[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[rock music]
- I'm chris halk, I'm 33 years old,
And I've been bladesmithing for about 6 years.
Family is pretty supportive but my son,
He's a little bit of a smart aleck.
He's gives me a hard time.
He's like, "you'll be out in the first round."
So now I gotta be sure to try to prove him wrong.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- My name is larry rhoades. 44 years old.
I live in fulton, kansas.
I'm kind of a perfectionist, kinda from the old school.
If you're gonna do it, do it right or don't do it all.
- Ready to go? - Yessir, I am.
- All right.
♪ ♪
- My name is cordale whitfield,
I'm 20 years old, and I'm from telephone, texas.
I love bladesmithing 'cause I just like fire and meta.
[laughs]
- Where'd you get that belt? - I won it.
- Hell yeah, you did.
- I'm dana rider.
I'm from ona, west virginia. I'm 45 years old.
I'm a school bus driver and a part-time bladesmith.
I'm a competitive person.
I'll race you to the end of the street
If I have enough energy.
[laughs]
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.
I hope the four of you guys came rested and ready
Because we've got three very intense
And uniquely designed rounds of forging competition for you.
Now, at the end of each round,
You're gonna present your finished work
To our panel of expert judges, who will then critique
Your work and make an elimination.
Those judges today are abs master smith j. Neilson,
Historic weapons recreation specialist,
Dave baker, and edge weapon specialist
And kali martial artist, doug marcaida.
♪ ♪
Now, gentlemen, these guys behind me are the ones
Who will decide which one of you is gonna leave here
With the title of "forged in fire" champion
And $10,000 richer.
Now, let's address the elephant in the room.
I'm sure you guys have noticed
There is a pile of crates in front of me.
And that's because inside each of those crates
Is the steel you guys are gonna need to use
To make signature blades in your signature style.
- Oh, crap, there's no telling what could be in these boxes.
This is probably not good.
[dramatic music]
- When I say go, you will each come up,
Select a crate, break into it, and find your steel.
If you come up, grab a crate, you don't like what's insid,
You can decide to use another crate,
But that's all you get.
You only have one backup, so make that first box count.
Now, gentlemen, when you're making your blades,
We need you to fall within these parameters.
Your blade length needs to be between 14 and 16 inches,
And at the end of this round one,
You will need to be quenched, hardened, and etched
Because we want to see those patterns.
Now, in round two of this competition,
You will add handles to your blades,
Turning them into fully functioning weapons,
At which point, the judges will test for strength
And durability in a moose antler chop,
And then check your edge retention in a sugarcane slice.
We have three hours on the clock, so good luck.
Work hard.
Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
Both: What's in the box?
- [laughs] - what would you guys do?
You go for a big box or a small box?
- I'd go for the heaviest box.
- One thing I don't want to see is a ball bearing.
I hate ball bearings. They're just too hard.
I just don't like it.
First thing I see is about a 2 and 1/2 inch
Elevator cable.
- Cable's great, man.
Just weld up those ends,
Weld a work stick into it, and you're in the forge.
- Welding!
I've done cable before.
This is just a little bit bigger
Than what I normally do.
I'm not too worried about it being clean.
I think I can burn it out and tighten it up.
- Does larry have to clean it on the inside?
- That's what I always do.
I'll weld the ends and then just tap it
On the anvil to open up a little bit
So I can get some flux on the inside.
♪ ♪
- I just go up there and grab
The first crate I can get ahold of.
Inside, I find chain, and it's dirty.
♪ ♪
All that dirty steel leads to a lot of delams.
It can look solid, and then as you're grinding,
It just opens up and there's a flaw.
Do I want to do this, or do I not?
Kind of my worst nightmare,
But I also don't know what's in that other crate.
So I feel like I'm better off sticking with what I got.
♪ ♪
So I got to try to get that clean
Before I can start my process.
- Chris has a bike chain that he's throwing into a canister,
For canister damascus.
- I need to get my white out in my can
So the white out acts as a barrier
Between my powdered steel and chain
From actually welding to the can itself.
- With the size of this knife, I would leave that can on.
- Oh, absolutely.
- I'm just trying not to stare at the clock
Because I don't want to let the clock get in my head.
♪ ♪
- Boy, what a surprise I got.
Two little tiny coil springs.
There's no way of making anything out of it
Because it's, like, a 1/4 inch thick.
So I gotta cut this dude up
And put it in a canister and go for the gusto.
- Dan is putting his steel in, his coils, no white out.
- Good. - Smart.
- I've got it all welded up
And I'm sticking it in the forge
And I start to getting it up to temperature.
♪ ♪
- I'm just hoping when I open this box,
I don't find a bunch of fish hooks or somethin.
I really do not want to do a canister.
♪ ♪
What I find is a bunch of pipe wrenches.
I have no idea what I'm gonna do with these thing.
- Poor dale's got the pipe wrench,
Which is not bad,
But he's got to remember just the jaws themselves
Is all hardenable.
So if he can get that cleaned off, chopped up,
Put it in a canister, he'll be okay.
♪ ♪
- I think I'll have enough steel with just this top jaw
To get where I need to go.
Right now, I'm thinking mild steel's my safest bet
Because it's just a lot safer to go this route.
- Cordale only put that one l-shaped jaw into the forge.
That is not enough steel.
♪ ♪
- I pull my steel out of the forge
Because I feel it's hot enough.
Get in there.
And I start to twist.
♪ ♪
It's not moving like the way I want it too.
- What larry's working on right now
Is barely hot enough.
- The starting of cable damascus,
You really have to be aggressive.
You want to twist that cable up.
- I need to heat it up more,
Drawing it on out, make it a little thinner.
If I can get at least one twist on it,
I'm just gonna run with it.
I'm worried about the clock.
- Gentlemen, you guys are one hour in.
You have two hours until the critique.
- I feel like my can looks like it's starting to melt,
So I start squeezing that billet down slowly.
- Chris is going slow, taking a little bite here,
All the way down.
- If this thing doesn't weld right now, then I'm in trouble.
♪ ♪
I'm ready to try to start opening my can
And separating it from the billet.
Oh, that's not good.
But I think I welded the can right to the billet itself.
♪ ♪
Dang it.
- Now chris has to peel that canister open
Since he used white out.
♪ ♪
- Finally.
It's a huge sigh of relief.
♪ ♪
As long as my welds are solid,
I think I have enough time to pull this off.
♪ ♪
- I'm able to go over and start pressing this thing into shape.
My can looks like it's done everything it's supposed to.
I cut off the end of the can.
♪ ♪
- Why would he even be cutting the ends off?
- The only reason I would suggest cutting the ends off
Is to make sure your core is welded up solid.
- [chuckles] that looks like crap.
My billet is--kind of looks like macaroni and cheese.
♪ ♪
Should I go ahead with this, or should I not?
Finally.
I could see that there was enough steel
That had welded in there,
So I knew that I could work with it.
And I stick it back in the forge
And I take it to big blu
And I start beating the snot out of this thing.
♪ ♪
- So I got this pipe wrench, so I gotta straighten it out
And make it look somewhat knife shaped.
♪ ♪
- He's gonna need to add steel to that
To get to 16 inches.
- I look down, measure it,
And I'm, like, 2 or 3 inches short.
Crap, I don't know if I'm gonna make it
To that 14 inch mark or not.
- Cordale is struggling for length.
- I'm afraid if I restart,
I'm gonna get something even worse than this pipe wrench,
And I just don't want to risk it.
I'd rather stick with what I got
And see if I can make it work.
- Cordale is sticking with it.
- It's worrisome, but what if it works?
- We have been surprised in the past.
- Yeah.
- My blade is 14 and 1/8 inches long.
So I made it, just barely.
I'm just hoping, by making it this narrow and this thin,
That it doesn't snap
Or something during the testing.
- I feel pretty good with it. It's starting to move ou.
♪ ♪
I start hogging off steel.
I want see what kind of issues I've got.
I had a couple of issues, but I think it was big enough
Where I can sand them out.
I'm pretty happy with it so far.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, you guys are halfway through.
♪ ♪
- At this point, I've got a large chunk of steel
That I still have to draw out into a bar.
So I just feel like I've got to play catch up.
♪ ♪
I've got delams all over the place.
Ahh!
- I don't understand what chris is doing.
- Oh, because he's crumbling on the ends, that's why.
- Oh, no. - This is extremely concerning
'cause this bike chain
Just didn't weld up like I was hoping it woul.
I could have delams all over the inside of this billet,
And I think I'm out of time to start over.
Ahh!
I'm just wracking my brain on how I'm gonna fix this
With the time that I have left.
What to do, what to do, what to do, what to do.
Looks like I have enough solid steel in the middle
That I can remove those delams
And continue on with what I have.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. - What is he do--wait, hold on.
- Chris is cutting a couple inches off the end.
- Chris is cutting off more again.
- At this point, I'm just hoping
That the steel is solid enough
That I can somehow squeak through this round
And make it on to the next one.
- Oh, my gosh.
Such a small billet now. - Tiny.
- He might end up with as much steel as cordale has.
- Oh, boy.
- Ahh!
[rock music]
- I'm making, like, a 1 inch wide blade.
It's gonna be thin and it's gonna be lanky.
- It's not just creating a knife.
It's about creating a knife
That can do the tests that we're required to do.
Because I'm gonna be cutting through sugarcane.
- If I had to call this blade anything,
Probably closest relative is the--
Like, a persian fighter.
I think it's gonna hold up fairly well in testing.
I gave it a good belly on it for the chops
And whatnot, so we'll see.
- Bladesmiths, you have one hour on the clock.
♪ ♪
- My blade, right now,
Looks like a solid piece of metal,
So I can get ready for my quench.
[whistling]
- Dana is in the quench. - Oh, good for dana.
He forged it to create the steel
That he is then going to shape on the grinder.
That's not necessarily a bad thing to do.
- I pull it out and the thing looks like a bow
That you could go hunt with.
So I go back for another quench.
♪ ♪
- Second quench.
- Let's see how it goes this time.
- It's huge. - Whoa, man.
- Huge.
- Steel not good.
So I know that there's something I've got to do.
I end up bringing an oxygen settling torch over
And I heat it up just enough
And it pops back into shape.
It's not perfect,
But I'm just hoping that the judges are okay with it.
♪ ♪
- Wow, larry's blade is looking
Like a big old badass machete.
- We're gonna be chopping on antler and some sugarcane,
So I think my best bet is to go for a camp knife.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna get ready to do my quench.
This is where it's gonna tell me.
If I have any delams,
This whole thing could come apart.
♪ ♪
- Bingo.
- I had a good, straight blade for the most part.
I'm feeling pretty good about it.
So I start hogging off some steel,
And I started seeing a little bit of delams.
♪ ♪
And I'm like, you know, just go ahead and fix it.
- If you're not familiar with the cable, it can be tricky.
It can get seams buried down in there that pop up later.
- I cleaned up my weld,
So I think I'm okay on my blade.
♪ ♪
- I need metal that's heat-treated.
If I don't, I'm just screwed.
When they're this thin,
They can just warp into high heaven.
♪ ♪
- Cordale just quenched.
- I pull it out, it's mostly straight.
I can grind the rest of it out, so I think I'm good now.
♪ ♪
- Down to 20 minutes.
- No, no, no, wrong way. Damn it.
I've got just enough steel here
To make a blade that's 14 to 16 inches,
But I do not have much left
To make the handle out of, so...
I'm screwed.
It's just gonna have to be a hidden tang knife.
I have no other choice.
I don't want to go with a hidden tang knife,
Just because that's kind of a critical point,
So you want as much mass there as possible.
♪ ♪
I finally get my tang where I want it to,
So I got to get it in the water.
- And boom. All right.
All four blades have been quenched.
- I pulled it out of the quench
And I had a straight blade.
Hey, something actually went right.
My last few minutes, I know I've got to try
To grind these bevels as well as possible.
And if I make it on to round two,
I can maybe grind away
Some of the delams towards the cutting edge.
- I'm at the grinder, shaping the blade how I want,
And I see delaminations of the flat part of the blad.
[bleep].
I don't want to go home because there's cracks,
And so I try to get those taken off best I can.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Gentlemen, turn off your machines,
Put down your tools.
Round one of this competition is over.
[dramatic music]
- It's done everything it could possibly do to kick my rear end
And I feel like I've already won just by not giving up.
♪ ♪
- Well, gentlemen, you all delivered within parameter,
So congratulations.
But the time has come for a critique,
Which means three of you are going forward
In this competition,
One of you is heading home.
Chris, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, chris. For the most part, nice work.
Most of your steel looks pretty solid.
You do have some seams from the bike chain.
♪ ♪
Biggest issues I have right now is,
You've got big creases right in here
That actually travel down.
That's something that could structurally fail.
But you've got a lot of meat still on here to work with,
So good start.
- Thank you. - Larry, you ready?
- Yes, I am. - Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- Larry, you've got by far the most knife up here.
That's a heck of a blade, and for the most part,
Your cable weld came together quite nicely.
There's two wicked stress rises right there.
I would suggest that you don't leave those as sharp corner,
But altogether, nicely done man.
- Thank you, sir.
- Cordale, let's see what you came up with.
♪ ♪
- All right, cordale, I believe this is
One of the lightest blades ever submitted.
You, sir, can move metal.
But in a competition like this,
One of the things we're concerned about is,
Design a blade for the test.
Is this blade heavy enough to cut through sugarcanes?
Something to think about should you move forward.
- All right, dana, let's see what you came up with.
♪ ♪
- All right, dana, so right off,
For a chopper, great profile.
Handle works in my hand.
That big swell back here on a chopper
Is a nice thing to have.
Still got a significant warp to that blade.
The problem is, is that I can see delaminations
Following a lot of these springs.
Up here at the tip, another one down here
Right at the tang connection, so if you move forward,
You've got some stuff to work on, though.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, we did not give you an easy task today.
But this is a competition, and only three of you
Can move forward into the second round.
The bladesmith leaving the forge is...
♪ ♪
Dana.
Unfortunately, you're not gonna be moving forward
In this competition, and doug's gonna tell you why.
- Dana, we commend you for turning in a blade.
That wasn't an easy challenge.
But we feel that your blade has the most issues to fi.
A pronounced warp, delamination,
And there's not a lot of metal there to fix it.
So for these reasons, we are sending you home.
- I understand.
- Dana, you fought hard, you didn't give up,
And you turned in a blade within parameters,
So you have a lot to be proud of.
But unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please surrender your work
And step off the forge floor.
Thanks for working so hard.
- I got sent home, but I'm not down on myself at all.
- Thank you, dana. - Thank you, sir.
- Thank you guys. It was well worth the trip
For the experience and everything.
I'm gonna go back to my home
And I wanna get in my nice warm, cozy bed,
And I'm gonna enjoy it.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, congratulations. That means the three of yu
Are moving forward
Into the second round of this fierce competition.
In this round, you guys are gonna fix any issues
You have with your blades as well as add handles to them,
Turning them into fully functioning weapons.
Now, we don't like to waste anything here in the forge,
So for your handle materials, you'll have to come back
To the pile of crates and source your scales.
- The crates are mostly made out of plywood
And some other lumber that's just not great handle material,
So I'm not looking forward to it.
- At the end of this round,
The judges will test your blades
For strength and durability in a moose antler chop.
Then we're gonna check the edge retention
In a sugarcane slice.
Good luck. Your time starts now.
[rock music]
So a lot of the crates
Are made from particleboard or plywood,
But there are some good, decent pieces of hard wood in there.
♪ ♪
- First thing I want to do in round two is go
And get my handle material.
Plywood could split or crack,
So I've got to find a good solid piece
And try to use that.
- Now, cordale's gonna be interesting.
I don't think it's gonna be
Heavy enough to cut through sugarcanes.
- Yeah, I don't know about that.
- This blade isn't specifically designed
For the tests they have,
But there is nothing I can think of to make it better.
This is what I went with, so this is what I'm stuck with.
- So first thing I'm gonna do is address this blade
And try to take care of the issues
That the judges addressed.
As I'm grinding, I do see
That I have a bad delamination towards the ricasso area.
[bleep].
♪ ♪
[sighs]
There is a lot of stress in that point.
Everything travels up towards the handle.
- Chris also had to be careful
Because it's already quite a light blade.
So the more he grinds to fix some of the delaminations,
The lighter that blade's gonna get.
♪ ♪
- I'm able to address enough of my delams
To feel okay with moving on to the handle.
Hopefully, not much of this bad spot
Comes into contact with the antler.
- My first thing is, I want to address them issues
That dave talked about.
- The way he's got those shoulders cut,
That's a huge stress riser, and we've seen swords snap off
Right at the guard, right at those shoulders.
- So I'm gonna round these edges up,
Make everything smooth.
It's looking a little bit better.
I got it rounded out a little bit.
Now it's just concentrating on the rest of my handle.
- So now I'm getting ready to shape the handles.
Knowing what they're gonna do with this blade,
I'm gonna try to make it more on the beefy side.
That way, they have plenty to grab ahold of.
- He's got a pretty thin profile on his handle.
He's gonna end up with a blade that wants to be held sideways.
- I got steak knives with bigger handles than that.
- Halfway through, guys. You have one hour left.
- Let's see here.
I've got a hidden tang knife,
But I don't want to have to take the time
To fiddle with this guard, so I decided
To try to do a somewhat framed construction.
♪ ♪
I was wanting some micarta or g10.
Instead, what I'm working with is this plywood scrap stuff
That they made the box from.
Oh, this is junk.
- I don't know if chris even grabbed any of the good wood.
♪ ♪
- So I cut out my frame.
I go to fit my tang in it and it just pops apart.
Ah, damn it. Start another one.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
That one's no good.
Maybe third time's the charm, I guess.
And I don't have time for this,
Knowing that the clock's ticking
In the back of my head, I'm getting nervous.
I'm gonna cut shorter than my marks,
And then just slowly grind away the excess.
All right,
I guess where plywood goes,
It's about as good as you could hope for.
Whether or not it'll stay together
Is yet to be determined.
- Now that I've got my wood all marked out, cut up,
I need to run over to the pantry,
And I want to see what options I had.
Being as that I had pieces on both sides,
My best bet was to go with corby.
It's a lot tighter mechanical fit.
I'm putting it all together,
And then I start having a problem.
- Uh, oh. Larry's looking at the corbies.
- Yeah, it's look like it. They're not lining up together.
- You son of a bitch.
The threads are a fine thread,
And if you don't have everything perfectly lined up,
Then it's hard to get 'em starting.
If I don't get it in there, my epoxy is gonna dry on me.
[dramatic music]
Finally, I ended up getting it.
There.
Now I'm relieved. I know the only thing
That I have to deal with now is the blade.
- Bladesmiths, you're down to 30 minutes.
- So I get done with my handle.
All I've got to do is sharpen this thing.
- Cordale's blade I like a lot, actually.
I think it's a beautiful design,
But it's not designed for the test.
- Exactly. - I'm just afraid
It's gonna snap in that strength test,
So I did make my edge a bit thicker.
That way, it could withstand a little bit more abuse.
[rock music]
Even if I go home, I feel like I made a blade
Up to my standards, and I'm happy with that.
- My next hurdle I've got to jump over is the edge.
So I'm gonna hit it with my polishing wheel.
- What people can do with an angle grinder
Is really amazing sometimes.
- I'm done with my edge, I'm happy with it. Done deal.
♪ ♪
- Chris didn't just do, like, a frame.
He actually got pins all the way around the wood.
- As he should.
- This is not ideal, but it's what I got.
[groans]
Right now, I have to shave down this huge block of wood.
- Bladesmiths, you have 10 minutes.
- I have to be careful
And not go too deep and grind some of these pins away.
[dramatic music]
It's not exactly the shape that I'm looking for,
But I still have to get the knife sharpened
With the time that I have left.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Gentlemen, put down your tools. This round is over.
♪ ♪
- At the end of this round, I don't love this handle.
I freakin' hate it.
But at this point, it's in the judges' hands.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen, you know what time it is.
It's time for the strength test,
The moose antler chop.
Now, to test the strength
And overall construction of your blades,
I'm gonna take your blades and gently tap them
Against these moose antlers.
[chuckles] you ready for this, chris?
- I guess so.
- [chuckles]
♪ ♪
- "lovingly tap." yeah, right.
I know inside this blade,
There's potential voids and delams.
A solid strike like that could just cause that to let go
And just snap the blade right in half.
[dramatic rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, chris, so right off,
As I was using this,
The handle starting losing some parts.
So one of your pins, you kind of ground through and exposed,
And then there's another pin right here that--
On the back that's kind of starting to drift out.
But handle's still together.
Your edge is still sharp,
Except for right here where there's a thin flake of metal
That's actually popped off of that section.
But it's a brutal test. Your knife's still sharp.
Still a viable knife. Nicely done.
- All right, thanks.
- All right, larry, you're up. You ready?
- No, dave, I'm not.
[laughter]
- After watching the first guy, I'm petrified.
I know he's gonna hit it har.
Whatever happens, happens.
We'll see how it goes.
♪ ♪
- All right, so, larry,
You got a beast of a blade here.
It's got a huge profile. I really like it actually.
As far as your blade goes, in the test, you lost some edge
Through a section right here.
Nothing's missing.
It's just no longer as sharp as the rest of the blade is.
Your handle construction is pretty bulky,
But as far as the strength test goes,
Blade held up quite well. Good job.
- Thank you, sir.
- All right, cordale, are you ready?
- No. - "no."
[laughter] good answer.
♪ ♪
- The moose antler chop is definitely not an easy test.
My blade is so small, I'm afraid something
Is going to go catastrophically wrong with it.
♪ ♪
- All right, cordale, if this knife
Were this long, that handle would be fine.
Hanging onto that handle
While you're swinging like that,
It's just hard to do.
It's a small handle.
Your edge is more of an axe edge,
But it held up fine.
All in all, it's an odd design for this test,
But I've got to say
That you executed it beautifully, so nicely done.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the sharpness test,
The sugarcane slice.
Now, unlike the strength test,
This is all about how sharp your blades are
And how well they can cut through these sugarcanes.
Chris, you're up first. You ready for this?
- I guess so.
- All right. Let's get some sugar.
♪ ♪
All right, chris, first up, your handle construction.
The sections where you lost some pins can be a hot spot.
Now, your edge.
So as soon as it hit the spot
Where your delamination is, it stopped cutting,
But it did cut three pieces, and overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you. - All right, larry, your turn.
So you ready?
- Yes, sir, I am. - Let's do it.
♪ ♪
All right, larry, let's talk about your blade.
It starts off sharp right here, and then right here,
It starts to lose its edge.
So it's sharp enough to cut through four sugarcanes,
And overall, sir, it will cut.
- Good. - All right, cordale.
Come on, let's get some sugarcane sugar high.
- I don't have a lot of mass behind my blade,
So it has to be sharp if it's gonna even try
To make a cut through all this sugarcane.
I'm just sitting here sweating bullets.
I am terrified right now.
♪ ♪
- All right, cordale, let's talk about your weapon here.
Your edges are sharp,
But there's just not enough mass to help push it through.
But when we look at it, it actually cut three pieces.
But overall, sir, for the little knife
That says it could, it will cut.
- Thank you. - All right, bladesmiths.
Well, we gave you guys a difficult challenge,
But only two of you can move forward in this competition,
Which means one of you is gonna be heading home.
And today, the bladesmith leaving the forge is...
♪ ♪
Chris.
Unfortunately, your blade didn't make the cut,
And dave baker is gonna tell you why.
- Chris, I think you did a great job
Designing a weapon for these tests.
But that failure of the weld in the blade,
As well as parts of the handle starting to come off,
Well, those are the two reasons we're letting you go for.
- Absolutely.
I appreciate the chance. Thanks.
- Well, chris, you fought hard.
You have what it takes to be in this forge.
But unfortunately, you're not gonna be moving forward
In this competition, man.
I'm gonna have to ask you
To please step off the forge floor.
- See you.
♪ ♪
The problems that I had in this blade,
The handle starting to pull apart,
I knew I was done.
With the issues that blade had,
I actually thought it was gonna explode on the first strike.
Whenever I get home, I'm gonna rub it in my son's face.
"hey, damien, I might not be the 'forged in fire' champion,
"but at least I didn't go out in the first round
Like you thought I would."
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, congratulations, you are both moving forwad
Into the third and final round of this competition.
Now, in this last round,
We're gonna ask you to go back to your home forges
And build an iconic weapon from history
That has been shrouded in mystery.
Gentlemen, we want you to build this.
♪ ♪
The medieval sword of mystery.
- [laughs]
- The medieval sword of mystery
Has been puzzling historians for centuries.
This double-edged broadsword features a double fuller,
Making it light enough to wield single-handed,
Delivering fast, lethal strikes.
The sword was found in the river witham
In east England in 1825.
It's believed to have been forged
Back in the 13th century,
Although its exact origin is a mystery.
Even more mysterious,
The blade has a gold inlaid inscription
Etched into the steel in an unknown language.
Several years ago, the british museum
Recruited the public to help decipher it,
But to this day, no one has been able to crack the code.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, when you're building your swords,
You need to fall within these parameters.
Your blade length, measured from tip to guar,
Needs to be between 28 and 30 inches.
You need to have two fullers on both sides of the blade.
Your handle must include a cruciform guard
And a disk shaped pommel.
What makes this blade such a mystery is the inscription,
Which you will also need to include in your blades.
- I've never made anything this big.
It's gonna be a challenge, ain't no doubt about that.
- Bladesmiths, you will have four days
To build your medieval swords of mystery.
So good luck. See you guys in four days.
- Good luck. - Good luck, buddy.
[rock music]
- I'm back at my home forge here in fulton, kansas.
I'm gonna attempt to make a hundred layer,
Twist damascus mystery sword.
I should have way more steel than what I need,
But I make a lot of mistakes.
I think what I need to do to win is,
I need to hit the wow factor.
That's ready to go in the forge.
I'm gonna run two billets at the same time,
So I'm not waiting on it.
All right, here we go.
Yeah, I'm worried about my time frame.
Because, you know, anything can happen.
I can get a an inclusion in my blade,
And that's all it takes.
Billet number two.
♪ ♪
Got good welds on it, and I think it'll be okay.
Whoo! I'm done.
♪ ♪
- I'm back in telephone, texas.
Now for the spicy bit.
Game plan for today is getting all the forging
And get the heat-treat out of the way.
Every single second
Is definitely gonna be critical.
I'm gonna need all the time I can get.
Getting nervous.
I have never heat-treated anything this long before,
So I'm just gonna heat-treat it
Without grinding it.
That way, it gives me a lot less chance of warping
But it's gonna be
A lot more time at the grinder.
Now for the spicy bit.
As I'm going to quench,
I really hope I don't pull it out
And turn it into a banana.
Now is the grind marathon.
♪ ♪
- Day two, a lot of work to do today.
I'm gonna grab the two billets,
Put a right-hand twist in one,
A left-hand twist in the other,
Cut them up, and restack them.
All right, here we go.
♪ ♪
Well, it looks like I have a piece with a crack in I.
[dramatic music]
Starts here, goes down, over, and back up.
♪ ♪
So I'm gonna scrap this project.
I don't want to take any chances with it.
I'm gonna go ahead and go to plan b.
I got bar 5160, so I'm just gonna ahead
And put it in the forge and run it on out.
♪ ♪
Looking forward for the wow factor.
It's not gonna happen.
I'm already into day two,
So I just don't want to have time kinda bite me in the ass.
Got her close for the quench.
All right, here we go.
♪ ♪
Perfect.
Right now, we're back on track.
Yeah, it's a good and straight blade.
[rock music]
- Yesterday, I got the blade mostly finished ground.
This sword's brighter than my future.
Today, I definitely have to finish the handles.
Otherwise, I won't have enough time for the glue
To set properly.
So I'm gonna try to do a crude tang
With this green wood I have
And see how that goes.
I have had wood break before,
So I'm really hoping it doesn't happen again,
Because that could possibly set me back.
[dramatic music]
Well, [bleep]. It broke.
I got to come up with something else.
I don't know if I've got anymore wood.
I don't think there's any salvaging this.
Time kind of matters right now.
I really want to get the handle on today,
So I got to come up with something else.
No, I know exactly what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna do a leather stack.
With a leather stack,
All I've got to do is stack it up,
Glue it together, and put the pommel on.
Be a lot easier that way, so on to leather.
[rock music]
- Day four, last day, I'm ready to go.
I'm gonna concentrate on the handle.
That's starting to look like a guard, ain't it?
First up, I think I'm gonna weld a bolt on t
For a threaded pommel.
I don't think it looks very good, but too bad.
Put my handle together.
I want to make sure it's a good, tight fit.
Don't want anything loose.
Ooh!
♪ ♪
I wished I had more time of the detail work,
But let's go in there and test it.
Let's get 'er done, get it over with.
I'm ready.
♪ ♪
- Final day at the home forge.
Today, I just got to finish shaping the handle,
I've got to sharpen it, and then that's it.
For this part of the program,
We will now start the mystery inscription.
A medieval mystery sword, got a mysterious inscription
That nobody can figure out.
Pretty good.
I'm gonna scratch off the letters,
Then I'll etch that,
And that'll just etch the letters
And it'll leave my blade shiny.
I believe that's gonna work.
I like how it turned out.
Oh, yeah. It's a pretty sharp blade,
Let's go chop up some water bottles.
♪ ♪
There you go.
♪ ♪
He gone.
I'm definitely proud of the sword.
I can't wait to see it tested and hopefully come away
With that 10 gran and the championship.
That's super satisfying.
And bragging rights.
Love to have bragging rights. Bever had those before.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, gentlemen, welcome back to the forge.
It's good to see you.
Guys, we sent you back to your home forges for four days
To work on the medieval sword of mystery.
Now, only one of these swords is gonna win a $10,000 check
And the title of "forged in fire" champio.
But before we get into that, I want to hear about them.
Cordale, how'd it go for you?
- Build went pretty good.
♪ ♪
I used 5160 steel, brass guard and pommel,
And I went with a leather stack handle.
- Looks great. Larry, how about you?
- Had a couple of bumps in the road.
♪ ♪
Went to a 5160, got a good edge on it,
Pushed the clock towards the end, but hope it holds up.
- Well, guys, your blades look deadly,
But there's only one way to find out
If they are as functional as they look.
We've got a strength test, a sharpness test,
And, up first, the keal. Doug?
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the keal test.
♪ ♪
The legendary medieval sword of mystery.
Well, the first mystery we're gonna solve right now is,
Are they lethal?
Cordale, you're up first. You ready for this?
- I suppose. - All right, let's do this.
- I have never built anything this big, and I'm nervous.
The blade I feel is solid, but I have no idea.
Let's just get it over with.
♪ ♪
- All right, cordale,
Let's talk about your medieval sword of mystery.
First up, your handle construction.
Your handle is nice and smooth.
The one issue I have is, it has all this space.
Now, let's talk about your edge.
These boars are no joke.
They're very tough to cut through.
But your edge made easy cuts and thrusts
On this boar carcass, and I finally figured out
What that word right there says.
"it will keal."
- Thank you. - Larry, your turn, sir.
Are you ready? - Yes, sir.
- Let's do this.
- My main concern coming into this test is my cutting edge.
My heat-treat come out good.
But anything could can go wrong.
♪ ♪
- Guys, I think we have a parameter issue here
That we need to talk about.
- Quick huddle?
♪ ♪
- Well, larry, it seems
That doug saw something with your blade
That he wants to discuss further with the judges.
So, gentlemen, while they talk, I'm gonna ask you
To please step off the forge floor.
♪ ♪
- All right, the guys are out. What did you see?
- Well, what I did not see on larry's sword
Is a disk pommel.
We asked him to replicate an iconic,
Legendary medieval sword of mystery.
That's not a style of a blade. That's one particular blade.
When you look at that, it's got one form, one look.
- We put these parameters down because we want
Everything to test evenly.
It's not the sword we asked for.
- A disk pommel is not a vague idea.
You want a disk pommel for counterbalance on the blade.
Also, you want that swell where it is much larger
Than the handle itself for retention.
With what we have on larry's,
It actually tapers smaller than the handle.
So there's a good chance of swinging it and having it
Fly out of your hand and endanger people around you.
- Well, you guys all on the same page?
- Yeah.
- All right, we'll call them back in.
♪ ♪
All right, larry, we've got a bit of an issue.
We asked you guys to recreate the medieval sword of mystery.
Now, part of that sword is the disk-shaped pommel.
The judges have talked it through,
And they've decided that your pommel does not fit
Within the definition a disk-shaped pommel,
So unfortunately, it is a parameter failure.
- Larry, one of the parameters for the sword of mystery
Was a disk pommel.
Two biggest reasons for that, aside from the fact
That it was part of the original design,
Is having that mass back there to retain the sword
While it's being swung.
Also, the weight to counterbalance the blade.
Your pommel doesn't have that,
And we're worried that swinging that,
It could go flying across the room.
- Well, larry, you fought hard through this,
But unfortunately, with the parameter failure
And the fact that the judges can't test your blade
Fairly against cordale's, I'm gonna have to ask you
To please step off the forge floor.
- Thank you for having me, gentlemen.
Appreciate it. - Thank you, larry
- Good fight. - Yeah, I'm a disappointed
With it. I wanted to see it perform.
I was running up against the clock,
Running close, so I worked
Up to the last minute getting it done,
And I forget the disk pommel. That's how it goes.
But I had a good time.
♪ ♪
- Well, cordale, your hard work paid off.
You are the newest "forged in fire" champion
And you just won yourself a check for $10,000.
Congratulations. - Thanks.
I'm pretty excited. I hate to win it this way,
But I'm excited to win it nonetheless.
- You won, fair and square. Well done.
- Good job, cordale. - Good job.
- I doubt I'll make another sword,
But I was very happy with my blade,
And I've had a lot of fun.
♪ ♪