[fire roaring]
- Over the years, we've seen hundreds of smiths
give it their all in our forge.
- Yes! - There you go.
- The judges have critiqued a lot of blades,
given advice, and often times made a lot of tough decisions.
- This is the closest decision I have ever had to make.
- Now for the first time ever, the judges are taking over.
Over four weeks, every aspect of the competition will come
from the twisted mind of one of our expert judges:
their favorite weapons,
their most impossible challenges...
- What on Earth is going on?
- And the most punishing tests.
[dramatic music]
J., Dave, Doug, and Ben
will each take center stage, calling all the shots...
- Go ahead, lift up that cloth.
- And crafting a competition like only they can.
- Oh, no. Aah!
- Which judge is up next?
- This is not gonna be easy.
- Find out as the Judges Takeover continues now.
- Good luck.
♪ ♪
- My name's Jarred Irby.
I'm 38 years old.
I'm from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.
I'm a driver, engineer, paramedic
for a fire department in north Texas.
I'm fortunate enough
that my fire department job pays the bills.
So the money I make from the knives that I build
gives me the opportunity to give
a couple thousand dollars a year
to kids' cancer research.
[rock music]
- My name's Clayton Martin.
I'm 20 years old, and I'm a full-time bladesmith.
I realized when I was about 18 years old
that I really, really liked making knives
and I wanted to do it for the rest of my life.
♪ ♪
- I'm Paul Elkins. I'm 30 years old.
I'm from Mesa, Arizona.
I was watching "Forged in Fire,"
and I was just sitting there with a buddy
and I was like, "I could totally do that"
And he said, "No, you can't."
So, Lou, I'm here, buddy.
♪ ♪
- Name is Josh Adams.
I'm 36 years old from Castalia, Ohio,
and I'm a security contractor and part-time bladesmith.
I really enjoy taking raw materials
and making them into somethig
that people admire and enjoy and can use.
It's a great stress reliever too.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
Now, the four of you have your work cut out for you
because we have three very intense rounds
of forging competition lined up.
Now, at the end of each one of those rounds,
I'm gonna ask that you present your work
to our panel of expert judges, who will critique your work
and give you some advice.
Those judges are
two-time "Forged in Fire" champion Ben Abbott.
Next, we've got historic weapons re-creation specialist
Dave Baker.
Finally, edged weapons specialist Doug Marcaida.
Bladesmiths, today is a continuation of a seris
of competitions we're calling the Judges Takeover.
The weapons, the challenges, and the tests
all come from one of their minds.
Today, smiths, you're taking part in a competition
that was designed by a judge who has proved his worth
in this forge and remains undefeated.
I'm talking about none other...
[exciting music]
Than Ben Abbott.
- What I know about Ben Abbott is that he's been here
and he's got the T-shirt and some trophies, right?
So if anybody's gonna test our abilities,
it's gonna be him.
- All right, bladesmiths,
well, I've stood where you're standing right now.
I understand the fear and the uncertainty.
So let me take a little bit of that off your shoulders
by letting you know simply,
this is not gonna be an easy competition.
I've decided in the first round to give you a material
we haven't seen used on this forge floor before.
That material is under the cloths on your anvils.
Go ahead and take that up now.
[dramatic music]
What you have there are two sheets of pure nickel.
- I was expecting a big piece of square bar
or a big piece of W2 or something.
It's nickel. It's very thin.
It's point 0.04 thousandths of an inch.
It certainly kind of threw me for a loop.
- I want you to combine that nickel with some 1095
and mild steel from the pantry in a Go Mai technique,
which is five layers of alternating metal.
I want a core of 1095, two sheets of nickel,
and then two sheets of mild steel on the outside.
Now I'm gonna ask you to make a blade
that's really important to me and special in my heart.
And that knife is this...
♪ ♪
The billhook.
Bladesmiths, this knife means a lot to me.
As a child, I remember my father
using his billhook all the time.
And I'm excited to give this particular billhook
to my son when he's ready.
When you build your billhooks,
they should fall within the following parameters.
The front should have a downward curve, blunted tip.
The distance between that tip and the choil
should be between 8 and 9 inches.
It should be set up for a through tang.
Smiths, I'm really excited to see what you come up with.
I wanna see your take on this billhook, and good luck to you.
- I've never made anything like a billhook before,
so I instantly started to think
about how I'm going to tackle this curve.
- Now, in the second round of this competition,
we're gonna ask you to add handles to your billhooks,
turning them into fully functioning tools,
at which point, the judge is gonna check for strength
and durability in a log chop.
Then they're gonna check your edge retention
in a sugarcane slice.
Now, guys, you only have three hours
in the first round of Ben Abbott's takeover.
Good luck. Your time starts now.
[rock music]
- Whoo!
- All right, here we go.
- Why'd you choose Go Mai?
- Well, the look from the side is really stunning.
And also, it just makes a cool-looking knife
and a functional knife.
Yeah. - It's pretty cool.
- My game plan for making the blade is, I wanna
get my steel clean.
I wanna get good forge welds.
- What's different about this process
in adding the nickel to the mix?
- Well, the one issue is that nickel oxide
is a very tenacious oxide.
It wants to stay.
- So if a smith is going after this
as if they were doing a regular forge weld
and they were planning on using the flux to flush out
that oxidation, they're gonna be in a world of hurt.
- If they go out at it like they're trying to do
a dirty weld in a coal forge and just kind of
mash things together without cleaning, then yeah.
- I know making this blade is gonna be difficult
because nickel just does not perform like carbon steel.
It's very soft.
And if there was to be
some of that left on the cutting edge,
then it certainly would take some damage.
♪ ♪
- I've never worked with nickel before.
I don't know how the nickel is gonna respond.
I don't know if that's gonna affect the blade at all.
This is gonna be a bit of a challenge for me.
I'm welding up a lot of tack welds
along the side of my billet so that it's not gonna expand.
And I'm hoping that it's just gonna stay tight
together in the forge.
♪ ♪
- What makes forge welding difficult,
especially in a competition like this, is, people tend
to miss the small steps, you know, cleaning your stee,
taking your time to put this puzzle together
before you throw it in the fire.
That's what makes or breaks forge welding.
♪ ♪
- The first thing I'm gonna do is cut my stock down.
They gave me way more metal than I need,
and it's just gonna take more time to heat up in the forge.
- Clayton's cutting chunks off and just scrapping it.
- A big gamble because we've seen before
in other competitions
where if you don't have enough material
and now they're struggling to stretch it out
to meet the parameters, it gets thinner and thinner.
- I'm not really concerned because I'm really used
to making knives of this size
and I know how much steel it takes.
♪ ♪
- We got a press going on over here.
- Setting these welds is a crucial step,
and if I don't make good welds,
I'm gonna have to start over.
- Oh, it's coming apart right at the end.
- Yeah.
- This is something I'm gonna have to address right now.
- Not something you wanna see 20 minutes in.
- I'm gonna try it one more time to get it to reset
and hope it sticks.
Okay.
It appears to weld pretty well.
But I still don't have warm and fuzzies.
So I cut about an inch and a half off the end of it.
♪ ♪
I'm just gonna get down to where I know
I've got good welds so that I can move on
to step 3 out of 50 that I've gotta get done.
- There we go, Josh is going for his set at the press.
- There you go. Look at that.
- Real quick. - Quick, gentle tap.
- It looks like the welds took.
I'm super excited.
Now it's time to move on and get this thing drawn ou.
♪ ♪
- I'm going to the press firt to set my welds.
I am so nervous that I'm just gonna squish it
and then it's gonna go from being half an inch
to under that in a heartbeat.
- Oh, we got another press going on.
♪ ♪
- It looks like all my welds set properly.
Cool.
So now I'm gonna go back to the press
and I'm just gonna draw it out.
And I'm gonna start widening the tip, too,
to make sure I meet my parameter of 2 1/2 inches.
♪ ♪
- Here we go, Clayton with his first pass.
- I just wanna make sure that those layers are togethr
and all one piece,
so I'm gonna press really hard and really aggressively.
♪ ♪
- Listen, you hear that? - Oh, that's pressure.
- Yeah, you don't wanna set a weld with a maximum pressure
on the press. - Why not?
- You could be shearing the weld as you're welding.
- Everything went really well on the press,
and I'm ready to start drawing it out on Big Blu.
♪ ♪
- Your example is gonna be here on display
during the entire competition.
You asked them to re-create yours.
- Yeah, well, there are many styles of billhook.
Some are just, like, an inch and a half
and they kind of curve around.
I really want that 3-inch width by the bend.
I think it really just puts the weight
where it's supposed to be physically and visually.
- This is a blade that means something to Ben.
And I wanna give him what he asked for.
- I mean, there's a lot of reasons
I picked this for my challenge,
but one is, curving metal
and knowing how to set up for a curve isn't easy.
This isn't something knife makers do very much.
This is something blacksmiths do all the time.
So one of the reasons I like this
is because that's how I knew how to do it,
'cause I did a lot of blacksmithing.
- I'm starting to think about how I'm going
to tackle this curve.
And initially, I'm thinking,
"Oh, I'll go to the horn of the anvil.
♪ ♪
- Oh, that's not quite enough curve.
- Nope.
- It's just not working out for me.
What am I even doing?
- Paul's running into some trouble.
- If he just slid that down in the vise--
- Yeah, exactly, or put it in the hardy hole.
- Yeah, yeah, he could just kick that point right down
and it would be perfect.
- I end up going back to the press
and I'm just gently tapping it to help get that curve in.
- Paul is starting to get a bit of that bend.
He's got a little bit of a tip in there.
- My hook looks okay. It's still a little rough.
I'm thinking to myself, "We can keep fighting this
"and chasing down this rabbit hole,
"or it's in there enough
that I can clean it up on the grinder."
- Bladesmiths, you have 90 minutes left.
You are halfway through.
♪ ♪
- I have plenty of extra steel as I'm drawing it out,
so I end up going to the chop saw and cutting some of.
- Man, Clayton is back over at the chop saw,
cutting off even more steel. - Oh, yeah.
- I just worry that if Clayton has any issues with his blade,
he's not gonna have enough material to fix it.
♪ ♪
- I'm gonna forge my tip first,
and then I'll start getting that curve.
I'm feeling really good about this blade.
All I have to do now is grind a little bit,
and then I'm gonna go in for my quench.
♪ ♪
- To meet the parameters from tip to plunge
is 8 to 9 inches, and I look,
and I just realize that it's gonna be too long.
So I've gotta do something to shorten the whole thin.
Rather than reforming the tip
and going back and doing more hot work,
I'm gonna take the angle grinder
and I'm gonna just extend the tang,
cut some notches, and move forward.
- Ben, the way Jarred is cutting into his blade
like that,
could that cause issues down the line?
- Yeah, cutting a 90-degree angle like that
can definitely cause stress
to build up in that part of the blade.
It could crack or even break during testin.
- I'm a little bit concerned
that there's the stress risers in there,
but if I move on to round tw,
I can do more to address the issue.
♪ ♪
- I start working on the body of the billhook...
[grunts]
And immediately notice
a delamination on the top of it.
- Oh, guys, are you seeing Josh?
His body language does not look happy at all.
- Oh, it broke open.
- It did? Oh, man.
- If I don't fix this, this can send me home.
- If Josh isn't able to close that delam,
he may need to start over.
So I put some flux in the open delam
and then shove it right back in the forge.
That's coming out now.
[rock music]
It sets.
Yeah, baby.
I can see that the other three smiths are well ahead of me.
I need to push it a little bit.
♪ ♪
- I'm finally ready for my quench.
I hope that it doesn't pick up a warp
just because the high carbon steel
is completely jacketed by the mild steel.
♪ ♪
- Clayton quenched already.
- I see that the blade's straight.
And thank God it didn't warp.
♪ ♪
- Got another quenched blade.
- Way too hot. He quenched that blade at--
- Temperature of the sun. - Yeah.
- Quench went well.
I know I got a good hard blade.
Feel good about it.
I'm on the grinder, and then I realize
that I've got a big crack
right in the choil/ricasso area.
♪ ♪
Because of where my crack is, there's no way for me
to get it with the grinder.
But I'm certainly gonna address that
should I move forward.
♪ ♪
- So now we got Jarred quenched,
Clayton also quenched.
There's two more to go.
♪ ♪
- So I'm really happy about my quench.
And I see a slight warp, but I know I can take it out
in grinding.
As I'm grinding, I see a crack in my blade.
♪ ♪
I don't have time to fix the crack right now.
I hope it doesn't send me home.
♪ ♪
- Josh just quenched. And that blade looked perfect.
- Right now, I don't have a lot of time
left to do anything.
And I realize I still have to etch this thing.
Yeah, baby.
This thing looks great.
The contrast with the nickel,
the high carbon steel,
the mild steel,
they gave me goose bumps.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
Pull your blades out of the acid baths.
This round is over.
- I'm feeling great about the challenge and how I did.
But I'm worried that the judges
are gonna find something that I didn't see
and I couldn't address.
[dramatic music]
- Guys, in the first three hours of this competition,
you made billhooks by the order of Ben Abbott.
But the time has come for your first critique and elimination.
And, Josh, you're up first. Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- Well, Josh, the first thing I noticed
when I picked up your billhook is that it's small.
It is the correct dimension from tip to choil.
But there's some meat missing up here around the nose.
That being said, looking at your steel,
all of your welds look good.
Nice job. - Thank you.
- All right Paul, it's your turn.
Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- So first off, Paul, your steel looks good.
The things that give me paus, though,
is that the depth of curvature of your blade here
isn't like the sample that we have.
Also, you have delamination right on the edge.
If you move forward, that needs to be addresse.
- Thank you.
- Clayton, it's your turn. Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, Clayton, general shape-wise,
it looks really good, but the big issue
is, on your spine from about here to here,
there's a crack right down the center of that 1095.
I mean, it's really right there
in the sweet spot of the blade,
and that brings into play what kind of structural integrity
that blade's gonna have.
You really don't have much metal to grind on either side.
I like the shape. I just--
Not crazy about that crack down the middle there.
- Jarred, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- Well, Jarred, you really nailed the shape.
But the thing that gives me the most pause is,
there is a crack along your choil
that goes from here
to about here down your tang.
If you move forward from here,
that certainly needs to be addressed.
- All right bladesmiths, well, it's been a lot of fun
watching you guys work through the first round
of Ben Abbott's takeover.
But in this competition, only three of you
are gonna join us in the second round.
The judges have discussed, and they've made a decision.
The bladesmith who's gonna be leaving The Forge is...
♪ ♪
Clayton.
Unfortunately, your billhook didn't make the cut,
and Ben Abbott's gonna tell you why.
- Well, Clayton, first of all,
I wanna say it was great watching you work,
but that crack you have in the back
is in a pretty substantial spot
and there's just not enough meat there to support a fix.
That's the reason we're letting you go.
- Yes, sir.
- Clayton, 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.
♪ ♪
- It's just one of those things that happens, you know?
Sometimes blades are gonna crack
and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.
But I had a great time in The Forge.
It was a blast.
♪ ♪
- Well, bladesmiths, congratulations.
The three of you survived the first round
of Ben Abbott's takeover challenge,
which means you're moving into the second round,
where you're gonna add handles to your blades,
turning them to fully functioning tools.
There are a few parameters, though.
So for that, I'll hand you back to Ben.
- All right, bladesmiths, I'm excited to see you
finish out your billhooks.
In order to do that,
you're gonna have to add a handle to your blades
that's made out of some sort of wood.
I also wanna see a ferrule.
- The only time I've ever seen a ferrule on a blade
is this one.
So this ought to be interesting.
♪ ♪
- Now, you guys have your parameters.
And at the end of this round, we're gonna test your blades
for strength and durability in a log chop.
And then we're gonna check your edge retention
in a sugarcane slice.
Good luck, gentlemen.
You have two hours on the clock,
and your time starts now.
[rock music]
Seems that Josh and Paul are both in a pretty good spot,
but Jarred's got a bunch of work.
- I've certainly got in the forefront of my mind
the big crack in kind of a crucial area.
- I'd grab that Dremel tool with the cut-off wheel.
I'd open that crack up a little bit
so that meat can get in there and flow
and really secure that joint.
And it looks like that's exactly
what Jarred is doing now.
- I just filled the whole thing up with weld.
I think I'm okay.
- One thing that's important
is that the ferrule be flush with the handle.
- What's its purpose?
- It holds the end of the wood handle togethr
under great force.
Otherwise, you just end up
splitting your handle open at the end there.
- I know I have to get this thing on there snug
'cause it's a compression fit.
So I don't want it to be a straight circle
because I don't want it to be rolling in their hands
when they're testing it.
This is gonna be harder to rotate in their hands,
helping set up the handle that I'm gonna have to shave nex.
♪ ♪
- I've never done a ferrule before,
so I want to spend a little more time on that.
- Look at most of the chisels you buy
or old-school screwdrivers.
To keep that wood from cracking is that small ferrule.
- Doing this is fairly trick.
If I overgrind, there could be too much space.
I want this to be as tight as possible.
So I go to town on profiling this round end for my handl.
It fits.
Now I have to start blowing
through this woodblock for the tang.
♪ ♪
- The judges told me that I had a delam
right towards the front of my blade.
I have plenty of room.
I can just grind that delam out,
and that'll help accentuate the hook.
I was able to grind through that delamination I had
at the very tip of my blade,
so I'm really happy.
- Bladesmiths, you have one hour remaining.
- I take my handle material over to the drill press.
I'm gonna drill a hole straight in the middle of it
all the way down out of the bottom.
This is a through tang. It has to go all the way out.
Holy [bleep], there's gotta be a better way.
The wood is just so incredibly dense,
and it's mucking up and sticking.
- Ooh, that's not good.
- I've been at this, trying
to make this thing fit for too long.
And it really feels like I've got my feet in the san.
[bleep].
So I'm gonna have to do a burn through.
- So doing the burn through,
it's really just getting that last little bit
to make a snug fit on the tang with the handle material.
- Yeah, there are easier and quicker ways of doing it
if you have the tools, and even they have the tools here.
- I know the judges don't like the burn-in,
but I'm kind of desperate.
I feel miles behind.
[grunts]
I finally get the handle fit.
Now I'm feeling a little bit relieved.
[rock music]
- I get the ferrule area
so that it fits right at the tip.
So I take my handle and start drilling a hol.
Drilling this hole, it's taking a while
because super dense wood.
So in order to save some tim,
I start profiling my tang to help me fit into the block.
If I overgrind, my tang can be compromisd
and break off inside the handle.
I finally match it up.
Now it's time to move on to the etch.
- All right, gentlemen, you have 30 minutes left.
- It's a through tang,
so there's two different options that I have.
I can just bore a giant hole in this block
and I can just fill it with epoxy.
But if that epoxy loosens,
I don't want it to start just twisting in the handle.
So I'm thinking to myself,
"I'm gonna have to be making a burn through handle."
And I get it almost perfectly fit on,
so when I go and I do the peening,
that's just gonna close any gaps I have left.
I'm done with the burn through and I'm super ecstatic
knowing that I can move on
to the other parts of the blade that I need to finish.
♪ ♪
- I've got 20 minutes left in the round,
and my handle is still a block.
So I run to the grinder
and I just start hogging off material as quick as I can.
I get a handle shape that's completely functiona,
and then I put an appleseed edge on all the way up
and all the way down on both sides.
I don't feel like it's the prettiest thing I've ever made,
but it's gonna work.
♪ ♪
- I've been sharpening this edge for a while.
At this point, I have less than five minutes left.
I give it that last etch. It looks great.
And I'm happy that I completed the challenge.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, put down your tools.
Turn off your machines.
Second round of Ben Abbott challenge is ove.
- I'm really excited to see Ben test this weapon out.
It's his challenge.
I think I nailed it, and I wanna see him test it.
- All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test.
To test the strength and durability of your billhooks,
I'm gonna be bashing them into this log.
Josh, you're up first. You ready for this?
- You think I'm not? - All right.
[dramatic music]
- I'm feeling super excited
that I finally get to see it perform.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- Well, Josh, your edge held up great.
I don't see any issues.
The major test that the strength test is doing
is the interface here in the handle,
and yours held up great, and everything is still tight.
Nice job. - Thank you.
- All right, Paul, you're up. You ready for this?
- Let it rip, tater chip.
♪ ♪
I'm thinking my blade isn't gonna be able to handle
the smashing that Ben's about to put into this thing.
What blade is designed to do that kind of test?
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- All right, Paul, first off, you did pick up
a bend on this blade.
But your handle is still tight,
your blade is still all in one piece,
and your edge is still very sharp.
So a nice job. - Thank you.
- All right, Jarred, you're up. You ready?
- Yes, sir. - All right, let's do it.
[dramatic music]
- The testing is real life
what the tool is designed to do.
Doesn't make me feel any better about it.
Hopefully one doesn't become two
by the end of testing.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- All right, Jarred, your edge held up really well.
It's just as sharp as when you sharpened it.
I think the handle is really comfortable.
You know, all in all, I think you did a great job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, this is the sharpest test,
the sugarcane slice.
To find out how sharp your weapons are,
I'm gonna take your blades
and cut through these sugarcanes.
Josh, you're up first. You ready?
- Yes, sir. Let's go to work. - Let's do this.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
All right, Josh, it feels good in the hand, man.
This is a nice thing to keep in my pocket,
bring it out everywhere.
The edges are sharp, very sharp cuts
all the way through the sugarcanes.
Overall, sir, your billhook, it will cu.
- Thank you.
- All right, Paul, your turn, sir.
You ready? - Let it rip, tater chip.
♪ ♪
I'm nervous. My stomach is up in my throat.
But whatever happens happens.
♪ ♪
- All right Paul,
despite having that slight warp right there,
it wasn't an issue because your edge is very sharp
and it cut cleanly on these sugarcanes.
Overall, sir, your billhook, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, Jarred, you turn, sir.
You ready? - Yes, sir. Let's do this.
♪ ♪
All right, Jarred, your edge is sharp.
It cuts easily through the sugarcanes.
And unlike your competitors, you have enough curvature
in there where the edge meets it
and it actually rides it through
and cuts all the way through.
Overall, sir, your billhook, it will cu.
- Thank you.
[rock music]
- Guys, first off, I wanna say thank you to the three of you.
And thank you to Ben Abbott for a very exciting challenge.
But unfortunately, one of you is not gonna be joining us
in the third and final round of this competition.
The bladesmith leaving The Forge is...
♪ ♪
Paul.
Unfortunately, your billhook did not make the cut,
and Ben Abbott's gonna tell you why.
- Well, Paul, all three of you made
really good-looking billhooks that worked really well.
But yours is the only one that took a bend
in the strength test.
And it's for that reason we're gonna send you home.
- Paul, we wanna say thank you
for letting us watch your work in this forge.
But unfortunately, your time in Ben Abbott's
takeover challenge has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- I'm extremely proud of the work I did.
It didn't break, just the other guys' looked bette.
If I had to say anything to my best friend, it would be,
"Lou, my blade met all the requirements,
and I know you're gonna be proud of me once you see this."
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, congratulations, guys.
You're both moving to the third and final round
of this "Forged in Fire" challenge.
Now, in this round, we're gonna ask you to go back
to your home forges for four days.
And while you're there, you're gonna be building another blae
from the mind of Ben Abbott.
- All right, bladesmiths, I love to rise to a challenge,
and I sincerely hope you do too,
'cause what I'm about to ask you to make is this.
♪ ♪
My Sutton Hoo sword.
♪ ♪
The Sutton Hoo sword
traces its roots back to seventh-century England.
Named for the burial site in Suffolk
where it was discovered, this fierce double-edged blae
was light enough to be wieldd one-handed,
delivering deadly slashes and stabs against opponent.
This intricate weapon was previously featured
on "Forged in Fire" when Dave Baker challenged me
to build it during the Judges' Home Forge Battle,
where I spent almost two weeks forge welding together
twisted Damascus steel
to create a complex Damascus design.
- Now, when Ben made his Sutton Hoo,
he replicated the original complex pattern.
Luckily, he's not asking you to do that.
But you will only have four days
to meet the following parameters.
Now, you need to have a straight double-edged blade
that measures between 27 and 29 inches.
Now, as far as the hilt goes,
you need to have an upper and a lower guard.
- I don't make swords, so it should be fine.
I mean, what's the worst that can happen?
- So, guys, good luck.
You've got a very difficult challenge ahead of you.
We will see you in four days.
- Let's go. - All right, man.
- Do it.
[rock music]
- Back here in my home forge in Castalia, Ohio,
getting ready to make the Sutton Hoo sword.
Let's do work.
I don't typically do a lot of Damascus
just because how long it takes
and the complicated process, but I'm gonna try to get
outside my comfort zone a little bit.
There's a couple surface cracks here.
They're not going across the billet,
so I think I'll grind those and then reassess.
So I ground down those cracks, and I'm kind of happy
with what I see 'cause it looks like
they were just on the surface.
I think I'll be good to go.
♪ ♪
- Day one objective is to build up
a relatively high layer count Damascus.
The sword was made for a king
and it's very ornately decorated
and there's a lot of little details
that you can't really miss.
There's not too many obstacles
that can't be overcome with horsepower.
I'm gonna use 1084 and 15N20 to make some Damascus.
I'm gonna throw some nickel in there
as kind of paying homage to the rounds one and two.
Rough right now, but it'll get better as we get closer.
♪ ♪
- Day two of the home forge.
Yesterday got quite a bit accomplished.
And today I'll just be concentrating on drawing it out
into a rough shape.
The billet is in the forge.
I'm working on handle pieces,
doing a little work here and there.
I think that worked pretty good.
And I come back over to the forge.
Oh, no.
I left the billet in the forge too long,
and it just burnt up.
I don't think
this is gonna be salvageable.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna start over from scratch.
Is what it is. Plan B.
That's why I have a backup plan, this 1060.
So I grab my 1060, should have been plan A.
- It's the beginning of day two.
This thing's gotta get heated up,
And then we're gonna quench it.
There's any number of things that can go wrong.
Here we go.
[rock music]
Any one of those would be catastrophic.
It didn't shatter into a million pieces,
so I'd say that we're doing about as good as we can.
I'm a little bit relieved,
but it's not a warm and fuzzy kind of a feeling.
There's still lots of handle parts to work o.
♪ ♪
- Beginning of day four.
Today is just gonna be a lot of grinding
and Dremel-ing that pommel cap.
End of the challenge,
even though I tried with the Damascus
and it didn't work out,
I still made the sword
and I'm extremely pleased with it.
I feel there's nothing else that I can do
to it at this point.
I'm excited to see it get used and tested.
♪ ♪
- It's the final day.
Walking into the shop today,
the first thing I've gotta get done
is, I gotta finish all the millwork on the pommel.
The pommel on this sword is big and it's heavy,
and so I need to figure out an effective way to secure it
and fasten it to the rest of the blade.
And I also need to kind of work on balance
and what that's gonna do to the performance.
Epoxy, pins.
Then I can get ready for the last bit of assembly.
I'm very happy with how it ended up.
I gave it everything I've go.
I made it as structurally sound
and as ornately fashioned as I could.
Yeah, it looks pretty good.
I'm glad that I've got something that I'm happy wit.
And I'm just ready for it to get tested
and let's just see what happens.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, Jarred, Josh, welcome back to The Forge, guys.
This is it, the end of the Ben Abbott takeover challenge.
You guys had four days at your home forges
to build your Sutton Hoos.
They look great.
But, guys, before we get into testing,
I wanna hear about them.
So, Jarred, how'd it go for you?
- It was incredibly difficult.
It's a 480-layer Damascus jacket
with nickel cladding and an 80CrV2 core,
and then the handle's walnut and brass.
- Josh, how'd it go for you? - It went well.
Burned up my Damascus billet,
so I had to go to my backup plan,
which is 1060 model steel.
The handle's brass and box elder burl for the guard,
hickory for the handle, but it was a fun time.
- Well, guys, your blades look strong.
They look sharp.
And only one of you guys can go home with the title
of "Forged in Fire" champion and the check for $10,000.
Now, we've got a strength test, we got a sharpness test,
and up first, the KEAL.
Doug.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the KEAL test.
♪ ♪
To find out how lethal your weapons are,
I'm gonna take your weapons and deliver
some lethal blows on this wild boar carcass.
Jarred, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yes sir. - All right, let's do thi.
- Growing up in Texas, I'm no stranger to hogs,
and they're hard on equipment,
particularly ones with real long hair.
So this is gonna be a very serious test,
and hopefully my blade will survive the testing.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jarred, let's talk
about your Sutton Hoo sword here.
First up, it is a massive beast.
There's a lot of weight to this.
Now, this is a very thick and hairy wild boar.
So the cuts are deep despite all that hair.
Overall sir, your weapon, it will KEAL.
- Thank you.
- All right, Josh, your turn, sir.
You ready? - That's why I'm here.
Let's go. - Let's do it.
- Things that could go wrong on this boar, you know,
obviously there's bones in there.
It could cause a chip in my blade,
but I'm eager to see this thing get tested.
♪ ♪
- Nice job, man.
- All right, Josh, your edge is sharp.
As you can see, it cut the pig in half.
Overall sir, your Sutton Hoo, it will KEAL.
- Thank you.
[tense music]
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test,
the enemy shield chop.
I'm gonna be using your Sutton Hoo swords
to chop into these enemy shields.
Jarred, you're up first. You ready?
- Yes, sir. - Cool.
♪ ♪
- Great job, bud. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jarred, subtlest of things on this handle.
These rivets are still a little sharp.
You know, they need to be peened over a little more.
So on the base of my hand,
I was getting a little bit of rubbing.
Your blade has taken small rolls, but in general,
this held up really well.
I think you did a great job making a Sutton Hoo sword.
So nice job. - Thank you.
- All right Josh, you're up. You ready?
- Do work.
♪ ♪
- All right, Josh, your handle,
I think you did a really great job.
I think that the artistry in here is beautiful.
As for blade damage, there's a couple of small rolls,
but in general, I think you did a great job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, this is the sharpness test,
the animal hide slice.
♪ ♪
Jarred, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
All right, Jarred, let's talk about your weapon here.
So as you see, when I'm cutting the hide,
this area right here is quite sharp.
But this area right here that took some rolling or damae
during the strength test just isn't quite sharp
and it skips, but overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, Josh, your turn, sir.
You ready? - Send it.
- Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- Nice job, man.
- All right, Josh, let's talk about your weapon here.
You have a wicked grind over here
'cause even on the areas
that took some rolling, it's still razor sharp.
On the cuts here, it's like hot knife through butter.
Overall, sir, your sword, it will cut.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, so you came to this forge to show
the world you have what it takes as bladesmiths
to win the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
and get a check for $10,000.
And I gotta say, both of you set the bar
extremely high with your swords.
And I know Ben is very proud of your work.
You should be too.
But, guys, at the end of the day,
only one of you can take the title.
Judges have made a final decision.
Today's "Forged in Fire" champion is...
♪ ♪
Is Josh. Congratulations, man.
Now, Jarred, you're an extremely talented smith,
but unfortunately, you're not going home with the win today,
and Ben Abbott's was gonna tell you why.
- Well, Jarred, you brought us an amazing Sutton Hoo replica.
I really like the Damascus pattern you put on there.
I like that you incorporated nickel
as an homage to the first two rounds.
But at the end of the day, your opponent's sword
just cut a little bit better in the sharpness and KEAL tests.
And it's for that reason we're letting you go.
- Understand. - Jarred, unfortunately,
your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
step off The Forge floor.
- Thank you all very much.
I'm happy with what I made. I did my very best.
But I don't think there's any question
that his blade performed better all around.
♪ ♪
- All right, Josh, congratulations, man.
You're the newest "Forged in Fire" champion,
and you got yourself a check for $10,000.
Congratulations.
How do you feel? - Pretty good.
I feel relieved, blessed, and ecstatic that I just won.
- Do you have plans for the money?
- I get the title. God gets the glory.
Wife gets a patio.
- Wife gets a patio.
- I had a blast performing under the pressure,
meeting new people.
If anybody's thinking about doing this, try it out.
It really was a lot of fun.
♪ ♪