#2 - Easy drill and twist tong (Aka BSA tongs)... Home made Blacksmithing Tools

Before you can start blacksmith you have to answer one simple question,
what's your heat source....

I'm going to assume you've gotten this figured out...
something to hit on, and something simple to hit with, again, I assume you've got this figured out.
I'm hoping to go uber primitive on this equipment to see what i can do, but for now let's get that most useful, and yet scary for the new smith to tackle...(at least i was for me)

Tongs:


Lots of great patterns, but most of them expect you to spend forever hammering out the reigns...for a first time smith this can be boring (at least it was for me, good practice, but boring..) combined with the perceived complexity... tongs got bought...

But you can make a couple perfectly good tongs your self, simply, even if you barely know how to blacksmith at all... best of all you don't need tongs to make them!

First, No Weld, Ez tongs.

Here is a link to a GREAT step by step tutorial on how to make these Tongs on IForge
IForge is a great site for Tutorials on specific project... It's where I learned to make them.

If you use a nail for a rivet, soak it in vinger a day ro so to eat of the zinc.. zinc smoke is BAD for you... BAD!

Go read that tutorial now, and then come back and read the rest of this...heck, even go make a pair following their instructions and then come back...

The nice thing here is if you make the jaws part longer on a couple pairs you can easily fit them to hold any stock, like in seconds... heat them up, grab a piece of what you want, and a few taps of a hammer later the jaws are custom fit... If you've never done much blacksmithing.. Start with a pair of these...

They look terrible hanging on a tong stand,because the reigns are solid bars, but other than that work ok.


The Tongs...
Get some flat bar stock, around 1/8 thick, by around 3/4" wide (a little bigger is good smaller is bad)

Measure back to where you want the joint (hinge) drill a hole and pop in a rivet... peen it down, and
then put in a vice and twist...

This is a different order than the tutorial above, but I find it easier... cut to length, drill, put jaws in vice with rivet just far enough above jaws of vice to get crescent wrench in there... slide on between the the vise and rivet and twist 90 degrees...

Easy as pie.

Here is an image that is really worth more than all the words above..

They are also called "ez tongs" or BSA tongs... 

Here is a video of a guy making them on Youtbe using a bolt to make the rivets...

You can also make other shaped tongs, like bolt tongs.. not GOOD tongs, but better than no tongs...

Or hold other kinds of stock by shaping the jaws.

The easiest way to reshape the jaws is to start before they are riveted together and get them in a vague approximation of the shape you want,and after assembly is to get the jaws (the grabbing part) red hot, grab a piece of the metal you want to hold and then hit the jaws with a hammer on the anvil  till they fit on the metal perfectly.