Cutting it with friction is not as bad as it looks. I could have cut that off with a whizzer wheel in short time. You can easily cover yourself from sparks. I used to show my students that the sparks that come from a grinder or such are not as scary as they seem. Yes dangerous sure, but it's not as bad as the unknowing think. You can hold your hand several inches away from grinding sparks and they just feel like someone is throwing sand at you. Near your face isn't the best place to have them :lol: , so covering yourself up is indeed the thing to do. But cutting off would have been my first choice, not trying to break it with a bolt cutter. So the question that is begged here is . . . where was the key??