the thumbnail from Daniel Moss's video on how to make them.

[JHCC]

Welcome to IFI!

I've made a couple of pairs like that. They are indeed generally known as bladesmithing tongs or knife tongs, since they seem to have developed in the knifemaking community and then spread through the wider smithing community. They're not great for the kind of straightening you're describing, though, as that would put a lot of torque on the pivot joint and its rivet.

A much better way to straighten out a rail anchor is to use a bending fork (in your anvil's hardy or in a vise) and a big bending wrench. You'll get a LOT more leverage, and you can always do the final straightening on the anvil. The ones I use for this are welded up from 1" schedule 40 pipe, so if you have a welder or a friend who welds, you can make them up cheaply and easily.

[anvil]

Beautiful job! But I agree with JHCC.  You cant beat bending forks and scrolling wrenches for bending iron. Different sets for different widths of stock.

[ThomasPowers]

We call them "tongs to hold rectangular stock" as in "Hand me those...."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

For holding the RR clips, I would make a pair of wolf jaw tongs out of the 5/8 round mild.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Do you have a name or handle we can address you by? Iswhatitis is pretty cumbersome.

There's a great deal of soul deep satisfaction to using two of humankinds oldest tools, fire and something to bash with and have our way with steel. Addictive is an understatement.

Be aware though this is a family site and hairy, sooty curmudgeonly as we may be, we keep the language clean enough nobody will end up explaining what frzzlbrbd means to the 5 yro surfing the site. 

1/2" stock is pretty small for tongs like that unless you're using something stiffer than mild. 

Bending forks and wrenches are easy and a better way to straighten stock like rail clips. Once you have a couple rail clips, they make excellent tongs being medium carbon steel. 

My first bending/scrolling wrench used to be a worn out 18" pipe wrench I picked out of a dumpster at work. I ground the teeth off and rounded the edges so it wouldn't mar the work and it's still out there under the hot table. Some things you can grab with a couple Crescent wrenches and straighten enough to finish on the anvil.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Iswhatitis]

10 hours ago, Frazer said:

 You might be able to use 5/8 round to make a pair of box jaws that hold the anchor's 1/2" side. You're going to be pressed for material unless you upset the end for the box.

A pair of vice grips might be a temporary solution that allow you to get things straightened out and forge one end into a shape that fits a set of tongs you already have.

I have been using vice grips actually but since I am very new sometimes when I hit the piece I don’t have it seated perfectly on the anvil, and if that happens a few times on the same heat then the vice grips sometimes get loose.

I learned a lesson and knowing it would probably happen made box jaws that hold the wider side which were obviously not beefy enough but I didn’t think about making a pair to hold the steel on edge like you suggested, that is some good xxxx. I will try them if the extra beefy blade style tongs I’m making don’t work out. The ones I am making aren’t really quite like either of the pictures, they were just the first pictures I found in google of bladesmith  tongs.

9 hours ago, JHCC said:

Welcome to IFI!

THANKS Man (or woman), glad to be here!

My anvil is a pretty small acacciao and the vice I have is just a drill press vice but I hadn’t even thought about using a bending wrench. That’s a good idea i might try if my current solution in progress proves unsuccessful.  I am working on a dual burner propane tank forge but it’s not done and I am basically using a paint can forge with a turbotorch I had right now so it would take several heats to do it by bending. I’m so annoyed that it’s so much more fun to forge than to finish building my bigger better forge and keep putting it off even though I have everything I need and I know full well that it will change everything for my forging in a big way. It will be way better. 
I have a dirt cheap fluxcore I got on Amazon but it does have an inverter unlike most of the fluxcore only welders I have seen esp for cheap. The problem with it is that the wire speed isn’t constant it sometimes hesitates or goes slower for a couple seconds. It does this to the point that even a good welder(not me I’m bad) couldn’t lay down a continuous pretty weld with it, BUT it sticks metal together and is way better than no welder!

9 hours ago, anvil said:

Beautiful job! 

Those are random pictures I found on google but thanks anyway!

8 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

We call them "tongs to hold rectangular stock" as in "Hand me those...."

Lmao

5 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

For holding the RR clips, I would make a pair of wolf jaw tongs out of the 5/8 round mild.

That’s an interesting suggestion but maybe I don’t understand how wolf jaws work but it seems to me they might work ok but wouldn’t work as well as some other types of more specialized tongs. I will have to read up on wolf tongs.

[Iswhatitis]

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Be aware though this is a family site and hairy, sooty curmudgeonly as we may be, we keep the language clean enough nobody will end up explaining what frzzlbrbd means to the 5 yro surfing the site. 

Oops sorry about that Frosty I will try to keep it pg. I have various tools like a bigger crescent that I could probably use but obviously a bending fork or wrench would be better. I may have spoken wrong but the stock I have is actually 5/8” but it’s very close to half inch anyway. What would make things easier for me more than anything else is finishing my darn tootin 20# lp tank forge. It actually uses two of your burners or will when I finish it at least so thanks for that btw. Looks like the consensus is bend it straight but I am still going to finish the super beefed up bladesmith tongs if for nothing else, I already started and they are turning out to be fun to make.

thanks to you and everyone else who commented here. This seems like a pretty cool and active smithing community.

[Frazer]

When holding rectangular stock on end, I find the double box jaw works better. This is a rather thick leaf spring and it's much easier to hold it this way rather than in the other orientation. JHCC's note, "that would put a lot of torque on the pivot joint and its rivet" is a good one. I should note holding stock like this and trying to bend it in the "easy" direction, does not address his point. I would straighten the anchor out as he describes and, if you decide to go this route, use tongs like this while forging the already straightened stock. 

2 hours ago, Iswhatitis said:

the vice grips sometimes get loose.

This is my forever reminder not to use vise grips to hold round stock... if they're loosening up on you (even on flat stock), stop, fix it, and then continue. 3rd degree burns from very hot steel flying back at you are no fun. 

[pnut]

I like slot jaw tongs. I've found them to be pretty versatile for holding both round and flat stock. I've never used a pair of box jaw tongs for flat stock though. I think it all boils down to proper sizing really. No matter what stock and tongs you use. 

Pnut

[JHCC]

For those who aren't familiar with slot jaw (or slotted jaw) tongs, here's a good video from John Switzer of Black Bear Forge about them:

 

[Iswhatitis]

So I ended up going with box tongs after finding some 3/4” square stock I didn’t know I had. These hold up well to use for straightening railroad clips which was the point of making them. 
I gave up trying to make blade tongs to hold the 1/2” X 1” clips. I will make some blade tongs for thinner stock (like blades) but for steel this beefy box tongs seem to be the way to go.

[Frosty]

In case you hadn't thought of it already, those RR clips make excellent tongs, they have just the right carbon content to forge down light, springy and plenty strong.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Iswhatitis]

Thank you for the suggestion. I will try that out at some point here.  I haven't ventured into making tongs out of anything besides low carbon steel, and I do like that I never have to worry about dunking my tongs in water, oil or whatever else, but I do think that light springy tongs made of spring steel like clips sounds really cool. 

[JHCC]

18 hours ago, Iswhatitis said:

I ended up going with box tongs

Looks good, although the flat jaw looks a little short. If you weld a bit of steel on the end to extend them to the same length as the box, you may find them gripping better.

[Iswhatitis]

Actually I find that it works pretty well like this. If the jaws were the same length the grip force could be more concentrated at the very tip of the jaws. The way I have it the small jaw pushes more in the middle causing it to apply pressure more towards the center of the area where the work contacts the box jaw which applies a more equal pressure and seems to do a better job of holding the workpiece. Also, the longer the jaw is assuming that the most contact is at the tip of the jaws, the more your leverage is cancelled out, the less holding power. The shorter the jaw, the more of a leverage advantage.