How to custom-bend forceps?

[Andy]

Here's a question for you smart guys with metallurgy experience:

I seem to have a hell of a time gripping hooks at the correct angle with my forceps for removal. I'm thinking that if I bend the tips at a right angle they'll grip the hook easier and better. I tried doing this by putting the tips in a vise but wound up breaking them. Would it help if I heated the tips of the forceps on my gas range first or would this also make them brittle?

 

[lightenup]

https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-901&va=bent+forceps

They sell them already bent......

 

[flyI4]

we are in for a long winter if we are seeing posts like this in mid december

 

[golden beetle]

Here's a question for you smart guys with metallurgy experience:

I seem to have a hell of a time gripping hooks at the correct angle with my forceps for removal. I'm thinking that if I bend the tips at a right angle they'll grip the hook easier and better. I tried doing this by putting the tips in a vise but wound up breaking them. Would it help if I heated the tips of the forceps on my gas range first or would this also make them brittle?

Andy, can you write an article about bending forceps for GB mag?

 

[Trout Nazi]

Here's a question for you smart guys with metallurgy experience:

I seem to have a hell of a time gripping hooks at the correct angle with my forceps for removal. I'm thinking that if I bend the tips at a right angle they'll grip the hook easier and better. I tried doing this by putting the tips in a vise but wound up breaking them. Would it help if I heated the tips of the forceps on my gas range first or would this also make them brittle?

Kitchen stove and a vice? Wear your safety glasses Andy, before you put your eye out.

 

[mudbug201]

Here's a question for you smart guys with metallurgy experience:

I have more online shopping experience than metallurgy experience. All for DIYing fishing gear, but you have to choose your battles.

Here you go.

($5... way cheaper than your medical bills after you suffer third degree burns trying to bend your foreceps with an acetylene torch)

 

[Thursthouse]

https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-901&va=bent+forceps

They sell them already bent......

Yahoo is still around?

 

[lightenup]

Yahoo is still around?

Yup...........

 

[browntrout27]

Andy - try removing the bend in your hooks. With straight hooks, they can be removed easier and you won't have to bend your forceps.

 

[FIN-ITE 34]

Andy - try removing the bend in your hooks. With straight hooks, they can be removed easier and you won't have to bend your forceps.

BT- Do you have to temper the hooks before you can take out the bend? I believe trying to straighten forged hooks will yield the same result as trying to bend the hemostat, a BB to the eye.

 

[lightenup]

BT- Do you have to temper the hooks before you can take out the bend? I believe trying to straighten forged hooks will yield the same result as trying to bend the hemostat, a BB to the eye.

yes, you must temper the hooks first, but you MUST use an electric stove to do it......and straighten the hook with a hemostat with a 45 degree bend...

 

[FIN-ITE 34]

yes, you must temper the hooks first, but you MUST use an electric stove to do it......and straighten the hook with a hemostat with a 45 degree bend...

Got it, thanks.

 

[mudbug201]

there's a really easy way to do this that involves a sledgehammer, liquid nitrogen, jellied gasoline and a bag of fertilizer. Beetle is going to publish an illustrated how-to in his magazine.

If you don't have the time for all that (in other words, if you don't want to do it right), then you can always use epoxy to glue the foreceps to a large object, for example a boulder or your neighbor's car, and repurpose a small engine to generate the necessary torque. The rest is child's play.

 

[lightenup]

Do you think he gets it yet?

 

[Pete]

FIN-ITE 34, lightenup:
You guys got the terminology wrong...
Tempering makes a metal harder, but more brittle.
If you want to make a metal more "workable", you want to remove the temper, by annealing.

Both processes involve heating the metal.
In annealing you cool it slowly, possibly in air, or in a slowly cooling oven.
In tempering you cool it quickly usually by quenching in water or oil.

Cold forging is another hardening method, involving work hardening, that's why the sides of the bend on a forged hook may appear to be flattened.

IF ... screwing up another set of forceps is acceptable, and you want to fool around.....
You might be able to bend the forceps by heating till it's cherry red, bending while hot, and then try to get the temper back by quenching in water.
Since you don't know the alloy, or how it was treated to begin with, you may not like the results.
If it's chrome plated, you'll probably mess up the chrome.

IMHO: Buy some curved forceps.

 

[lightenup]

Pete, you are waaaayyy to smart to be posting here......thanks for the info!!!!

 

[Andy]

I was striving for a right angle bend which doesn't appear to be available commercially. Thanks Pete, I appreciate your input.

 

[Doubletaper]

Skylarcorp.com/catalogsearch. you will see exactly what you want

 

[Pete]

I was having trouble posting here yesterday, so Doubletaper beat me to it....

If you don't like what's being offered in the tackle shops, go to a medical supply house, where they may be called "Hemostats".
They come in all shapes and sizes, including right angle.

You may even save some $.
When something is sold as "sporting goods", instead of as a tool, the price goes up.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

There will be every type of bent angle hemostats at the Fly Fishing Show in a month for a few bucks. I use curved hemostats myself and prefer them greatly over the straight ones.

 

[lightenup]

There will be every type of bent angle hemostats at the Fly Fishing Show in a month for a few bucks. I use curved hemostats myself and prefer them greatly over the straight ones.

Yeah rusty, but those are a left over roach clip from the 70's.....