The tongs that we use to adjust and work with our charcoal can often be overlooked as important but anyone who has been caught without tongs can tell you how necessary a good pair of tongs really is.
This is a review of the Social Smoke Stainless Steel Tongs but also a little advice about what to do when you are caught without this very important tool.
These are great cheap tongs. The design is simple and effective. The indented section inside of the jaws of the tongs actually does a great job gripping charcoal pieces because it wraps around them a bit rather than digging in like tongs with teeth. These tongs are many times better than the cheap flat tongs that come with a lot of hookahs and offer no grip. Using those is just asking for disaster in the form of dropped coals.
Some cool features with these tongs are the poker that comes with it. Unlike the poker attached to other tongs this one actually serves a purpose. It’s sharp enough to actually poke holes in foil and it acts as a locks to keep the tongs closed, which makes this an ideal set of tongs for travel. They are compact and serve double duty. The poker is also completely separate from the tongs which makes it less cumbersome to use.
8 out of 10. I think the Social Smoke stainless steel tongs are great tongs. I have a few pairs and they are consistent and effective.
I really do recommend throwing a pair of these into you hookah stash and one into your glove compartment to make sure that you are never caught without a way to work with coals but, if you are caught unaware, there are a few options to look for.
Wooden chopsticks: These may seem like a poor option because they burn but cheap wooden chopsticks can be found in most houses and they don’t ignite easily. They just smolder a bit and, so log as you can actually use chopsticks well, are very effective at manipulating charcoals.
Steel salad tongs: Make sure you wash them thoroughly after you use them but these are just really big tongs. Not so great for moving small pieces of charcoal but they are something to a tleast get the charcoal on the bowl from the fire or burner.
Grill tongs: These are ideal for a lot of reasons. Designed for high heat, fairly accurate and usually heavy duty. I don’t suggest using silicone tipped grill tongs. Stick to stainless steel.
Large tweezers: I have a lot of random tools from my hobbies and work and I have some large medical tweezers that act perfectly as replacement tongs. Some craft or medical tweezers even have grip on the inside so that they don’t slip and it’s perfect for keeping the charcoal where you want it.
Light action pliers: I mean light action in that they don’t take a lot of force to operate. You don’t want to have them crushing your coals and sending sparks everywhere.
I’ve used all of these except for tweezers as tongs. lol.
I’ve even went as far as using two forks to hold coals to carry to the hookah. HAH! Bet you can’t beat that one. Oh, and for chopsticks, Mine were soaked in water because I had used them to grill stuff, and they were really kabob sticks. (Really thick ones.) So, those work too, as long as they’re thick enough.
Great post! 🙂