I was recently approached about repairing the tongue of an antique toy wagon. The customer had played with the toy as a kid and wanted their grandchild to be able to play with the same wagon. The handle had been broken and twisted into a sharp shard.
I was able to remove the sharp piece of the original handle and repair the end of the wagon tongue. It had been smashed flat at some point in the past and I reforged it to match the round tubing of the rest of the tongue.
I had originally intended to use some flat stock to forge the new handle, but I decided to go with some round tubing. I used a piece of leftover plate to draw out the basic handle dimensions and measured to get a length of stock material required.
I cut a piece of round tube and marked out the parts of the tube to remove. In order to get a round handle and flat stock on the sides, I cut the round tube material down the middle. This left a perfectly round handle areal and an area that I heated and flattened to make the part of the handle that attached to the wagon tongue.
My gas forge is fairly small, but I built it with large doors on the side and back. Over the years this feature has come in very handy for projects like this. I am able to fit pieces that would otherwise be too large for the forge and work on them. I don’t use this feature often, but when I need it I am glad that I took the extra time to add them to the forge.
After getting everything forged out and straightened up, the handle was welded onto the tongue. After sanding and prepping the steel, the wagon tongue was painted in several coats of semi-gloss black paint. The customers were satisfied with the result and hope to get it on the wagon for their grandchild soon.
Sutton Industrial Arts 