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Let me know what they would be used for??
Cheers
Great tools!
I don't know much, but here's what I do and might know.
The hammer head is a top swage, a set tool. It is used in conjunction with a bottom swage which has no handle but fits into the hardy hole in the anvil (the square hole). Together they are used for finish rounding of work which is forged almost cylindrically with a hammer. The work is put in the bottom swage, the top swage is set on, and the top swage is hit with a hammer to round out the work. In the top picture I can see several top swages with heavy wire handles. Their striking surfaces are quite peened over from use. I see a couple of bottom swages in the top picture. They should be matched up with their matching top swages.
The rest of the tools in the bottom picture are tongs, used like long pliers to hold hot work. I don't really know the specific use of any of those.
The one on the left has what looks like a ring on the hinge rivet. I've never seen that before. It may have been to hang them up by. The ends of those tongs are shaped to hold some kind of odd shaped hot work. They may have been shaped to hold something like a light gauge angle iron.
The next set is offset one direction. They may have been made to hold a wide flat bar and the lips would register on one side to make it quick to pick up the work in the center.
The next set looks like hammer tongs, where the points grab the work through the hammer eye. These are at an angle, however, so they were to forge something like an adz where the end being forged is at an angle to the hole being used to hold it with the pins. It is desirable to have the tongs grab the work so the part to be forged is in line with the handles.
And the last set look to be design to hold a wide flat bar registered between the two lips.
Tongs are not usually used to shape metal when you squeeze the handles, only to hold the work. For sheet metal work, however, tongs can be used to form the work.
All in all, for American tools, these are very unusual, none of them are standard blacksmith tongs. With the cast pieces alongside, it may be that the tongs are all foundry tongs rather than blacksmith tongs. The tongs with the ring could be used to grab the lip of a crucible and a second person could use a hook in the ring to lift the crucible out of a furnace. In the case of foundry work, the second set could have been for grabbing the edge of a hot flask.
Maybe someone will happen along who knows? All I do is muddy the water (but at least I get my feet wet)
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