TONGS:

This is a combination of two old articles that have been up dated with some additions and put here in one place
to make them easy to find. Now includes Foundry Tongs.

1. THE DEMPSEY
TWIST
Easy Tong Making
Method:
Making your own tongs is one of the first
projects someone new to blacksmithing should
take on. They are a tool you cannot do without
for long and one which will help your forging
abilities. This method takes advantage of
fullering which is more efficient than using the
hammer alone.
For general purpose tongs start with a piece of
3/8" x 1" flat bar about two feet long or a little
longer. For small light duty tongs start with 1/4" x 1" flat bar. Difficult to obtain 5/16" by Mild steel (or even
wrought iron) is satisfactory for tongs. Do not use carbon steel over 40 points carbon. If you intend to make
goose neck or offset tongs start further up the bar leaving extra material to shape after the tongs are assembled.
You can always take material off but its harder to put back on.

Work one end first (the bar is long enough for both halves). Fuller two notches in the bar as shown. The
depth of the first notch should leave a bar thickness or a little more. The handle end fullering should only
go half way through and then will taper.

Now twist the "jaw" 90. Wasn't that easy! Remember BOTH side
of the tongs are alike. There is NO right and left side or mirror
parts. The first time you make this mistake you will remember!

Fuller the "handle" end behind the joint. Your fuller depressions
should be equally spaced the width of the fullered depression.
Then hammer out the high spots. These, being small work easier
than forging directly with the hammer. Don't worry about finishing
the full length of the reins at this point. About 1/3 will do.

When one joint looks pretty good, cool the bar and do the same thing on the other end. This way you
don't need a set of tongs to make your first set of tongs! When the second joint is finished NOW finish
the reins, which are now in the middle of the bar. Remember, the reins should taper from about half the
joint height (bar width) to an octagon or round equal to the bar thickness. On long tongs you may need
to cut the bar in two before finishing the reins but on small general purpose tongs there is no need.

You may punch or drill the rivet hole. Hot punching leaves a little more material in the joint but is hard to
control if you are not a practiced smith. My rule of thumb is to use a rivet about the same diameter as
the thickness of the bar you started with or one size bigger.

A useful trick from Bealer's The Art of Blacksmithing, is to put a layer of heavy brown paper (grocery
bag) in the joint when you rivet the tongs. When this burns out it leaves some clearance in the joint. If
the joint is too loose it is easy to tighten but if it is too tight it is hard to loosen. The only way to loosen a
joint that is too tight is to heat the rivet with a torch or heat the joint in the forge and then work them
back and forth.

When your tongs are finished they must be adjusted. Find a short sample of the material thickness you
are going to work with. Heat the jaws and the joint up to the taper in the reins. Grip the sample in the
tongs and either clamp the jaws and the sample in the vise or tap the jaws square to the sample on the
anvil. I like using the vise because then you can spread the reins to a comfortable distance. When
adjusting on the anvil you must hold the reins apart or use a little block of wood with two holes drilled at
the right spacing.

Copyright 1998 Jock Dempsey, Updated 2011

2. Goose Neck Tongs with a Twist

These are a heavier tongs than the ones above. They start with 3/8" x 1" stock for medium tongs and 3/8" (or
7/16") x 1-1/4" for heavy tongs.

The forging starts with fullering the jaws, forming the joint to one side, then starting the back of the joint. Avoid
thinning the the neck. It is better if it turns out a little wider than the thickness of the bar. The hole is punched
using a round punch with a chisel point. Working the hole from both sides with the chisel point punch makes a
hole without removing any material.

A twist of the Goose Neck orients the jaws 90 to the joint. If the neck has been rounded the twist will be almost
unnoticeable.

Bending the neck is done first over the edge of the anvil then over the horn. The jaws can be formed in a swage
after forming the neck. The last step is to flatten the neck to the thickness of the original bar. This makes the
neck taller than wide and thus stronger in the gripping direction.

Jaws can vary in section depending on what

is to be held. To make welding tongs and
foundry tongs flat bar is welded to the jaws.
Foundry tongs may need the jaw blank
drawn out to make extra long goose necks.

The tongs above were forged from 5/8" (16mm) square bar stock using a power hammer.

Foundry Tongs
The lifting tongs above are modified goose jaw bolt tongs that the jaws had been burned off (scrap tongs). The
remaining jaws were reshaped and then 1" x 1/8" (25 mm x 3.2 mm ) flat bar was arc welded on and shaped to
fit the crucible. Crucible tongs need to be carefully fitted to the crucible so that there is a wide smooth area of
contact. Lifting tongs are only used for removing the crucible from the furnace. A pouring shank or pouring tongs
are used to fill the molds.
The pouring bowl "tweezer" tongs are made from 1" x 1/8" x 32" (25 mm x 3.2 mm x 810 mm) mild steel flat
bar and were cold bent in a vise and over the anvil horn. The resulting tongs are 15" (380 mm) long and fit both
small crucibles above. For small crucibles these are much more convenient than other types of tongs. Using a
light weight refractory lift body furnace these tongs can be used for the entire casting process. Many jewelers
and other doing small castings melt metal directly in the pouring bowl using a torch and also do not need lifting
tongs.
Note that early and primitive smiths used wooden tweezer type tongs with a leather hinge to handle hot metal
for forging. While these do not have the leverage of modern tongs they do get the job done. It is something to
keep in mind if you need tongs and nothing else is available.

Dimensions for Standard Tongs

Capacity In.

Rivet

0 - 1/8

5/8

3/8

1/4

5/8

1/16

2-1/8

1/2

5/16

5/16

1/4

14

1/4

3/16 - 5/16

3/4

7/16

5/16

5/8

1/16

2-1/4

9/16

5/16

5/16

1/4

15

1/4

3/8 - 7/16

7/8

1/2

5/16

3/4

1/16

2-1/2

5/8

3/8

3/8

5/16

16

5/16

1/2 - 5/8

9/16

3/8

7/8

3/32

2-3/4

11/16

7/16

3/8

5/16

18

3/8

3/4 - 7/8

1-1/8

5/8

3/8

5/32

3/4

1/2

7/16

3/8

20

7/16

1 - 1-1/8

1-1/4

11/16

7/16

1-1/8

3/16

3-1/4

13/16

9/16

1/2

7/16

22

1/2

1-1/4 - 1-3/8

1-3/8

3/4

1/2

1-1/8

1/4

3-1/2

7/8

9/16

1/2

7/16

24

9/16

1-1/2 - 1-5/8

1-1/2

3/4

1/2

1-1/4

3/8

3-3/4

5/8

5/8

1/2

26

5/8

1-3/4 - 1-7/8

1-5/8

13/16

9/16

1-3/8

7/16

1-1/16

11/16

5/8

1/2

28

5/8

1-3/4

7/8

5/8

1-1/2

7/16

4-1/4

1-1/8

3/4

11/16

1/2

30

11/16

Rivet

Machinery's Handbook 1st - 23rd edition and 27th Edition CD used with permission.

Capacity In.

1/4 - 5/16

5/8

1/2

7/16

5/16

1/8

1/2

5/16

1/4

14

1/4

3/8 - 7/16

3/4

9/16

1/2

5/16

3/16

1-1/8

9/16

5/16

1/4

16

5/16

1/2 - 5/8

7/8

5/8

9/16

3/8

1/4

1-1/4

5/8

3/8

5/16

18

3/8

3/4 - 7/8

3/4

5/8

7/16

3/8

1-1/2

3/4

3/8

5/16

20

7/16

1 - 1-1/8

1-1/8

7/8

11/16

1/2

1/2

1-3/4

7/8

3/8

5/16

20

1/2

1-1/4 - 1-3/8

1-1/4

3/4

9/16

5/8

7/16

3/8

22

1/2

1-1/2 - 1-3/4

1-3/8

1-1/8

7/8

5/8

3/4

2-1/8

1-1/8

1/2

3/8

24

9/16

1-7/8 - 2-1/8

1-3/8

1-3/16

15/16

11/16

2-1/4

1-1/4

1/2

3/8

26

5/8

2-1/4 - 2-1/2

1-1/2

1-1/4

3/4

1-1/8

2-1/2

1-1/2

9/16

7/16

28

5/8

2-5/8 - 2-7/8

1-1/2

1-5/16

1-1/16

3/4

1-1/4

2-3/4

1-3/4

9/16

7/16

30

3/4

3 - 3-1/4

1-5/8

1-3/8

1-1/8

3/4

1-1/2

5/8

1/2

32

3/4

3-1/2 - 3-3/4

1-3/4

1-1/2

1-1/4

3/4

1-3/4

3-1/4

2-1/4

5/8

1/2

34

3/4

4 - 4-1/4

1-5/8

1-5/16

13/16

3-1/4

2-1/2

11/16

9/16

36

3/4

4-1/2 - 4-3/4

2-1/8

1-5/8

1-5/16

13/16

2-1/8

3-1/4

2-3/4

11/16

9/16

38

3/4

2-1/4

1-3/4

1-3/8

7/8

2-1/4

3-1/2

3-1/4

3/4

5/8

40

7/8

Machinery's Handbook 1st - 23rd edition and 27th Edition CD used with permission.

http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tutor.php?lesson=jd_tongs/demo

"Easy" Tongs
Demonstration by Sean Conner AKA Whitesmith of
Blackstone Forge
April 24, 2002
GURU

Sean is 10 years old and this is his second demo. Demo #112 was his first demo
on anvilfire, at age 9. :)
His father is a professional photographer and a part time blacksmith. Sean insists
on doing his on-line demos without his father's help other than the photos!

Tonight I am going to show how to make a pair of light

weight tongs, the easy way. Start with 2 pieces of 1/4"
x 3/4" x 20" long flat bar. Drill, or heat and drift, a 1/4"
hole, 3 inches from one end, and in the center of the
bar. To be sure both pieces match, clamp the bars
together and make the hole in both bars at the same
time if you use the drilling method.
Figure 2
WHITE
SMITH

Insert a piece of 1/4" round rod into the hole. Put a vise grip on the handle end to
hold the two pieces together.

WHITE
SMITH

Heat the tong end to orange in the forge.

Place the tong end in a vise. Put a crescent wrench

just under the piece of 1/4" round rod and adjust the
vise so there is about 1 inch of space between the
bottom of the wrench and the top of the vise.

Figure 3

Turn the wrench 90 degrees or 1/4 turn. You are

turning BOTH pieces of bar stock at the same time,
and in the same direction.

Figure 4

Figure 5
WHITE
SMITH

This shows how it looks from the top and the side.

Figure 8
WHITE
SMITH

Figure 7

Figure 10

Figure 9

Remove the rod. Heat the tong end in the forge and then shape it for what you
want it to do. This set of tongs was being built to hold 1/4" round stock. The tongs
can be taken apart and worked easily in the forge. When you want to see how
you did, put them back together with the rod.

When you have the tongs shaped the way you want,
heat the end of the 1/4" round rod and put it in the
hole in the tongs. Clamp it in the vise and pein the
end of the rod to form a rivet head.

Figure 11

Once you have made a rivet head from the end of the
rod, cut the other end of the rod off, leaving enough
rod to make a rivet head on that side too. Put the
whole thing in the fire and get just the end of the rivet
hot. You can make the rivet head with the rod cold,
but a little bit of heat makes it work a lot better.
Figure 12
WHITE
SMITH

Put it on the anvil and pein the end over to form a rivet head. Be careful not to get
it too tight. You can always make it tighter later, just pein it again, but you cant
make it loosen up by hitting it with the hammer.

WHITE
SMITH

Note: For the rivet, leave about 1-1/2 times the diameter of the rod to make the
rivet head.

Figure 13
WHITE
SMITH

Figure 14

These tongs have just about the right space at the end of the handle to work for
me. You can heat and bend the handles to adjust the space to fit your hands.

Figure 15

Figure 16

Figure 13