[rock music]
- Here in The Forge,
we put hundreds of smiths to the test.
- It's hot in here.
- But only a select few have proven themselves
time and time again, remaining undefeated.
♪
Now three of our most decorated champions
will put their perfect records on the line
and go head-to-head against
previous "Forged in Fire" winners
in some of the most heated battles yet.
- This is a living nightmare!
- Everything's [bleep] [bleep] right now,
if you know what I'm saying.
- Will anyone have what it takes to finally...
[metallic snap] all: Oh!
Beat the unbeaten?
[rock music]
♪
- My name is Chris Moss.
I'm a champion from Season 8.
And I made a Darb Sri Gun Chai.
I really didn't expect to win the first competition,
but my wife already had plans for the money
before I even left, so it was nice
to be able to not let her down.
And now, I'm here trying to beat someone who's unbeaten.
- My name is Steve Koster.
I won in Season 6 for the Javanese kris.
In the first competition, I was a journeyman smith.
I really set my sights on
finishing my master smith testing.
So I'm back here again to really challenge myself
and to try and beat an undefeated smith.
- Bladesmiths, "Forged in Fire" champions,
welcome back to The Forge.
You guys are here for a unique and intense
bladesmithing competition
that will test all of your skills from start to finish,
one we call "Beat the Unbeaten."
Now, to kick things off, this first round
will just be the two of you going head-to-head
in a five straight hour bladesmithing round.
Now, when that round is complete,
the judges will step in.
You are here to impress them,
because they're gonna test your weapons
and decide which one of you is moving forward
into the second round.
Now, your second round competitor
will be one of our titans of The Forge,
a bladesmith who has been unbeaten in this competition
with multiple wins.
- It's incredibly nerve-wracking knowing that
I've got to go up against another champion.
Then, after that, if I can manage to beat him,
I'm gonna have to go against someone who's unbeaten.
It's a big challenge.
- This first round, we have chosen to do a throwback
to one of our favorite challenges
in all of "Forged in Fire" history.
And that brings me to the cloth on your anvils.
Now, guys, go ahead, do me a favor and remove that cloth.
[suspenseful music]
♪
Now, what you're looking at there are equal-sized
pieces of bar stock.
Now, this first round is one we like to call
the Forge of Mystery.
The good news is, three of those bars
are good high carbon steel.
The other three bars are mild steel.
It's up to you guys to find out
which of that steel is best for making your knife's edge
and make us a San Mai billet in your signature style.
You guys feeling good about everything?
- Yeah. - Yep.
- All right, champions, we've got five hours on the clock
for the first round of competition.
So good luck, because that time starts now.
[rock music]
All right, the most important thing
these guys need to do right now,
they've got to figure out what the high carbon is
and what the mild steel is.
'Cause they could go two hours in
and then have to completely restart
if their stack was wrong.
- I think the quickest and easiest, try the spark test.
Mild steel won't throw any sparks or very, very few.
High carbon will throw something.
- Look for three overachieving sparks coming out.
- Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the bright sparks.
- As soon as the clock starts, it's like, this is real again.
I'm grinding, but the results are inconclusive.
I have a rough idea of which is which,
but I have to be able to be certain and I'm not certain.
- It's a gamble, man. You better be sure.
- Yeah, right? I think I'd be doing
every possible test I could.
Because if it goes wrong, it's reversed
or they've got double high carbon
and then a mild steel, that doesn't count,
and they have to restart. - Yeah.
- To be able to get a better spark stream,
I use my angle grinder,
which has a much smaller contact area.
I'm pretty certain I have the right combination of steel.
But in order to hedge my bets, I make one billet of each.
Welding!
And if I'm wrong,
then I'll be able to use the other billet.
I have seen Steve's episode when he made the Javanese kris.
And it's incredibly nerve-wracking
knowing I'm going against a master smith.
He's gonna be a really tough competitor to beat.
- My plan of attack is to basically spark-test
each piece of steel,
figure out which ones are the high carbon steel,
and start stacking them together.
I'm pretty confident I got everything correct.
Welding!
That billet, I used all of the steel available.
I stacked three pieces of carbon steel
to double up my core
and one piece of mild steel on each side
so I can prevent warpage when I heat treat and quench.
- So having the ratio of core to cladding, like Steve has,
that's a huge benefit in this build.
- Yep.
♪
- As soon as my billet is up to temperature,
I give it a couple gentle squeezes
to be able to set that weld.
- Those welds look like they're holding beautifully.
- Because of my decision to split my steel in half,
I've got to be very methodical.
I only have one shot at this.
So I want to get a nice, even press.
- How much of this do you think is
realistically able to be sacrificial?
- Not much.
- So he's got to be really careful
not to have any of that separation or lipping.
- Because it's a long, thin piece,
the likelihood that you could split your layers
is pretty high.
But after the first couple passes,
everything seems solid.
I can move on to shaping.
- That billet, it's a lot of steel.
So I want to make a nice, uniform heat
all the way around to set the welds.
- He's not being super aggressive,
but are you guys thinking that temperature's a little low?
- It looks a little low to me.
I mean, if there's another pass at a higher temperature,
that would be good, I think.
- All right. Here we go. Much better.
- I make a couple passes.
I want to make sure that thing is welded up good.
- While the steel is heating up,
I'm gonna try and draw out my design.
When I was here last time,
they had us make a 200-layer kukri.
My profile didn't turn out the way that I wanted it to.
And I just have the opportunity
to do it again and do it better.
- So Chris brought what looks like a beveling jig.
And he's using it over here on Big Blu.
- That's smart. - This takes off a lot of time.
- I want to be able to draw my bevels out consistently.
So I have a tool that I made.
I use it both as a form tool as well as a beveling tool
to be able to forge it thinner exactly where you need to be.
I'm happy with how it looks.
But I've got a lot of things to do.
I've gotta use every second I have.
[rock music]
- I was pretty confident in my weld.
I drew it out and left it real thick.
So I reheat it and then just start
forging the shape of the blade.
- Yeah, these guys are going into testing
not knowing what the strength and sharpness tests are.
So it would be smart for them to have a blade
that can do everything.
- In my thinking, something stout enough
to baton through, you know, a log,
but at the same time, something light enough
to do a slice and stab.
- So I'm choosing to do a dagger,
a large kind of Roman double-edged dagger.
You know, I've done them before.
And I actually did a practice blade a while back
in five, six hours,
so it shouldn't be a problem.
- I thought Steve was going with the Bowie design,
but it seems like it's more of a medieval dagger type.
- Two sharpened edges?
Going with a dagger just created
another layer of complexity in the grind.
But if he gets it pulled off, man, that'd be pretty trick.
- I got the blade pretty much finished forged.
I just got a straighten the tang out
and I'll be good to go.
How you doing, Chris?
- I'm doing good. Yourself? - Good.
- I see you-- you decided to go ambitious.
- Yeah. [chuckles]
- And make me look bad. - [chuckles]
- Chris, Steve, you guys, you've got three hours left.
[ding]
♪
- At this point, I've forged my blade out final profile.
- It's getting close to a quench here.
- [exhales] It's hot in here,
but not nearly as hot as it is in North Carolina.
- Ooh, it's warm.
- San Mai loves to split
when quenched at a high temperature.
- It's a hot quench. - There is a lateral crack
going down the middle of my spine.
♪
- Oh! - Woah.
- That's just a testament to how hot that must have been
when it went in.
- I see two big cracks
all along the spine of the blade.
♪
- I don't see any warps, delams; it looks good.
Now I've got to get to my handle.
- I don't want to be way high on the quench temperature.
That's where you get the extra grain growth.
I didn't have a magnet, so I really
had to just judge it by eye.
- Steve is at the ideal temperature right now.
♪
[file scraping] - Awesome. First time.
After the quench, I go back to the grinder.
And I really want to get down to good finished grind.
It'll be a convex edge because
I really don't know what the test is gonna be.
It's thin and sharp enough for a good slicing.
It should really perform.
- I'm feeling pretty confident.
I am working on the bevels.
But then, as I'm cleaning up the spine...
[bleep].
I see a crack.
- Uh, uh-oh.
It looks like Chris has found a crack
down the spine of his blade.
- Oh, boy. The San Mai curse again?
- When I saw that crack, my stomach dropped.
If it's gonna grow, it could be a real problem.
But I've got to do something about it.
- I mean, the obvious risk is that it just keeps opening up
and you end up with two parts of this knife.
- I don't know what I'm gonna do.
- We're getting really close to only having
an hour left in this competition
and I don't know if Chris has enough time to get this done.
It looks like Chris has found a crack
down the spine of his blade.
- I can't make a new blade
because I don't have the time,
and I don't have the steel.
- I think the best thing is just,
open it up a little bit, get some MIG as deep in there
as you can, and call it done.
- I'll Dremel it out. I'll weld it.
And I'll clean up the spine.
It's definitely a kick in the pants.
But if you never had a failure,
you're not a knife-maker, and you got to make it work.
- What I like about what Chris is doing is that
he's going through and he's tack-welding.
All of that heat in that spot allows things ahead of it
to start warping.
It's good to see that Chris is being cautious.
- When I finish the last weld,
I make sure that I've gone past where the crack is,
and it looks like it's clean.
I leave the blade to cool and I jump right on my handle.
- All right. Don't hate me, guys,
but you only have an hour left.
[rock music]
- The handle's real important.
The guard and the handle adds so much strength to the knife.
If that juncture is loose,
that's where it's gonna move under stress.
- So it looks like Steve has grabbed
that spare piece of mild steel
and he's gonna utilize that for his guard.
- To do a dagger like that in five hours,
that's a heroic effort. - Yeah.
- I want everything to compress up tight
so there's not any looseness at all.
[drill press whirring]
I don't want that handle material getting thin.
You know, I want to be able to grip that thing
and have it stay in your hand.
- I'm loving seeing what Steve is doing.
He's been able to put the guard on, which looks great.
The handle right now, that form fits nicely in there,
so he's in a good spot.
- Pretty close.
- I gotta say, after that crack developed,
it looks like Chris has got a little bit rejuvenated
and there's a whole lot more pep in his step.
- 30 minutes ago, I wasn't sure if I was gonna be able
to finish the round.
I feel, at this point, like I have a chance.
I've still got to finish grinding my blade.
I have to grind an entire handle.
But it's possible.
I really want to make something that's comfortable.
- I like what Chris has got going on with his handle.
With that big chopper blade he's got,
got a lot of swell and a lot of retention,
especially at the back there. That's a real plus.
- I run over to mix my glue, slide my handle on.
♪
Overall, I'm happy with how it looks.
- Guys, you got five minutes.
- I have to utilize every second that I have
because I still need to present a functional weapon
that is sharp and able to be tested.
- I really want to work right down to the last minute,
try and do as many little detail things as I can.
- Steve's already got the tap and die set out.
He's already gonna set himself up probably with
a pommel cap or a pommel nut.
- I fit the handle on, screw the pommel on,
and it doesn't want to screw down all the way tight.
So I find that piece of G10 so it won't slide off.
- When you got a disk pommel, right,
you start cranking it down,
it might not be in line with your handle or anything else.
So what you wind up having to either put spacers in
to get it, so when you're under pressure, you're lined up.
- OK.
- OK, that's what I'm looking for.
I feel really confident about my blade.
I know it was a little more technical;
hidden tang, double-edged dagger.
I'm very happy with it the way it turned out.
Oh, man. It's sharp. [laughs]
- Steve got himself a little boo-boo.
- [laughs] It's already drawn blood.
[rock music]
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Champions, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools. This round is over.
[applause] - [whoops]
- Nicely done.
- I came in as a champion,
practiced, prepared, ready to go.
Things just didn't go right, but champions make it through.
[rock music]
- All right, Bladesmiths. Welcome to the strength test.
♪
Now, this is the Forge of Mystery,
so the strength test will remain a mystery
throughout this entire test.
Chris, you're up first. You ready?
- I'm ready. - All right.
♪
- Going into testing,
I know the level of flaws that are in my blade.
I'm most concerned that my blade is
gonna catastrophically fail.
I feel like that would be the worst way to lose.
[intense rock music]
♪
Hoo!
[tense music]
♪
- All right, Chris. First things first,
your blade held up relatively well.
The fix that you did for your crack, it's fine.
I don't see any issue.
I don't see anything reopening or anything like that.
But there are some deflections
that I can get my fingernail under.
Other than some compaction, the rest of it held up great.
The handle shape, it appears,
and it does have a lot of retention.
But there is a ridge that runs right here,
and it's uncomfortable for my first two fingers.
Just a little bit more time on this handle right here
would have made all the difference.
But your blade held up pretty well.
Well done. - Thank you.
- All right, Steve. You seen what we're up to.
You ready? - Yep, I think we're ready.
- All right.
♪
- I am nervous about going into testing.
In the first competition, the hardest part was
watching what they do when they beat it up. [laughs]
[intense rock music]
♪
- [chuckles] - Peekaboo.
[laughter]
♪
- All right, Steve, well, I guess, the mystery is revealed.
We've been bashing on these Kaiser helmets,
because why not. - [chuckles]
- First things first, your edge
took some minor compaction right here.
It's no longer sharp here.
But the rest of the blade is sharp all the way around.
The only issue I have with this blade is that
the handle right here is still pretty square.
It does give me good indexing, it's just chunky.
But, that being said, everything held up well.
Nice job. - Thank you very much.
♪
- Gentlemen, now it's time to find out
how much edge you have left on your blades.
This is the sharpness test.
I'm gonna take your weapon and try to cut through
whatever is behind this curtain.
Chris, you're up first. You ready for this?
- I'm ready. - Let's do this.
- I went through the testing and nothing broke.
And they're still theoretically a chance that
Steve's knife won't cut.
But the next problem for me is Doug Marcaida.
♪
[intense rock music]
♪
[tense music]
- All right, Chris.
First up, I really like the profile that you have here.
Your handle construction gave me a lot of flair.
But I do see how this part right here,
it can be uncomfortable with constant impact.
Now, let's talk about your edge.
The area that was tested on here is dull.
I can actually put my hand through right there.
I could feel it impact in there and hit the dull edge.
And it just ran through it as opposed to cut cleanly through.
But you did cut through some tubes.
And, overall, it will cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- Steve, your turn. Sir, you ready?
- I think so. - Let's do this.
[intense rock music]
♪
- Yeah. [chuckles]
♪
- All right, Steve, let's talk about your knife here.
I like the way your blade is put together.
The edge here is sharp,
although there is some dulling right here.
But it cut through most of the tubes.
One particular tube, it didn't cut all the way through.
One got slashed through.
I love the balance of your weapon.
And, overall, it will cut.
- Great. Thank you.
♪
- Now, gentleman, in the past five hours,
we asked you guys to make your signature blades
with San Mai. You both made beautiful blades.
But at the end of the day,
this is the "Beat the Unbeaten" competition.
Only one of you can join us in the second round.
And the bladesmith leaving this competition is...
Chris.
Unfortunately, your blade did not make the cut,
and Ben's gonna tell you why.
- Well, Chris, in five short hours,
you presented us with an amazing-looking knife.
But your knife did take more damage
in the strength test,
which affected its performance in the sharpness test.
And that's the reason you're not moving forward.
- I understand.
- Well, Chris, it's been an absolute pleasure
seeing you work in our forge again.
But, unfortunately, you got beat out
by just about this much.
I do want to invite you forward to shake our hands though.
Thank you very much, man. It was good to see you again.
- Thank you, sir.
I'd love to be leaving a two-time champion.
But it's been a great opportunity.
- Everybody's hugging. [laughter]
- Give me a hug.
- Here we go.
- Don't touch me. [laughter]
- When I was on last time,
my kids really wanted me to say hey.
And so, hey, Julie, hey, Jim. Love you, honey.
Thanks for watching everything while I'm gone
and making this happen. Love you.
♪
- Well, Steve, a five-hour dagger.
Man, I got to tell you,
you had us worried here at the table
with the choice of blade, but you got the job done.
You came out on top of the first round.
Welcome to round two
of this "Beat the Unbeaten" competition.
Now, in order to take home
your second "Forged in Fire" champion title
and get another check for $10,000,
you're gonna have to beat one of our titans of the forge,
someone who up till now has an undefeated record.
It'll either be Gladiator of The Forge, Jesse Hu,
Super Champ, Collin Sage,
or our very own judge, Ben Abbott.
Ready to find out who you're competing against?
- Yep, I'm ready. - All right, Steve.
You are gonna have to beat this guy.
- Since it's somebody undefeated
that has competed a number of times,
I'm expecting the worst.
[laughs]
♪
- "Forged in Fire" Super Champ, Collin Sage.
- What's up, Steve? - Hey, Collin. [laughs]
- Collin, welcome back to The Forge.
- My name is Collin Sage.
So I am, in fact, a two-time "Forged in Fire" champion.
The first time I competed and won
was way back in Season 5.
Second time, I came back for the Super Championship
and ended up beating Dave Baker.
I love you, Dave. No hard feelings.
- Gentlemen, you guys are about to step into
an eight straight hour weapons-building competition,
where you're both building the same weapon.
And when that time is up,
the judges are gonna test your weapons
and ultimately decide which one of you has come out on top.
Now, let's address the elephant in the room.
Right here we've got the "Forged in Fire" Vault.
Now, Steve, because you came out on top of round one,
you're gonna go into the Vault
and choose one of the very many weapons
made from previous "Forged in Fire" champions
that you want to build against Collin here.
You will also have the opportunity to choose
the technique that you both must use
in making that weapon.
I'm gonna get this Vault open.
♪
- Wow.
- Holy smokes.
[suspenseful music]
- All right, Steve. You ready?
- Yeah. - Come on in.
- [chuckles] - Take your pick.
- Hunga Munga, Steve.
- Do it. - Ha!
- Oh, man. Holy smokes.
When I'm looking at all these weapons,
I have to decide, do I want to make something complicated?
If I choose something that's easy,
that may give Collin the advantage.
I think this one right here.
- Ooh.
- No, this is it, pretty simple effective weapon.
I think I like it. - All right.
Bring it on up. - Right there.
- All right, Steve.
You chose the M1917 Naval Cutlass.
♪
The M1917 Naval Cutlass was standard issue for the US Navy
at the beginning of the 20th century.
Based on the Dutch Cutlass,
the sword features over two feet of curved blade
with a clipped point, perfect for cutting
and thrusting everything from canvas and rope
to delivering lethal slices through flesh and bone.
Once an essential component of the Naval officer's kit,
the M1917 Naval Cutlass was declared obsolete in 1949
with the rise of modern warfare tactics.
This deadly sword of the sea was previously featured
in Season 5 of "Forged in Fire"
when an oversized grip cost one smith the competition.
Now listen closely,
because we've got some parameters for this blade
that both of you will have to follow
in order to have your cutlasses tested.
The length of the blade measured from the tip
to where the blade meets the guard along the spine
must be between 23 and 25 inches.
It needs to be single-edged, very slightly curved,
and have a clipped point.
You will also have to include fullers
on both sides of this blade.
Now, it needs to include a ricasso, and you have to
have a right-handed bell guard attached.
Now, Steve, you also have one more decision to make.
Not only do you get to choose the weapon,
but you also get to choose the technique
that you and your competitor here have to use.
- Steve picked the sword,
Steve gets to pick the technique,
and then there'll be eight hours up against
an ABS Master Smith.
Cool. I love it.
It's fine. This is fine.
[suspenseful music]
- Now, Steve, not only do you get to choose the weapon,
but you also get to choose the technique
that you and your competitor here have to use.
So what are you thinking?
- I love making Damascus.
I know I have a lot of experience in making Damascus.
So I think I have an edge on him.
I'm thinking a ladder pattern Damascus.
- Ladder pattern Damascus. All right.
Collin, you good with that? - Sounds good.
- All right, guys. Without further ado,
gentlemen, good luck,
because your eight hours starts now.
- All right. Let's do it.
- Here we go, off to the races.
We got Steve and Collin battling to build the M1917.
This competition has built its own family.
We've got people like Collin coming in.
You know, you could win a competition, call it good,
and never come back, never risk it.
Years later, he's got another opportunity to
put his title on the line and fight again,
and he did it. - Yeah.
- I don't know Collin, but I know he did win
a couple of competitions earlier.
He made a statement when he competed before.
- Collin and I did the original Super Champs.
I mean, he can pull some stuff off.
- You wanted a couple Super Champions?
Well, here we are. - Oh, yeah, baby!
♪
- I do have to compete against somebody that's capable.
- Steve has decided to beeline for the MIG welder.
He's already stacking up.
- I'm shooting for 240 layers.
OK. - Steve's off the welder.
He's got a stack of 20 layers of alternating steel.
- In the forge we go.
- One of the advantages Steve has is that
he just came up from a five-hour challenge
in our forge. Collin hasn't.
[rock music]
- So coming back for a third time, it's not any easier.
It's not any less nerve-wracking
because the more I learn
and the more I've grown over the years,
the more that I understand that
there's tons of stuff I still don't know.
And so I'm still super nervous.
I still want to vomit.
But I want to see how far I've come.
- The thing we have to remember is,
this is not Collin's first sword.
- No. - He's made a lot of swords.
He made a lot of swords before
and a lot of swords in practice for this.
- The Cutlass, it's kind of a simple sword.
And with a simpler build,
it's gonna be harder to stand out.
So you know what I'm gonna do?
1,000-layer billet. Here we go.
I'm starting with a 25-layer billet.
So my plan is to forge weld it,
bring it down, draw it out,
cut it up into six or seven pieces,
restack, forge it out,
cut it up into six or seven pieces.
I'm not really sure on the math,
but I'll get about 1,000 layers in that.
Is that clear? Does that make sense?
Are we following at home?
- Steve out of the forge, onto the press for his forge weld.
- Looking like a good temperature.
- Oh, yeah.
- The first press is really important.
I don't want to pinch it in the middle
and have it pop open on the end.
I want to just kind of bump it together.
I really can't get too aggressive with it
until I know I've got a good solid weld
that's gonna stay together.
- You know what we haven't seen in a very long time
is a Damascus billet just coming apart.
And I don't think we're gonna see it again today
and, honestly, that's a good thing.
[knocks on wood] Yeah, yeah.
I'm not trying to put any bad juju on these guys.
I'm just saying, we haven't seen it in a while. Relax!
[laughter] - Shut your hole.
- I think it's welded up solid.
It's a solid piece of steel.
So I'm totally happy with it.
- This billet's taking a long time to heat up in this forge.
It's taking a lot longer than I thought it would.
- I see Collin constantly eyeballing Steve.
- Yep.
- I'm looking at Steve's billet.
It's the same color as mine.
I figure, his is sticking, mine will stick too.
Let's go for it.
- Whoa!
That was really aggressive for a first press.
It looks like it has an angle to it now.
- [bleep].
These first welds are so important,
because it sets up the rest of the billet.
If I don't do it right now,
it's gonna put flaws in for later.
And then, there'll be no going back at that point.
♪
I'm starting to squeeze it out
and get a little bit of length.
Oh, [bleep].
And then I see it:
a little hairpin line right down the center of my billet.
And I know exactly what that means.
My billet's splitting.
[shouts]
- So we're about two hours into
this "Beat the Unbeaten" competition.
Thus far, it has been an uphill battle for Collin.
- I want to make sure this thing is solid.
I cannot start over.
And then I see it:
a little hairpin line right down the center of my billet.
And I know exactly what that means.
My billet's splitting.
[shouts]
- That's frustration right there.
- "It's fine. Just go ahead and have fun."
Well, guess what's not fun?
Not having a sword
and embarrassing yourself in front of everybody.
Get that off there.
Are you having fun? Am I having fun?
Is anybody having fun if that happens? Not this guy.
Well, [bleep]. - Happens all the time.
- You know when it happens most of the time
is when someone says they haven't seen it happen
in a while. - [laughs]
- Jinx! - I'm sorry!
- This is a living nightmare!
You know that cool little idea of 1,000 layers? That's gone.
I don't have any time.
Well, it's kind of a skinny blade, right?
- Is there enough steel in this billet to get it done?
- Yeah.
- Don't get me wrong, it's gonna be lean.
And I think we're gonna-- basically, we're gonna have
what is not going to be much of a ladder.
It's gonna look like big ovals.
- It might not be 1,000 layers,
but it's gonna have to do.
- When I'm forging the blade,
I want that blade to be between 3/8 and 7/16 thick
so I have room to grind the grooves on each side.
You want a good groove in there
so you can really upset that metal
to really show the pattern.
- Don't forget the clip.
- The forging of the blade is finished.
Now I know I have to grind some grooves in it.
- Steve is going to his vise right now,
working the final billet of 240 layers of alternating steel.
- The nice thing is, with this many layers,
you don't have to cut very deep.
To get a really cool ladder,
you want to cut just under a third of the way through.
♪
So what's left looks like this, and then you flatten that down.
- I can see the pattern showing up
while I'm grinding the blade.
This is looking really bitchin'.
[laughs]
- I feel crushingly behind. Steve is so far ahead.
I have to find a way to catch up
'cause at this point, I don't think
I'm even gonna have a sword by the end of this.
So I forged my billet out to about 18 inches.
These ladders are probably gonna look like [bleep].
Bold layers, they're in right now.
They're hot. It's fashionable.
Who wants a lot of layers? 1,000? Who cares!
Numbers? What is that, you know what I'm saying?
You want those bold lines, baby!
I cut these ladders in as quick as I can.
And now it's time to forge out this blade.
I got to get it back in the fire
and get back in this game.
- Bladesmiths, you are halfway through!
Looks like Steve is getting pretty close to a quench.
♪
[tense music]
- I do a file check on it
down the full length of the blade.
Oh, man. That sounds really good.
[file scraping]
- I'm finally forging out my billet into my sword.
And, essentially, I've "caught up to Steve."
But "catching up to Steve" is not really catching up to Steve
because he has a much more impressive billet.
But if I can edge him out,
performance tops aesthetics every time.
- Come hell or high water, Collin is determined
to get this blade finished.
- I'm going a very thin blade
for the weight and the maneuverability.
It's gonna help with the performance
and that is the only edge I have right now.
♪
- Steve's throwing a lot of sparks putting that fuller in.
- Grinding the fuller into the blade is a struggle for me
because the blade is curved.
Looks like crap.
And I'm grinding and grinding, and I'm looking.
All of a sudden, I see a spot.
Got a little bubble right there, a little flaw.
- Oh, that's not good at all.
- Between one of those welds,
I either trapped some flux or something there,
and it didn't weld. It made a circle.
- Does that tell you there might be
other issues within the steel? - Could be.
And that's why it's so critical
to clean all those layers before you reweld.
- I just want to weld that circle up
and then try and regrind it, clean it up so it looks good.
I don't really have any concerns.
I'm gonna get it done.
♪
- Technique-wise, I like what Collin's doing.
- Mm-hmm. - But that heat is so far above
where he needs to be.
- I'm ready for the quench.
And this is one of the last big hurdles.
There is no time left to start over.
If something goes wrong here, I'm done.
[suspenseful music]
♪
- Collin is in the oil
at a screaming hot quench temperature.
♪
- Now, if all things come out OK for Collin,
he's back in the game. - Oh, heck yeah.
Yeah, he was never out of the fight, you know?
He did have some issues, he lost a lot of steel,
but he never gave up.
- Woo!
Straight as an arrow, baby! Let's go!
I'm still in this.
♪ You gotta rise up
♪ I gotta rise above
♪ You know what I'm saying?
♪ We gotta grind the love
[rock music]
- So Steve got those Corby bolts into his handle slabs.
This should be a really tight fit-up.
- So as I'm getting ready to assemble this thing...
Hmm.
I notice the guard is loose on the blade.
- If you've got movement there, metal to metal,
you pinch your hand, like, immediately.
- Steve, you doing all right?
- You don't hear me screaming or yelling, do ya?
[tense music]
So I went and found a piece of shim material
to fill that gap and that pushes the guard up
and tightened everything up good and solid.
- You guys have one hour remaining.
- I feel pretty good.
I just really need to get the handle pieces together.
But I feel like I have to make up a lot of ground.
Now is the time to overcome, baby.
I got to dig down deep to every inspirational speech
I have ever heard in my life and rise above!
- Oh, metal on the floor.
- Got to be like a phoenix out here.
You know, sometimes you get broken.
You don't want to be in the ash.
You want to be a majestic bird. So it's time to--
it's time to shake off that ash.
It's time to be forged in fire.
So after that pep talk,
I still don't know what the [bleep] I'm gonna do.
♪
My handle feels great.
Last thing I got to do is put an edge on this blade
as quick as I can.
There's still a chance.
[making swishing sounds]
Well, it works.
Just looks like dog [bleep].
- So our smiths are very close to having
all of the main parameters met,
except Steve has done a ton of sanding.
He has yet to grind
or cut that clipped point in. - Huh.
- I know there's not a lot of time left,
and I'm thinking, what else do I need to do?
- You know, Steve chose this weapon,
and it came with very specific parameters,
and he's still missing one of them.
- If he does notice, this is a fix that can happen
under a minute.
The example is right there. - Yeah.
- Now, what else can I do? - Ten, nine--
- I gotta stop messing around with it.
- Six, five, four, three, two, one.
This round is over.
- Good. You did good.
That's nice. - [sighs]
♪
I am excited to go into testing.
I'm ready. I went all out building.
I wanted to build a good, high-quality blade
with a beautiful pattern and that's what I got.
So I want to see how it performs.
[rock music]
[knuckles crack]
- Champions, welcome to the dynamic KEAL test.
♪
Collin, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this.
♪
- I feel like I'm the underdog for sure.
But I might have a slight advantage
on weight and balance
because I really focused on those things,
a light and supple blade.
At least I have a functioning sword.
We'll see.
[dramatic music]
- I feel like my sword's gonna cut really well.
It's gonna cut deeply and it's gonna be really wieldable.
As long as it holds up any kind of strength test,
I should be OK.
[suspenseful music]
♪
[intense rock music]
♪
[metallic snap] judges: Oh!
- [bleep]!
- No way. - Holy cow.
Oh, my gosh.
- All right, Collin. First up,
we can tell that there was a big issue right here
where your sword broke in three pieces.
We did see that your quench temperatures
were a little bit hot.
Could've been the reason for that.
But this is the lightest blade I've ever wielded before.
It cut nicely.
It felt like I was cutting with a fillet knife on the sandbags.
And it definitely killed the ballistics dummy.
It will KEAL, but it's in three pieces.
- [chuckles] Fair enough.
♪
- [snapping fingers]
- Lay it on me.
- If you're gonna go down, you go down big, right?
- Absolutely.
- Now, Collin, it's obvious we can't continue
testing this blade.
However, Steve, we did notice some things during the round
that the judges want to take a closer look at.
So if you please give us a second.
So...
[tense music]
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- So there is no clip.
- And then, 23 to 25 inches, measurement.
- Wow. Oh, my gosh.
- 1/8 over.
- Yep. - Yeah.
- Not testing? - No.
- You guys all on the same page?
- Yes, sir. - Yeah.
- All right.
♪
[sighs deeply]
So, Steve, this is about the worst part of my job.
From the beginning of "Forged in Fire,"
in the competitions we've been holding,
we've used parameters for a few reasons.
One, to make sure we can test the blades fairly.
And two, so we can judge them fairly.
One of the features of the 1917 Naval Cutlass
that we asked for was a clipped point.
And the judges have determined that
what you have at the tip of your blade
is a false edge and not a clipped point.
[dramatic music]
On top of that, we had the bracketed length parameters
of 23 to 25 inches.
And after a closer examination,
you're an 1/8 of an inch over.
The judges have determined that this blade does not fit
the criteria that it needs to in order to be tested.
I'm gonna say thank you for coming out
and fighting so hard,
♪
- Wow.
- Rules are rules, man. I'm sorry.
- [chuckles] - It's an absolute shame.
- I thought I measured that thing, like,
three, four, six times.
- It's very close, but yeah, that--
- 1/8 of an inch? - Yeah, 1/8 of an inch.
- 23 to 25 inches measured
from the guard to the tip in a straight line.
- So the diagram in the room is cutting edge.
- It's not.
It's tip to guard in a straight line.
- The length of to the blade measured from the tip
to where the blade meets the guard at the spine
must be no less than 23 inches
and no more than 25 inches.
If you guys look in these folders,
it shows you how we measure them.
We're gonna measure in a straight line from the tip
to where the spine meets the guard.
Before we move on, do you guys have any questions about
the blade and what you're making, the parameters?
No? All good?
Cool.
- And so he's gonna win with a broken blade like that?
- Yes, sir.
- The way it goes is, if you don't meet the parameters,
you don't even get tested. That's--that's the rule.
- [sighs] It's ridiculous.
- I'm sorry, Steve. - I'm sorry.
- That's bull[bleep].
- Ay-yi-yi.
- That's bull[bleep]. No, I don't want any water.
I don't want anything,
other than to win.
I will not have any good words to say
about "Forged in Fire" from now on out.
- Sucks, right? - Yeah.
- Well, Collin,
I know it's not the way you wanted to go down
but, at the end of the day, the rules are the rules,
and the parameters must stick.
So you presented a weapon that met all the parameters
and was able to get tested.
Now, although it is in three pieces,
you are the champion, man. Congratulations.
[applause] - [sighs]
Brutally honest, winning like this is--
it feels worse than losing.
Not the way I wanted to go. - Yeah, yeah.
Light, fast, and deadly all the same.
- [groans]
I don't want to get eaten alive out there.
But it is what it is. Rules are rules.
If anything, this shows me that
I still have so far to go and so much to learn.
My blade broke. I feel like I should've lost.
End of story.
And everything else, it's just--
it's up to the judges. What can I do?
[intense rock music]
♪