On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:19:58 -0400, "Wild_Bill"
wrote:

Maybe the punch you were using was in very good, or even new condition, but
I've seen embedded chips in hands and forearms (nasty wounds), and they were
caused by chisels and punches with mushroomed heads/tops.

A good way to prevent chips from flaking off punches and chisels is to keep
any mushrooming from taking place by grinding any "bloom" away, before the
tool chips.

I believe the heads/tops of the tools should have a small chamfer and a very
slight crown to combat the mushrooming effect.

About 60 years ago my brother was wounded in the leg by a chip from
the back of a splitting axe. He had been unable to find the proper
splitting wedge and had resorted to hitting the splitting axe with a
sledge hammer when a chip, roughly the size of a green pea left the
axe head and was embedded about two inches deep in his calf muscle.
Apparently the back face of the axe was very hard and the shock caused
the chip to eject. I have always been very careful to remove any
mushrooming from the striking face of tools.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada