Two successful chisels

These two homemade chisels work really well, and are sharp enough to shave with. The chisel in the front is 1/8-inch, and the one in the back is 3/16-inch. They are both made from 5/32-inch hardened music wire. I annealed them, then cut and filed the bevels. I hammered the end of the wire for the wider chisel after heating it to glowing orange to make a wider blank.

They were both heat-treated using a propane torch, dunked into oil to quench, and then tempered to 400 F in a kitchen oven.

The handles are cut from a length of 3/4-inch square poplar. I drilled a slightly undersize hole through the handle blank (had to drill from both ends), then cut them to an octagon with a chisel and plane. I drove the chisels in by placing the sharp end on a block of scrap and driving the handle on with a mallet.