Here's an update on where my wasted time has landed me - at least one foot in the Regina-haters camp.
Lacking a fw vise, I tried Sheldon's tip of wrapping a cog in an old chain and clamping that in my bench vise. Broke the chain.
Went back to using 2 chain whips. Broke one of them.
So I now have one fw with 4 cogs removed, one fw with two cogs removed, and a broken chain whip. At least I didn't herniate a disk.
Anyone know what I should use to re-attach the chain to my chain whip? I'm guessing something stronger than a standard chain rivet.