[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[energetic rock music]
- I'm max smith. I'm 27 years old.
And during the day, I'm a landlord,
but at night, I am a bladesmith.
I am very competitive,
and every time I step into the forge,
I wanna make something better than I did before
'cause growth is what keeps you going.
- My name is bryan salisbury. I'm 60 years old.
The reason I got into bladesmithing was,
I wanted a very particular knife for my work.
I work for the telephone company.
So I made it, and finally I just said,
"oh, the heck with it. I'll start making knives"
it keeps me busy and out of my wife's hair.
- I'm steve pyatt. I'm 35 years old.
And I work for the united states air force
as a security forces tech sergeant.
When I'm smithing, I use it as therapy for pts.
So not only do I do it for myself,
but I also have friends come over,
and we all smith together.
It makes them feel better overall.
It makes me feel better too.
♪ ♪
- my name is chris o'brien. I am 43 years old.
Ever since I was little,
I loved creating things. I loved making things.
I'm actually an art major,
and when I ran across bladesmithing,
I was just like,
"that's something I need to try."
♪ ♪
- gentlemen, welcome to the forge.
Well, guys, I hope you all brought your a game
because we've got three very intense and unique rounds
of forging competition ahead of you.
Now, after each round of the competition,
you're gonna present your work to our panel of expert judges,
who will then critique your work and make an elimination.
The judges for today are abs master smith j. Neilson,
historic weapons re-creation specialist dave baker,
and edge weapons specialist
and kali martial artist doug marcaida.
All right, guys, I know you came here for a competition.
You didn't come here expecting anything to be easy,
so let's get into it.
Gentlemen, on your anvils there is a cloth.
Go ahead and remove that for me.
[tense music]
what you have there are bars of 80crv2 steel,
which we want you to use in the core of a san mai blad.
San mai is a technique that has taken down
many a skilled smith in this forge.
Oftentimes they'll use mild steel in the construction,
but today we're gonna up the ante a little bit
in a competition we're calling double trouble.
Today we want you to wrap your san mai in this.
♪ ♪
we have bars of 1095
and 15n20 steel right here, gentlemen,
that I want you to make damascus billets out of.
You will then take that damascus,
clad it on top of your 80crv2,
constructing a san mai damascus blade.
Your blades must measure between 12 and 14 inches.
By the end of round one,
you need to be quenched, hardened, and acid etched
because we wanna see the patterns
of those damascus san mai blades.
Now, in round two of this competition,
you guys are gonna add handles to those blades,
turning them into fully functioning weapons,
at which point, the judges will put them to the test,
checking for strength and durability
in a wood and copper pipe chop.
Then we're gonna check the edge retention
in a double tatami mat slice.
Gentlemen, you have three hours on the clock.
Good luck. Your time starts now.
[lively rock music]
damascus san mai.
So this is kind of a multilayered competition.
Before they even think about doing san mai,
they've gotta be proficient enough to make a good,
solid damascus billet they can then clad that 80crv2 wit.
- Yeah, if they can make the damascus stack
and forge weld that properly,
then doing the san mai shouldn't be a problem at all.
♪ ♪
- first thing, you gotta grab hold of that damascus
and get it shined up, because the mill scale
that's on the pieces of metal itself,
that's all impurities,
and it will not stick with that on there.
I'm gonna use the whole stack so I can get the layer coun.
- The higher layer count is gonna be far more dramatc
and create a lot more contrast
between that 80crv2 and the other steel.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- I'm looking at all the steel that they gave me,
and I've just decided that that is way too much.
And so I'm only gonna do 14 layers.
I feel that's plenty of steel.
- So I'd really like to see these smiths use
all of that material.
Now, leave yourself sacrificial material.
- I know I need to be patient and wait for that steel
to come up to temperature
so that I get really good forge welds.
Whoo-hoo!
[rock music]
- once I get the billet welded up,
I just head right for the forge.
I know it's a big billet.
I know it's gonna take some time to warm up,
so I just use that time
to go design my knife before the forge welds.
The first weld's always the most important,
so I'm not gonna push this billet too far.
If I go after it too much on one end,
I could easily have the other end pop up on me,
and I'm not about to do that.
Perfect.
The welds look good. I'm super happy with it.
♪ ♪
- I know that everybody is going to go
for the damascus cut in half, stack on, hamburger method.
It's quicker. It's easier.
I would like to do a taco.
Make the taco spine,
lay the mono steel in, san mai it all together,
and then run it out that way.
Maybe this is going to be the thing
that puts me ahead of everybody.
- How often does the taco method actually work?
It's very, very rare.
- Hey, look, ben won with knife
that he did a san mai that way on,
so I'm not gonna say it can't be done.
♪ ♪
- I'm running a nine-layer damascus.
That should be enough for me to bring out
to the full length, fold in half,
and then set my 80crv2 in there with no issues.
- I think that nine layers, that's a real mistake.
♪ ♪
- all right, guys. You have two hours remainin.
- I got my stacks. I'm gonna set the welds.
If this doesn't go right, this is really gonna suck.
- That's a good color. It looks very even throughout.
- As I'm drawing out my billet,
I notice that the end is starting to split.
♪ ♪
[bleep] sakes.
- Oh, boy.
- This is really bad. It's got to be addressed now.
It could split farther.
If it splits, you gotta start over,
and that's not what I want right now.
And I knew I had so much steel.
I'm just gonna take that thing and chop saw,
whack that thing off.
I don't need it anyway.
Get rid of the aggravation.
That'll do.
♪ ♪
- I definitely feel really good about my damascus billet,
that it is welded up solid so I can go ahead
and do my san mai billet.
- What's critical is the setup.
When you have your two pieces,
which are gonna be the cladding material,
you want those to be the same width.
- If the damascus steel
is thicker on one side than the other,
different steels quench differently,
and it could definitely cause a warp later on.
♪ ♪
- now that I have the damascus the thickness that I wan,
I'm gonna cut it to nice 6-inch pieces,
just like the ore steel,
and I'm just gonna weld that back on
and do the exact same thing
that I just did with the 1095 and 15n20.
- So you want all the sizes, all your metal
to be the same size so when you start that weld,
things aren't squishing out in weird directions,
creating holes and such, things like that
that you don't wanna have to deal with later on.
♪ ♪
- I've got my taco roughly made out,
and I go to put the core in.
- What steve did is, he made his taco shell,
and he put his core steel in but only halfway,
so half of it's sticking up.
- I go to set my weld,
and I realize I am not going to have enough meat
on my potatoes to make a full knife.
♪ ♪
son of a bitch.
I need to come up with another plan fast.
So what I do is prep a five-piece real quick.
The ultimate plan is to use that
as the other side of my san mai.
- So he's not just gonna
make a whole another billet for the outside.
He's gonna try to put two together.
If I were doing that, I would make two even billets of nine
and then use those for your cladding.
- By the time I had pressed everything down,
there was so little amount of san mai.
It wasn't gonna meet parameters.
I need to fix it fast 'cause the time's still clicking.
♪ ♪
- I've got my stacks, and I've got the 80crv2.
I'm gonna set the welds on my san mai.
It's less difficult because it's only 3 pieces
instead of 24, but it's super critical.
- Bryan is over on the press getting his final pushes
into that san mai billet.
I think we're gonna see him
start shaping things up pretty soon here.
- No issues whatsoever.
I'm very happy about that.
♪ ♪
- I hate to do it to you,
but you guys are halfway through the first round.
[dramatic music]
- the tang is at a good shape, so I decide to get my holes
marked out for my handle scales.
[drill whirring]
- whoo!
- This is not going well at all.
[chuckles]
you son of a gun.
I decide that that my handle is thick enough
that maybe I should fuller out that handle.
And as I start fullering the handle,
I notice that I did grind through
to the hole that I made about 2/3 of the way through
with the drill press, so crisis averted.
With time running out, I know I need to get over
to the forge and start doing my heat treat.
♪ ♪
- so now that the billet is all forge welded together,
I'm just going to start hammering the tip in.
- Yeah, max is actually using an interesting technique.
Instead of just cutting a tip in, he rounded the edges.
So when you start hammering, you don't have those two peaks
that wanna come together and fish lip over the top.
Smart move.
[rock music]
- what I have now is a half san mai,
half billet thing going on right now,
and I know I have another damascus billet.
I know that what I have is the beginnings of a complete knife,
so I just need to make that work.
- Steve had that other small piece of damascus.
He's gonna try and make a taco of that
to put over the rest of the core steel
because he wasn't happy with the back end of his taco.
- So it's like a patchwork.
He's trying to match it up with pieces.
- So I go to weld this five-piece billet
to the rest of the san mai.
The weld sets on about 3/4 of it.
♪ ♪
all right. That's horrible.
- Whoa!
- The whole back pops up.
I didn't get a good weld in those areas.
- Look, in my opinion,
it's still a good time to start over.
- I don't know what I'm gonna do,
but I need to fix it fast,
'cause the time's still clicking.
[dramatic music]
I don't think I have enough time to start over,
but there's no way I can get this thing to weld,
so I'm just gonna rip it off.
[rock music]
- steve's got separations
or unwelded spots, so he's removing them
and taking away the material that he needs
to make this 12- to 14-inch full tang blade.
- I need to fix it fast.
I have to grind,
finish up the shape, and quench it
before that hour is up.
I got this! I got this!
- I'm wanna get ready for the quench.
I wanna make very sure that I don't overheat the ti.
The tip can overheat very easily.
♪ ♪
- chris is in the oil.
- Pull my knife out of the oil. I have no big issues.
All I need to do is grind. It's way too thick.
♪ ♪
- I'm trying to forge in my tip, get that done,
and then I'm gonna start on my handle.
I'm looking at the clock right now.
I've gotta get that quench done
so I have time to grind it into the perfect shape.
♪ ♪
- bryan's in the oil.
- It all worked out the way I wanted it to.
The hell with it. I'm going over to the grinder.
♪ ♪
- max is in the quench.
- I pull out the blade, and it's dead straight.
I'm super happy with it.
I know I have a lot of scale on the outside of it,
so I have to start taking this off.
♪ ♪
- ten minutes, gentlemen!
- I decided early on
to make the taco shape to set myself apart,
and I definitely set myself apart.
God, this blade is ugly, but I know it's gonna work.
♪ ♪
- all right, four blades quenched.
Steve's in the oil.
- After I hit the quench, I see these two delam lines
that are running down the side.
[sighs]
I can't leave these delams.
I'm gonna have to chase these things out.
If I don't fix these things, it's just gonna cause
all sorts of other bad stuff down the line
and I'm going home.
- Five, four, three, two, one!
Gentlemen, put down your tools 'cause this round is over.
- I'm done now and I'm super excited to the fact
that it was the first time I've ever completed
a damascus san mai knife.
So why regret it?
- Gentlemen, in the first three hours of this competition,
you managed to tackle two difficult techniques,
and you all turned in blades within parameters.
But the time has come for critique,
which means three of you are going forward
in this competition and one of you's heading home.
Max, you're up first.
[dramatic music]
- all right, max.
First up, very nice, clean lines.
Good job on that.
It's nice to be able to see the damascus pattern,
but there's just a lot of griding
that needs to be done on this
to make it a much lighter knife.
But overall, nice, clean work.
♪ ♪
- bryan, you ready? - Oh, hell yes.
- I like it. Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- so right off, I'm looking at
a solid piece of metal, which is great.
The one thing I would be very careful about
is getting that handle any thinner than it is
in profile right now, but solid blade.
You're well on your way. Good job.
- Thank you. - Steve, you're up.
♪ ♪
- all right, steve. You've got a delam
that starts over here
and travels all the way up.
If you move into the second round,
I would be very careful not to open things up.
But you turned in a blade that actually passed parameter,
so good on you.
- Thank you.
- Last but not least, chris.
Let's see what you came up with.
♪ ♪
- all right, so, chris,
you do have a bit of uneven grind here.
You've got it a lot thinner up here
and thicker on the front and back.
I'd definitely suggest thinning that out
on a flat platen or something like that,
but I think you're well on your way, doing a good job.
- Thank you.
- Well, gentlemen, we did not give you an easy task
in the first round of competition,
but you all came through with viable blades
for the judges to critique.
But only three of you can move forward in this competition.
The judges have made their final decision,
and the bladesmith leaving the forge is...
[tense music]
steve.
Unfortunately, blade didn't make the cut.
You are tenacious as hell,
but you're not gonna be moving forward,
and j. Is gonna tell you why.
- Steve, you worked really hard,
and I gotta give you props for that.
But your blade was the only one that had delaminations,
and your san mai was less refined than your competitors'.
That's why we're letting you go.
- It's understandable. Thank you for the opportunity.
- Well, steve, unfortunately,
your time here in the forge has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please surrender your work
and step off the forge floor.
- Thank you again, gentlemen. Appreciate it.
I was able to make a blade that met all the parameters,
but in the end, I just didn't do it
as well as the other three competitors.
But you know what?
I still had a great time, and these guys all did awesome.
They deserve to move forward.
♪ ♪
- well, gentlemen, congratulations.
The three of you are moving forward
in the second round of our competition,
where you're gonna fix any issues
that the judges brought up
as well as add handles to your blades,
turning them into fully functioning weapons.
In keeping up with the double trouble theme,
we are asking for two different materials
on both sides of your blade.
Now, at the end of this round,
we're gonna test for strength and durability
in a wood and copper pipe chop,
and we're gonna check those edges
in a double tatami mat slice.
You have two hours on the clock to complete this round.
Good luck. Your time starts now.
[dynamic rock music]
what's the first thing you guys would be doing?
Would you be selecting materials
or be working on the blade?
- I'd be selecting materials first,
just figure out what's there,
and then start grinding like a madman.
♪ ♪
- if I'm gonna move on to round three,
I know I have to have two things:
I gotta have a comfortable handle
and have a really sharp edge.
- Bryan's over on the drill press,
already putting his holes into his tang, getting set up.
- You know, bryan is actually in pretty good shape in that
he's got a very straight blade
and it's 1/4 inch on the spine.
- [grunts] nice!
♪ ♪
- in round one, the judges said my blade was fairly heavy,
so I need to hit the grinder right away
to get rid of a bunch of that material.
- Chris' tip and his tang were really, really thick,
and it was thin in the middle.
So he needs to even that out.
- After spending time on the grinder,
I head over to the pantry and start looking
for materials for my handle scales.
That's what I'm looking for.
I'm using micarta for my handle 'cause it's pretty tough
and a liner just to hold them together.
Everything is working out great.
The micarta cuts really nice.
I still need to shape my handle
and put an edge on and do an etch.
I don't know if I'm gonna have enough time to do everythin,
but I'm gonna do my best to get it done.
- With multipiece constructin for handles,
it can get a little finicky.
That's why right away, I wanted to get them epoxied together.
I know it's five-minute epox,
but I wanna give it as much time as possible,
so I think this is just a great time for me to run
and just start working on the blade itself.
- Max has a lot of work to do on his blade.
It's heavy.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, you have 90 minutes remaining
in the handle round, 90 minutes.
♪ ♪
- I'm gonna glue and pin
two pieces of micarta,
then I'm gonna wrap a paracord around the whole thing,
and it'll hold the scales on.
Now I'm gonna drill two 1/4 inch holes
so I can get the paracord through it.
[bleep].
I got the drill bit stuck in the knife.
Oh, that is the stupidest thing.
So I'm in a little bit of trouble.
- Now he's gotta get the bit back in there
while it's attached.
That is completely bound up in there.
- If I can't work it out, I'm done.
Oh, for god's sakes.
Nothing like wasting time.
[dramatic music]
whoo-hoo!
Finally it popped out.
Change my drill bit, and let's go.
More wasted time.
I hope this is gonna work out.
[rock music]
- so the next step is just
put the drill bit through
so those pins slide perfectly in.
There we go.
Yeah, I'm actually just running through the belt now.
♪ ♪
with the time remaining,
I know I have to pick it up a little bi.
I'm just starting to get the edge put on.
♪ ♪
- now that my glue is setting up,
I'm gonna take it over to the acid
to make sure that that 80crv2 core
is running down the center of my blade.
That's your cutting edge,
and you want that to be the hardenable material.
It looks good.
My core material is running right down the blade edge.
Now that my glue's set up, I can get my handle shaped
and then get back to sharpening the edge.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen.
You only have one hour remaining.
- I'm looking at the clock.
Now let's go wrap that paracord.
- It's a great idea because
the profile of his handle was really skinny.
It's gonna add an 1/8 inch to either side of that handle.
- [laughs]
I'm very happy with the blade.
I know the judges want a comfy handle,
and they're gonna get a comfy handle.
♪ ♪
- five, four, three, two, one!
Gentlemen, put down your blades.
This round is over!
[tense music]
- I'm a little worried about the blade.
The edge is as sharp as I can get it,
but at this point, it's all in the judges' hands,
and I hope they're gentle.
- All right, bladesmiths. Welcome to the strength test.
Now, we're keeping with our double trouble theme.
We've got a two-part strength test:
Our copper and wood chop.
Copper likes to bite and grab edges.
Wood likes to snap blades and wreck handles.
So let's see how your edge holding
and overall construction is gonna hold up.
Max, you're up first. How you feeling?
- I think you're about to void the warranty.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
when j. Is picking up that knife to swing first,
I'm just not even thinking.
I don't wanna even look at it.
I just want it to be done.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
[energetic rock music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- all right, max.
Good job. You survived, man.
Just a couple things.
Right in this section right here,
it wasn't super sharp,
and I can run my finger across it.
And you did pick up a couple rolls right here.
But otherwise, everything's still straight.
Everything's tight. Good job.
- Thank you.
- It's always fun for the second guy, bryan.
- Yeah, thanks, yeah.
Looking forward to it, j.
♪ ♪
copper pipes grab.
The metal is so soft,
as you cleave into it,
it actually folds in and grabs the edge.
They're just gross on blades. Terrible.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
[brisk rock music]
♪ ♪
- nice job. - Didn't break.
- It didn't break. - I'm good.
[dramatic music]
- okay, bryan. She still lives.
Good job with the paracord.
Built up the handle a little bit more
and gave me a good grip.
Now, everything stayed straight and tight.
Nothing came loose. Nicely done.
- Thank you.
- All right, chris, you're up. You ready?
- I'm ready. - All right, let's do it.
[tense music]
- I've tested my blade on deer antler and steel barrel,
but copper can be really hard on a blade edge.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
[brisk rock music]
♪ ♪
- [exhales heavily]
[dramatic music]
- all right, chris. You survived.
Good job. - Thank you.
- Your edge is fine.
You got a little bit of glinting but not much.
Handle's tight, handle's comfortable,
and it stayed strong and survived.
Good job. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths.
This is the sharpness test,
the double tatami mat slice.
♪ ♪
now, unlike the strength test,
this is all about how sharp your edges are
and how well they cut these tatami mats.
A sharp knife should be able to cut cleanly.
A jagged one or a dull one, well,
may rip it or, worse, do nothing at all.
Max, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Sure. [chuckles]
[tense music]
tatami mats are really thick.
The blade took a little bit of damage after the first test,
so I'm just hoping that it can still cut.
♪ ♪
- all right, max, let's talk about your weapon here.
It cut almost all the way through.
Just this area right here where you have some rolling
actually kind of ripped on that tatami mat.
Overall, sir, your weapon, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- Bryan, are you ready?
- You know, tear her up, you mad dog.
- All right. Will do.
[laughter]
[dramatic rock music]
♪ ♪
- [sputters]
[tense music]
- all right, bryan, your edge is razor sharp enough
to cut through both mats.
Overall, sir, your weapon, it will cut.
- Outstanding.
- Chris, your turn, sir. You ready?
- Yes, sir.
[dynamic rock music]
♪ ♪
- all right, chris, on the first tatami mat,
although it didn't cut all the way through,
it's a longer cut
with the angle I was cutting at with your blad.
And the second one cut all the way through.
Overall, sir, your weapon, it will cut.
- Awesome.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- well, gentlemen, all three of you
turned in fantastic blades,
but in this double trouble competition,
only two can move forward.
And the bladesmith leaving the forge is...
♪ ♪
max.
Unfortunately, your blade's not making the cut today.
Doug's gonna tell you why.
- Max, your blade
took some dulling during the strength test,
and it affected its performance during the sharpness test.
For that reason, we're letting you go.
- Totally understand.
- Well, max, it was awesome watching you work.
You absolutely know what you're doing
and you have what it takes to fight in the forge.
Your time here has ended; I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off the forge floor.
- Well, thank you. Good luck, guys.
After testing, I knew it was me.
Honestly, I was just happy to get past the first round,
so the fact that I made it through the second,
I couldn't be happier with that.
The whole journey's been amazing, really.
It's just something I don't do every day,
so it was just a fun challenge.
♪ ♪
- well, gentlemen, congratulations.
The two of you have succeeded.
You are both moving forward to the third and final round
of our double trouble competition.
In this last round, we're gonna be sending you
back to your home forges, but we're not gonna be
asking you to build one iconic weapon from history.
We're gonna ask you to make two.
♪ ♪
you will be building these:
A pair of ginunting swords.
♪ ♪
- as one of the weapons issued
to the philippine military special forces units,
the ginunting swords have proven to be
effective and deadly weapons.
The word "ginunting" translates to "scissors,"
and the inward curve of the blade's design
allows for deeper cuts while also proving the user
with a thin, lightweight weapon.
When paired together as a sword and dagger,
the longer sword serves as an offensive long-range weapon,
while the shorter sword serves to be a defensive
close-quarter weapon.
The intimidating dual swords are built for brutal combat
as well as navigating thick jungle terrain.
- Gentlemen, when you build your swords,
I want you to follow these parameters.
The larger of the two needs to measure
between 19 and 21 inches
and the smaller of the two, 13 to 15.
They need to have a slight curve to the blade,
and the inside of the curve needs to be sharpened.
- Making one blade is all right.
Making one to match makes it exponentially harder.
- Well, gentlemen, you'll both have four days
to build your pair of ginuntings.
And one of you is gonna come back here
and leave $10,000 richer,
carrying the title of "forged in fire" champion.
We will see you in four days. Good luck.
♪ ♪
[upbeat rock music]
- I'm back in my home forge.
I'm building two ginunting swords.
Game plan for today is,
get my damascus welded up enough for both weapons.
I'm confident in damascus.
I wanna have something that's really nice when I'm done.
This should be enough steel for both knives, hopefully.
I think she's forge welded together.
Feeling pretty good about the progress.
Got most of the long blade forged out,
so should be done forging tomorrow, I would hope.
♪ ♪
- we're back in my home forge in esperance, new york.
I'd like to get the two billets made and forged out.
The tricky part is making them both match.
And we're off.
Hopefully, hopefully, the quench today.
That would be ideal.
I'm gonna try the damascus
'cause I really think I've gotta up my game for thi.
Okay.
I got them forged out.
The curves look good. I got my tangs in.
I've gotta get these things in the oil.
And that way, I know what I'm up against tomorrow.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
there it is.
[grunts]
she's hard under there.
So second one going in.
♪ ♪
all right. Let's see if she skates.
Please, please, please, please.
Not grabbing anywhere. Very nice.
She weighs about five pounds too much,
but that's what a grinder's for.
Got a lot of work to do to get weight off of them.
We have had a successful first day
on the "forged in fire" competition.
Whoo-hoo!
- Day two--
didn't quite get as far as I wanted to yesterday.
I'm gonna finish forging out this blade,
and then I'm going to forge p another billet
and do the second blade.
And then that way, I can heat treat at the same tie
with both blades.
We're almost there.
♪ ♪
all right. We're about ready to hit it.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
the quench was unsuccessful,
so I'm gonna have to do it again.
Second quench, I'm feeling pretty scared
because a lot of times, with the second quench,
you run into a lot of problems.
You can grow the grain structure
and make a weak blade,
so I'm feeling pretty nervous about this one.
Go.
♪ ♪
[smooth scraping]
that's the sound you wanna hear, right there.
[smooth scraping]
that baby's hard.
The plan for the rest of the day is,
grind as much as I can off the small blade
and have it ready for heat treat tomorrow.
I was hoping to have both blades quenched
and temper them tonight.
So I'm a little behind where I wanna be,
but I think I can catch up fairly quickly tomorrow.
[upbeat rock music]
- day two--I had a really good day yesterday,
and we're ready to go in and tear it up.
It feels great that I got the quenches done yesterda.
Now it's just grinding, grinding, grinding.
♪ ♪
nice!
I spent a long time grinding, but here's the tricky part.
Now I'm gonna drill the holes in them.
[drill squeaking]
drill bit didn't even scratch it.
Gonna have to heat it.
[dramatic music]
see if that does any better.
This is what kills all the time
in the forge, right here,
is crap like this.
♪ ♪
ha!
So finally get that son of a gun.
You have no idea how freaking huge that was.
[upbeat rock music]
- day four, feeling pretty good.
Today the game plan is,
I'm hoping to have both handles done by today.
I decide I'm going to try a burn-through.
Getting the tip just a little hot.
♪ ♪
there. That looks good.
♪ ♪
building these two swords,
it is slowing me down a little bit.
I'm still on track to be able to finish
with pretty good time.
Looking pretty good. I like it, I like it.
All I have left to do is sharpen the little blade
and it'll be all done.
♪ ♪
- yee-ha! Day four.
Let's go. Last day.
We've got to finish up the last handle, and I am done.
Very similar look to them.
Very happy.
I gotta use these things.
[energetic rock music]
yeah. That works.
[cackles]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- well, chris, bryan, welcome back to the forge.
We sent you back to your home forges for four days
to build not one but two blades.
And I gotta say, your ginuntings look fantastic.
But before we get into testing, I wanna hear about them.
Bryan, how'd your forging go for you?
- Actually went pretty well.
I stayed with the double trouble challenge,
double-layer damascus, double-layer g10.
Did the best I could.
- Chris, how about you?
- Things went pretty good.
♪ ♪
it's 140 layers of 15n20 and 1084.
Brass guard and cocobolo for the handle.
- Fantastic, guys.
Well, all four of them look deadly,
but there's really only one way for us to find out.
We've got a strength test, a sharpness test,
and up first, the keal. Doug?
[tense music]
- all right, bladesmiths. Welcome to the keal test.
To find out how lethal your weapons are,
I'm gonna take your weapons and deliver some slashes
and thrusts on this big carcass.
Bryan, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Tear it up, you mad dog.
- I will. [barks]
[laughter]
- the thing that concerns me the most about the keal test
is, it's hitting the bones.
Bones will damage blade,
so it's gonna to be rough on my blade.
♪ ♪
[energetic rock music]
♪ ♪
- nice.
- All right, bryan, let's talk about your ginuntings her.
First up, for ginuntings,
they're a little bit on the heavier side,
but that lends itself to cut deep into the big carcass.
Your handle construction's smooth
and it gives me good retention.
Overall, sir, your ginuntings...
They will keal.
- Nice. - All right, chris.
Your turn, sir. You ready for this?
- Absolutely. - All right, let's do it.
- I'm a little nervous.
If mine don't perform near what his did,
there's just no chance for me.
♪ ♪
- all right, chris, let's talk about your ginuntings her.
First up, what I like about your weapon here
is the balance.
It's nicely distributed.
The edges you have here are sharp.
You can see it pretty much cut a lot of this pig up.
Overall, sir, your ginuntings...
They will keal.
- Awesome.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen. You know what time it is.
It's time for the strength test, the bamboo chop.
To test the strength and durability of your blades,
I'll be taking your ginunting and chopping
into our bamboo target here.
And remember, this isn't about
what your ginuntings do to that target
but what that target can do to your ginunting.
Bryan, you're up first. You ready?
- Yeah, go ahead.
- Ain't got nothing else to do this afternoon.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
- whew.
[both chuckle]
- all right, bryan. First off,
they've got some heft to them, but they don't feel bad.
They actually swing pretty good.
Your blade picked up just the teeniest roll.
And then on the smaller of the two blades,
there's, again, just the smallest deflectio.
Other than that, they held up beautifully.
Well done. - Thank you very much.
- Chris, you ready to play?
- Sure.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
- [exhales sharply] - all right, chris.
Right off, your handle design for me is just about perfec.
As far as swinging these things,
man, they're super light.
The balance is really nice on these.
I don't feel anything on your edge
when I run my fingernail up this thing.
No deflections, no rolls. So good job.
- Thank you.
[dramatic music]
- all right, bladesmiths.
We know your blades can keal,
and we know they're strong.
Now it's time to find out just how sharp your blades are.
This is the sharpness test, the animal hide slice.
Now, to find out how sharp your weapons are,
I'm gonna take your ginuntings
and I'm going to thrust and slash across this animal hide.
Bryan, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Absolutely. - All right. Let's do this.
♪ ♪
[energetic rock music]
♪ ♪
all right, bryan.
The edges you have here are sharp.
Every cut over there is quite clean.
No jagged edges.
And overall, sir, your weapon...
It will cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- Chris, your turn, sir. You ready?
- Yep. - All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
all right, chris.
First up, the grinds that you have here
are perfect for this kind of cut
because there is no resistance.
Overall, sir, your ginuntings...
It will cut.
- Thank you.
[dramatic music]
- well, gentlemen, we had three tests.
We got two smiths, but we can only have one winner.
You guys both performed very well.
While the judges deliberate,
decide who's gonna be the champion of "forged in fire,"
I'm gonna ask you guys to both step off the forge floor.
♪ ♪
all right, guys, we got four pretty dang good blades here
but only one winner.
So, dave, what do you think?
- Well, I mean, you've got two sets that are strong,
well built, and highly functional.
Chris' blades are so well dialed in.
They are light. They are fast.
The handles are not only beautiful,
but they are so comfortable as opposed to bryan's,
which are quite a bit heavier. - Okay.
J., how about you? - Yeah, they're both beautiful.
I mean, they've both got really nice blades, damascus,
and the testing was pretty much even.
So yeah. Go to craftsmanship from there.
- All right. Doug, what do you think?
- To me, one set actually outperformed the other
in all three tests.
It cut better on the sharpness test,
it cut a lot better on the keal test,
and it didn't take any damage at all in the strength test.
- Okay. Dave, you've made a decision?
- I have. - How about you, j.?
- Oh, yeah. - Doug?
- Yes. - All right, call them back in.
Well, guys, we did not go easy on you,
but you guys came through with beautiful blades
that all performed extremely well.
But as you know, only one of you can go home
with the title of "forged in fire" champion
and a check for $10,000.
The judges have made a decision,
and today's "forged in fire" champion is...
♪ ♪
chris. Congratulations.
Bryan, unfortunately, your blade
just didn't make the cut,
and dave baker's gonna tell you why.
- Bryan, I think I can speak for all of us when I say
that competitions like this are the ones we love to see,
where smiths bring back weapons that are so closely matched.
This came down to the smallest things.
Chris' blade was a little bit sharper than yours.
It didn't take any damage.
You did a great job. It's a beautiful blade.
- Thank you.
- Well, bryan, you're clearly a very talented smith,
and your work speaks for itself on that.
But unfortunately, your time here has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off the forge floor.
- I put forth my best effort, but it is what it is.
You can't let it eat you up too bad.
I wouldn't do a damn thing differently.
I got matched up against
an absolutely excellent bladesmith.
This time, he came out on top.
We go again, he just might not.
♪ ♪
- chris, congratulations.
You are today's "forged in fire" champion.
You got yourself a check for $10,000.
- My blades performed very well.
I thought it would be awesome for my kids,
just to prove to them that if you put yourself out there
and put the work in, you can accomplish what you're after.
My name is chris o'brien,
and I am the "forged in fire" champion.
♪ ♪