Tongs

Lab tongs are sized and shaped for what they have to hold. Beaker tongs use rubber coated jaws to grip wet borosilicate without slipping or concentrating pressure on one spot, and they span 50 to 2000 mL so a single pair covers a whole beaker set. Crucible tongs are the high temperature tool, with serrated nickel plated tips that bite into porcelain coming off a flame or out of a furnace. Flask tongs and evaporation dish tongs are shaped for those specific pieces. If you are outfitting a bench from scratch, one pair of beaker tongs and one pair of crucible tongs covers most of what a teaching lab actually does.