[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[intense music]
- I'm travis robie. I'm 50 years old.
I'm a truck driver by day and bladesmith by night.
I love bladesmithing because I can go out to the garage
and I get in the zone,
just focus on what I'm doing.
It's nice to see something that you create
come out of the steel and last forever.
- My name is cameron lafranc.
I am 20 years old from warner robins, georgia.
I got into metalworks thanks to my father.
He early on was saying I'd be a welder
or someone who plays with fire.
It's really what sparked-- no pun intended--
my drive for working with metal and fire.
- My name is garrett olson.
I'm a full time electrician
and a part-time bladesmith.
I got into bladesmithing 'cause I fell asleep one day
and thought I had a little epiphany
but turns out I just fell asleep
while "forged in fire" was on.
I'm completely self-taught.
Pretty much my entire forging experience
to get to here at this point has just been
complete trial and error and a lot of mistakes.
- My name's mike powell. I'm from hastings, florida.
I make blades as often as I can,
usually a couple of hours in the morning before work
and then as much time as my wife
will let me on the weekend.
She sacrifices a lot of our one-on-one time for me
to be in my shop and making blades.
If I win the 10k, I'm gonna get my wife
something nice that we can enjoy together.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.
You guys are about to take part in three rounds
of forging competition that's been designed to test
every aspect of your skills.
Now, at the end of each round, you guys will
present your work to our panel of expert judges.
The judges today are abs master smith j. Neilson,
historic weapons recreation specialist dave baker,
and edged weapons specialist
and kali martial artist doug marcaida.
Now remember, there can only one champion here,
so only one of you is leaving here with the title
and a check for $10,000.
Now, bladesmiths, we got a bit of
an unknown challenge for you today.
Our friends tim allen and richard karn
from history's new competition series "assembly required"
sent us this crate and said it would make
for a great round one competition.
So you guys ready to see what's in it?
- Absolutely. - Oh yeah.
- All right. Let's go.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
- you guys see we've got a bunch
of different tools in here, and I want you to each use
at least two of them to source your steel for your blades.
We've got hammers. We've got chainsaws.
We've got band saws, monkey wrenches, you name it.
- That lid drops down and holy crap.
I see a lot of bad but some good.
- Now, with the whatever tools you guys choose,
I want you each to create a pry bar knife,
which means one edge needs to be wedged
and work as a functioning pry bar.
You need to be set up for a full tang,
and we want to have a blade the measures
between 11 and 13 inches.
Now, in round two of the competition,
you guys are gonna add handles to your blades,
turning them into fully functioning knives,
at which point we're gonna be testing them for strength
and durability in a ladder pry and chop
and for sharpness in a leather apron slice.
Keep your eyes and the clock.
Do your absolute best work.
You will only have three hours in round one
of the competition,
and that time starts now.
♪ ♪
- they've got a lot of choices in there.
- This is the interesting part,
to see what they grab right off the bat.
- They've each gotta choose two tools.
What would you guys be going for?
- Files usually make good knives,
but it depends on what route you wanna go.
You can go layering stuff up,
or you can go a canister route if you're comfortable with it.
- Right off the bat, my game plan
is to get a hold of those band saw blades.
I'm pretty confident that that's good hard stel
'cause I use them at work.
I need to find something else so that I can move on.
Let's see here.
- Mike went ahead and grabbed the hand file.
- I know I wanna make a canister,
and I don't wanna try to put any thick, heavy tool steel
or hammers or any of those bits into the can.
I wanted that thin material that I could get in there
with that powder that I know I can get
a good solid weld on.
First thing is get wite-out in that can and let
that wite-out start drying
so that I know my can's gonna separate.
I absolutely have no intention on leaving that on there.
- So I'm looking at the steel and it's some good some bad,
but I see the bandsaw blades and the handsaw.
I know for a fact that that's hardenable steel.
So as I'm cutting, I notice that
that's not gonna be enough steel,
so I'm sort of panicking.
[bleep].
I look over at the crate,
and I see some pipe wrenches,
so I decided to switch over to the pipe jaws
and using the leftover of that handsaw.
- Cameron just realized he needed more
so he just went back to the box.
- Yeah. He's pulling the teeth off right there.
- I got the jaws in the forge
and I'm ready to start working on my handsaw.
I plan to do a layered damascus billet.
Gonna go ahead and put the handsaw blades
in the center core where my edge is gonna be
to make sure I've got more than enough for this blade.
- So right when I see the toolbox,
I knew I was gonna go to a canister
just because there's so many unknown metals.
- Garrett decided to go with the chainsaw blade
and the bandsaw blade.
♪ ♪
- I laid a good layer of 1095 powder down first
so that I'm gonna have a good layer
that I know is gonna be a solid cutting-edge.
- How many of them are gonna decide to peel it off
and how many are gonna leave the can on?
We didn't give 'em a requirement either way.
- I weld it all together, and put it in the forge.
- Garrett's enjoying himself. He's got a tune going.
♪ ♪
[laughter]
- I'm a real high-energy person.
I'm always moving around.
- We should get garrett like a little tin cup
and a hat or something.
- I think it's only fitting to listen to metal music
as I'm pounding on metal,
so just thinking about some heavy metal music.
- As I'm looking to see what's left after
the buzzards had picked it,
I realize there's not a whole lot of choices,
so I decided to go with a handsaw and files
and make a canister damascus.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna take it casual, and that's my plan--
just slow and easy.
- I don't know if he gave it enough time
for that wite-out to dry
- [bleep]. Should have let that dry.
You're sitting at home and you tell yourself
I will not be the guy to rush.
Oh, lord. I'm that guy.
I did not let the wite-out dry,
but I think I can pry the can off.
I'll be fine.
- Bladesmiths, one hour is off the clock.
You have two hours remaining in round one.
- My plan is to get the pipe wrench jaws straight,
so I take it over to my anvil and start beating
the ever-living crap out of it.
I've seen a lot of smiths taking it quickly to the press
and you get cold shuts.
I do the same for the second billet,
and then from there it's more or less testing
different machines, trying to get it flattened out
for when I go to layer it with the handsaw blades.
Everything looks all forge welded together.
Come on, baby. I'm feeling surprisingly good.
And then that terrifies me now that I think about it.
- First look in the forge,
I wanna make sure that this can
is up to welding temperature.
I take my can to the press and,
wow, that thing has got some power.
The canister is getting smashed real tight.
- Hopefully everything in there is nice and tight
like it's supposed to be and once I got that can off,
I got plenty of time left to forge out a nice blade.
This can's fighting me every step of the way.
[bleep]
it is going horrible.
- You can tell mike's getting a little frustrated
with that canister.
- I'm not gonna have solid welds
with that wite-out in there, so I have to
get this can off of this billet.
So I take it over to the chop saw,
and I'm gonna cut the ends off
so I can actually see the seams.
Let's see here.
I find the seams.
Luckily, this thing actually starts peeling.
- There we go, mike. - Yay!
- Oh, there we go. - I've got enough
of this can off that I think I can take this thing
to the grinder now and grind what's left off of there.
- Bladesmiths, you've got an hour and a half remaining.
- I am so excited to go to big blue
and use it for the first time.
Man, this machine's awesome.
I need one of these at my house.
I'm super happy how my blade shape's turning out,
but I'm not really sure what I wanna do with the pry br
'cause I've never put a pry bar on knife before.
♪ ♪
it's looking like I have a pretty decent weld set.
Nothing's really breaking apart on me as I'm hammering.
It seems to be holding together pretty good.
♪ ♪
- my welds are set.
I'm trying to peel the can back,
and I realize it's sticking pretty good.
And I'm thinking I'm in deep trouble.
[bleep]. That's not a good sign.
As it's in the forge, I'm thinking,
man, if I put it in the press,
I can see it separate a little bit.
Maybe I can get the press to help me.
♪ ♪
- I think he got some of it peeled.
- I hope I didn't cut too much off.
I'm back to forging.
- So the judges want us to make a blade
with a pry bar at the end of it.
♪ ♪
I put a bevel on the tip the blade so that way
I already have an idea as to how my pry bar is gonna work.
- I think edge geometries are super important
on this pry bar knife,
just putting a ricasso that's too thin can cause failur.
- If I put the pry bar end at the tip of the blade,
then I know that I've got of leverage to crank up.
I don't want to put the pry bar at the bottom of the knife
because you don't want j. Or anyone else's hand
to be damaged when testing.
- So, my design--
I want something that's gonna have a nice, strong spine,
I need an edge on the tip for prying
and something that's not too thin for chopping.
I hope I got plenty of time to stabilize the steel,
but as far as forging it out, I think I'm good on time.
So I've cut the tip off.
I'm starting forging the bevels.
It's got an angle so that you can wedge in and pry with it.
I wanna get my handle
to have a little bit of curve down into it
and make a nice chopper out of this thing.
- I'm feeling pretty confident at this point.
I wanna show my six-month-old daughter at home
that if you set your mind to anything,
you can do anything.
So I'm ready to quench, but I'm really not used
to the brighter lights around here.
I'm thinking it's at the right temperature,
so I decided to just wing it and go for broke.
♪ ♪
- hey! Yo! Quenched and got a haircu.
- I'm little worried that I had my temperature
a little too hot, so I grab the file--
whoo!
Blade's nice and hard.
No delams that I'm seeing right now.
I'm looking forward to getting to grinding to it
and seeing what I can turn out.
- So I get out my ruler, and I measure my blade up,
and as I'm looking at it,
I'm, like, maybe an inch and a half short.
Here's 11.
13-- I wanted to shoot for 12.
- Well, with travis, you don't wanna be at the poit
to where you need more steel.
- He doesn't have anywhere near enough metal
to make the blade we're asking for.
- I'm in trouble. I've gotta stretch thing out.
I just wanna get this thing to parameters,
and all I can do is give it my best shot.
I brought is called a flatter,
and it keeps things flat.
Instead of running it over to the post vise,
I give it a couple of whacks.
I've used it time and time again at home
and it works fantastic.
- For you guys, how important is it to have tools
that you're comfortable with and that work well for yo?
- I think it's a brilliant thing to do.
- I think it's very important
because you have a comfort level with that.
Your accuracy's not affected.
- It's all about muscle memory. - Yep.
- Before quench, I'm at 11 1/4.
Not a lot of room, but it's there.
- So I've got the blade the shape I want it,
but I wanna make sure I get some pin holes in this thing
before I quench it.
I'm gonna drill this hole. Wrong.
It's squealing like the steel has already been quenche.
- All right, mike's having some issues with the drill bits.
[clank] all: Ohh!
- And there's a broken drill bit.
- I'm starting to get a little worried.
I don't wanna waste any more time with this.
I've got one pin hole.
I'm gonna get this blade quenched.
♪ ♪
I like the sound of that.
I take this thing to the grinder.
I'm gonna get as much done as I can
before that clock hits zero.
- Bladesmiths, you are at 15 minutes.
- I got my blade to length
and I got my handle sorted out enough,
and so I can get ready for my quench.
♪ ♪
nope. [bleep].
As I'm trying to skate the file, I feel it digging,
so I go in for a second quench. [laughs]
I got a lot of voices in my head
that tell me not to do this,
but I've gotta get a hard blade.
♪ ♪
[bleep] it's not skating.
[bleep]
third time's a charm.
- Oh, boy. - That's bad.
- I'm starting to think, did I choose the right stee?
Against better judgment, I go for a third quench.
♪ ♪
and this time it skates a little better than before.
That's just gonna have to work.
- The judges want a pry bar knife,
so I'm going for a cleaver-type blade
with a flat end on that 90 degree corner and I'll be good.
♪ ♪
I get it up temperature, and I get it in the quenc.
♪ ♪
I don't hear any cracks. I don't any pings. I'm good.
- I'm a little nervous. I'm thinking about
how I'm gonna incorporate the pry bar into my knife.
I've never done a pry bar before,
so I decided to put my pry bar at the end.
I'm going with a big swoop at the tang.
- I do not see a pry bar knife in garrett's design.
- [chuckles] yep.
He's putting a pry bar on the tang.
- I'm thinking I maybe should have redesigned this
a little bit.
I'm looking over my other competitors and I realize
that they all of their pry bar on the tip.
And I'm starting to think I maybe I did something wron.
♪ ♪
if I make it to round two, I'm planning on
just cutting off the end of my handle
and then taking off the tip of my knife
and making that thing a pry bar.
I'm just hoping the judges give me a chance.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Turn off your machines. Put down your tools.
Round one is over.
- I'm a little nervous.
Somebody's gotta go out in the first round
but I'm just really hoping it's not me right now.
- All right, gentlemen.
In round one of our competition,
you guys took tools from a mystery crate
and turned them into pry bar knives.
But the time has come for our judges to do their critique
and decide which three of you are moving forward
into round two of the competition
and who's gonna be leaving the forge.
Travis, you're up first. You ready?
- Yes, sir. - All right.
Please present your work.
- Travis, you had to fight that steel to get it
long enough to make this knife.
While doing that, you really stressed out this steel.
The other issue I have is at the start of your tang,
you've got a couple of delam issues going on.
So you got some things to do if you move forward
into the next round. - Okay. Thank you.
- All right, cameron. You're up next.
Let's see what you came up with.
♪ ♪
- cameron, you decided to stack your metal
instead of going with a canister.
And in doing so, this is all hardenable steel,
and it's solid.
Moving forward, I'd like you to refine it
a little bit on your design over here.
But in terms of being functional
as a pry bar and a knife, you're well on your way.
Good job. - Thank you very much.
- All right, garrett. You're up.
Please present your work.
- All right, garrett. First of all the handle.
You start swinging with this, your hand's just gonna slam
back into this hook back here.
If I tried to pry this way, this might come loose
and just-- [clicks tongue]
and I really don't wanna hold onto the blade and pry it.
I see creases going down the spine in a couple sections,
one traveling over to the edge here.
Those are definitely issues that you'd have to take care of
if you move onto round two.
I hope you got one heck of a plan.
- Last but not least, mike. Please present your work.
- All right, mike. You went with a canister.
So I can see some parts of it stuck to your metal here.
You have some delaminations.
Your handle is a little bit on the big side,
so if you make into the second round,
just refine this because there's still
a lot of forge scale here.
- Gentleman, you guys all did a good job
at choosing the best tool for success
but as you know,
only three of you are moving forward
into round two of the competition.
And the bladesmith leaving the forge is...
♪ ♪
garrett.
Dave baker's gonna tell you why.
- Garrett, this came down to a design issue.
A pry bar knife usually has a pry bar tip.
You gave us a pry bar at the end of the handle
where you can get very little leverage.
That combined with the cracks and delaminations
in your blade--we don't know that you can fix that
in round two, so that's why we're letting you go.
- Garrett, thank you for your hard work.
It was really fun watching you build that blade,
but unfortunately your time here in the forge has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please leave.
- You know, I completely agree with j.
Once he started giving the visual of it.
I don't really think it's the best idea
to stab yourself in the neck as you're prying something,
so I think I'll definitely take that
into consideration next time.
I'm just more than happy to go home
and see my little baby daughter waiting for me.
♪ ♪
- well, guys, congratulations.
The three of you are moving forward
into round two of our competition
where you'll fix any issues you guys have with your blades
and add handles, turning them into fully functioning knives,
at which point the guys are gonna be testing them
for strength and durability in a ladder pry and chop
and for sharpness in a leather apron slice.
Now, unfortunately for you guys,
other than pin stock, the pantry is off limits.
But the good news is somebody left me a chainsaw.
[metal music]
♪ ♪
all right, gentleman. This log here is
the only material you guys have available.
You guys have two hours in round two
to complete your handles, and that time starts now.
♪ ♪
- first thing in round two that I'm gonna do is get
my handle scales established.
♪ ♪
I don't know if these power hammers
can get through that slab of wood.
- Garrett's going for the bandsaw.
- Yeah, but that bandsaw blade is made for metal.
It is not made for wood.
- As I'm cutting, I can tell the machine
really does not like cutting through this wood.
So I take my chisel and start beating the ever living crap
in the center of the log.
Finally--pop.
Finally!
- There you go. - [exhales]
that was a weight off the shoulders.
- My plan is to split the wod as much as I can
without having to grind too much.
- You know what's interesting,
travis is trying to use a chisel
to break up the piece that he has.
They look like pretty good little scales already.
- I'm looking over and these guys
are still splitting their wood.
I'm ahead of the game.
I'm feeling great.
♪ ♪
- I've got my scales cut. I know my tang's too long,
so I wanna go ahead and shorten this thing up
and get it to the size and shape I want it to be
before I start fitting these scales up.
I got the tang cut off.
Now I'm ready to get some pinholes in this bab.
I had some drill press issues in round one.
I'm still having no luck at this press.
It doesn't wanna cut at all.
If I don't get a hole in this tang now,
it's gonna come back and bite me in the end.
I'm not gonna be able to get scales to stay on here
and survive testing.
- Mike's still having some trouble
with the drill bit holes.
- Son of a bitch, man.
Und with this thing,
so I'm like, well, I'll sharpen this bit.
I do it at home all the time.
I get back to the press.
The bit cuts right through like butter. No problem.
Hallelujah.
Problem solved just like tha.
♪ ♪
- yes. Now that I got both my scales,
I'm gonna fit up my handle.
In the back of my mind,
I am reminded of other competitors
and how their handles snapped apart
when driving in a pin that's too tight of the hole.
I'm praying with each tap that it does not crack.
[exhales]
one thing done. Time for the next.
And it's off to the grinder I go.
♪ ♪
- before I put these corby bits in,
I need to make sure I have my holes lined up to the blade.
I'm gonna line my handle material up
where I can epoxy them together,
screw in the corby bits, and get over the grinder.
♪ ♪
so I put the epoxy on the first scale.
I'm lined up, and I pick up the other scale and automatically
I grabbed it, swipe it with some epoxy.
Oh crap. I'm on the wrong side.
Oh, this could be all bad.
- Oh, he just glued the wrong side of the scale, too.
[laughter] - oh man.
You weren't supposed to be looking.
- We saw that. - Yeah.
- Damn. It's one thing to know they're talking about you,
but when you hear it, you know, oh, no.
I am that guy.
I take everything to the grinder
and I just cleaned it up.
The glue's off the handle,
and now I'm just gonna put this thing back together
and get it together right.
- Bladesmiths, you only have 30 minutes remaining.
♪ ♪
- I've got both scales on. I get my corby bolts.
I start trying to put 'em together.
If I don't do it perfectly right,
then I'm not gonna get a good mechanical connection.
The hell? That ain't working.
Right away, I feel the threads snap.
You gotta be kidding me. Damn. Those broke.
[bleep]. I'm gonna go get two more corbys and start ove.
This time, I took my time,
and I made sure not to over torque these things.
I made sure they were centered up where they needed to be,
and once they snugged up, I stopped.
I look at the clock. I still feel like
I got plenty of time to go over
and shape this handle and put an edge on this blade.
So at this point, I'm finally starting to feel some relief.
Out of the three, who is the most refined?
- Cameron. He doesn't have the issues that travis has
when we're talking about what's inside the can.
- I'm looking at that delamination
right at the end of the tip,
and I know that it's gonna be tight.
I can't grind too much.
I've got less than a 1/2 inch of room.
I cannot go below parameters.
I have got to get this blade just right.
Get rid of that.
I refuse to go home on parameters.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Gentlemen, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools.
Round two is officially over.
♪ ♪
- I'm feeling pretty good about my blade because
I got rid of this delam.
I feel a lot better at the end of round two
than I did at round one.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test.
Our ladder pry and chop.
♪ ♪
I'm going to take your blades,
drive them under these metal plates,
and try to pry them off.
Then, after that,
ah, I might just beat the hell out of the ladder for a while.
How does that sound?
- Absolutely. - Go for it.
- Don't act so thrilled. [laughter]
remember, you signed up for this.
[laughter]
mike, you're up first. You ready to go?
- Absolutely. Let's do it. - All right. Let's go.
♪ ♪
- I think there's a couple spots where it might be
a little soft for the chop test
but hopefully it turns out good.
This is what I came here for.
I'm excited to see j. Go at it.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
- kill it.
- All right, mike. You survived. Good job.
Biggest problem I had, though, is this tip.
It didn't come to a, like, a chisel point
or anything like that, so it's harder
to drive it under that plate.
Handle's a little lean, but it's not uncomfortable.
And everything is still together and tight. Good job.
- Thank you.
- Cameron. - [whimpers]
[laughter]
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I saw you look dead in my eyes.
It scared the crap outta me. I'm sorry.
- It'll be over soon, one way or another.
- Words of encouragement.
- Grady's other job is motivational speaking.
- Yeah. [laughter]
- given the way I designed this edge,
I am still afraid of this getting broken apart
because I had to quench three times,
so that put a little bit of some stress fractures in there.
If there are chips that break off on my blad,
I'm afraid that it's gonna be game over for me.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
- all right, cameron.
You survived. Good job.
This isn't ground down to a zero edge or even close,
so it was a little trouble driving it in,
but once I got it under there,
that plate popped right off no problem.
You're edge is still good. Good work.
- Thank you very much.
Your turn, buddy.
- He looks thrilled. [laughter]
♪ ♪
- I'm pretty scared at this moment.
It's anybody's game.
I mean, it all comes down to this.
♪ ♪
- not good.
♪ ♪
- okay, travis.
You never know what's gonna happen in these competitions.
That was the last thing I expected.
Your blade held up great. No problem there.
But your handle scales came off.
You can see that the male threads
aren't even coming about halfway through.
I think you might have had a thread holding each one,
and that's about it.
And that's why your handle came apart.
- Travis, you were able to fix the issues
with the blade after round one,
but unfortunately your handles fell off
during the testing phase.
And, unfortunately, that makes the tool no longer testable,
and for that reason, we're gonna have to ask yu
to leave the forge. - Thank you, guys.
- Well done. - Thank you.
- Good job. - Good work, travis.
- Thank you. - Good fight.
- I'm disappointed in myself.
I should've known better.
I'll just go home and get back to the forge
and keep on doing what I love to do.
I made it this far. I made a solid blade.
I'm happy. I'll be all right.
- Cameron, mike, congratulations.
It is now down to the two of you
to decide who's gonna go home with the title
of "forged in fire" champion and a check for $10,000.
Now, this final round of competition,
we're gonna be sending you guys back to your guys home forges
to build not one but two iconic
multi-tools and weapons from russia.
And that weapon is...
♪ ♪
the spetsnaz shovel.
- Originating in the 19th century,
these all-purpose shovels were adapted for use
by the russian special force, the spetsnaz.
These versatile shovels were used as entrenching tools,
oars for rafting, and even as cookware.
The soviet military units eventually trained to use
the spetsnaz shovel as a weapon.
The short handles made for quick moves
in close quarter combat.
These shovels feature deadly sharp edges
that could be used for anything
from chopping wood to slashing flesh,
or even thrown at a target.
This utilitarian tool can be seen wielded
in season three of history channel's
hit survival series "alone."
- now, when you guys are building these,
I want you to follow these parameters.
Your blades will need to be between
5 1/2 and 6 1/2 inches wide,
between 7 and 8 inches tall,
and it's gonna need to be sharpened all the way
around the outer edge.
The overall length of your shovels
needs to not exceed 23 inches.
You guys will have four days
to work on your spetsnaz shovel.
So good luck, we'll see you in four days.
- Good luck.
♪ ♪
- I'm here at my home forge in warner robins, georgia.
Today's game plan is just to get all of my forging don.
Damn. That ain't moving [bleep].
I have a lot of steel to move and a very thin blade
to forge out, so hopefully all goes well.
I start off with these two pieces of leaf spring
just to see if I can get it forged down to parameters.
[bleep] me. I don't think I'm gonna get
what I need out of that.
It's going longways instead of width.
And then I notice a piece of w1 that I had laying around.
It's 2-inch round stock, so I know for a fact
that it's enough material for the job I mean it to do.
I'm at the minimum printer for the length of blade.
I'm gonna keep stretching it out then working on the width.
End of day one, after my restart with the leaf springs,
pretty happy of where I'm at,
and I think I'll be good to go for tomorrow.
♪ ♪
- we're here in jacksonville, florida.
I am stoked, man. I prayed
that I would make it this far.
I'm gonna forge out these shovels
and see if I can win this.
I've got it about drawn out to length.
I haven't quite got it as wide as I want.
I'm not sure I have enough material.
I go cut me another piece of steel for the second one,
and drop in the forge.
That oughta do it.
About three blows in...
Woah!
The whole end of the billet just explodes.
Wow! What the heck?
I've never seen a piece of steel do that.
Now I've got one piece left. This sucks.
No way.
This is my third attempt.
Do over. I take my time.
I keep my steel to the right temperature.
It didn't explode on me this time, so it worked out.
I didn't get as far as I wanted today,
but I'm ready to fine tune tomorrow.
♪ ♪
- day three. I've gotta still flatten out
one of my billets...
Whoo! That's hot.
Get my handle and blade junction merged up,
and then quench.
I'm having to make sure that they're both exactly the same,
but still very confident that I can do.
- That looks pretty badass, if I don't say so myself.
I feel like I've gotten to a place now
to where my blades are ready for the heat treat.
I'm hoping that this goes right because at this point
if it breaks, cracks,
I don't even know if I can make another blade in ten hours.
Here we go.
♪ ♪
[scraping] sound I wanna hear.
End of day three, I am very happy to finally have
all the shovel heads forged out, hardened.
Can't wait for the fourth day to get these fit
and finished up and out of here.
♪ ♪
- morning of day three.
First thing I wanna try to do today
is lighten 'em up a little bit and then start on the handle.
I'm starting to get all the scale off
and I'm starting to see nice, shiny steel,
but starting to get a little concerned
that these might be little micro cracks.
It doesn't look very good.
I may end up forging a couple more.
I really don't wanna start over at this point,
but the steel's no good.
As much as I don't wanna go through forging two more,
I'm back at square one, cutting steel,
putting it in the forge, same as I did day one.
♪ ♪
after two days of practice,
today's forging went a lot easier.
Everything's looking good.
I'm gonna use every minute of tomorrow
to give myself the best chance
that I can possibly have to finish this build.
- Start of day four.
Today is just a matter of fitting up the handle
and sharpening and really getting a good feel
and some of that weight out of those shovels.
I've had a lot of good luck in my past
with one special girl, so I go ahead
and put my girlfriend's name in russian on the handle
just as a hopeful good luck charm.
And if it doesn't work, then I know who to blame.
♪ ♪
so I'm gonna measure my blades one more time,
and as I look at one of 'em-- [bleep]
I'm an 1/8 inch under parameters
at the very tip here.
♪ ♪
parameters is key in this competition,
so I need to fix that issue,
otherwise I won't even be able to test my blade.
I only got six hours left.
I don't know if I'm even gonna turn in two blades.
[sighs] [bleep]
I've gotta heat it back up and spread out that area.
I'm getting really worried that I'm getting really thin,
but I feel like I can still make parameters with this.
♪ ♪
I get it cleaned up best I can.
I'm not real happy with it,
but I hope that they do well in testing.
- It's the morning of day four.
After three very long days,
my spetsnaz are heat-treated, tempered.
Only thing left to do today is fit and finish.
I've never built anything like this before.
Never even thought about building anything
like this before,
but, honestly, I loved it.
It was a challenge. It was a learning experience.
It made me a better smith, so I learned.
I gained a lot of experience and, overall,
it was very exciting, and I'm happy with it.
I'd say that's a matching set.
♪ ♪
- well, gentlemen. It's good to have you back.
You guys had four days in your home forges to work
on you spetsnaz shovels, and we can't wait to dig in.
So, cameron, tell me about your blade.
- The shovels are made from w1,
and the handles are ashwood.
I've worked real hard on 'em.
Can't wait to see what they can do.
- Mike, how about you? - I made the spetsnaz shovels
from some 1045 tool steel and mahogany handles
that I turned on wood lathe.
It was a challenge, but I got it done.
- All rights, guys.
There's only one way to find out
which one of you guys is gonna be leaving here
with the title of "forged in fire" champion
and that's through a strength test, a sharpness tests,
and up first, the keal test.
Doug.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, welcome to the keal test.
Can you dig it?
Well, I certainly can.
Your spetsnaz shovels look ready to go.
But what kind of lethal damage can they do?
To find that, I'm gonna take your shovels
and deliver some lethal blows on this ballistics dummy.
Cameron, you're up first. Are you ready for this?
- Oh, yeah. - All right. Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- ah!
- All right, cameron.
Let's talk about your spetsnaz shovels.
The weight is right, but there is a little bit
of an issue with your handles.
They're too smooth. A couple of times,
it really felt like it wanted to slip out.
They deliver nice cuts.
Thrusts are very effective, and overall, sir, it will keal.
- Yes!
- All right, mike, your turn, sir. You ready?
- I'm ready.
♪ ♪
- [laughing]
- all right, mike. Let's talk about
your spetsnaz shovels here.
These are razor-sharp.
Your handle construction--
the one thing I didn't care for was it's round.
When it's round, it can go different ways
and I have to constantly make adjustments,
but because of the ribbing that you have there,
I was able to hold onto it quite well.
Overall, sir, your shovels will keal.
- Awesome.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen, you know what time it is.
It's time for the strength test,
what we're calling our throw and chop.
What I'm gonna be doing is throwing your shovels
into our targets
and then chopping on our fence here.
What this about is not
what your shovels do to these targets,
but what these targets can do to your shovels.
Cameron, you're up first. You ready?
- Yep. Let's do this.
- [laughs] that was a very tentative yes.
- My mind's racing a hundred miles an hour.
Did I make sure that the socket was nicely tight?
Is my blade really tempered as good as I think it is?
Just a lot of things going through my mind.
♪ ♪
[laughs]
♪ ♪
[laughing] - all right, cameron.
For throwing, the smooth handle's great.
It's not a plus for chopping though.
When I'm chopping,
I'm constantly kind of pulling it back into my hand
because it wants to slide forward.
This, right here, this thin spot where you got that hammer,
it took a roll right there. - Mm-hmm.
- But it threw well. Good job.
- Thank you very much. - All right, mike. You're up.
Are you ready? - Yeah. I'm ready.
- Okay.
♪ ♪
- okay. So right off the bat,
your finish work is really nice.
Your sockets are really beautiful.
They threw great. They certainly chopped fine.
I don't see any issues with the edge of your blade at all.
These are definitely well-made tools. Good job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths.
This is the sharpness test. The sandman slice.
Now, unlike the strength test,
this is all about what your weapons do to the sandman.
Cameron, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Let's do this. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
all right, cameron.
No issues with slashing and chopping on the sandman.
Sir, your weapons will cut.
All right, mike. Your turn, sir. Are you ready?
- I'm ready. - Let's do this.
- I'm nervous. I mean, who knows what kind of material
that sandbag man is wearing.
I don't know how thick it is, and it's a shovel,
so who knows if it's gonna
slice through this sandbag or bounce off.
♪ ♪
- all right, mike.
Your edges are sharp.
Every cut was deep and sliced nicely.
Overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- well, gentlemen. You guys should both
be very proud of yourselves.
We put your spetsnaz shovels
through very hard tests,
but, as you know, there can only be one champion
of "forged in fire."
while the judges deliberate, I'm gonna ask you
to please step off the forge floor.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen, you've got
a hard decision to make.
Doug, you spent the most time wielding 'em.
What do you think? - Both blades performed
equally on my tests.
But cameron's is so smooth
that it just wanted to fly off my hands.
Mike's, on the other hand, it's easy to control
and have a good grip, but it's so round it's hard
to tell and index where those edges are.
- J., what do you think? - Well, like doug said,
I mean, they both have some handle issues,
but the big thing for me is cameron's blade edges
took a little bit of damage whereas mike's edges
are any even finer and took no damage at all.
- Okay. So, dave, have you made a decision?
- I have. - J.?
- Yup. - Doug?
- Yes, I have. - All right.
We'll call 'em back in.
♪ ♪
- gentlemen, you guys should both be really proud work.
It's a very hard build,
and it came down to the fineness of details.
As you know, there can only be one champion
of "forged in fire."
today's champion is...
♪ ♪
mike. Congratulations.
You are the "forged in fire" champion.
Cameron, unfortunately that means you didn't win toda,
and dave's gonna tell you why.
- Cameron, what this came down to is really two things:
Your handle being as slippery as it was
and the damage you took in the strength test.
For those reasons we're letting you go.
- All right.
- Cameron, you definitely have what it takes
to fight in the forge.
You made it from four down to two.
It was a close call, but your time
in the forge is ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
step off the forge floor.
- Thank you. - Good work, cameron.
- I wanted to win it really badly to prove to myself
that I really can go up to the standards
as what other abs master smiths are able to do.
And this experience-- it's really amazing,
and I couldn't have asked for more.
- Mike, congratulations.
That means you are today's "forged in fire" champion.
You'll be getting a check for $10,000.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
[applause] I'm feeling amazing.
Like on top of the world amazing.
- Mike, I was really impressed on the finish you got on thos.
Really nice. Clean from top to bottom. Well done.
- Thank you. I build knives for a hobby.
From this point on, though, I really want to concentrate
on doing real high end work
and just improve my skills.
♪ ♪