Unique Tongs

For todays post i wanted to talk through a couple pairs of really unique tongs that have been posted on Iforge Iron forums responding to my post looking for strange tongs.

The first set.

This is a pair of tongs put up my American sword smith Thomas Powers, he made this tongs for holding 16mm round section. He uses 16mm alot and he really cant having it move around so he said he made this to keep it steady all the time. Personally in my opinion its alot of work for making a simple pair of hollow bits and setting them every now and again, i dont really know whether keeping it super steady is essentail to sword smithing but im fairly sure i can get the same effect with a good set pair of hollowbits maybe bolt tongs. In conclusion i really dont have much intrest in owning or making a pair of these.

The Second Pair.

The second pair were put up by a welsh smith who didnt want to put up his name for some reason. His reasoning for these tongs were they were display tongs, made for doing shows and demostrating to apprently make the kit look better? I would love to see this guys hammer and anvil whether that has some emblishment as well. I can see the nib or mouth of the dragon is for holding round stock on the side so not even the most useful tongs let alone pretty useless. I will never make a pair of display tongs, when it comes to demostrating i am proud to show off the tools of our craft not a dragon head.......

Well this is the thing im gonna be doing for the next few days, putting up the pictures of unique tongs i have been sent and talking about there uses and whether i would ever use or make a pair.

Look forward to part 2