Blacksmithing For Beginners - Basic Tong Shapes and Their Uses

Blacksmithing For Beginners - Basic Tong Shapes and Their Uses. This is a quick tour of my tong rack. I describe the tongs that i use and how i use them.

[@Dirtbiker-guy]

This is an incredibly informative video on tongs and the uses of tongs. Thank you for posting.

[@Squidvicious2]

Extremely informative. I learned more in the 11 minutes of your video on forge fundamentals than several hours of other videos on specific forge designs. Keep them coming!

[@roparzhlapprenti]

Thanks a lot. Greetings from France.

[@cbleman]

I'm glad I found this channel! Your calm approach to discussing everything is very user-friendly.

[@oldmanwinter1405]

Denis, that was a very gripping video (OK a bit of a lame intended pun). What a nice bunch of tongs you showed us. I got some new ideas, mostly with regards to the variations to the box tongs. Thanks for all that you do, and for sharing it. Knowledge not shared is knowledge wasted, IMHO.

[@hannesmoser2732]

best tong collection ever

[@msblades5382]

Thanks for the info on tongs it helps tremendously....

[@df-intheshop330]

Thanks - what did you decide to do about your forge?

[@КонстантинБраунков]

👍👏super info!Karelija,Russia

[@mariotoro460]

Quisiera poder tener herramientas de herreria cuanto trabajo cuesta conformar una sola pinzas miren cuantas. Usted subio a la red.bendiciones muchas gracias por subir tan importante video mis respeto maestro.gracias reiteradas me encanta la herreria saludos mario.

[@СимеонПеев]

Your videos are so useful. Thank's a lot.

[@bunyanforgings7849]

Ring tongs .... I uploaded a whole selection of free ring tongs on my phone. Pretty lame, I know, just couldn't resist. Really informative video. Cheers!

[@df-intheshop330]

You're making me homesick - I grew up with that kind of humour. Keep up the good work. LOL

[@trevorzzealley2670]

Oh I get it now , it took about 25 minutes for the penny to drop through to the bottom of the pay phone.

[@bunyanforgings7849]

@@trevorzzealley2670 My comment is what, a year old? I really hope it didn't take that long to figure it out. Lol. Cheers.

[@rami3433]

Thanks, very informative video!

[@edgarderschmied4497]

Thanks, very informative video! Perfect for the beginner . Greetings from Germany, Edgar

[@jasperedinger7502]

i have wanted to make some springs for various perpouses but dont know how. its mainly the tempering that i have treouble with and itd be awesome if you could make a video about tempering springs. also i use wood as oposed to charcoal or coal and im still trying to compensate to some of the lower temperatures... your videos are great by the way, they have brought me a long way from where i started

[@df-intheshop330]

I do have a video on making springs. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGm4Yo2Mp6abrLs I also have a couple of videos on heat treating in general. Are you supplying the wood fire with an air blast? Wood fires are usually very hot - the fuels gets consumed quickly but heat isn't a problem.

[@jasperedinger7502]

ok, thanks i looked at those and they answered a lot of my questions...

[@metaalateliermetal]

I just made one to take curls. T-end one side and round hook on the other side. so the curls ore fix in 3 point, 2 on the end of the T and one in the center. nr 12 of the self-made tongs. I hope it go's faster in the future. sinds i use your design my tongs are nicer, thanks!

[@jasonduncan3532]

Thank you very much for this video. I wonder if you could make interchangeable tongs IE top from a box and bottom from a hinge and just use a locking bolt to hold them together. Do you think that would boost your tong diversity with out loosing the space?

[@df-intheshop330]

Anything is possible but with my arthritis the loss of manual dexterity would make any system like that very frustrating. Cleaning up once in a while works fine. Thanks

[@cholulahotsauce6166]

Jason Duncan everything would have to be extremely standardized as well with regards to the size and shape of the tong boss. It'd be doable with stamping jigs under a press or power hammer, but not likely by hand.

[@jasonduncan3532]

Very true. Also, I have to admit the more tongs I would be making the more experience I would gain. Plus if I fudged up some of them no one has to know.

[@johnwest4788]

Thanks for your videos. Have you discussed fire management any any of your older videos? If not, could you maybe give some pointers in one of your future videos? One of the challenges I have is keeping a good fire. Yesterday, I had so much fine coal in my fire pot that it filled my ash dump so high that it cut off my air supply. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting a hot fire even though I had cleaned the clinkers out of the fire pot.

[@df-intheshop330]

That is coming up. I talked a bit about the fire in the second forge welding video but it doesn't cover what you are talking about. Thanks

[@msblades5382]

Re forge question Well I've decided to use the Refractory castable that I have the depth,length, width will be comparable to the dimensions you have? I have found in my research that this will be an optimal size for the work I intend on doing (Blades) and will also be sufficient for some of the artistic Blacksmithing projects I intend on trying. I found that this size pot will not only be sufficient for the work I want to do. Also when I advance more into this at this perfect sized pot I wont be outgrowing.Not to mention the ability to utilize the fire to have confidence that the depth will indeed make it easier to insure that the pot burns off any oxygen that may occur if the pot is shallow. After it is done Id like to send a picture if you have any interest on accout it is comprised of a dreaded wheel hub.lol Thanks for the interest, Martin Moldovan

[@aktrapper6126]

Thanks for the tour of your tongs and all the information here. I have found tong making to be a good introduction to blacksmithing. I noticed you have about a 3/8 in. radius on the edge of your anvil. Isn't that a little large? I have about 3/16 radius on mine and I'm wondering if I should make it larger?

[@df-intheshop330]

My anvil has a number of radiuses to allow for the forging of different transitions between cross sections. It also allows me some different fullering options as I'm drawing metal out. Most people use hardy tools to accomplish this I prefer to have it built into my anvil. See my playlist on anvils for videos explaining how I shape and use my anvil.

[@Варвар7120]

Впечатляет Ваша колекция!

[@Merlijn777]

Very helpful! What kind of tongs would you recommend to start blacksmithing with if you had to choose 1 or 2?

[@markling712]

It really depends on what type of forging you will be doing, and what steel sizes you will be working with mostly. So.. what are you planning on doing? bolt jaw tongs I have found to be pretty versatile if they have V bit jaws, as they will hold round, square, and flat pretty securely depending on size.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Hey Denis, I'm finally getting my blacksmithing area set up after years of wanting one, and I'm playing with forging tongs. I've been watching lots of tong making videos, I really like yours BTW. My question is, with forged tongs, which areas of the tong structure are super important to get right and which operations are more for making a more aesthetic tong vs a more functional tong? Lots of the tong videos put a lot of time into forging the boss etc. Which spots on the tong are most likely to let you down when forging if you don't make them correctly? What are the critical areas of a tong to get right to get them functional? Really like the "but ugly tong" video as well.

[@df-intheshop330]

There really isn't any one part that is more important than another. It's more a mater of getting everything balanced so that it all works. The jaws have to be strong enough to hold on to the work without deforming also the transition between the jaws and the hinge area need to be heavy enough to prevent the jaws form being bent out of shape. The hinge area needs to be thick enough to transfer all the clamping pressure applied by the reins. And the reins need to be heavy enough to supply the force needed to hold on to the work but still be springy enough to allow you to feel how much pressure you are applying. If any one part is too heavy or too light it throws everything off and the tongs will feel clumsy or they won't hold on to the work properly.

[@troytreeguy]

Thanks for all that Info! I recently picked up a hammer again, I have been making tongs to practice. On my third set of flat bits and they are getting much better each pair i make. I am still having trouble getting the boss to come out well. For a typical set of your tongs what size steel do you start with?

[@df-intheshop330]

The real problem with tongs is that both pieces are sitting next to each other so any little difference gets magnified. Making multiples of anything accurately enough so that the differences between them don't matter takes a lot of time and practice. But if you stop making tongs by forging and assembling pairs where the second tong blank always gets matched with the first you will find that the differences between all the blanks will fall in a fairly narrow range - provided you took care to measure the steps as you went. Blank 2 may look terrible next to blank 1 but it may be an exact match for 7,10 & 12 and so on. So first forge a lot of blanks as carefully as you can then when you have 10 or 20 blanks start machine them up. You will be surprised how many nice pairs of tongs you come up with. I use 1/2" round for most tongs. This video is on making small tongs ( 3/8" round stock ) but it is the same process and type of upsetting die that i used for larger tongs. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXLQpX-HqKisi80 This is the first of 5 videos on how i make tongs. It shows the upsetting die I'm currently using kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5XFeIiZo7h1pNE

[@Skelstoolbox]

I don't even have one pair! I'm using a long pair of vice grips still, since I'm still unsure of my abilities of making a pair and have no idea where to buy any. I think I could handle it now.. a basic pair for knife making, most practical style.. Any suggestions? I'm a welder by trade so I was thinking of just welding reigns on the handles of a pair of big slip joints.. That would work eh? Though I'd rather have a proper pair..

[@df-intheshop330]

Being a welder certainly gives you a lot of options for fabricating a pair of tongs. Even if you stay with the channel lock idea you can make very good offset box tongs by adding angle iron to the outside edges of the jaws. However I think most knife makers don't even bother with tongs they just weld a long bar to the tang and cut it off when the forging is done.

[@msblades5382]

Dennis Do you make hammers? I am wanting to get a square rounding hammer .I am currently using a 4 lb small sledge that I modified to have a rounding end and a flat but she gets heavy after a bit. I shur would like to get my hands on a say 2.5 rounding it may help me progress a bit faster.Any thoughts on hammers ,maybe your next video can be regarding different hammer styles. Just a thought .

[@df-intheshop330]

No need to make a hammer. The little mason's club hammer is 2.5 lbs. I just bought a few at Harbor freight for $3 each. Can't even light up the forge for that.

[@chrism3839]

So you mentioned that your scrolling tongs are made of spring steel. Can virtually all other forms of tongs be made out of mild steel?

[@df-intheshop330]

I do make all of my tongs from plain hot rolled mild steel.

[@chrism3839]

DF - In The Shop awesome, thanks!

[@jamesmcmillen4828]

Bolt jaws and flat bits...just can't go wrong.

[@df-intheshop330]

Thanks

[@fieroboom]

You're speaking in tongs... 😂🤣 Do you ever use slotted jaw tongs? I've seen them in other videos & they look fairly versatile, but possibly at the expense of some strength... 🤷‍♂️

[@df-intheshop330]

Slotted tongs are useful for holding irregular shaped flat bars like the tampered edge of an axe bit. I use box jaw tongs to hold straight sided flat bars.

[@conleycustomironwork3227]

I prefer lite tongs for forging

[@df-intheshop330]

No problem but it would help people starting out for you to explain why.

[@wadestewart9891]

Dennis looks like your tong poor I one the other hand have maybe 4 pair think I'm going to revisit your tong videos and make a few more they are the hardest tool I've ever made thanks

[@df-intheshop330]

The real problem with tongs is that both pieces are sitting next to each other so any little difference gets magnified. Making multiples of anything accurately enough so that the differences between them don't matter takes a lot of time and practice. But if you stop making tongs by forging and assembling pairs where the second tong blank always gets matched with the first you will find that the differences between all the blanks will fall in a fairly narrow range - provided you took care to measure the steps as you went. Blank 2 may look terrible next to blank 1 but it may be an exact match for 7,10 & 12 and so on. So first forge a lot of blanks as carefully as you can then when you have 10 or 20 blanks start machine them up. You will be surprised how many nice pairs of tongs you come up with.

[@josephtraughber3850]

you got too many tongs how about sale some of the to the beginner blacksmith

[@robertlangley258]

Awwwwwww I'm sorry you have too many tongs and have to take them out back to get them out our way, awwwwww, you poor soul. HEY!! I have an idea, give all those mean ole tongs away!! Never mind then you wouldn't have anything to talk about since you don't forge in the first place.

[@hiddenworldforge374]

The more tools a blacksmith has, most often the more experienced and skilled they are. You seem like the kind of person without any tools.