Ice Chisel

So, I can't easily go across the river but I thought I could at least go ice fishing. I don't know that I necesseraly want to fish, but dig a hole through the ice, now that appeals!
So I bought myself an ice chisel.

I was told about them by a friend of mine. Originally I thought that I would have to buy a manual ice auger, but they are expensive and anyway I couldn't find one where I am. So ice chisel it is. When I was told about them I imagined something a lot smaller, more like a timber framing chisel.

They are quite big. This one is nearly as tall as I am and weights about  8 kilograms (18 lbs).

The obvious thing is a bit chunk of metal like this is going to be really cold on the hands...especially possibly wet hands (and we all know about wet on cold metal .... it sticks), and the other thing is it might get slippery enough to fall through the hole and be lost for ever. So I decided that it needed a handle of some sort after a search on the internet I found a site (I unfortunately have lost its URL so I cannot give it credit) showing how to do this:

A wrapped handle to give it better grip and insulate a little bit from the metal and a strong loop at the end to attach it to something in case it falls through the hole.

Here it as all finished (with old socks at the sharp end to protect both the edge of the ice chisel and the house where I am pet-sitting right now)

I am curious to see if it'll work. My biggest concern is whether or not I have wrapped it tight enough, because if I haven't the all things is going to unravel when I use it.
I'll try to remember to take my camera and use it when I give it a try