[TheForge] slitting chisel / drift

[Dave Mudge]

Friends, I need a little advice on two issues.
1. Although my new shop is not up and running yet I have a temporary
set-up in the machine shop where I work.
Air hammer, gas forge, anvil, swage blocks etc.
We have a job coming up where I will need to slit & drift 1/2" square
holes in 3/4" x 1-1/2" flat bar on 6" centers.
I have no identifiable tool steel (other than automotive coil springs)
from which to make the slitting chisels and drifts.
Can someone give me the process for hardening & tempering forging
tools made from automotive type coil spring?

2. This is a railing. Imagine the afore mentioned 3/4" x 1-1/2" flat
bar as a wave running the length of a section of railing.
The 1/2" square pickets will pierce the wave on 6" centers.
The holes to be slit & drifted to size will have to be on an angle
that would be on tangent with the straight pickets and the
curves of the wave. Piercing the bar on the flat would be one thing,
but piercing it on an angle is quite another.
Any advice on how to do this would be appreciated.
thanks,
dave mudge
Bogalusa, Louisiana
dave at magichammer.net