Jake, nice job on your first pair of tongs.
If you continue to do forge work you will want more and more of them in different sizes and shapes.
You can forge off a long bar but sooner or later you will need tongs to hold the work.
Whether they be pliers or vise grips you will need them.
You can learn a lot about forging just making tongs alone.

I have forged a couple thousand pair during my career.
I have a load of them in my racks and I still find times I need a new pair for some job.

Nice job on the shutters by the way. That was a ton of work to do all by hand.

Steve

Thanks Steve, they took me a while to finally get them shaped so that they would actually work, but I'm sure that will get a little easier with time. The great thing is(and maybe a curse as well) that whenever I run into that all to familiar situation "If I just had a thing-a-ma-jig this would be a lot easier" I can go to the shop a knock out a thing-a-ma-jig.

If you've got any tips for making tongs and other tools I'd love to hear them.

Jake

WOW! Thanks Gerald for the information, the plans are great and walk you through every step. I'm definitely bookmarking that page. I'm sure it will be a huge time saver for me.

Jake

That's a fine tutorial on making tongs by the twist method, Jake. It's a quick, easy way to make basic tongs, but they do tend to be a touch weak at the point where they're twisted and flattened. Not a problem on smaller stock, but can be annoying when they won't properly hold heavier stock. Still, an excellent method for beginning tong making.

Steve Parker is the master of tongs. I have some of his pickups, and a couple or four pairs I've made based on what he taught me. Love them all. They're all made on the power hammer except for a tiny bit of fine tuning on the anvil right at the end. With the right power hammer tooling, they're darn quick to make, too.

I used to start with 3/8" by 1-1/4" flat bar to make tongs, but Steve got me to using heavier round bar or square bar instead. That way there's no twisting necessary, which can result in internal shearing of the metal or cold shuts and resulting weakness. With a power hammer, the stock you start with might as well be big enough to do all you want. I use 3/4", either round or square, depending on what I have the most of. I can always make it smaller, right?

The most important aspect of making tongs, I think, is getting the bosses flat and parallel, and having good transitions to the jaws and reigns. If that stuff is right, the rest is pretty straightforward. I have a whole rack full of poor to medium-crappy tongs I've made over the years while I learned this stuff, and there's a half of a pair on the floor under the bench that got there just last month when I foolishly set the bit and the reign on the same side of the boss. (grin) Practice, practice, practice.

Jake, like Rich said, that kind of tong is great for smaller work and they are an option.

Drawing the handles out is a lot of work if you don't have a power hammer. If you make them well and out of good material the first time and take care of them, they will last a long time.

I will post some pics soon. Forging the hinge area and the jaw is not hard. Just takes time.

Rich, thanks for the kind words.

Steve