Built my anvil stand

[Duckkisser]

I got my anvil stand made and bought a cart for some of my metal working stuff including my forge.  Got a few hammers that I picked up at garage sales to get me started till I get better tools.  Still need to clean up anvil and hammers.  Mounted wheels on back so I can use handle to tip it back and roll it out in the drive way or to craft shows. The handle can also have two horizontal bars for tongs and other tools that can turn out of the way.  
 

What kind of tongs should I start with. Was thinking to get me a wolf jaws to start with for first tong. Heard there versatile. Can only afford one tong right now.  Can anyone recommend a brand I should get?  Plan on buying/making one tool at a time as I need them.  And I need one tong to get me started. 
 

Also my propane will be on ground away from flames

 

[ThomasPowers]

Choose tongs that will work for the projects you plan to do.  You seem to expect we will know what that will be.

[Duckkisser]

Considering I’m just geting started in smithing don’t realy know what I want to make.  That’s why I need a pair of tongs that can be versatile.

 

now I ask why even post that response that is not helpful and frankly just continues to make me regret coming to this forum.  Every post I have put on here has had a negative response. Maybe you should follow the old adage if you don’t have anything nice to say….

[ThomasPowers]

Or you could read the thousands of posts already here on tongs to get started with. ("tongs to get started with site:iforgeiron.com" produced "About 3,340 results" on my browser (chrome).

Tongs have a limit to their versatility.  I start my students out using 1/4" square stock long enough they don't need tongs to get started.  When it's time to cut the piece and start holding it in tongs; I demonstrate why tongs sized to fit 3/8" sq stock or 1/8" sq stock do NOT work well to hold 1/4" and can result in a nasty burn across your knuckles as they only grab at a single spot making a pivot point.  All my students tend to have issues using tongs which is why I let them learn that they can forge steel before they have to use them.

If all of your questions tend to get a negative response; perhaps you should analyze your questions on why they are not working for you.  Not sharing of information that *you* know but *we* don't is a usual issue.  "What tongs should I start with?" Is rather like saying "what vehicle should I buy?" without telling us if it needs to carry 15 people or 15 tons of gravel, or cross open water or reach the ISS.  The devil is in the details!

Now I don't know if the option is still supported but you used to be able to put people on a "Hide their posts from me" list and not be bothered by them anymore.

[Duckkisser]

Then why not say something along those lines if you have had students in the past you know a new smith does not know these things and I don’t have anyplace locally to learn that is why I came to this forum. So again if you don’t want to give helpful advice and be discourteous to people who are reaching out for advice then don’t respond.   And you have the choice not to read my posts or to respond to them in fact if you can’t be respectful please don’t respond.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

1 hour ago, Duckkisser said:

What kind of tongs should I start with

 

39 minutes ago, Duckkisser said:

Considering I’m just geting started in smithing don’t realy know what I want to make

You could always kill two birds with one stone! 

check out kens custom iron,

you can get two or three pairs of different styles of tong sets for what you will pay for one ready made pair,

they will need finishing but there’s Plenty of how to videos to help with that,

it could be a fun first project!

Please don’t take Thomas the wrong way, he’s actually very helpful and very knowledgeable!

And…… believe it or not he can be friendly too!… sometimes 

He’s just pointing out in his warm an fluffy way that there’s 100s of different styles of tongs so it’s kinda hard to find a universal pair,

but to answer your question,

I’d suggest if your gonna buy a ready made pair,

that wolf jaw tongs will do quite a bit of work and be versatile for many different projects! 

have fun! Relax!

please Don’t take offense to all the responses,

there’s tens of thousands of people on IFI and we all operate in our own ways with our own quirks, so sometimes it can take a day or week or month or year to kinda feel your way around and see all The Who’s, where’s, when’s, what’s and why’s!

[Duckkisser]

Thanks willow I did look at kens sets and will probably get some but wanted to learn to bend metal and learn some basics before I get into those. Even though they seem simple to custome if you have zero feel for the material I could mess them up quickly And waste the tools. Can you recommend Picard tongs and Nordic forge hammers? 

[ThomasPowers]

Remember that while it may be *your* question; the answer goes out to the WORLD.  BTW did you read the READ THIS FIRST thread that goes over how to research things on IFI?  ( I do not expect everyone to like me; wouldn't like it either.  What would you think about a teacher that just gave everybody A's instead of helping them to *learn*!)

A nice flea market hammer for US$2 will work fine; I still use my first one 40+ years on (5th handle?) All my most frequently used hammers cost me US$5 or less.  An expensive hammer doesn't do you much good until you have the skills to use it; or as I say in a slightly different context: 1000 hours working on a $100 improvised anvil will make you a much better smith than 100 hours working on a $1000 anvil.

As for the most versatile pair of "tongs" an old buzz box welder that lets you weld a handle onto the work piece is probably the most versatile way to go.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

There is an old saying, "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". It also applies to the forge.

If you do find a mentor, don't expect them to sugar coat any criticism, especially when it comes to unsafe practices. I can assure you mine didn't and I had to learn not to wear my feelings on my sleeve.

BTW: Even with wolf jaw tongs, they have to be adjusted to fit the stock being used. Any pair of tongs that are not adjusted to fit the stock are dangerous to use.

A case in point at our last BOA meeting at TWs forge, I was using a pair of tongs that didn't fit the stock perfectly and the hot piece I was working on flew out of them and almost hit another member, sitting about ten feet away and I have been hammering hot steel for over 30 years.

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning, Duck

To start, start by reading something like 'the Blacksmithing Primer'. Randy McDaniels explains how and why to start. Start with a container of Play-Doh, Steel works identical to Play-Doh, except you can work the Play-Doh in your hands. For the steel, you need Tools to hold the hot material. If you aren't doing your own research, don't ask someone for the answers. You need to find someone or a group of somebodies near you to help guide you. Please don't over-react when you ask a question and you don't enjoy the answer.

An Anvil, is something to hammer on. Anything can be an Anvil. A hammer, is a lump of Steel?? on a stick. Any style hammer is still a hammer. A ball pein Hammer is very versatile, there is no perfect weight, the one you have is better than the one you think you may need. Using a Hammer is very simple, but the Hammer is not a simple tool. You must learn to use movement in your whole arm and shoulder, not just your wrist. You need a mentor to help guide you, to suggest what and how to do something. You need to learn to make your Tools and why you make them a certain way. By doing this, you will learn the subtle nuances of using the Tools. There is no test or exam to pass, If you make nice Tools, you are learning to do nice work.

This is a Journey, with no Destination you can put your finger on. Enjoy the ride!!

Neil

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

12 hours ago, Duckkisser said:

tools. Can you recommend Picard tongs and Nordic forge hammers? 

I have a pair of Picard wolf jaw tongs and i like them,

they come in several sizes though,

If your first few months of projects are going be working with smaller stock like 1/4” - 3/8” then I’d suggest buying the smaller pair unless you wanna adjust your new pair as Irondragon suggested to fit what your working on,

on another note,

Their not the greatest but vise grips have been used by many beginner smith starting out an they are readily available new and used everywhere,

also looking at your pictures it looks like you have a couple pairs of farriers nippers hanging there already, 

it wouldn’t take much to modify them into tongs, lots of people have done that too,

just heat them and adjust the jaws to hold the stock you want, 

do Not quench them in water though, let them air cool,

I modified a pair of them to hold sucker rod ends for when I’m making hardies, 

Also, X2 On what Thomas has suggested, you can always just work with longer stock so you don’t need tongs, or pick up a cheap used welder an weld a handle on your work an cut it off later,

Now on to the Nordic forge hammer question, 

I agree with Thomas, buy used! 

Personally I rarely spend that much money on a single hammer,

unless I just really wanted it an had the money just burnin a hole in my pocket

you can buy bucket loads of used hammers for $30-$40 bucks 

Point and case, I was at a auction just yesterday and I saw buckets of random metal an hammer heads of all kinds sellin for a couple bucks a piece,

like Thomas said flea markets an junk shops are a good place to hunt!

yard sales too, you can find tons of hammers for next to nothing, ball peens, straight peens, cross peens ect.. 

If I was you, Id buy $.50 cent to $2 hammer I come across so I have lots of different sizes an weights of different styles, and learn how to put handles in them if their missing, 

learnin how to for hunt tools and and materials is a indispensable skill to help build your smithy, 

spend some time and read through the followed me home thread and see how other people find stuff for suggestions, also I recommend the TPAAAT thread to help with ideas finding stuff!

[ThomasPowers]

Lately most of my hammers have come from the scrapyard, though their price has shot up to 25 USCents a pound!  I even find some weird ones like this one designed for pulling RR spikes:

Nice to not pay "antique" prices for old tools!  Learning how to dress your hammer faces and replace handles are just good blacksmithing "life skills".  Shoot some blacksmiths even make their own handles!

[M.J.Lampert]

duckkisser when i started i went straight to knives (not a smart move) then after a few months I came here and started learning did 2 or three months without tongs and greatly improved. Go to your metal supplier and buy a length of mild steel (1/4", 3/8", or 1/2" square) and then use them at a length of about 2-4 ft you don't need tongs and can practice tapers and making S or J hooks believe me get that to pat and you will be much better off, until you learn how to work the steel tongs can be a hinderance.

learn from those on here like Frosty, Thomas, Irondragon and all the other old guys you never know when you no longer can there used to be a curmudgeon tag on the smartest ones (updates did away with that) i almost never got the pleasure of learning from Frosty and Thomas is always at odds with his diabetes.

They love to pass their knowledge but look it up first, they've answered a lot of questions here already and don't always appreciate answering questions for the 1000ths time or one that's so vague that there's a million ways it can get an answer. REASERCH and then give a PRECISE question looking for one thing then ask another on another subject after

M.J.Lampert