Please accept my apologies people.
I was only kidding about "removal of body parts" I didn't think for a moment anybody would take me seriously. I do tend to get a bit facetious at times --- especially after watching all three seasons of the"The Borgias" at a single sitting.
As Mr. Senefelder has mentioned, I believe these are smith's tongs, what sort of smith, I don't know, but I have tongs exactly the same that I made for use in the forge.
I was taught fire & iron by one of Australia's last traditional blacksmiths, a gentleman named Gordon Blackwell, he taught me basics, and I needed to teach myself the more specialised things involved in making pamor and doing blade-smith work.
However, one of the things Gordon taught me was how to make tongs, and I made a number of tongs, all for different purposes, some have jaws exactly the same as the ones shown by Royston, but construction is much more simple and there is no ornamentation.
So, serious guess this time:- smith's tongs.
Incidentally, I've burnt myself a lot of times when working, and something that has always amazed me is that these burns never, ever hurt at the time. They might smart a bit the following day, especially when bathing, but at the time, never. I do not have especially high tolerance of pain.
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