Every
bladesmith/blacksmith needs tongs to work. When I started
forging, I bought them from suppliers, antique shops, auctions,
wherever I could find them. They worked, but they were not
always
what I wanted or needed. So, like most smiths, I started making my own. I quickly discovered that it wasn't that much fun for me. I started to look for another way to make tongs quickly. My frst couple sets of blanks were cut out on a bandsaw until I had a pattern I liked. I regularly cut 3/8" steel at work and started working my pattern into the sheets. These tong blanks are the end result. |
![]() The top style is the standard tong blank. Many styles can be made from this blank. I have left more material on the end so that there is enough to accomadate many different styles. The bottom style is a bolt tong blank. The end can be split before forging with a hacksaw or band saw or it can be split on a hot cut. Both ways work well. |
These are a random sampling of different styles that I have made using these blanks. | |
Update: I am no long selling tong blanks. Right now I have a lot of things going on, and I need to remove some things from my plate. These were never as popular as I expected them to be. |
Check back later, I'll save my file as a dxf file that anybody can take to their local plasma/laser/water jet cutter to have their own cut. |
Here are the files: Standard tong blank Bolt tong blank |