Noobie tries to forge weld

[Larry Pyne]

Thanks Billy.  I bought a different pair of tongs that will definitely help with holding bars at an angle to hit on the edge and horn.  I've been doing everything with a pair of wolf jaw tongs and I have thrown a lot of billets out of the tongs.  To avoid me catching everything on fire, including myself, I have been doing everything flat which takes much longer than using the horn.  Forging should be quicker and easier with a pair of tongs that can actually hold the billet haha!

[Alan Longmire]

1 hour ago, Larry Pyne said:

wolf jaw tongs

 

In my experience, there is no tool of less use in a blacksmith shop than wolf-jaw tongs.  They're actually more useful if broken, as then you can use one half as a poker.  I'm convinced they were invented in the 1990s as a way of separating newbies from their money, as you never see them in old smithing books.

 

They can be made to work if you reforge the jaws to fit the specific stock you have (and indeed you're supposed to do that with almost all tongs), but they're sold as a one-tong-fits-all, and often made from 4140, which makes them picky about being quenched.  /oldmanrantmodeoff/

[Doug Lester]

I agree with Alan 100%.  Wolf jaw tongs might do ok for holding the work in the forge for heat treating but that's about it.  My favorite pattern is chain makers tongs.

 

Doug