Log tongs

[bobodu]

Made these today...
Just some 3/4" X 3/8" flat stock heated up in the wood stove and bent into a hook. Then,I backed that with another piece of flat stock to make a "T" cross section. Some 1/2" pieces of stainless round rod make up the teeth.

 

[F.L. Jennings]

Heating in a wood stove is a practical idea. Lots cheaper than oxy-acetylene!
That's using your head - and stove. Blacksmithery is a handy knowledge.

 

[flaming-ace]

very nice, we've got a few sets of these, that we got cheap off the forestry commision or another big company because they were getting rid of old equipment

 

[F.L. Jennings]

I recently made a cant hook for no cost. Catalog prices are $70 or better. If you can make it or find it nearly free thats best. I used to have a small sawmill and used skidding tongs to drag up all the logs to the cold deck.

 

[bobodu]

Blacksmithery is a handy knowledge.

Built my first forge when I was about 14 at the tail end of the steam locomotive era. Back then,it was real handy to walk down the tracks a half mile and pick up all the free coke I could carry. Now days,it's just a pain in the butt to even find coal around here. It can be had but it's not really worth my trouble. Thought about a gas forge....but it lacks the "magic" of a good fire. I use my O/A torch on some small stuff and my weed burner on the larger bits. But as anyone who heats a shop with wood knows,you seem to spend a lot of time poking the fire whether it needs it or not!! Might as well heat some steel...
Here's a shot of my stove..the firebox is a 60 gallon compressor tank and I have a furnace blower behind the heat exchanger. I have since insulated the walls and covered them with tin from a feeder bunk roof.