Blacksmith tongs
Long-handled iron tongs — the way the hand grips the work that is too hot to hold directly.
Blacksmith tongs in a dream are the dream's image of the way a hand grips work that is too hot to hold directly. The tongs do not shape; they let the shaper handle the material without being burned. The dream brings the tongs when something in your life — a piece of conflict, a difficult truth, a person in crisis — is too hot to take with bare hands and still has to be moved. Tongs used well, with the work kept steady, is the dream affirming the right indirect grip. Tongs that slip, dropping the work into the fire, is the dream noting that the indirect handling was attempted and was not secure enough, and the heated material has gone back into the part of the fire it cannot be recovered from.