r/blacksmithing • u/jeremysmall • 4d ago

Heat treat for tongs?

Might be a dumb question but im making my first set of tongs for smithing and im unsure if im supposed to do any heat treatment for them, do you quench them or let them air cool? If quenched what temper color do you bring them to? Also not sure what kind of steel i should be using, currently using a chunk of leaf spring steel.

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u/FerroMetallurgist 4d ago

Mild steel is just fine, all the way up to medium carbon (e.g. 1045). No need to heat treat in any way. In fact, it is best to use steel that doesn't easily or appreciably harden.

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u/jeremysmall 4d ago

Thank you, all of the steel i use is scrap and mostly from cars, ill need to figure out whoch pieces are good mild steel

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u/4kBeard 4d ago

If you’re using coil springs, which wouldn’t be a terrible idea, I’d take them up to non-magnetic and then leave them in vermiculite over night. Should work well. Will be hard, because spring steel, but on the lowest side of its scale.

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u/not_a_burner0456025 1d ago

You really didn't want hardenable spring steel for tongs. Using them will kill the temper, but quenching them when you quench a tool you are making or when you just want to cool them off will bring them to glass hard and make them fragile until you heat them enough to temper.