homemade tongs

[J.McDonald Knives]

just putting the finishing touches on my home made tongs. they turned out to be open pickup tongs. used a bolt as the rivet and just heated it up and smashed it down. im heating up the tongs right now to bend the handles in closer and to try and snug up that rivet better. picture to come in about 10 mins.

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

the first pic is the two halfs during forging. they have the basic shape but not fully complete. the other three pics are of the finished tongs. i took them outside with the porch light on so if they arent very bright and you cant see what they are very well i will take more pics tomorrow when its light outside. i made them out of 1/2" round bar. the finished length of the tongs is just over 26" to the end of the hook and just over 25" to the end of the handle.im pretty sure i did the hook on the wrong side but i can fix that later. well here are the pics:

so what yall think? how well did i do? not bad for a first attempt at forging since the last time i forged anything was when i was about 10 years old and only make a hook that looked like crap.

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

ok i did some minor tweaking to them but i still have some play from side to side. im thinking of drilling out that bolt and getting a longer bolt and getting a nut this time and just heating them up and peening them together. any other ideas that i can try since the hardware stores in town dont have any non teflon locking nuts?

 

[SteelSlaver]

Just a bolt will work fine leave the tongs cold (laythem out correctly) and heat the bolt. Place hot bolt on anvil and the place tong halves on it and rivet the bolt well and then imediately open and close the tongs a few times. If you spent to much time admiring your rivet job before you open and close the tongs the rivet will shrink as it cools and you will have an art piece instead of tongs. The teflon hut wouldn't last long reaching in a forge for a hot part.

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

the type of locking nut i want to use is one that has the metal folded in. sort of like an aircraft nut.