[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[rock music]
- my name's justin workman, I'm 39,
and I've been bladesmithing for roughly four years.
The last three months, I've been going through chemo
with the hopes that I would stave off the need
for amputation of my right arm.
I hope this sets an example to anybody that's struggling.
No matter how bad it is, you can still power through.
♪ ♪
- my name is dj brelje. I'm 41 years old.
I'm coming from oceanside, california.
The coolest knife I ever made was the knife I forged
to cut my daughter's umbilical cord when she was born.
♪ ♪
- my name is doug zegel.
I'm from mount laurel, new jersey.
I'm 33 years old.
My uncle was a blacksmith, so I got to move some metal
with him when I was younger, and I really enjoyed it.
You took something rock-hard like steel, you heat it up,
and it's like play-doh.
I mean, what's cooler than that?
- My name is rob kemensky.
I'm from gaithersburg, maryland.
I've been a police officer for 32 years.
The reason I got into bladesmithing
was because of "forged in fire."
I like the ability to take something that is nothing
and make it into something.
♪ ♪
- well, gentlemen, welcome to the forge.
You guys are about to take part in three intense rounds
of forging competition.
At the end of each round, you will present your work
to our panel of expert judges.
Today's judges are abs master smith j. Neilson,
historic weapons re-creation specialist dave baker,
and edged weapons specialist and kali martial artist
doug marcaida.
♪ ♪
now, I hope you guys are hungry,
'cause the stakes are high.
Only one of you will be going home the title
of "forged in fire" champion and that check for $10,000.
♪ ♪
speaking of hungry,
what's better than walking into a butcher shop
and checking out the meat selection?
Today we're gonna ask you to build a blade
that has been around for thousands of years
and in the hands of butchers around the world.
And that weapon is...
The cleaver.
[sinister music]
- making a cleaver is different in the fact
that you're not just drawing it out,
but you also have to fuller it to widen it as well.
- When you're building your cleavers,
you're gonna need to follow these parameters.
You're gonna have to have an edge
that is between 8 and 9 inches
measured in a straight line
with a base width no less than 3 inches,
and you also must feature a hole near the spine.
♪ ♪
now, you're probably wondering what kind of steel
you're gonna be using to make our cleavers,
and that's right here.
♪ ♪
you must harvest your materials
from these high-carbon steel meat hooks.
They're all made of w1 steel,
and you can use any method you choose
to build your blades.
Now, in round two of the competition,
you'll be adding handles to your blades,
turning them into fully functional cleavers,
at which point, we'll be testing them
for strength and durability in a bone chop
and for sharpness in a meat and veggie slice.
Now, gentlemen, keep your eyes on the clock
because you only have three hours to complete your work.
And that time starts now.
[rock music]
- one of the things that we have to worry about
is that they have enough steel to make a cleaver.
This is one of those builds where thick helps.
♪ ♪
- as soon as I see the meat hooks,
I'm thinking I have to get three handles removed
from the actual hook and flattened out enough
to stack these billets up and get them welded together.
♪ ♪
this cleaver's gonna take a lot of metal,
so I have to make sure I have a nice big billet
so I can stretch it out this way and that way.
If I don't start out with a good billet,
then everything I'm doing after that is in jeopardy.
♪ ♪
- first thing I'm gonna do is grab the hooks,
chop them off, and get them inside of the forge.
Right now, I think two handles is gonna be enough.
- Dave, you think they need
about three of the hooks to make a single cleaver?
- A minimum of three of the handles.
- I smacked it a couple times with a hammer alone
just to see if it would start compressing.
That allows me to know whether or not
I'm gonna move it in the press.
♪ ♪
- I have three hours to knock out a cleaver.
Funny thing is,
I had already done a three-hour challenge
back at home to kind of prep making a cleaver.
I feel like I got a leg up on this one.
I'm gonna be making canister damascus,
so I got to put the liquid paper in there.
- You got justin trying to dry the canister's white out
with the flames of the forge, which is a good way to cook it.
So it doesn't help you peel it.
It'll actually forge weld to the core steel inside.
- Lo and behold, liquid paper catches fire.
♪ ♪
after I snuff it out with my glove,
I chop the hooks.
Takes less time to break down.
Mother of god, come on.
Putting all the hooks in there,
still don't have a full canister
and I've already used all my powder.
I'm just praying that I can get it forge welded enough.
♪ ♪
- the biggest challenge in making this cleaver
is stretching it out enough
to make the parameters.
My plan is to grab the meat hooks
and cut off the handles,
flatten those out into pieces
that I can stack, forge weld together.
♪ ♪
- dj is just drawing that steel out.
Now is a good time to actually start your fullering.
♪ ♪
- they aren't as flat as I would like them to be,
but I got to get this going,
so I'm gonna weld them together.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, we've got two hours
and 30 minutes remaining!
♪ ♪
- I want to grind these pieces of steel,
but I can't sit around and let them cool off
by themselves, so I have to get them cool enough
that I can handle them at the grinder.
- What? No!
- So what is that doing to the metal?
- Well, you cool it too fast, and you wind up
with all the grain not really bonding together.
So you wind up with microfractures
all through the metal.
- Welding.
I know that the water tank is a dangerous place to go,
but that clock keeps ticking.
I have to get them welded together,
and I have to get them back in the forge as soon as possible.
♪ ♪
- [bleep].
- Rob's gonna need more metal.
- I'm measuring my cleaver,
and I know it's not gonna meet parameters
unless I come up with a way to add more steel.
♪ ♪
so I take the two hooks
that I had cut off,
heat them up, flatten them out a little bit,
clamp them together, weld them,
and hopefully, I'm going to forge weld them
to the top of my cleaver.
I'm gonna try to take a piece of metal
that's 1/4 inch wide
and try to compress other metal on top of it.
It's a shot in the dark, but I have to do something.
♪ ♪
- my canister is nice and hot,
and I start to compress.
- Now, that canister could be a little hotter.
- Yeah.
- When you pull a canister out of your forge,
you want that thing to look like a melting stick of butter.
♪ ♪
- pretty confident that this sucker is forge welded,
so we're gonna peel back that canister,
and were gonna have a little peek.
♪ ♪
oh, [bleep].
- Oh.
Oh, that's bad.
- [bleep].
It's not welded.
All right, game plan.
It's time to start over 'cause time is ticking.
- At least justin's
not gonna chase that down the rabbit hole.
Abandoning that billet now is the best thing he can do.
- Yup.
- I have two handles from the meat hooks,
so I'm just gonna flatten them out
and forge weld these together.
♪ ♪
- I decided to use big blu
'cause I have experience on a power hammer.
I've never used a press.
♪ ♪
- dj's got what looks like a solid billet,
but he's just drawing it out still.
And there's definitely enough length on there already.
- I stretch it out as much as I can,
and I'm just trying to get it wide enough,
so I use the anvil and hammer it by hand.
♪ ♪
- look at that.
He's been able to fuller it, widen it out.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, you guys have two hours remaining!
- All I need to do is chop off the front of this.
I can see if my welds are good,
and from there, I'll just start forging.
♪ ♪
luckily, everything starts working out
and I make my way
to seeing that I have a perfectly good billet.
Now it's time to make a knife.
♪ ♪
so I keep heating it up, stretching it out,
heating it up, stretching out.
- Looks like doug's been able
to really widen out his metal right now.
- He's got a lot of metal to work with.
♪ ♪
- there we go.
This time, I leave my stack in the forge
until it is yellow.
Then I proceed to ask big blu for help.
This is what I should have done all along.
I feel a little bit behind.
I'm glad I wore the brown pants.
♪ ♪
- my handle is too far
into the center of the blade.
On a cleaver, the handle's at the top of the blade,
so my plan is to cut the handle off
and then forge weld it right to the blade.
- I think he just cut that handle off.
He's repositioning it.
He's gonna weld it and then forge weld it.
- Any kind of weld at that junction
is not a good idea.
- Creates a weak point.
- I actually make a good forge weld.
♪ ♪
[bleep] me.
Unfortunately, in my haste,
I took the handle and I welded it
onto the cutting edge
instead of where I just added
the two pieces of those meat hooks
on top of this cleaver.
- Rob does not look happy right now.
♪ ♪
- I've got to cut that handle off again
and I've got to get it on the top.
- That's crazy.
- Just chasing the rabbit down the hole.
- This is digging the hole. - Yeah.
- I don't want to get sent home in the first round.
- You got the ends of those welds that can go wrong.
You've got the middle of those welds that can go wrong.
- You have one hour remaining on the clock.
- Son of a [bleep].
M not getting good welds.
I had a lot of flux buildup on the blade.
That is making problems welding.
It does cost me some time.
- I love it. It's a franken-cleaver.
[laughter]
[rock music]
- feeling all right because I'm right there.
All I have to do is not screw up the heat treat
and making sure I don't get that infamous fireball
in my already hairless face.
- Oh, there it is. - All right, wait.
We've got one blade quenched.
- I'm praying I don't hear any tings, pops.
- Justin's got a nice warp in this blade there.
- Now I have figure out how to fix this problem.
- This is why it's a good idea to quench early.
- Right.
- So that you can come back and fix some problems.
- I still have a decent amount of mass in it.
Might as well just run the clock out on the grinder.
♪ ♪
- I'm pretty confident with the parameters.
I also punched the hole clean
on the first strike.
Now I have to quench it.
♪ ♪
- quench now. - There you go.
- Oh.
- It was high, but it wasn't bad.
- Pull it out, and I clamped it in the vise
with a couple pieces of angle iron
just to keep it straight.
It looks pretty good.
- Rob put that blade in the fire
at the temperature he should have quenched at.
- Yeah. - So it's just getting hotter.
- It looks flat. It looks straight.
Five minutes left. I'm gonna quench.
- It's-- - oh, no.
- Whoa! - Holy cow!
- That was hot.
- In the back of my mind, I'm gonna pull it out
and the only thing I'm gonna have is the handle.
Thankfully, it did come out in one piece.
I'm not happy with how it looks,
but it's definitely hard.
♪ ♪
- doug is in the grinder, and can he get his blade
up to temperature
with less than five minutes to go?
- It's gonna take him two or three minutes
to get that up to temp. - Exactly.
[tense music]
- I may have gotten a little bit too confident.
I spent too much time on the grinder.
Now I got to get this billet heated up.
- Gentlemen, you got two minutes on the clock!
- It's do-or-die.
- Just put it in there.
- Ah, the old one-minute quench.
- Gonna be a 30-second quench.
- It's gonna be a 30-second quench, yeah.
- Oh, come on.
- Oh, no, no, no, no. Okay.
♪ ♪
- he's in there. - All right, finally.
- Leave it in there.
- Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one.
Gentlemen, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools. This round is over.
- Whoo.
- [exhales heavily]
at this point, it looks good,
but I have to hope that there's no other issues
that I didn't see in this blade.
I didn't even look and see if it's straight.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen, in round one,
you guys took your meat hooks
and you turned them into cleavers,
but it is time for the judges to make their critique,
so let's get into it.
Justin, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- all right, justin, first of all, aesthetically,
I'm not exactly thrilled with this handle kicking up.
You do have a pretty good warp on here.
It's not laying flat on the table.
Big thing I noticed, though, is,
I noticed the blue right in here,
and yeah, you can hear,
I can get my finger in there
and move that thin steel around.
But you presented us a blade. Good job.
- Thank you. - All right, dj, you ready?
Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- all right, deej, let's talk about your cleaver here.
There are no delaminations.
Overall, it seems that
you have a solid piece of steel.
Moving forward, it's more about refining the shape
that you have, but I think you did a good job.
- Thank you.
- All right, doug, you're up.
Come present your blade.
♪ ♪
- all right, doug, this is good-looking steel.
As far as the cleaver shape goes,
classic cleaver shape.
[chuckles] you pretty much lucked out
on that 45-second quench,
that you didn't pick up a warp. - Yeah.
- Your edge is nice and straight
and there's a slight bend back here, but nice job.
- Thank you.
- All right, last but not least, rob,
please present your work.
♪ ♪
- all right, rob, trying to get
a 1/4 inch weld on the edge is really tough.
There are sections where, right here,
I can actually see through the blade.
I think you had a really good idea
swapping the handle,
making this the edge
since there's a lot more solid steel down here.
But you kept finding ways to work around the issues,
and I commend that.
It's here, so good job. - Thank you.
- All right, gentlemen,
well, you all brought us some meaty cleavers,
but the judges made a decision,
and only three of you will be moving forward
into round two of the competition.
The bladesmith heading home is...
♪ ♪
rob.
You fought hard and you brought us a blade,
which doesn't always happen.
J. Neilson is gonna be telling why you're going home.
- Rob, you never quit, and that's fantastic to see.
But with the cleaver you presented us,
there's multiple seams in there
and at least three places in the blade
that we could see light through it.
That makes us question the structural integrity
of your blade, and that's why you're going home.
- I understand 100%. - All right, rob,
please surrender your weapon.
♪ ♪
- what the judges had to say about my blade
was certainly what I was thinking.
There's never a time when you can hold a blade up
and see cracks through it that it's gonna be any good.
I'm happy that it got to the judges' table.
It looked like a cleaver,
which is what it was supposed to be.
- All right, gentlemen, congratulations.
The three of you are moving forward
into round two of the competition,
where you will add handles to your blades,
turning them into fully functioning cleavers.
Next to me, you see three butcher blocks.
That, along with pin stock,
is the only material that you can use for your handles.
Now, after you guys finish your handle work,
we'll be testing for strength and durability in a bone chop
and for edge retention in a meat and veggie slice.
Now, remember, you only have two hours on the clock
for this competition.
And that time starts now.
[rock music]
before butcher block,
they need to fix all these problems.
- Unfortunately, there's so much going on
in justin's head right now.
- Oh, he definitely came in behind the other two smiths.
- Going into round two,
I have three critiques:
The upswept handle, the delam,
and the good old banana peel-- the warp.
I'm going to address the handle first.
So I decide to go with a three-piece hidden tang.
By doing this, it allows me to cut out a couple steps
trying to pin the handle together.
So far, so good.
This is definitely more about just getting it done
and turning something in than worrying about perfection.
Now I grab the butcher block and cut my three pieces
and start grinding the center block.
[bleep]. Hey-oh.
The grinder rips the block
and shoots it into that nasty water bucket.
Whoops.
- My plan for the handle
is to cut two identical scales
and pin them together.
I'm putting the holes in the tang,
so I went straight to the torch
to just cut a huge clearance hole.
- That's what dj's doing is blowing pin holes.
- Drilling is prettier,
but cutting with a torch is faster.
I'm just trying to get it done.
I'm pretty confident.
I feel like I'm gonna finish the blade
and have something to turn in.
- After I approach the handle,
I'm now gonna be dealing with that major warp.
So I build a jig,
get it set up, and heat up the spine.
♪ ♪
my genius self, I'm heating up the wrong side.
[bleep].
Instead of taking the warp out,
I'm putting a bigger warp in.
That is not working.
[bleep].
So now I have to reheat the blade on the proper side,
and I pray that I have it hot enough
because if it's not hot enough,
I am going to snap this blade.
Please don't break. Please don't break.
♪ ♪
this could definitely send me home.
And lo and behold, it does not snap.
That's gonna have to do.
I've got this thing pretty straight,
so now we can move on to bigger and better things.
♪ ♪
- I know I'm a little bit behind my competitors,
but right now, I just have to focus on what I need to do.
Getting these holes drilled in the tang
is one of my major concerns,
so if I can get that done, I'm in good shape.
I'm at the drill press,
and I purposely left my handle unquenched.
I wanted that metal to be a little bit softer
so that I had a better chance of drilling through it.
♪ ♪
I got the holes drilled very easily, so now
I just have to get the pieces of the butcher block cut,
start getting them assembled, epoxied on,
and then start shaping.
- All right, gentlemen, you guys are halfway through.
There's one hour left on the clock.
- I'm going to put the handle on and refine the shape of it.
♪ ♪
I had extra time, and you got to do something,
so I try and decorate the handle.
I started drawing, you know,
things I thought about a chef would use
like a pot, fork, a spoon.
Give it more character.
I feel like a caveman when I'm doing it,
and it's a lot of fun.
I'm trying to make something that has soul
and something you can't get at a store.
'cause I'm human being, not a machine.
- Right now, I need to focus
on the handle being comfortable.
The blade has to interact with the target,
but the handle has to interact with the user,
so I want to make sure I balance my time evenly
between those two things.
♪ ♪
- I'd really like to see doug
knock those edges off that handle.
- I was just gonna say the same thing.
That's gonna hurt when you're swinging it.
- I've got my handle roughed out.
From now, it's just about the details.
- All right, bladesmiths, you got 20 minutes left.
♪ ♪
- so the last thing I need to address
is that delam in the center.
- Justin's got a big, old hole.
- Justin could've got an occlusion.
First thing that justin's got to do is
just clean all of that out.
- I'm gonna go to the grinder.
I put the contact wheel in,
start grinding,
and I realize
it's bigger than I thought it was.
Oh, [bleep].
A little bit of concern is hitting me.
Welding.
The only logical solution that I can think of
is grab the welder, fill the hole, grind it clean.
Right now, I feel this is the only option to take.
- If that blue doesn't go all the way to the edge,
just seal that inside.
- Almost there.
Finally, we have solid steel.
So I just tried to just to pack it in there.
And now I'm just trying to grind it flat, clean her up.
- 10 minutes remaining on the clock.
- So now that I'm in a good place with my handle,
I just want to refine that edge.
I want that edge to be strong because it's meant to chop.
♪ ♪
so I work, and I just refine it
on the stone a little bit
it's sharp, and all of a sudden,
I realized this nice wooden handle that I made,
it's covered in sawdust and grit from the knife.
If I have a little bit more time to sand,
I can make this thing look beautiful,
but right now, I got to just clean it up as best as I can.
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
Put down your blades. Put down your tools.
This round is over.
- Right now, I'm feeling very confident,
but I think all three of us did great job.
It's gonna come down to how our blades deal
with the challenges in the testing.
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test--
our bone chop.
I'm gonna take your cleavers
and smash through these series of bones.
What your blades do to the bones
is pretty much irrelevant.
I want to see what the bones are gonna do to your blades.
All right, dj, you look excited.
- I am. - All right, let's go do this.
[laughter]
- I'm excited to see a legend test my blade
on a big-ass bone.
I'm not worried about it chipping, but it could break.
The bone's hard.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
- [chuckles]
- all right, dj. Nice job.
The edge held up just fine.
It felt comfortable in a hand.
A little bit square on the bottom,
but everything's tight.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
- All right, doug, you're up.
How you feeling? - Feeling pretty good.
Have at it. - All right, let's do it.
- All I'm thinking is,
what animal did that giant bone come out of?
I'm just hoping that it doesn't roll the edge of my blade.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
all right, doug, you survived the bone chop.
Good job. The biggest concern I have
is the thickness of your handle right here.
A little bit short, but there's no gapping.
Everything's tight, and your edge is still sharp.
Good job. - Thank you.
- Justin, you're up. How you feeling?
- Go to town. - That's not a problem.
♪ ♪
- going into round two testing, I am terrified.
I don't know if I fixed the delam,
and I look over there, and there's a big-ass bone.
My heart sinks to my stomach.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
all right, justin, good job. You survived.
I was a little concerned with the gapping
right here at the shoulders, but it held up just fine.
You might've had a hole on the side of your blade,
but there's nothing wrong with your edge.
Good job. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths,
j. Had a bone to pick with your cleavers,
now it's time to find out how sharp your cleavers are.
This is the sharpness test--
the meat and vegetable slice.
Now, unlike the strength test, this is all about
how well your cleavers cut the meat and vegetables.
All right, dj, your turn. Are you ready?
- Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?
- Uh, quack, quack? - [laughs]
- let's do this.
♪ ♪
all right, dj,
let's talk about your cleaver here.
There are sharp edges at the top here,
but not as sharp in the middle part.
When we cut the meat,
it didn't cut all the way through,
but overall, it will cut.
- Thanks.
- All right, doug-- great name.
Are you ready? - Absolutely, ready to go.
♪ ♪
- all right, doug,
on the meat slice, it chopped,
but it's not a clean cut all the way through.
Now, on the produce side, it pretty much cut everything.
Overall, sir, your cleaver will cut.
- Thanks. - Justin, you're up.
You ready for this? - Let it rip.
- All right.
♪ ♪
- all right, justin, let's talk about your cleaver here.
With the cuts over here, plenty sharp.
Everything it cut through, except for the melon,
but overall, sir, your cleaver, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, gentlemen,
you all met parameters and you all tested well,
but unfortunately, only two of you will be moving forward
into round three of the competition.
The judges have made their decision,
and the bladesmith not moving forward is...
♪ ♪
dj. And doug's gonna tell you why.
- Dj, it came down to the sharpness test.
Your blade has an obtuse edge.
That, coupled with dulling from the strength test--
well, the potato getting hung up on it says it all.
For that reason, we're sending you home.
- Now dj, unfortunately your time in the forge has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please leave the floor.
- All right. Thanks for the opportunity.
- Well done.
- I would've liked to have done things better.
I would've tried to slow down.
I still got a lot to learn about making knives,
but I had a good time.
♪ ♪
- justin, doug, congratulations.
You guys made it past round one and two,
and now it's just between the two of you for the title
of "forged in fire" champion and a check for $10,000.
In round three of the competition,
we're gonna send you home to make another culinary tool,
but this one's quite a bit bigger
than anything you've seen.
And that tool is...
♪ ♪
the maguro bocho.
- [exhales]
- also known as the tuna sword,
the maguro bocho is a specialized cutting tool
designed to fillet massive bluefin tuna.
This impressive blade is not your average kitchen cutlery.
With a total length up to three feet long,
these culinary swords are often hand-forged
by the same swordsmiths
that make the iconic japanese katana.
They feature a thick spine and razor sharp edge
that cuts effortlessly through any large fish.
The maguro bocho is still used today by some japanese chefs,
and can be seen on full display
at some of tokyo's iconic fish markets.
♪ ♪
- now, when you guys build your blades,
I want you to follow these parameters.
Your blade length needs to be between 29 and 31 inches.
You need to have a single edge, chisel grind.
And I also want you to incorporate a ricasso
between the handle and the blade.
- I'm feeling pretty nervous.
I'm gonna have to forge the longest blade I've ever made.
- Gentlemen, we'll see you guys in four days.
Good luck. - All right.
- Good luck, man. - Yeah.
♪ ♪
we're here at my home forge in chambersburg, pennsylvania.
My game plan is, I'm going to san mai.
Give her little flux.
My biggest concern right now is
just getting the weld set.
So now what I'm about to do,
I'm gonna put it in the vise,
cut a little bit off, see if we forge welded.
It's not looking good for my billet.
It doesn't matter how far I grind,
delams keep popping up.
Day one did not go exactly as I planned.
Just gonna scrap it and start fresh in the morning.
It kind of sucks that I wasted the whole day.
♪ ♪
- I'm back in mount laurel, new jersey,
at my home forge, and I am ready
to get started on my maguro bocho build.
So this tuna sword is probably
about twice as long as anything I've ever made.
I got to get the forge hot,
and I'm ready to put my 80crv2 in there
and get hammering.
It's pretty malleable steel,
so, so far, things are going pretty quickly.
This sword is way longer than anything I've ever made before,
but I just kept hammering away
and everything came out pretty well.
Feeling pretty good about this.
♪ ♪
- it's day two. Yesterday was a wash,
but I learned from it, so I know what not to do.
We're getting there.
Today the heat treat is
the biggest thing I'm concerned with.
My goal is to get a hardened blade.
♪ ♪
oh, I got a nice little warp in that...Bad boy.
I start the day with nothing.
No knife, no billet. I have to start all fresh.
And now this.
Oh, I'm so mad.
♪ ♪
- it's the beginning of day two.
I'm really comfortable with where I'm at,
but I want to keep making progress as fast as possible.
Once the quench comes, that's kind of
the make or break situation for me today.
So I'm just trying to get the heat right.
♪ ♪
yeah, we're in good shape.
It looks good, but just to be safe,
I grab a file to do a file test.
Hmm.
As I go over the center of the blade, I hit a soft spot,
and now I'm panicking.
Of course, that's probably
where they'll be hitting the blade,
so that's the most important section of it.
[bleep].
Ld pick up at a warp.
It could crack.
I'm going to compare that somewhat soft spot
in the middle of the blade to the tang.
And once I compare those with the file,
I know that that blade is hard.
I think there was some soft steel or scale on the outside.
I'm feeling a little bit more confident in my heat treat,
and now I'm ready to move forward.
Little scare there, but I think I'm in good shape.
♪ ♪
- almost there. It's day four.
This whole competition did not go exactly as I planned,
but I've been able to catch up.
I'm in a good spot right now,
and all I have to do is get her assembled,
get her polished, and sent out the door.
Get all the pins cut down.
It's time to hog some material off.
Got about four hours left in this competition,
and I still have a fair amount of work to do.
I know for a fact that I'm at parameters.
It's the one thing that I've been checking
over and over and over again.
It's the end of day four. I never gave up.
♪ ♪
finding out that the tumor has come back
made it clear that you have to go all out.
If it's not working out, adapt, overcome,
and just put it all on the chopping block.
You have nothing to lose.
- So it's day four. This is the home stretch.
It's time to get everything fit, assembled,
and finish this blade.
♪ ♪
all right, we got a nice clean fit.
That is the first look at what will soon be a finished blade.
Overall, I think that I've managed my time well
and I'm a really good spot to get this blade finished up.
All right.
Now that I have the final assembly finished,
I didn't come up with an elaborate test,
but I used to work in a sushi restaurant,
and this is a tuna sword.
♪ ♪
it cut pretty clean.
♪ ♪
I think it does the job.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen, welcome back to the forge.
You have had four days to work on your maguro bochos.
Justin, how'd it go for you?
- It's been a struggle, but we got her completed.
♪ ♪
she's 1095, differentially heat-treated
with a bocote handle and a ziricote bolster.
- Well, awesome. Doug?
- It went pretty well.
♪ ♪
it's an 80crv2 blade.
I have a maple handle and a carbon fiber bolster.
- They both look deadly, but the only way for us to know
if they work as well as they look
is to put them through a few tests.
And up first, the keal test. Doug?
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths,
to find out what kind of lethal damage
your maguro bochos will do, I'll take your weapon
and make some lethal cuts on these six different fishes.
♪ ♪
justin, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Let's make some sushi. - Let's do it.
♪ ♪
- I didn't test my blade.
I was gonna let the judges deal with that,
so I don't know if this is gonna perform
how I want it to.
If I didn't get my chisel grind just right,
this could possibly cost me the round.
♪ ♪
- way to go, man. - Thanks.
- All right, justin, let's talk about your weapon here.
First up, your edge.
One and done for all the cuts here.
It's a very sharp edge.
I like the handle construction here.
It's ovoid, so my hand matches nicely and wraps around it.
Overall, sir, it will keal.
- Thank you.
- All right, doug, you're up next. You ready?
- Have at it. - Let's do it.
♪ ♪
- I kind of bent the blade a little bit at home
to make sure it was strong,
but you never know if that edge could roll
if I didn't get the heat treat right.
I'm just hoping it stays together.
It's a little nerve-racking.
♪ ♪
- nice job, man. - All right.
- All right, doug,
first up, the handle construction.
I really like the way you shaped your handle here.
It's typical japanese-style.
Now, it's a lighter blade,
but your edge is so sharp
it cut cleanly through the fishes, easily.
Overall, sir, it will keal.
- Thanks.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen, I think you know what time it is.
It's time for the strength test.
Now, we're calling this our bo staff attack.
Now, justin,
your weapon is already locked in our device here,
and I will be attacking it with our wax wood bo staffs.
This test is not about what your blades do to that staff,
but what that staff's gonna do to your blade.
- All right. - Y'all ready?
- Let's do it. - Okay.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
all right, justin,
you know, this is a brutal test
for what is technically a large kitchen knife,
but you did very, very well.
Right where my finger is,
there's the smallest of chips.
And when I say smallest of chips,
I mean it's really small.
Everything else looks right and tight.
All in all, you did a great job.
You survived.
- Thank you. - You bet.
All right, doug, you're up. You ready?
- As ready as I can be. - Okay.
'cause this is fun for me. [both laugh]
♪ ♪
- this blade is made for delicate cutting of sushi.
It is not designed to take any abuse.
♪ ♪
I'm--I'm getting really worried.
When I saw justin's blade have
one little, unnoticeable nick,
I'm kind of already thinking
that justin's got this test won.
♪ ♪
-[grunting]
♪ ♪
so doug, right off,
this is a remarkably light.
There is the slightest rough spot,
but besides that, I don't see any deformation in your blade.
The blade's as straight as it was when we started out.
It's a good, solid piece. Well done.
- Thank you. - So all right, gentlemen,
two tests down, one test to go.
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths, we're cutting it close.
We know that both your weapons can keal,
and we know they're strong.
Now it's time to find out how sharp they are.
This is the sharpness test.
To find out how sharp your weapons are,
I will cut through these rolled-up tatami mats.
Now, unlike the strength test, this is all about
what the edge of your weapon will do to these mats.
Justin, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Rock and roll. - All right, let's do that.
♪ ♪
[exhaling]
♪ ♪
all right, justin, let's talk about the cuts here.
Clearly, on the other cuts, they cut all the way through.
On the last cut, almost,
but just a little skin of that mat is hanging on.
But it is a sharp edge.
Overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you. - All right, doug, your turn.
So you ready?
- Let's see what this thing can do.
- Let's do it.
♪ ♪
[exhaling]
♪ ♪
all right, doug,
first cut just went so easy without a drag
that it went into the next target.
It is a very sharp weapon.
It's very easy to wield, and it's light.
Overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, gentlemen, I know I speak for the judges
when I say this is exactly what we want to see--
blades that not only perform well on our tests,
but are so close that we need to deliberate.
As you guys know, only one of you
will be leaving here with the win,
so while the judges deliberate, I'm gonna ask you
to please step off the forge floor.
All right, guys.
They both seem like they did pretty well.
- Both justin and doug wound up
with a small glinting spot on their blade,
but that was about it as far as the strength test goes.
But as far as I could see,
one blade was more fast, sharp, light,
and elegant, so-- - okay.
- It caught me off guard during the sharpness test
because it's light, but it's also a sharp blade.
- All right, so you guys made your decision?
- Oh, yeah. - All right.
I'll call them back in.
♪ ♪
first of all, both of you,
thank you very much for your hard work.
But as we know, only one of you is gonna be leaving here
the "forged in fire" champion with a check for $10,000.
And today's "forged in fire" champion is...
♪ ♪
doug. Congratulations, you won.
Justin, unfortunately you're not gonna be
leaving with the win today, and doug's gonna tell you why.
- Justin, on any other given competition,
I can see your blade being a champion's blade.
It is a beautiful blade.
But today your opponent's was just a little bit sharper,
a little lighter, and faster to wield.
- Justin, again, thank you very much for your hard work,
but unfortunately, I'm gonna have to ask you
to please leave the forge.
- Hey, good job. - Thank you.
- I'm glad that this time frame worked out as it did.
Chemo takes a toll on your body,
but going through that, and then do this whole competition
just goes to show myself
how much I can actually push through.
You know, I've always kind of been stubborn,
but I didn't realize how stubborn I am actually.
[laughs]
- well, doug, you are the "forged in fire" champion.
Congratulations, man. - Thanks a lot.
- What are you gonna get with that $10,000?
- Oh, I fell in love with the forge press,
so I definitely want one of those of my own.
I am ecstatic.
You know, I put a lot of heart and soul
into making that blade,
and seeing it perform the way that it did
was just a really great confirmation
about my abilities,
and it's just making me want to make more knives.
♪ ♪