Tong choices or big pliers maybe?

A

Absinthe

Well-Known Member
I have a Jen-Ken Air Bath 16 (Vertical Knife Kiln) HT furnace on order.

I have no interest in becoming a blacksmith, forging my own billets etc.., so I have no gearing up for a forge and associated paraphernalia. It occurs to me that is the opposite of most people who start with a forge and add in a HT oven. So with a vertical furnace, a pin is put through a tang hole and the blade is balanced on a kiln furniture grate vertically with the blade/point hanging down into the main chamber.

I assume if I had forging capabilities, I would simply grab one of my myriad of tongs and use them. But that not being the case, I believe I need a set of tongs. It would seem they need to be able to grasp small blades and manipulate them in a quench tank without losing control. However, being neither a blacksmith nor a farrier I have no experience in what to ask for or buy.

Suggestions?
 
 
Absinthe said:
And, you don't find yourself having any problems grabbing smaller stock with the wolf jaw?
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None at all. I make a small coupon about 2" x 3" every time I run up my oven to see how my blades are coming out. No issues grabbing that small of a piece.
 
Absinthe said:
Okay, I ordered a pair of V-bit tongs from Ken's Iron. Wish me luck :)
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I have a pair of those as well. I can't pick up things quite as well with those, but they were much better for holding stock when I was trying to learn to forge and hammer steel!
 
Absinthe said:
Okay, I ordered a pair of V-bit tongs from Ken's Iron. Wish me luck :)
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I didn't mention Ken's Iron tongs because you mentioned having no desire for forging. Isn't all his tongs in kit form? I might have missed the completed tongs. Those Vee bit tongs are normally best for round stock rather than flat such as knife tangs.

Let us know how they turn out - Ken's got good stuff.
 
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KenH said:
I didn't mention Ken's Iron tongs because you mentioned having no desire for forging. Isn't all his tongs in kit form? I might have missed the completed tongs. Those Vee bit tongs are normally best for round stock rather than flat such as knife tangs.

Let us know how they turn out - Ken's got good stuff.
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I discussed specifically what I was doing with Ken. These were his suggestion. Funny thing, I was thinking about retrieving the knife one way and he suggested a different way.

In the top loading kiln, there is a pin placed through the pivot of the blade. This pin lays on 2 parallel pieces of kiln furniture. I was assuming I would have to grasp the tiny little tab of the tang left over on one side of the pin. Now, on some folders, this can be perhaps 1/8". But Ken's suggestion is that I grasp the blade in the V-Groove, with the blade side in one groove, and the spine side in the other. So along the blade not across the blade. This way as deep as I stick the nose of the tongs between the furniture rails is the depth of the grip on the blade. Then I am not trying to grasp just a tiny little piece of blade.

He assured me that I should have no problem using a torch to do the minor offset of the tongs, and if I didn't want to I wouldn't even have to splay the V-groove, but could simply grind one in. But even that I should be able to handle. We will find out for sure. Soon enough.
 
Good deal. I'd not thought about grasping the blade that way. Ken's is for sure who I would have suggested had I realized you would be open to making them. Be sure to let us know how it works and show photos of finished tongs.
 
Absinthe said:
I discussed specifically what I was doing with Ken. These were his suggestion. Funny thing, I was thinking about retrieving the knife one way and he suggested a different way.

In the top loading kiln, there is a pin placed through the pivot of the blade. This pin lays on 2 parallel pieces of kiln furniture. I was assuming I would have to grasp the tiny little tab of the tang left over on one side of the pin. Now, on some folders, this can be perhaps 1/8". But Ken's suggestion is that I grasp the blade in the V-Groove, with the blade side in one groove, and the spine side in the other. So along the blade not across the blade. This way as deep as I stick the nose of the tongs between the furniture rails is the depth of the grip on the blade. Then I am not trying to grasp just a tiny little piece of blade.

He assured me that I should have no problem using a torch to do the minor offset of the tongs, and if I didn't want to I wouldn't even have to splay the V-groove, but could simply grind one in. But even that I should be able to handle. We will find out for sure. Soon enough.
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I forgot you were using a top loading kiln and hanging your blades. I'm sure Ken gave good advice.

I have a Paragon front loader and everything I make is stainless so all my blades are foil wrapped. very easy to grab with the tongs I posted.
 
KenH said:
Good deal. I'd not thought about grasping the blade that way. Ken's is for sure who I would have suggested had I realized you would be open to making them. Be sure to let us know how it works and show photos of finished tongs.
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I am open to just about anything. I just didn't think I "could"
 
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I'm a fan of long needle nose for this sort of thing.

I just heat the jaws up and bend them to whatever shape I need. They work great. I even forge with them.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
 

Don't forget to buy some high temp gloves. Here's a pair of Tillmans on Amazon. They make good welding gloves, but I heard they started making some of their stuff in China. Carolina makes similar gloves, but they're based in either NC or SC... pretty sure North Carolina.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
 
52 Ford said:

Don't forget to buy some high temp gloves. Here's a pair of Tillmans on Amazon. They make good welding gloves, but I heard they started making some of their stuff in China. Carolina makes similar gloves, but they're based in either NC or SC... pretty sure North Carolina.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
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I got some similar to these. They are great!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0922VZKQ...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
 
52 Ford said:

Don't forget to buy some high temp gloves. Here's a pair of Tillmans on Amazon. They make good welding gloves, but I heard they started making some of their stuff in China. Carolina makes similar gloves, but they're based in either NC or SC... pretty sure North Carolina.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I am hoping my welding gloves will work well enough to get started. If not I will upgrade. :)
 
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