Yes it happened to me
and it has
almost happened a few times more.
I have made maybe 30 irons over the years from 1/2" tall to one in a diamond about 4"X7". They are branding critters, hides, wood and furniture all over the country.
The one I did complete backwards was a rush job gotten over the phone and I was to deliver it the next day prior to a holiday weekend. It was for branding picnic tables in a campground. I got it done (backwards), heated it in the forge and was aiming it at a test piece of wood when I saw what I had done. I cut it off the handle and made the new one. When I was delivering it the next day I was telling the buyer what had happened and he asked "what happened to the other one?" I told him it is laying in the back of the truck and he asked if he could have it. I told him sure, he had paid for that one, the second one I had to make for free
