More Easy Tongs, from harbor freight long needle nose pliers 2 for around $10, and from nippers, and a simple joint you cna make the fist day with thinner material

Another option for easy tongs is making them from cheap long needle nosed pliers set you get at harbor freight.

The set I got had orange rubber(plastic) on the handles, this guy has a great tutorial on making them.

Here is a nice tutorial on making them out of a set of nippers,which you can get cheap used (new aint cheap)

http://www.hammertyme.com/index.php?threads%2Frepurposing-hoof-nippers-into-tongs.496%2F

Hre is a digram of the first kind of forged tongs I made, pretty easy can make them out of stock the size of the reigns (handles) you want... just bend, flatten, rivet an go.