Pipe Tongs

Pipe tongs were traditionally used by oil drillers to grab and hold pieces of pipe. They could not get a strong grip or leverage on the pipe with their bare hands so they used pipe tongs.  Pipe tongs were useful since they helped driller separate or attach two pieces of pipe when they were setting up the oil pumps or inspecting the oil wells. Pipe tongs were used specifically since they would not pinch or crimp the pipe.  They have a metal screw to adjust them and hold the mouth piece in place. These tongs are painted black which was a common practice in early museum stewardship but is no longer practiced. These tongs would have been made by a blacksmith specifically for an oil driller. These tongs were used on 1 inch pipe and different tongs would have been used on different sized pipes.