tongs

Gahagan

Gahagan

Well-Known Member
Can anyone suggest a good set of tongs. I inherited a set but they do a poor job of holding the material and it swivels and moves around on me constantly. I know Tracy sells some but I know notheing about them and just need some suggestions as I am fairly new to this having only done few knives by forging.
 
Blade or box tongs are almost indispensible if you're working with bar stock. The round tongs are nice for rod. I guess it's good to have a variety cause the duck bill tongs just don't cut it for everything. I got mine from the link below. Just looking at what he has gives you ideas for using them.


http://gstongs.com/id2.html

Rudy
 
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I have blade tongs from GS Tongs that are useful but the ones that I get the most use from are chain makers tongs. They have V shaped jaws plus they have V shaped notches in the sides of the jaws that allows the work to be held at a right angle to the tongs. Properly sized, they will hold the work steady. I think I got mine from the Blacksmiths Depot.

Doug
 
I got blade tongs from gstongs. I really like them! I would recommend getting a set of flat tongs too though. There have been many times I've thought they would come in handy...
 
blacksmithdog said:
Make them!!!
Click to expand...

After a couple bouts with making them, I came to the conclusion that my time was better spent on knives. I saw some box tongs that are offset somewhere but can't remember where...anyway, they allow you to grab barstock anywhere on the bar right up to your handhold. Any clues ?

Rudy
 
They may cost you a bit more and may not but dont forget to look at the antique stores as many times there are some smithing tools laying in the back. Go armed with knowledge of what is a reasonable cost though.
 
The Blacksmith supply houses carry a wide selection- I've gotten a couple from Centaur Forge and Pieh Tool Company, plus the old reliable Diamond Farrier tongs- a little bit of tweaking so they are more parallel and they work for material that's not real wide... (The price is right too)
 
Rudy Joly said:
After a couple bouts with making them, I came to the conclusion that my time was better spent on knives. I saw some box tongs that are offset somewhere but can't remember where...anyway, they allow you to grab barstock anywhere on the bar right up to your handhold. Any clues ?

Rudy
Click to expand...

Rudy,
Blacksmithdepot.com has the ones you're referring to, and they are asome! I have 2 pairs of them, love'em!
I too think that NY time is better spent on knives, as I did give making some tongs a try! Wasted half a day, and a good bit of steel! My ability with doing anything with tongs sucks so bad, I have a set of the ones (I recently learned) that you're supposed to shape them to your own needs....thing is I have sk many needs, I can't details decide how I want to shape them!

I'm gonna look for some at Blade, if I don't find what I want, I'll be placing an order with GS Tongs! For those of you that don' know he moved to Taiwan I think, his wife is from there, she needed to go home to take care of her parents, so he packed up his stuff and went with her, I thought that was awesome.e about Glen(I think that's his name). Just be prepared to wait a couple.of weeks, by the looks of his tongs I'd say they will be worth the wait! He has some.neat looking designs, some are
a bit different looking, but look like they will hold very well. Rex
And one more thing, the last.time I was.on his site, he had some.prototype Anvils he's thinking about making, and selling! They lookAWESOME!! ONE LOOKS LIKE IT WAS MADE FOR A BLADESMITH!
 
I ordered some tongs from Glen a few weeks ago, excellent quality and tightly fit. I ordered on a Monday night (3 pairs), and Tuesday he sent me the full total including shipping. I paid Tuesday and Wednesday they were in the mail. I received them on Monday. Personally that is fast, especially since things shipped from CA take longer!!
 
Teter, by CA do you mean California?
If so I wasn't aware he was back in the states! That is awesome, while I tend to be very patient with most things, once I've decided on something, I can get impatient FAST! Which tongs did you get? I'm really wanting to try his blade tongs, they look like they will hold better than anything I've ever seen. But I will still wait until BLADE, just to be able to put my hands on whatever I think I might want.
Rex
 
Ouch, I'm sorry I missed this!

He is not back in the states. He is still overseas, BUT his package arrived faster than many I get from California (being in Orlando, FL). I was more implying that despite him being in Taiwan, you won't wait long for his product. As for which ones, I got 2 tongs for different size flat stock and also one of the 'S' kind or whatever its called, where it makes it easy to hold the bar on edge.
 
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