The other day I fired up the forge with making a set of tongs in mind. 
I really need to make a set for round stock and it’s also good practice for rounding square stock. After a little beating and banging I accidently broke the tip off my first piece. The reason the tip broke off was because it was put under stress while cold, lesson learned.
I didn’t want to waste the rest of the 3/4″ square stock I had so I thought about something else to create. The next portion of Workbench Build 2013 will call for some through mortise and tennon joints. Condsidering I’ve been using regular bevel chisel for creating my mortises, I figured this left over stock would make a great mortising chisel.
Last night I fired up the forge and threw the stock in the coals. As the metal started glowing bright yellow I pulled it out and started pounding. I would hit one side twice, then flip 90° and hit twice and repeated the process unitl the metal was drawn out. Chisel length turned out to be about 7″ and is 1/4″ wide.
After getting the chisel to the correct dimensions on the forge I took it inside and started the fine tuning and shaping, including making a handle. I pulled out my belt sander and removed about 90% of the rough texture that brought it down to exactly 1/4″ wide. Sharpening the tip was the next part and I used the “scary sharp” method going through different grits of sandpaper.
A handle was crafted next from mahogany. I sanded the edges over to give a comfortable grip. A hole was drilled in the handle to fit the tang. After the correct fit I placed epoxy in the hole, slid the tang into the wood. The handle was finished with tung oil.
