Here is a pair of tongs I've recently made. They're made from 7 inch lenghts of round bar that is a little larger than 5/8ths in diameter. An example of the material can be seen in the images. That material once was a mobile home anchor. It's basically a 5 foot length of steel that has a sort of auger on the end and at the top it has holes for metal straps.

The purpose of these tongs is to easily hold round stock perpendicular to the tongs. I will probably use them to hold steel that I want to upset (make larger in one area than the main thickness of the bar.) pieces of coil spring before forging them into tools.