The great Tong shortage of ‘23

Thanks everyone! All of my usual suppliers (I checked about half a dozen websites; Brooklyn, Coin Supply express, Amos, NOLA, Wizard)  are out of stock for the 6” tongs. Really appreciate the tips for folks who still have them. I must have just picked the wrong shops!  I’ll add your suggestions to my bookmarks for stamp supplies. 

And did Potomac supplies shut down? 

wow REL1948 Palo has the best selection! I’ve never shopped there so really appreciate the tip!

Well my order of tongs arrived. This time I purchased Prinz brand, same as my old tongs - or are they the same?

I picked them up and all of a sudden I couldn’t get the tip of the tongs to open up a row on my Hagnar sheets OR pick up a stamp from my desk without multiple fumbling attempts. So I took a good look and the new tongs are much thicker. Using my handy dandy dial caliper, I measured both. The old tongs are approximately .017 inch thick while the new tongs measured a chubby 0.27 thick. Sure, they won’t be as easy to bend the tips but …

rod222 - Oh my we are misunderstanding each other! When I say “bend the tips” what I meant is that I kept dropping my tongs on my porcelain tile floor and bending the tips. LoL I can’t imagine anyone deliberately bending the tips. LoL that would be nutsy cuckoo wackadoodle!  Anyways, my point was that the thicker metal will at least have the advantage of not being so susceptible to tile floor injuries. 

I’ve been using fine tip tongs for oh, probably 30+ years and these are the first time I’ve ever had problems trying to pick up a stamp with them. These new ones are almost twice as thick and don’t easily slide under the stamps. Dollars to donuts if you measure the thickness of your tong tips you’ll find you have an older, thinner, excellent version. If you were to try these new fatties, you’d immediately see what I mean. I have older Showgard 902s and Prinz with a “Germany” imprint and both measure well under 20 thousandths of an inch. Chances are these are a cheap knockoff as there is no country of origin on them. 

YES! The thin tips are fabulous for guillotining those hinges and I’ve been doing that for decades. You’re right, once you get the knack it’s quick and easy as the tong tips are thin enough to act like a letter opener. I carefully slide the tong under the hinged stamp making sure nothing is adhered to the page then “slice!” Hinge is severed. And it is much less risky than than trying to peel hinges. FYI -  I just experimented with the thicker tongs and they do NOT cut as cleanly - the edge is too blunt.