Well true, I did have access to an old coal furnace and I hammered out the basic shape. I bent the tang to follow the shape of the handle, flattened out the burrs and shaped the blade. Not sure if it was essential to do this all hot, but on the other hand I didn't have a bench grinder or much else, so I was going to have to get the final shape by hand.
Yeah, without a grinder, you'd pretty much have to do it hot. I've run across some knife makers who work entirely by stock removal, and I could imagine someone just grinding an edge into the end of a salvaged rasp and calling that it.
