Evaluation

Well I asked myself the question can I make tong reins better in anyway shape or form? The answer to that question that I have found out very quickly is no I cannot through my ideas anyway, I think with the research and the testing I did I have a good lead towards maybe a breakthrough but in this short period I didn’t.

I started the project by looking into tongs in general, I started off pretty weak looking around holme lacy and after the halfway point and some feedback with Ambrose I got myself out there talking to different people and on the forums about their ideas. I enjoyed the research I just think that I didn’t look into it deep enough, I feel I sort of neglected going into books and magazine. I really should have gone into the library or some of my own forging books to get some good extracts from them about tongs. 

One side of this project I really dived into was interviews, I spoke to some really renowned smiths, Adrian Legge, David Fields, George Lewis, Glen Stollmeyer. I got comments and their opinions on tongs as well as their experiences. This was by far my favourite part of this project, I am a big fan of listening to anyone’s stories.

As of making for this project, I did the same pieces as everyone else for Steve which aren’t my finest work but they work and they are to mostly to spec so I can live with it. I made up a few samples and some tongs with unique reins, didn’t really enjoy the making as part of this project because I am a bit of techy when it comes down to the classic stuff like tong making, I was writing my own rule book on this one so they came out looking rough as hell. Didn’t even set the nib right because holding them was so difficult while I was making them up.

Overall this project had its up and downs, I can’t see myself getting a high mark for this because I’ve got to admit at the start it was at the back of my mind so I lost a lot of time on it. That is what I need to work on with this having a few projects going at the same time, I put the one I enjoy the most to the fore front of my mind and when I find to work I work on it and projects like this one slip through the cracks so to speak.

Testing

For the testing I got two different pieces of steel, one a piece of flat and one a piece of square then found myself some subject willing to try it out. Will, Darrell and Alex agreed to help me with the testing, first up was Darrell. Darrell and Alex were willing to give me a few comments, Will is working on a big piece so he only had a few minutes to dash in use them then give me short one liner on his thoughts.

The test is using the 3 set of tongs pick up the piece of steel you think fits best then get it hot and use one heat to taper it down, then judge if they are any better or major critics.

Tong One

 

Darrell: Honestly I can’t see much difference in these tongs to regular tongs, I would see if anything it’s a little bit more comfortable in the hand but not a lot more than two straight reins.

Will: Can’t see a difference

Alex: I really like these tongs, it’s something different to stand out. I think that it fits in the hand a lot nicer than the usual straight reins, the only trouble is I found it more difficult to get nibs around the bar so maybe some more work to get it right.

All 3 went for the section of flat bar with these tongs

Tong Two

Darrell: You spending a lot of time putting tension into them because of how difficult it is to find a comfortable position to hold them in the hand. I wouldn’t make a pair of these because it isn’t effective sacrificing comfort for pressure on the nibs.

Will: It changes tongs from useful into a challenge.

Alex: I can see where the thought has gone into making them, it does apply more force it’s just the holding part hasn’t been refined enough to take full control of the applied pressure.

Darrell used the flat bar but the other two went for the square section.

Tong Three

Darrell: These tongs are just completely unusable because of the only section you can hold is next to the nibs, making it the hottest part. Don’t really understand these tongs.

Will: How the fuck are these useful? They don’t even make sense.

Alex: It seems like the bend is a little too far back making them un able to be held on the back so you have to hold in front of the bend, making the bend completely useless other than a little bit better looking.

Tong Description

First Tong's

This pair was oddly the last pair i made, i made the other two and i didnt really have many ideas that werent involving the large bends in them so i got on the phone to Richard and he said why dont you work on making them more comfortable rather than more useful. So i bent it a little so that it comes in at a different angle, personally i find it a little more comfortable in the hand. This pair on the ones i have got the most faith in.

Second Tong's

These tongs were set so that the bend would increase the tension around the nib of the tongs, they were a real bitch to get right because making up two tong reins right then put them together then one has changed somehow. I am looking forward to seeing how this comes together in the testing.

  Third Tong's

This is the wild pair, i made them up with the intention of putting a chain on the end then holding one of the reins instead of both. It was an odd idea me and Andrew had of just holding the one rein instead of the two. I am really looking forward to seeing how people try to hold these.

Tongs Done

I finished up the tongs yesterday and even managed to do the testing which i will be writing up over the day.

After the testing i will be doing my evaluation for this project, i am quite looking forward to going over my progress and really seeing if the answer was yes or no to can you upgrade tongs?

 

Interview with Richard

well i said that i was going to get it up in the next couple of days, it doesnt sound as fluid as when he said it but when i took out the swearing and regional slang, then made it make sense to humans it had changed a bit.

Question: So Richard in all years of making tools and tongs what was your favourite set to make?

Answer: My favourite tool I have ever made is some of the power hammer swages I have made over the years, I use the power hammer a lot so anyway I can make it more useful through tooling. The trouble with a lot of tooling up for the power hammer is it needs two people but if you have two people you can do almost anything on power hammer from cutting, drawing out, straightening up.

If I needed to think of a hand tool, I have a pair of old spring steel bolt tongs in my car that I made over 20 years ago, they have been re shaped and bent but even after all that time they still work. I have made many tongs using the one set. Also I really do love making bolt tongs, it really weeds the men from the boys setting the nibs.

Question: Speaking of tongs what would you say your most unique set of tongs would be?

Answer: Being a bit of traditionalist I haven’t really done anything like what your planning with bending reins all different kind of ways. I would say my unique set that I have ever made would be a pair of axe making tongs, the nibs were set around an axe head so they could hold it while the end is fire welded. I made them out of some larger section so there was no bending in the nibs and reins, turns out I only ever used them once but still was a nice day of making something I have never done.

Question: If there was a way you could make tong better what would you say it is?

Answer: Personally when it comes down to tong reins and nibs even I don’t think you can improve by changing the shape, I think it is more in changing the section. In recent years I have been making my reins up with octagon section, I find it stronger and don’t bend under any kind of heat. I started doing this after I lost of round section tongs to bending. I have also found putting a lot more meat into the nibs so that they can be set a lot more in the future, it does make the tongs heavier but if you make them out of something like spring steel or smaller rein section it will be a lighter.

 

Update

Well not alot done over the weekend guys, both the projects are coming to an end so as usual i keep thinking of things to do. I need to write up the interview with richard, just need to take out the swearing and our accent so that it can be understood.

I was a little miffed on friday because of the snow, i really wanted to get the tongs finish friday and starting writing up the test results maybe getting it printed over the week.

Seems because of the snow that plan is gone.

Tongs

Well i have got 2 pairs of unique tongs made up ready for testing and making the final set tommorow ready for testing monday. A few points i have learned already, one thing about straight bar reins alot easier to make and to set up so they match, i spent ages trying to line up the tong reins to then attach them and suddenly one has grown by an inch, aswell as that setting the nibs is a whole new level of difficult.

I am beginning to think this question that i asked myself, that the answer is no. Would i change this question in the future? No probably not, i have learned loads about tongs and making them through this, even setting a pair of tongs that doesnt want to be made i have learned stuff through little talks and just playing with it.

These are the two tongs that i made up, i admit they are not to look at because of the making being a write my own rule book style of forging. I cant wait to test them and see if there any real break throughs and see about taking the postives further maybe refining a set with aspects of them all.