Choosing Your First Blacksmithing Hammer and Tongs

Start With One Hammer, Not Five

Walk into a blacksmithing supply shop or scroll through a maker's marketplace and you will see hammer sets that look like a woodworker's dream: five heads, four handles, a presentation box. Resist. A beginner needs one well-balanced hammer and the hours at the anvil to learn what it does. Most UK evening classes and weekend courses will hand you something in the 800g to 1kg range — roughly 2 to 2.5lb — with a hickory handle, and that is the right place to start. Buy the best single hammer you can afford, then spend what you saved on tongs.

Cross-Peen or Rounding Hammer?

These are the two hammers you will see most often in British workshops, and they do genuinely different jobs.

A cross-peen hammer has one flat face and one wedge-shaped peen set at right angles to the handle. The peen concentrates force into a narrow line, which makes it excellent for drawing out, spreading metal sideways, setting down shoulders and cutting in with a hot cutter. The flat face handles general forging: flattening, planishing and truing up. It is a traditional pattern, and it is what most old British anvils were worked with.

A rounding hammer has one or two domed faces. The curve acts a little like a fuller, pushing metal away from the centre of the blow and helping you move material quickly. Modern makers love them because you can draw out stock fast and leave a slightly domed surface that cleans up easily. The catch for a beginner is that a domed face leaves marks if you are not careful, and you have no flat face for finishing unless you buy a two-faced version.

My advice: start with a cross-peen. The flat face gives you a reliable reference for flat work, and the peen teaches you directional forging. If you find yourself drawing out a lot of stock, add a rounding hammer later. It is a tool to grow into, not a first purchase.

Weight, Balance and Handle

For most adults, 800g to 1kg is the sweet spot. Smaller makers, younger students and anyone with wrist or shoulder trouble often do better with 700g. Heavier is not better: you lose control and tire quickly, and tired hammering is bad hammering. Check that the head sits tight on the handle with the wedge driven home. A loose head is dangerous and ruins your accuracy.

Hickory is the standard handle timber, and an oval section lets you feel which way the head is pointing without looking. Many handles arrive varnished; a light sanding and a wipe of boiled linseed oil gives you a grip that will not blister. The handle should be long enough that your hand sits near the end, with a little protruding past your little finger. Do not choke up on it, and do not cut it down because it looks tidier.

Tongs Are Not Optional

Tongs hold the work. Without tongs that fit properly, you cannot forge safely or accurately. The wrong pair means the stock rotates under the hammer or slips altogether, and you either burn your hand or fling hot metal across the workshop. Beginners often buy a hammer first and tongs second. It should be the other way round.

You will meet several patterns, and each has a purpose:

• Flat jaw tongs: the workhorse for square and rectangular stock, with jaws that close flat against the bar.
• Bolt tongs: jaws with a deep V-notch, ideal for round bar and good general-purpose tongs.
• V-bit tongs: two angled faces that grip round stock on four points, so the bar cannot spin.
• Round jaw tongs: curved jaws matched to a specific diameter of round bar.
• Wolf jaw tongs: broad shaped jaws that cope with odd shapes and tapers, useful but less precise.
• Pick-up tongs: short, light and perfect for retrieving small offcuts from the forge.

Matching Tongs to Round and Square Stock

Measure your stock before you buy. The common beginner sizes are 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and 12mm, in both square and round. Buy tongs sized for the stock you actually have, not the stock you dream of forging.

For round stock, choose V-bit or round jaw tongs. When the jaws close on the bar, they should make contact and hold it without any rocking. Squeeze the reins and the bar should feel locked in place. For square stock, flat jaw or bolt tongs work well, gripping two opposite flats. Close the jaws on a piece of the bar and check that the faces meet flush without a gap at one end.

Two practical details matter more than pattern. First, the reins should be long enough for your hand but not so long that they swing wildly, and the rivet should move freely without slop. Second, remember that hot metal contracts as it cools. Tongs that fit a cold bar perfectly will feel loose on the same bar at forging heat, so size slightly tight or be ready to adjust the jaws in a vice.

Building a Starter Kit That Works

If you are setting up a first forge at home, here is a sensible shopping list: one 800g cross-peen hammer, one pair of bolt tongs sized to your most-used bar, one pair of flat jaw tongs for square stock, and a small pair of pick-up tongs. That covers most beginner projects — a poker, a bottle opener, a set of hooks, a simple knife blank — without wasting money on tools you will not touch for a year.

Add a rounding hammer when your drawing out slows you down, and V-bit tongs when you start working round bar in earnest. Where you can, hold tools before buying; a hammer that feels wrong in the hand will feel wrong at the anvil after an hour. Ask at your local blacksmithing group or makerspace, borrow a pair of tongs for an evening, and let your own projects tell you what to buy next. That way your kit grows with your skill rather than ahead of it.