[TheForge] Heads-up: Universal (?) "Tongs"

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

On Nov 30, 2014, at 5:38 AM, Bruce . <freemab222 at gmail.com> wrote:

​Peter,

​
You've NEVER fit tongs to your work?  Did I read that right?

Never during a demo Bruce.

I don't do it often, but one (late) member used to do it all the time.  If
you start with a tongs that's approximately right, you can end up with a
perfect fit in minutes.  If the tongs is wrong, but otherwise useless to
you, you can rework it into a useful pair in a fairly short time. The main
reason I have a stash of "useless" tongs is that I reserve them for
reworking.

The main points of adjustment are the gap between jaws, and the alignment
of the reins, but jaw shapes can be altered w/in reason too.  A
standard-jaw tongs can be turned into a box-jaw by (arc) welding on a piece
of steel for the box.  (A purist would forge-weld it on, but that requires
disassembling the tongs first, unless you're really good!)

St Francis W had a big old arc welder under his bench and admitted using it to make tooling.
He was a modern purist if there ever was one.

Bruce
NJ