I received a letter from an astute viewer who noticed a mushroom head on a chisel while we were watching the "restoration" of an old brick building. He told the story of someone he knew who almost lost an eye because of a piece of metal flying off the butt of a mushroomed chisel, and rightly chided us for not having it ground down.
So we went out and dug through Leigh's tool box and brought back the culprit to show on air how to "dress" a chisel to keep it safe.
If you look at the second photo you will see a small metal chip on the table. That is a piece that we easily snapped off of the mushroom head with a pair of pliers, although it was ready to fly off with a hammer blow.
Not only should you grind off the mushroomed metal, but you should grind a small 45 degree bevel on the end, which will delay the time it takes for a new mushroom to form. You will notice that all new cold chisels have such a 45 degree bevel when you buy them.
Safety is often taking half an hour off and running through your tool box to clean up tools that have developed sharp edges, bent metal or mushroom heads.