[dramatic music]
- Over the years, we've seen hundreds of smiths
walk through our doors to compete for a chance
at becoming a "Forged in Fire" champion.
- Oh, yeah!
- But now, for the first time,
we're going to them.
♪
We're scouring the bladesmithing hotbeds
of America looking for the country's best shops
and their top smiths.
Just like how barbecue is different in St. Louis
than it is in Texas,
blacksmiths have unique styles and techniques
that originate from the shop they call home.
♪
Each week, one of our judges will travel
to one of the nation's top forges
to put their local style to the test
and handpick their top bladesmith
to come back to our home forge.
Each forge's champion will battle
for $20,000 for themselves
and $10,000 of forging equipment for their shop.
- It's anyone's game.
- This is "Forged in Fire: On the Road."
♪
[upbeat music]
Today we hit the dusty trail
with our historic weapons expert,
Dave Baker.
- We're in Bigfork, Montana.
This state and its people are all about resourcefulness.
With under seven people per square mile,
if you want something, sometimes you just have
to build it yourself.
♪
That motto is the foundation of our next stop,
the New Agrarian School.
This forge is home to some
of America's most talented blacksmiths.
And today we have three of their top smiths competing
to represent both the shop and me
for a chance to become a "Forged in Fire" champion.
♪
- My name's Peter Haarklou. I'm 29.
I grew up on the East Coast, New Jersey.
What brought me to Montana was a lot of wild space.
And I was really drawn to the aesthetics
of the New Agrarian School.
What's cool about the blacksmithing trade
out here is that you can make tools
for all the other trades and be self-sufficient.
♪
- My name is Silas Maddox.
I'm 41 years old.
I've been blacksmithing for 20 years,
and in my blacksmithing education,
I traveled sort of as far and wide as I could manage.
And I came out here, and I took a class.
That was an awesome experience.
So I'm really proud of representing
the New Agrarian School, and I want to do my best
and really showcase this school
in the best light possible.
♪
- I'm Brian Gosling. I'm 27.
♪
And no, I am definitely not related to Ryan Gosling.
My favorite thing about the New Agrarian School,
this place has everything you can imagine
to be able to make anything you want.
There's things I don't think anyone has seen before
until they've come to this school,
like a three-headed power hammer.
I'm like a kid in a candy store.
[laughs]
[dramatic music]
- Gentlemen, welcome to the New Agrarian School.
All right, guys, today we're being hosted
by the school's founder, operator,
and accomplished blacksmith and instructor,
Jeffrey Funk.
His entire focus is about function,
building tools that work and work well.
And because this forge is known for preserving
the art of making what you need,
our historic weapons re-creation specialist
and resident do-it-yourselfer Dave Baker chose this forge.
Now, gentlemen, you're here for a competition
that's built to test every one of your blacksmithing skills.
It's a tournament consisting of two legs.
Now, the first leg has two rounds,
and at the end of each one, there will be an elimination.
But whichever one of you comes out on top will join us
back at our forge, along with three other smiths
we're picking up around America.
Now, you're fighting for a $20,000 check for yourself,
and this shop right here will get up to $10,000 worth
of forging equipment and supplies.
♪
Now guys, here in Montana, the region is known
for its mountains and forests.
And for decades, wood products have been
one of the state's top manufacturing sectors.
Because of that, we want you to build this.
♪
Gentlemen, this is a froe.
It's an axe-like tool that is used to split logs into boards
for lumber or for shingles.
Now just make sure the ones that you make
fall within these specifications.
The blade itself needs to be between 10 and 12 inches.
The height, between 2 1/2 and 3 inches.
And finally, you must have a handle affixed to your froe
that measures between 17 and 19 inches.
- I've never made a froe before.
The first time I make anything,
it's usually a disaster.
And so I'm kind of nervous.
- Now guys, let's talk about steel.
Inside on your anvils, you'll each find
you have a piece of 4140 round stock,
and that's all you have to make your froes.
Now, when you get the froes finished,
I'm gonna ask you to pass them over to Dave
to put them through a series of tests.
For functionality, he's gonna attempt
to drive it through a log.
We're also gonna attempt to split this bolt.
You have five hours to complete your work.
And good luck, because that time starts now.
♪
- Oh, this is gonna be fun. - Oh, yeah.
I'm just excited to come into the shop.
♪
- Here we go.
- This is fun. This is the first competition
I've done where I'm watching people work
in a shop that wasn't ours.
- It's a totally different ballgame.
- You all right over here?
- I don't know what's going on.
- Right off the bat, these are unlike any forges
I've ever seen before.
Did you design these forges?
- I did.
I've always made every forge.
- They look like pizza ovens.
- Yeah. [laughs]
- What's with the dome shape?
- If you have a pipe with open ends,
it goes down and out.
Here, it goes round and round and slowly out the back.
The flame is in contact with the refractory
for a greater period of time,
so the reheat time is much faster.
- [imitates explosion]
- Here we go.
♪
I've lived in Montana my entire life.
I couldn't imagine living anywhere else
other than Montana and around the mountains.
My wife tried to move me down South one time,
and it didn't go over so well for her.
[laughs]
Seeing Dave Baker here in Montana,
judging the work that I'm doing,
this is ridiculous.
Now it's just a waiting game.
- Let's get down to business.
♪
- Silas' forge is a little hotter than the others.
That's really good.
- That is a pretty big hunk of steel,
and you need to make sure you've heated
the entire piece all the way through
because that metal's never gonna move.
Patience is the key.
- It's already getting hot, so we're doing good.
♪
- Are we having a dance competition over here?
- Yeah. - [laughs]
- You got to be dancing when you're forging.
♪
He's got it. - [laughs]
OK.
There ain't nothing to it but to do it.
- Holy cow. Silas is already out
with the bar stock going over to hammer.
♪
That was fast.
- I really enjoy toolmaking.
I make a lot of kitchen tools.
My favorite is when I run into somebody out on the street.
They're like, I have one of your spatulas.
I use it every day.
That really makes it for me.
Come on, big 4140.
- What kind of focus do you see with most people?
Are they literally looking to be a blacksmith,
or are they looking to do more architectural-type work?
- Curriculum here is focused on tools.
Tools are small enough that people can fail and fail
and then succeed.
- Yeah. That's my love life.
[laughing]
- It's a lot of steel.
It's gonna take a while.
My plan is to keep my piece as hot as I can.
And that's something I've really learned
here in the shop, is you really have
to work everything as hot as you can.
- Look, I'm impressed with these guys so far.
They're really being patient
and letting that steel heat up.
♪
- Good to go.
- I saw Peter go into this feeling like
he had the least experience of anyone,
but I know him well.
He's moving with confidence.
- I grew up on the East Coast,
but what brought me to Montana was actually Jeffrey Funk
and the New Agrarian School.
Met him in 2018.
I really liked the tools he was making
and what he was about, and I saw it as a good opportunity
to really work with someone closely,
doing a real apprenticeship.
♪
- This shop's like a steampunk "Alice in Wonderland."
Tell us a little bit about the triple power hammer.
We've never seen one before.
Why did you build it, and what makes it
so special and unique?
- What really inspired it is,
you see the plate of steel that's across
that's the anvil for everything?
Somebody gave me that.
And I was like, what am I gonna do with that?
And then I realized the 3-inch thickness
of the plate was exactly the die thickness.
So it's like, that's an anvil for everything.
- That's one of the remarkable things and one of the things
I love about what you've done here is
that you built the infrastructure
to build the tools out here by yourself in the wilderness.
- Being so remote out here in Bigfork,
did being remote influence you
in the way that you had to build things on your own?
Or was that just kind of who you were from the beginning?
- Both.
The availability of blacksmithing tools,
there was virtually none.
If I wanted something,
I can make it faster than I can go to town.
And they don't have it in town anyway.
- Montana earned its nickname, the Treasure State,
due to its pivotal role during the American gold rush
in the mid-19th century.
As the remote territory became flooded
with would-be prospectors,
and with civilization hundreds of miles away,
miners had to depend on local blacksmiths to forge
all their tools, including shovels, picks, and axes,
out of anything and everything they could find laying around,
often repurposing or modifying other tools.
This spirit of ingenuity is embedded into the DNA
of both the Big Sky region and the New Agrarian School.
♪
You really are like the eighth wonder of the world, man.
♪
It doesn't seem like Brian is really doing much.
- He's letting all of that heat out.
It's just not heating up as quickly as the other guys'.
He's wasting a lot of time.
- [sighs]
It's definitely taking a little bit longer
than I was expecting for my material to heat up.
I have to pick it up.
Power hammer.
- And just like that,
everybody's drawing out their steel,
and we're off to the races.
- It would mean the world to me to win "Forged in Fire."
My wife told me that if I win the championship,
and I get the 20 grand,
she's already got half of it spent.
But the goal is to be able to build a shop,
so I need to catch up as fast as I possibly can
so I can win this competition.
♪
- One hour has elapsed!
You've got four hours remaining!
♪
Silas has already started drawing out
the blade of the froe.
We know they have to punch and drift the socket.
Is this the path you'd be taking?
- Well, I'd actually drift the hole now
so there's more meat to work with
because you don't want the walls and the eye
to get too thin and crack.
As long as he's just focusing
on widening out the edges, that's fine, too.
- You know, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
- I always find the hardest part is
getting the cat to stay still.
- [laughs]
♪
- Good to go.
♪
Whew.
- You ready to punch a big hole?
- Yeah. I want to get it over with.
I've drifted eyes before.
♪
But I've never had to do it on a clock.
♪
- It looks like Peter's to the point now
of establishing where he's gonna be putting his socket.
He's gonna have pretty thick walls on the socket.
- That is the critical aspect at this stage.
And he's right in the ballpark.
Not only that you're exactly dividing the bar,
but you come in exactly the same distance from the end
on both edges is essential.
Otherwise, you're not gonna have a straight hole.
- I made it through the hole.
I've got my hole punched.
So I feel pretty good so far.
That's probably good.
- Bladesmiths, you have three hours remaining!
♪
- Good. Bueno.
I've got the material to size.
Now it's time for punching the eye.
Go time.
♪
I'm using a technique punching this hole
that I learned here at the school from Jeffrey,
of rocking this punch
forward and back a little bit on each hit.
And that helps keep the punch loose in there
so it doesn't get stuck.
And I've been blacksmithing for 20 years,
never thought of it.
But now I do it all the time.
- You can't imagine how happy that makes me
because it's the fundamental thing
that I drill into everyone, including myself.
♪
- So far, so good.
♪
- Right now, the piece is going good,
and I feel like I'm finally starting to catch up.
All I can do is focus on my own work and punch the hole.
- So Brian's at the point now of establishing
where he's gonna be putting his socket.
- Oh, look at the angle of that punch.
We've seen this before.
The problem is, he's going to make
one side of that wall too thin.
Then when he goes to drift that hole bigger,
it could cause the whole thing to crack.
♪
- Ended up stretching way too much material.
One of the eyes ended up cracking.
I'm just gonna have to scrap it and start over.
♪
- Ugh!
I noticed that my holes aren't lining up perfectly
and that one side is sticking out farther than the other.
[sighs]
If I decide to keep going, I'm gonna split this material,
and it's not gonna hold a handle at all.
My stomach drops.
- Oh, no.
It sounds like Brian's just off.
- The sides are moving faster than it should,
and it's gonna split right here if I keep going.
So I got a decision to make, 'cause either I restart
or I keep going.
Clock is ticking, and I have to make a decision now.
♪
- [bleep].
The sides are moving faster than it should,
and it's gonna split right here if I keep going.
So I got a decision to make 'cause either I restart
or I keep going.
[dramatic music]
We'll figure it out.
The only thing I can think of is,
I can flip it around
and start over on the other side.
- Well, Brian's starting again on the opposite side of that.
- That's what he's doing instead of starting--
- Yeah, it looks like he's gonna...
- No way. - Move to the opposite side.
- You know what? I think that's a good solution.
- That's gotta be frustrating though.
It took him an hour and 20 minutes
to get that punch through. - But hopefully he can
benefit from that experience.
- The other thing he's got,
he's already got that drawn out.
So he's not going back to square one.
- His blade, should he get that far,
could be a little thinner and be the right length.
♪
- Oh, man.
12 inches is right there.
I have my eye done,
but I can see that I'm an inch under the 12-inch parameters.
If I don't meet parameters, I'm gonna go home.
And I want to move on to the next round,
so I need to draw out that blade quickly
and try to finish this thing up.
Going to the power hammer.
- These smiths are really lucking out
just with the equipment you've got in here.
Your shop is so well set up.
You'd have a breakdown if you ever walked into my shop.
I'm here at my new place.
You can see the-- [laughs]
I just don't have a tall enough ceiling in here.
Yeah, there we go.
[laughing]
♪
- Here we go. Now we finally get to see
the triple hammer in action.
♪
- I built this machine when I was working
on a lot of tools that were forged very thin,
and I needed a way to change the orientation
of my hammer dies very quickly.
- That's so smart.
- Oh, yeah, she's ready.
This shop is incredible.
I mean, Jeffrey's triple power hammer is very unique.
And all the machines that he's built
here in Montana all by himself, and figuring it out,
he's definitely like a mad scientist.
- All right, bladesmiths, three hours have elapsed!
You've got two hours left!
♪
- I start to make my second hole,
hoping that I have enough material.
Come on.
But as I look at it,
the eye is too thin for a second hole,
and it isn't gonna work.
♪
- How are you feeling? - Not so good.
I'm thinking I needed to start over completely now.
- True.
♪
I'm starting over.
I don't have-- it's not gonna work.
I gotta start over.
- Oh, no, guys.
I think Brian's made the decision
to scrap this one, start over from a new cylinder.
Jeffrey, how long did it take you to make your froe?
- 1 hour, 35 minutes. - OK, so they've still got
enough time to completely restart.
- If they do it now.
- [bleep]. I'm gonna do as much as I can
with the time I've got.
- The first time I competed,
I fell into all the traps in The Forge.
I looked at the clock.
I looked at what my opponent was doing.
Made me rush a portion.
♪
[bleep].
Well, that ain't good.
You have to step away from the forge,
just step away from all this stuff,
and rethink the process while doing something else.
- Yep.
♪
- I think we're getting pretty close to two quenches.
Peter and Silas are really starting to hone things in,
lighter taps.
- Don't worry, guys, I'll be the first one in the oil.
- You better not be the first one in the oil.
That means something went really wrong for us.
- [laughs]
- I've got my froe blade drawn out to length,
so I'm ready to quench.
I'm worried about cracking
because I don't have time to start over.
So I'm gonna be very careful
to make sure I get it right the first time.
♪
Quenching.
♪
- Peter's quenched.
- First of the group.
- Whoo-hoo.
I pull it out, and it looks good.
I'm gonna take it outside and do some basic grinding.
- My question is, why are your grinders
outside in the snow?
- In a school situation, if there was grinders in here,
you'd never get a break from the noise.
[laughter]
♪
- Gentlemen, your froes need to be finished in 60 minutes!
♪
- [sighs]
- How are you doing over there? Are you hanging in there?
Have you started punching another hole?
Not yet. - Not yet.
- You got this.
I feel bad for Brian.
He is taking on a Herculean task right now.
And I can see that he's getting tired and frustrated.
I know that it's gonna be a big push
for him to complete this,
and I got my fingers crossed for him.
I want him to succeed.
♪
OK, quenching.
♪
- All right, Silas is in the oil.
♪
- Perfect.
All seems good.
So now that this thing is quenched,
I've gotta get it ground,
gotta get an edge put on it.
And then I have to get my handle done,
and I've only got an hour to do this.
That's a lot of work yet to do.
I'm gonna be going right down to the end.
- Two quenched and one, Brian,
still has a lot of work to do.
Still hasn't gotten that second punch and drift done.
He's struggling, but he hasn't given up.
- Clock is ticking.
I have to punch the hole all over again,
for the third time.
♪
Hopefully, it doesn't fail catastrophically.
♪
Ugh!
- Brian's steel,
look at how it's gray where he's hitting.
- Yeah. - There's no way
he's making any progress.
- It should be bright orange... - Yeah.
- When you take it back to the forge.
♪
This is hard to watch here.
- Come on.
The punch just isn't driving the way I want it,
and I don't have the time to be goofing around here.
So I decided to just give it some time
and let it heat up so that I can drift it the right way.
- So Brian stepped outside to grind his handle material
while his metal is heating up.
- That's really good
because he can leave that there for ten minutes.
- Exactly. - And hopefully he does.
- Right, 'cause then it's gonna be a different temperature.
It's gonna move quicker for him.
- You're better off having coffee.
It'll be faster to come back when that thing's white.
- You are speaking our language.
- Oh, yeah. - We see this every single day.
- I am feeling stressed.
I'm hoping that the piece is hot enough
that I can start working it again.
Whoo! That is screaming hot now.
♪
- I can't wait for the time to run out
so we can get 'em tested.
- Speak for yourself, "I can't wait for the time to run out."
- My bad. [laughter]
You're doing great, man.
♪
- Got it.
Whoo-hoo.
[vocalizes] I just can't help myself
but get excited.
Yes.
- Brian got through.
- Oh, that's awesome.
Having a slug out and he's still in the running.
- I'm gonna nickname this little piece
"The Little Slug That Could."
I am definitely proud that I did not quit.
If I can at least get this thing quenched
and get a handle on it, I have a chance.
- I'm gonna need every last inch of this piece of wood.
I've gotta get this handle made,
and it is trickier than it might seem
because it has a friction fit into the socket,
and that's gotta be perfect.
♪
We're getting close.
- We got Peter and Silas outside forming their handles,
and it's a really critical point
'cause if they do over-grind
with this friction fit into the socket,
it won't be a functional froe,
and they're gonna have to restart the handle.
- I'm almost there.
♪
- Gentlemen, you are down to the final five!
♪
- Oh, I'm staring at the clock,
counting the seconds as they go down.
Hopefully my steel can heat up fast enough.
- Brian is giving it everything.
And I think we're getting pretty close to quenching.
I think he's kind of met parameters,
as long as he gets a handle on.
- I am feeling stressed beyond belief at this point.
I am going to turn in something hard.
I refuse to give up.
I just need to work as fast as I possibly can.
- Gentlemen, two minutes left!
- Quenching!
♪
- Look at that. - There we go.
- We've got three quenched blades.
- Through it all, Brian came through,
gave us a quenched froe.
- He never stopped. - Yeah.
- Start of this competition to the end,
he has not stopped moving,
he has not stopped swinging the hammer.
Now all he has to do is quickly attach that handle,
and he'll meet parameters.
[blade thunks]
- Ohh!
That sucks.
- Brian just sent his blade to the bottom of the quench tank.
He's gonna spend all his time fishing it out of that tank.
This is heartbreaking. He could have spent that time
putting a handle on that thing.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools. This round is over.
♪
- Well, Brian, nice effort, man.
- Yeah, seriously. Way to finish hard.
♪
- I feel defeated.
I didn't get as far as I wanted to,
but I got it quenched, and I got something I turned in.
And I'm proud of it.
♪
- Well, gentlemen, what a round.
It's been an honor watching you work
here at Jeffrey Funk's forge,
here at the New Agrarian School.
But the time's come for us to figure out
who's joining us in the next round of this tournament,
and who's gonna be heading home.
Now, we would typically start testing,
but unfortunately, Brian,
you were unable to affix the handle to your froe,
therefore missing parameters, which means we cannot test it.
I want to say, I hope you're proud of yourself.
You never gave up.
But your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please step off
the testing floor.
♪
- This is not the outcome I was hoping for.
If only I had just a little bit more time,
I definitely think I could have made it.
I definitely think that Silas and Peter have
what it takes to win this thing and kick butt and take names
and win it all for us.
I am not gonna make any more froes,
probably for the rest of my life.
- Well, Peter, Silas, gentlemen,
I can see you've got a little bit of relief in your eyes.
But unfortunately, you can't get too comfortable yet.
♪
In order to find out if your tools function,
we've got to go through the testing still.
And if one of your froes does not perform,
you will be out of this competition.
So I'm gonna "froe" you over to Dave.
- [chuckles]
♪
- All right, gentlemen, it's time
for our functionality test.
♪
So we're gonna take your froes,
we're gonna split some wood,
as well as cutting that bolt,
see how they hold up.
All right, you ready for this? - Yes, sir.
- Peter, you're up first.
♪
- I'm feeling nervous. We're chopping [bleep] bolts.
My blade could crack in half,
so I'm crossing my fingers.
♪
- All right, Peter. Man, this thing is a beast.
But as far as damage goes, cutting through that bolt,
it's just got the teeniest little burr right here.
Other than that, it's spot-on.
Went through the log without a problem.
Nicely done.
- Thank you.
- All right, Silas, you ready for this?
- I am. - All right.
This is fun.
♪
- I'm not feeling great.
If the worst happened, and this thing cracked,
it would be a disaster.
I'm hoping that it does well.
♪
- All right, Silas. Cut the wood really nicely,
and it took zero damage cutting that bolt.
Well done, guys. Both of you, congratulations.
- Thank you, sir. - You did a fantastic job.
♪
- Well, gentlemen, phenomenal work.
You both smoked through the smithing portion.
You made it through the test without a problem.
And now you're both moving forward
into the next round of this tournament.
Now, in this round, we're sending you back
to your home forge for four days
to build another iconic tool
that was built by Jeffrey Funk himself.
Guys, we want you to build this...
♪
The double bit felling axe.
♪
Since the 19th century, the double bit felling axe has
been a favorite tool of North American lumberjacks.
Revolutionary because of its simplistic design,
this axe features two different heads,
one with a thicker edge designed for delivering
deep felling chops on massive trees,
and the other with a finer edge ideal for dropping limbs,
making it essential for life in the remote wilderness.
This axe is so synonymous with the American frontiersman,
it has even been featured in the folk tales
of the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan.
♪
When you bring your blades back,
make sure they fall within these following parameters.
The eye needs to have a height between 2 1/2 and 3 inches.
It needs to swell on either side
to the blades measuring between 4 and 5 inches.
And the overall length of the entire tool itself needs
to be between 37 and 39 inches from the bottom of the eye.
- This double bit axe is a real challenge.
It's a complicated forging
that is more complex than it looks on the surface.
But where I live is one of the last places
where this axe was in regular use in this country,
and so I'm excited to try to carry that torch forward.
♪
- Now, gentlemen, you're both clearly
extremely talented smiths,
but only one of you can join us
in the final round of this tournament.
You will each go back to your own home forges
to make this tool.
Gentlemen, good luck.
We'll see you back at our forge
in four days.
- Bam. Let's go.
♪
It feels great to be back home.
My game plan today is to forge my axe,
and then punching the hole.
This hydraulic press is new to me.
I built it a year ago.
It's a really fast, accurate way to punch holes.
It needs to be exactly in the center.
If the punch isn't going the right direction,
it could certainly have repercussions
when I go to make my axe.
Oh, [bleep]!
♪
Off by a half an inch.
So I'm gonna start over.
I'm trying to give myself some marks
where I want my eye to be.
♪
I'm getting my second piece going here,
so fingers crossed this one ends up in the right place.
♪
If this goes wrong, I'll have to start over,
and I don't have time for that.
♪
Pretty clean cut.
Yeah, looks good.
♪
I'm really excited.
I feel good about my progress today.
If this is the biggest challenge I have
in this build, I'm pretty happy with that.
♪
- This is day one of my challenge.
This is the starting billet
for the axe right here.
♪
Probably the biggest tool I've made is
an 8-pound sledgehammer,
but I've never made an axe of this size.
I'm starting to get a little worried
'cause I've only got four days.
Now that I've forged this billet,
I want to punch this eye by hand
to make sure I don't make a mistake.
♪
Yeah, I like how that looks.
I'm gonna flip it over.
♪
So I'm almost to the center of the axe,
and I'm getting pretty close
to shearing that plug out of the center.
What I'm hoping to see is that the plug comes out
nice and clean.
♪
And the plug is out.
There it goes.
I would say that's a pretty good punch.
That's what I punched out of the center of my axe billet.
Now that it's out, I'm gonna hang onto it
for a good luck charm. [laughs]
♪
- It's the morning of day two.
Finished forging my axe.
We're ready to do our hardening.
I'm gonna normalize it,
taking several heats up to critical temperature,
and just letting it air cool.
And that allows the grain structure
of the tool steel to be strong.
OK, here we go.
♪
I just quenched my axe.
Everything went great.
No warps, no breaks.
I'm right on schedule today,
but there's still more to be done.
♪
- It is day three of my challenge.
I just got into the parameters yesterday
with my foraging and quenching.
Next thing to do is go ahead and drill a single hole
from my axe eye to make parameters.
Later, we'll have a pin to mechanically hold the handle
to the axe as an extra safety precaution.
♪
Oh, shiznit.
The drill bit basically destroyed itself.
I should have drilled this hole through my axe
before I heat-treated it.
Because this is hardened,
I just think I need to heat up the center of the eye there,
just to make it softer.
This is not what I thought I'd be doing right now,
but I'm adapting.
♪
Whew.
Hallelujah.
Now I'm gonna go ahead and quench it again.
This is a really critical moment.
The blade could crack or get real warped.
[dramatic music]
♪
Looks pretty good so far.
I don't see any signs of warpage.
I'm feeling pretty good about it.
The quench has gone well.
It's been a long day.
I want to start fresh tomorrow
for hanging the axe-head.
♪
- Day four. My plan for today is
to get my axe edge set,
and then I'm gonna put on the handle.
So yeah, we're looking good.
I am going to gun blue my axe.
The gun blue gives it a nice black color,
so it'll have a really nice contrast
between the dark body of the axe
and the polished-out bits.
It could help put me over the edge.
I'm cutting the slot for my wedge.
This is the visible part of it,
and you want to make sure that it's right in the center.
♪
Looking good.
♪
I really love how this axe looks.
I want to do the New Agrarian School proud.
♪
- This is day four of my challenge.
It's gonna be a marathon.
First thing this morning, I'm going
to start working on my handle.
It's important that this fits tight,
mostly from a safety point of view,
but also from a practical point of view,
'cause if I want to win this thing,
I gotta put everything I've got into building this axe.
♪
Looks good so far.
Everything's nice and tight.
I'm gonna test this by just cutting a small sapling.
Feel like I'm going to war with this battle-axe here.
♪
Oh, baby, look at that chop.
♪
I'm excited to represent Jeffrey
and the New Agrarian School.
I'm looking forward to the judges' forge.
♪
So far, I'm pretty happy with it.
♪
- Peter, Jeffrey, Silas, welcome to our forge.
We gave you four days to put together
your very best double bit felling axes,
and I've got to say, they look fantastic.
But we've got to find out which one of you is
moving forward into the final leg of this tournament
and still in the fight for $20,000
and $10,000 worth of forging equipment
for the New Agrarian School.
Now, before we get into the testing,
I want to find out what you think about them.
So Peter, tell me about yours.
♪
- I forged 4 1/2 inches of 4140 for the axe-head
and a nice hickory for my handle,
and did an oil finish on the handle and the axe-head.
♪
- It looks good.
Silas, tell us about yours.
♪
- My axe is forged from 4140
and it's got a hickory handle.
I made a couple of double bit axes in my past,
but this is by far the nicest one.
And so I hope it performs well.
♪
- Well, gentlemen I got to say,
both your axes look strong and sharp.
We have to find out which one of you is moving forward
into the final leg of this tournament.
In order to find out which one it is,
we got testing with Dave.
♪
- All right, gentlemen, first off,
we've got a functionality test.
♪
I'll be taking your axes, using both bits,
and chopping into our log here.
Peter, you're up first. Are you ready?
- I'm ready. - OK.
♪
- I'm nervous. Because I quenched twice,
there's absolutely potential that one of my edges may
show some deflection on the edge.
♪
[suspenseful music]
♪
- So right off, Peter, looking at your axe,
the symmetry is really nice.
Everything's got a really good shape to it.
The handle's super comfortable, very smooth.
As far as the edges go,
one edge held up.
There's not any kind of deflection on it.
The other edge has the smallest deflection,
but I feel like I could definitely drop a tree
with this axe, so nicely done.
- Thank you.
- All right, Silas, you ready?
- Yes, sir. - OK.
♪
- I put a ton of work into this axe,
and part of me is crying that it's gonna be smashed.
Peter's axe had some slight rolling,
so I'm not sure how my axe will perform.
But I'm hoping that it will hold up.
♪
[suspenseful music]
♪
- All right, Silas. Right off the bat,
this is a really, really pretty axe.
♪
It's a little bit lighter in the head.
The handle construction, very smooth.
A little bit more obtuse of an edge than Peter's,
which is a good thing because there's no deflection
or any edge damage at all.
So really well done.
- Thank you.
[dramatic music]
♪
- All right, gentlemen, we've had our functionality test,
and that went well, so now it's time to have
some good, old-fashioned "Forged in Fire" fun.
We're gonna test your weapons in a way
that they've never been designed to be tested.
We're gonna smash them into these pots and that can.
♪
Peter, you're up first. You ready?
- I'm ready. - OK.
♪
[music building]
[hard rock music]
♪
- [exhales]
[suspenseful music]
- Well, Peter, once you get momentum with this axe,
man, it's going.
But your edge did take some damage here.
After the test, there's some rolling on your edge
where I can... [metal dinging]
Hook my fingernail on it.
And then on the other edge,
you've got a couple small chips.
- Mm-hmm. - All in all,
everything's still right and tight.
It still feels good.
So nicely done.
- Thank you.
- All right, Silas, you ready?
- I'm ready.
♪
My kid did tell me I needed to be ready
to chop some concrete blocks, so I built my axe for this.
And I hope my axe performs well.
[music building]
♪
[suspenseful music]
♪
- All right, Silas.
One of your edges has a little bit of rolling to it.
Not too much.
Still sharp.
Other side really didn't take much damage at all.
I really do like how smooth you got this handle.
When I'm swinging it, it just travels
through my hand really easily.
It's comfortable to use.
You did a good job. Thank you.
- Thank you.
♪
- You have fun? - Oh, yeah.
You know, smashing things.
It's what I do.
- Both of you guys did a phenomenal job,
but the time has come for us to decide which one of you will
be moving forward into the final leg,
fighting against three other smiths
we pick up across America.
- Peter made a really nice axe.
Ultimately, I believe this is gonna come down
to how they perform, but you never know.
♪
- Well, gentlemen, we started this first leg
of the tournament in beautiful Bigfork, Montana,
Jeffrey, at your New Agrarian School,
with you guys building your froes.
You did a great job there. And I got to say,
you both did a phenomenal job here with your felling axes.
But in this tournament, only one of you can
move forward to fight three other smiths
that are coming from across America.
Dave has made his final decision,
and the smith moving forward in this tournament is...
♪
Silas. Congratulations.
Now, Peter, you did a great job.
You're a talented smith, but unfortunately,
your blade did not make the cut,
and Dave's gonna tell you why.
- Peter, this really came down to two things.
The chip your blade took
and then the rolling on your edge would
eventually affect its functionality.
And those are the reasons we're letting you go.
- Well, Peter, it's been an absolute pleasure
watching you work, but unfortunately,
your time in this tournament has ended.
I want to say thank you for coming out.
At this point in time, I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- Sure.
I'm really happy with the axe I was able to make
and how it performed.
This is the first time I'd built an axe
of that size and caliber.
And I think that Silas is a really competent blacksmith.
I have no doubt that moving on with the competition,
he's gonna do well.
♪
- Well, Silas, congratulations.
That means you are one step closer to a $20,000 check
to go into your pocket and $10,000 in gear and supplies
to go to Jeffrey Funk's New Agrarian School.
Silas, that means you are joining us
in the second leg of this tournament
to fight three other smiths that we're picking up
across America for the final battle.
Very well done, man. Good job.
- I'm excited to move on to the next round.
I'm naturally a competitive person.
Peter is an incredibly talented dude,
and, you know, it all came down to the testing.
And I hope that I've made Jeffrey and Dave proud.
This is certainly the nicest axe I've ever made,
and I'm ready to bring my all to the next round.
♪