[TheForge] Log tongs?

[Bruce Freeman]

My 2 cents:

I've seldom used a fireplace log tongs because or the terrible
mechanical disadvantage.  Here you are, holding a hot, heavy log from
at least 2' away -- what can you do with that unless you're muscle
man?

It seems to me that at or near the hinge point, there should be a
protrusion - a foot - that one can rest on the hearth.  Grab the log
with the tongs, lower the foot to the hearth, now you have a fulcrum
(foot to hearth) that enables you to use the long reins as a lever to
easily lift the log in the short jaws.

The leg should be roughly as long as the grate is high above the
hearth, maybe a little longer.  Too short and it's useless.  It might
be possible to make this leg fold-able against the jaws for storage,
but there should be no risk of it collapsing while a log is being
moved.

In addition, the jaws should be 3-fingered so as to really hold the
log and not let it pivot in the jaws.  Needless to say, the tips of
the jaws should be curved 90* and pointed, for gripping power.

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 8:57 AM, CGRAF <adveniam at att.net> wrote:
> The old coal furnaces used to use an apparatus to remove large clinkers
> overall it was about 5 feet long.
> A 3/8 or half inch pipe with a rod down the middle.
> On one end of the pipe there was a fixed "thumb" That end of the rod had
> two or three tines splayed out to act as "fingers" The other end of the
> rod had a loop for pushing and pulling the rod. The rod was about eight
> inches longer than the pipe when finished.
>
> Such a thing worked real well for logs up to 5-6 inches if they are
> short enough.
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Mike Graf
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-- 
Bruce
NJ