[fire roaring]
[rock music]
- Over the course of four head-to-head competition,
We've seen eight former competitors,
U.S. Service members, redeploy to the forge.
Now, after those intense duels, only four of our smiths remain.
♪ ♪
With smiths from the army, the navy, the air force,
And the marines, it all comes down to this final battl.
Who will come out on top of our tournament,
Earn themselves a check for $10,000,
And that ever-coveted title of "forged in fire" champion?
The final battle starts now.
♪ ♪
- My name is garrett elting, united states marine corps.
I got out as corporal.
My first round, I had to make a machete
Out of fishhook canister damascus.
That feels good.
I didn't have very many oopsies
Or significant problems, and I'm ready to go.
♪ ♪
- My name is joe stickel.
I'm retired full-time oregon international guard
As chief master sergeant.
My first duel was challenging.
Having to make that ax
Out of twisted patterned damascus was tough.
I'm here by the skin of my teeth.
I would like to have a much better showing this round
Than I did in my first round.
♪ ♪
- My name's ethan lee, I am 29 years old,
And I am the winner of the champions duel.
I was in the navy for six years,
Stationed on a ballistic missile submarine.
So in the duel, I made a woodsman's pal
Out of ladder pattern damascus.
It came out all right, and I'm moving on
To hopefully become another "forged in fire" champion.
♪ ♪
- My name is fermin lopez. I am 52 years old.
I was united states army combat medic.
In my sergeant's duel, I made an m1915 bolo bayonet.
It was a great experience,
And now I'm here for the final competition.
I am so excited,
I haven't slept in the last 48 hours.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the final competition.
Four of you are here because you each came out
On top of your respective duels
In our armed forces redeployment tournament.
And you guys are about to battle it out
For the title of "forged in fire" champion
And a check for $10,000.
In this competition, there will be three rounds.
At the end of each one, you will present your work
To our panel of expert judges,
Who will then critique your work,
Make some eliminations, and have some testing.
Today's judges are blacksmith, bladesmith,
And two-time "forged in fire" champion ben abbott;
Historic weapons re-creation specialist david baker;
And edge weapons specialist
And kali martial artist doug marcaida.
We have a very unique challenge for you,
And to get it started,
Go ahead and take that cloth off your anvils for me.
Bladesmiths, what you see there are jars of ball bearings,
Band saw blades, and fishhooks.
We want you to make canister damascus billets
With those and turn them into blades.
But unfortunately for you guys,
We are completely out of canisters.
The good news is, we have quite a few of these.
♪ ♪
- [chuckles]
- Bladesmiths, what we have here are four replica
1914 bazookas.
And you guessed it, we want you to take those,
Chop them up, make your canisters with them.
- Boom, bazookas.
My first round, I had to make a machete
Out of fishhook canister damascus.
Not only do I have to do fishhook canister again,
But I've got to make my own can?
What the heck?
- In this first round of competition,
We want you to make your favorite combat blade,
But make sure it falls within these parameters.
Your blade length needs to be between 13 and 15 inches.
By the end of round one, you need to be set up
For a through-tang handle construction.
Now, bladesmiths, in round two of the competition,
You're gonna add handles to your combat blades,
Making them fully functioning weapons,
At which point, our judges are gonna check for strength
And durability in a torpedo chop,
And then we're gonna check your edge retention
In a playing card slice.
Bladesmiths, you have three hours on the clock
For the first round of competition.
So good luck, stay sharp. Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
- It is amazing how we got
All four branches right here represented.
- How would you guys go about making the caps
For either end of the can?
- You can just slit a little piece of that tue
And open it right out cold, hammer it flat, weld it o.
♪ ♪
- Normally when we start out
With canisters, they're square.
This is a tube.
Forge welding a cylinder is different
Than forge welding a square tube.
Definitely threw me for a loop a little bit.
I'm gonna squeeze that tube down
So that I have a flat piece,
And then I'm gonna cut those so I have end caps now.
- Oh, that's not a bad idea. - That's smart.
Now you just got three cuts.
Boom, boom, boom. Now you got two caps.
- Yeah. - Do it again, bud.
- I brought my picture of matt with me today.
We were roommates in two deployments together.
He's no longer with us,
But he's with us in spirit for sure.
I'm gonna fill it with fishhooks,
Some ball bearings, and some band saw blades.
This could come back to bite me in the ass
'cause of all the differing heat treats
And all these different materials.
I've been on "forged in fire" twice.
Might as well give it a shot, right?
♪ ♪
- Ethan's got a square bottom on the tube.
Is he gonna need to round it off?
- Yeah.
Usually you want the can and the cap
To be the same shape so the cap doesn't interfere
With the pressing of the can.
- I fill it up with powder and ball bearings.
It just seemed like the easiest choice.
Tapping the can as I go so that all the powder
Settles down and fills in
Every possible gap in that can.
Because if I don't, I can get a bad weld.
- Ethan's welding his can closed.
Garrett's welding his can closed.
So we've got two of these canisters
Going into the fire 15 minutes in.
That's pretty good for harvesting the material.
- We gave them three different materials
To fill their canisters with,
But we didn't tell them they had to use all three.
Fermin is like, "screw it.
Just chuck it in and see what sticks."
- I'm using all three types of steel
Because it gives a different pattern onto the blade.
At this point, I want to get the best pattern as I can
Because my competitors they're bringing their a-gam,
So I might as well bring mine too.
The last time that I was here,
I competed on the battle of branches
Representing the army,
And I actually came in second place.
♪ ♪
- So my plan is just to cut a 2-inch piece off,
Cut it in half, forge it down flat.
That way, I can shape the end caps
To actually fit inside of the canister.
- Joe took time to inset those lids for his welds.
- Welding!
When you're applying that kind of pressure on a canister,
It's gonna be stronger if your caps are on the inside.
I'm gonna use all the material I have.
We might get some kind of a camo pattern.
I mean, it's a canister. Have fun with it.
Got to let it get hot.
- None of them used white out, so they're gonna have
That mild steel on the outside.
- They're gonna have to grind a lot off.
- It's getting hot, man. - Yeah.
- Ethan and garett are neck and neck right now.
- I know.
- I get over to the press.
I start just lightly tapping it.
I want to get it more into a rectangular shape.
After it gets to that rectangle,
You're pretty much forge welded.
- Garrett's ready to chop off his end
And see how his weld set.
- Worst-case scenario, I cut the end off of it
And ball bearings roll out.
If that happens, I'm gonna have to start over.
So this is kind of a make-or-break moment.
♪ ♪
Hey, it's solid.
I'm ecstatic. The hard part's over.
♪ ♪
- The only way I've ever made a canister
Is by using a power hammer,
And I've always been successful.
So it's game day, and I'm not gonna change my ways.
♪ ♪
Everything looks as solid as it can be.
- Bladesmiths, you have two hours left.
- I love it, man. - You got man. You got it.
- I love it.
[laughter]
- This is what it's all about, brotherhood and having fu.
- That dude's having a blast.
- Meanwhile, we got joe kind of lagging behind here.
- Can't rush it.
I'm not gonna make any effort
To keep up with these young guys.
I'm just gonna stick to slow and smooth is fas.
So while my canister is heating up in the forge,
I start laying out some sketch work on my blade.
I'm gonna make a ka-bar,
Some type of a clip-point combat fighting knife.
♪ ♪
- We're asking these guys to make their version
Of a combat knife.
But they need enough mass and volume
To both chop and a blade shape that's good for slicing.
- We asked for a combat-ready blade.
If we get four ka-bars, I'm happy.
♪ ♪
- As soon as I cut it off, I can see a solid billet.
That's telling me that it's nice and compact.
♪ ♪
I'm going with the ka-bar theme.
We only have three hours to create this blade,
And the ka-bar is one of the easiest blades to make.
So that's what I'm going with.
- I draw this can out pretty nice and easy with the press.
I don't want to cause a break at this point.
Now let's make a ka-bar.
I made one in my battle of the branches episode,
So I'm familiar with it.
Once I've got the tang kind of forged where I want it,
I use big blu to forge my ti.
♪ ♪
- A ka-bar is just the first military knife
That comes to mind.
I've made a few ka-bars back home,
So it's a good choice.
I ground off that can.
And right now, my blade still looks relatively heavy,
So I think I'm gonna add me a fuller to reduce the weight.
- If you're not proficient at making fullers,
Could that potentially be a dangerous thing?
- Oh, yeah. - Absolutely.
- First off, they can just be janky-looking,
And sometimes you could grind it right through.
♪ ♪
- This [bleep] thing.
I realize that it looks uneven.
It's probably a better idea to leave it off.
If I screw it up, I'll be going home.
- All right, bladesmiths, you have one hour left.
- Now that I have the shape and I have it
Nice and polished, I take it into the acid etch
To see where my steel is at this time.
So I take the blade out and I'm looking at it
And I see some of the canister steel on the outside.
- So the black is the hardened steel
And the gray is the mild steel.
Fermin should be removing the mild steel from the edge
To leave the hardened steel as the cutting edge.
- Mild steel on the edge creates a soft spot.
I'm going to regrind it
And try to get some of that canister out of the edge.
I don't want to be sent home because my blade did not cut.
♪ ♪
- Joe's got a good-looking billet.
- As I'm drawing this thing out,
Everything's coming together just like I would like it to.
Are you kidding me?
As I'm forging my tip out, it starts to fish lip on m.
If I leave it unaddressed, it'll be a cold shut
And then that'll be a weak tip.
So I grind that off so that I can get good solid material.
Competing against these guys, I've got to have it just right.
- I look up at the clock,
And I know it's time to quench this thing.
I'm a little bit worried because I've got one type
Of steel that gets really hard really fast,
One that gets harder slower.
I don't know what the heck this blade's gonna do.
- Nice. - That was a nice quench, dude.
The edge was, like, that perfect salmon color.
- In the duel, I pulled a horrible warp
Out of the quench.
Whoa!
I'm really worried
That I'm gonna have to deal with this again.
♪ ♪
Whoo-hoo!
No warp. I'm blown away.
- All right, fermin thermal cycling right now.
- I get all three of my cycles done.
I go back to the forge.
I'm looking for a nice red color.
- I heat up the blade a little bit and I decide
I'm just gonna go for it.
- Oh, he's quenching. - In the oil.
- All right, so fermin just quenched.
- He's got a heck of a warp about midway down the spine.
- This is really bad.
The blade just came out of the quench.
It's extremely brittle.
If I pull too much, I'm gonna break it.
♪ ♪
- Holy [bleep].
- Ethan seems to have a warp.
He's in the vise, trying to straighten it out.
- While you're doing this,
You're kind of flirting with the undertaker.
I can snap it in two, which I've done before.
- He's being pretty aggressive here.
I don't want to see that thing snap.
♪ ♪
My blade is still warped.
I'm going to leave it alone because it's very unnoticeable.
♪ ♪
- I get most of the warp out to the point
That I can probably grind the rest of it out.
♪ ♪
- There we go. - All right.
- Four blades quenched.
- It's straight as an arrow.
So at this point, I start working on cleanup.
- This is an awesome competition.
From the moment the clock started,
These guys have been showing their skills.
There's not one
That's just running away from everybody else.
- And it could come down to the weight, the setup, the grinds.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, this round is over.
- Whoo!
- Everybody did a ka-bar,
So I know it's gonna come down to the little things.
The way the pattern looks,
If there's any cracks or anything like that,
That's gonna be what sends somebody home.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen,
In the first three hours of this competition,
You guys made cylindrical canisters
And turned them into combat blades.
And the time has come for the first critique,
So, garrett, you ready?
- Let's do it. - Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, garrett, first off,
Really cool pattern.
I see you used ball bearings in the center
And then you've got some fishhooks up here on the ti.
It really turned out cool.
You can really see it. It's very dramatic in there.
The grinds are nice and even.
Honestly, this blade's ready to put an edge on.
Great job.
- Joe, you're up next. Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- I was a little nervous
'cause you were towards the back of the pack
With getting things in the canister,
But you turned in a solid blade.
The one thing that does give me some concern, however,
Is that I'm looking at mild steel running
In and out of here at the edge.
So that's gonna have to be dealt with
'cause that's just gonna be a real soft spot.
The weight of this is good, but it gets some of that
From the grind that's kind of moving around.
But again, you brought in a solid blade
With good forge weld, so nice job.
- Thank you.
- Ethan, you're up next, man. You ready?
- Sure. - Please present your wor.
♪ ♪
- All right, ethan, let's talk about your blade here.
Your blade is straight as can be.
Took a lot of time to go to the acid bath
And really show the pattern,
And that's the beautiful thing about your knife here.
What I love about this, it's all hardenable steel.
You really took the time to clean up.
Overall, sir, good job.
- All right, last but not least,
Fermin, you're up. You ready?
- Yes, sir. - Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, fermin, your blade,
All the welds look good.
It looks very solid.
There are a couple things going on.
Right up here near the tang, you got a fairly good warp.
♪ ♪
You can see how the can has that very light
Kind of gray bronze.
Well, I've got that on your edge as well, couple of places.
♪ ♪
Other than that, hence the fast, light blade, good job.
- Thank you, sir.
- Now, bladesmiths, the judges have made a decision,
And one of you is gonna be heading home.
And the bladesmith that's gonna be leaving the forge is...
♪ ♪
Joe.
You brought us a good blade, but unfortunately
You're not gonna be moving forward
In the next round of the competition,
And david baker's gonna tell you why.
- Joe, first off, let me thank you for your service.
It means a lot to me. And you did a fantastic job.
And the level of this competition is just so high
That this really came down to which blade
Was the least refined, and that was your blade.
That's what we're basing our decision on.
- Thank you for the opportunity.
I appreciate it.
It's been great working with these guys.
- Joe, unfortunately at this time,
I'm gonna have to ask you to please surrender your work
And step off the forge floor.
- I feel good about the blade,
And I think it would have done good in the testing,
But we won't get to find out.
These are some great folks.
And the fact that we're all former military,
It's been a lot of fun.
I'm gonna go home and spend time with my family
And I'm gonna get back out to the shop
And I'm gonna continue to do that.
♪ ♪
- Congratulations, guys.
The three of you are moving forward
Into the second round
Of our armed forces redeployment tournament finals.
Now, 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.
So, guys, for this round, you're not allowed to use
Any synthetics or woods for your handle materials.
Gentlemen, you guys are gonna have to use
What's on your workstations.
Go ahead and take those cloths off for me.
♪ ♪
- Yeah, boy. - [laughs]
- Soon as I lift that cloth,
I'm excited because I just finished
Doing the leather stack on the sergeant's duel.
- Guys, what you have there are materials
To make stacked leather handles.
That is all you can use to make your grips.
Now, gentlemen, after this round is over,
You're gonna turn your finished blades in
To our judges, who are gonna check for strength
And durability in a torpedo chop
And then check your edge retention
In a playing card slice.
Bladesmiths, you have two hours on the clock.
Good luck. Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
- One thing that makes doing
A stacked leather handle difficult
Is, you need to dead reckon the height.
You need to put a guard on.
You need to put a pommel, butt cap, whatever on.
And you need the space in between to be correct.
It's not as easy as make it too long and trim it late.
- The first time I was on "forged in fire,"
I had to make a stacked leather handle.
Well, I had problems getting it shaped correctly
And was uglier than sin.
Now I have to do it again. I'm not very happy.
So what I'm gonna do is go to the band saw,
Cut my leather so the squares
Are about the size that I need to start my handle.
- Garrett's got stacks of leather
He's just gluing together with krazy glue
Even before punching any holes in them.
- I think that he's gonna set it all up with krazy glue
And just drill the whole stack all in one shot.
It's a little rough 'cause they do get a little wobbly.
It's hard to keep them in line.
- Argh!
The superglue didn't do what I want.
It's loose.
Now I'm gonna have to drill each one individually.
This wasn't in my plan.
[bleep].
- The judges didn't have anything bad to say
About my blade,
Which means I get to use all of this time
To only work on my handle, which is awesome.
For my guard and pommel, I choose to use brass
Because it's something easy to work with.
I'll be slotting the guard
To fit right up against the ricasso, or the blade.
Then I'll be drilling a hole in the pommel
So that I can screw everything together
And compress all of that leather
So that the leather pieces won't move around.
Looks good.
♪ ♪
- Fermin shouldn't be going anywhere but to his blade
And something to straighten it with.
It's not a bad warp,
So if you were to put it in the vise,
Bring that little section up to red,
Straighten it, let it cool, it'd be fine.
- Yeah.
- My plan is to leave warp alone for now
Because I'm afraid that if I put heat to it,
I might take the temper out of it.
- If that handle is not perfect and one of these guys
Don't fail, that warp could send him home.
- Yeah.
- I've got my guard set.
Whoo-hoo!
But the gap between my guard and my tang
Is a little bit too big.
The guard kind of rattles.
I need everything nice and tight,
Or else your handle could fall apart.
I know if I take it over to the press,
It's gonna take up that gap
And it's not gonna affect anything else.
I give it just a little squeeze.
♪ ♪
[bleep].
- Oh! - Oh, I hate to see it.
- It just went "pkew."
I've got a real big wrinkle in this thing,
And I'm worried that if I can't get it fixed,
I'm gonna have to start all over
And then might be me going home.
All right, that's not gonna work.
Smash it a little bit, get it flat again,
And we're good to go.
Can I waste any more time?
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, you have one hour
Left in the second round of this competition.
♪ ♪
- Threading the pommel on is the method
That I can guarantee you
I get 100% compression of all of that leather.
I try to thread this thing, and it's not working.
Come on, [bleep].
So I unscrew it, I look at I,
And my threads look terrible.
[bleep].
I scrap that plan.
I get a piece of all thread and I weld it on.
I am a little worried about how well it'll perform.
This [bleep] thing.
♪ ♪
- The problem with my edge is that
When I did the canister,
Some of the mild steel was still on the edge.
If I have any type of mild steel,
It's gonna be too soft.
- Fermin doesn't seem like he's gonna address
That warp at all.
- He's taking a big risk right there, a gamble.
- Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
- I'm grinding off the edge and testing it in the acid
To look to see where my mild steel is.
I'm good.
Yeah!
It's time to get the shape that I need.
- I get all the leather on that I need.
Everything's nice and tight.
I put my butt cap on
And I head over to the welder.
- Instead of bothering with threading a pommel,
He made a steel butt cap,
Compressed them, went over to the welder,
And just welded the butt cap on.
- Do you think he got enough compression over there?
- Hope so.
- Butt cap's on.
It's time to start shaping the handle.
- How are we feeling, guys?
You only have 30 minutes left until testing.
♪ ♪
- Five-minute epoxy, you don't have a lot of tim.
- Got to get enough compression
Between that leather in the guard and the pommel
So there aren't any fins coming off that.
- I finally get the pommel threaded onto the tang.
It starts to compress the leather,
Which is exactly what I want.
That's the hardest part of this whole thing,
So I start working on the pommel.
♪ ♪
- I'm gonna go ahead
And put a very small pinhole on my tang,
So that way, when I put all my handle together,
I can just pin it. Whoo!
Once I have the leather all stacked,
I try to put the end cap on,
And the pinhole is not lining up.
Come on, baby. Come on.
I start panicking.
If I don't put this pin
Within the next couple of minutes,
I'm gonna have to start all over again.
The hole is not lining up, so this is telling me
That I have too much leather.
So I have to take one piece of leather off,
Put the cap back on, and see if it lines up.
I have the pin through it, and I need to get going.
- A lot of hustle but no rushing.
This is what I love to see.
♪ ♪
Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, you crushed it. - Whoo!
- Prepare yourselves for testing.
- My biggest concern with these tests
Is something coming loose or breaking off on the handle.
It's all in the hands of the judges and my knife.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmith's, welcome to the strength test,
The torpedo chop.
To test the strength and durability of your blades,
I'm gonna be chopping into these torpedoes repeatedly.
This test isn't about what your knives do to these torpedoes.
It's whether these torpedoes explode your knives.
[laughter]
Garrett, you're up first. You ready for this?
- I guess so.
♪ ♪
I got a good heat treat.
I've got a decent-looking handle.
I'm pretty confident,
But this torpedo looks absolutely menacing.
♪ ♪
Holy [bleep].
[blade clattering]
[bleep]. - Dang it.
[exhales sharply]
- Ow.
- All right, garrett, couple things happened here.
The big thing, obviously, your blade broke.
I don't see any flaw in your steel here.
This is a nice tight grain, but I think what happened
Was, on one of the strikes, a chip came out,
And then the next strike,
It broke where the chip came out.
It did break, but it was doing great before it broke.
- It did a good job.
- But yeah, there's no denying that, obviously.
- [chuckles]
- Well, garrett, it's always hard to see
A blade explode like that,
But you're not quite out of this fight yet.
We have two more tests to go.
Ethan, fermin, you guys have to survive
Seven strikes on the torpedo in order to move forward
Into round three.
You guys ready? - Yes, sir.
- Sure. [laughter]
- Love it. All right.
Ethan, you're up first. Take it away, man.
♪ ♪
- Early on, I was going in, I was relatively confident,
But after seeing garrett's blade break,
All I got to do is survive.
♪ ♪
[item clatters]
- Oh.
- [bleep].
- Ethan, leather gives no support to a handle at all.
It's just free to move around, and it just snapped right thee
At the interface of the pommel and the tang.
♪ ♪
We aren't sure that these aren't just gonna slip
Right off as I start hitting.
It did suffer a catastrophic failure.
We're just not gonna be able to test this anymore.
- I understand.
♪ ♪
- All right, ethan, you got one strike before it exploded.
Which, garrett, that means you are moving forward
Into the third round of this competition,
So congratulations, man.
But, ethan, you're not out of it yet.
Fermin, you still have to survive one strike
On this brutal torpedo.
How's your heart doing?
- It's fine. It stopped, completely stopped.
[laughter]
- Well, fermin, you ready?
- Yes, sir. - All right, let's do it. Ben.
♪ ♪
- I just witnessed two exploding blades.
♪ ♪
I'm shaking. My knees are buckling on me.
I am very concerned.
♪ ♪
[exhales heavily]
♪ ♪
- Well, guys, I got to say
These are three beautiful blades,
But the torpedo has rung.
Ethan, due to the fact that your blade
Suffered a catastrophic failure on the first strike,
Your time in this competition has ended.
I want to say thank you for your service to our country
And letting us watch you work.
But unfortunately at this time,
I'm gonna have to ask you to please step off
The forge floor.
- Kill it, guys. - All right, guy.
- Thank you. - I didn't win
And I'm gonna be going home early,
But the challenges were hard,
The tests were brutal,
But I'm walking away with a lot of new friend.
And I'm still a two-time champion,
And there's very few of those.
- Well, garrett, fermin, you guys rose above the competition
In your duels, getting yourselves a check for $2,000.
It is down to the army and the marines,
Battling it out for the title of "forged in fire" champion
And a check for $10,000.
Now in this final round,
We're sending you back to your home forges
To build an iconic weapon from history.
In keeping up with the military theme, guys,
We want you to build this,
The ames cavalry saber.
[both grunt]
- The ames 1860 cavalry saber was a weapon of choice
For both union and confederae armies during the civil war.
The lightweight sword features a slightly curved blade
Designed to deliver deadly slashes and stabs
Against enemy troops,
While the ornate guard serves to protect the soldier's hand.
Originally produced by the ames manufacturing company
In massachusetts,
The 1860 cavalry saber was retired from combat duty
After the spanish-american war.
However, it is still used for ceremonial purposes toda.
- Now, bladesmiths, when you're building your sabers,
We want you to fall within these parameters.
Your blade needs to measure between 34 and 36 inches
From tip to the guard.
It needs to have a curvature.
Now, as far as the hilt goes, you need to have a guard
That is at least 2 1/2 inches wide,
Has a knuckle bow, two side rings.
Keeping the whole thing together is a butt cap.
- Never made anything close to this thing.
I'm not really set up to make swords at my home forge,
So this is gonna be a whole bunch of new territory for me.
- Guys, you have four days to build your cavalry sabers.
Good luck. We'll see you then.
♪ ♪
- It's really nice to be back home in lincoln, nebraska,
Making the saber.
All right, let's make some damascus.
I used 15n20 and 1080
To make my damascus.
That went good.
I think it's really gonna set me apart.
♪ ♪
We're ready to roll.
Never really made anything this long before.
It's gonna be difficult, but I think I can get it done.
Nice and easy.
I've got one more forge weld to go,
And then we're about ready to start making the sword.
♪ ♪
- We're in winston-salem, north carolina.
Let's get started.
First thing I'm gonna do today,
I'm gonna go ahead and go with damascus.
Go big, or go home.
The first time that I was on the show,
I did not have a press.
Now that I have the press, I can't wait to use it.
Hoping for the best on this one.
Welds are really good.
I'm getting it nice and squished.
I'm having a good time, and all of a sudden...
[machine grinds]
♪ ♪
Ah!
[laughs]
My billet is stuck on the press.
I can't get it out.
The gears break. My press is stuck.
I can't get my billet out.
I might as well have to start another one.
Stuck.
So now that my damascus billet is stuck,
I have nowhere to go but to go to my backup plan.
I have a 1946 jeep leaf spring,
Military issue, that I'm gonna use for this.
The leaf spring is almost as close
As the thickness that I need.
So pretty much all I have to do now
Is forge the bevel and forge the tip.
So now that I have met the parameters,
I'm going for the quench.
All right. Perfect.
♪ ♪
[blade scraping]
It's hard. Man.
I'm throwing in the towel.
[laughs]
- Here we are, day three.
Yesterday I forged out the blade.
We're gonna heat-treat today.
I'm kind of shooting from the hip.
My plan is to have two ovens facing each other.
I'll pull them apart, pull the blade out,
And then go into the quench.
It's kind of crunch time right now.
I'm getting ready to quench.
Cross our fingers that we can get actual hard blade.
If not, it's gonna be a huge problem.
[dramatic music]
Pull the blade out, everything came out really warp-y.
I'm gonna go ahead
And straighten it with my straightening jig.
It's not as bad as it was, yeah.
- It's the morning of day three.
I am ready for today.
So yesterday I got my guard shaped.
Let's see.
The last time I was on the show,
J. Neilson actually hurt his hand
Because my guard was too small.
Oh! This time, I'm making sure there's nothing
That could injure the judges.
Even though it's not a requirement,
I am going to cover the inside of the guard
With a piece of leather.
That way, there's a little bit of cushion
Between the hand of the judges and the guard.
Yeah.
Now that the guard is cleaned up...
Let's see.
I'm gonna pick up some wood.
Here we go.
So I picked a nice piece of black walnut,
Which is native of north carolina.
All right, there we go.
I'm feeling good about my sword.
Tomorrow it's just gonna be just the finishing touches.
- Start of day four.
So plan of attack for today is
Make everything look nice and shiny and good
And then get everything put together.
Now I think it's time to get over
And get this thing assembled.
[bleep] yeah.
This is the first sword I've ever done.
Trying to decide if it's gonna be sturdy enough.
It's probably gonna be fine. I'm just overthinking it.
But I'm gonna stick with knives.
They're more my style.
Totally fully assembled, it looks badass.
I think matt would really, really enjoy this.
I think he would love to go and hack on some stuff with it.
That's for sure.
♪ ♪
Everything went great.
- It's the morning of day four. I'm super excited.
There we go.
The sword is 99% completed.
The first time, I decided not to test it.
I was not confident.
This time, I am gonna test it with pineapple.
To my knowledge, I am the only puerto rican
That has ever been on the show,
And I am so proud to be able to represent puerto rico.
♪ ♪
It will cut.
It's the end of day four. I am completely done.
Now it's in the hands of the judges.
♪ ♪
- Garrett, fermin, welcome back to the forge, guys.
Now we're down to the two of you battling it out
For the title of "forged in fire" champion
And a check for $10,000.
So we gave you four days at your home forges to build
Your ames cavalry sabers, and they look great.
But before these guys get to testing,
I want to hear about them.
So, garrett, how'd it go for you?
♪ ♪
- I did a w's pattern,
Damascus on the outside with a cru forge v core.
- Well, it looks good.
Fermin, how'd it go for you?
♪ ♪
- It's 5160 steel, and it's black and gold,
Representing the united states army
Parachute team the golden knights.
- That's awesome. Well, guys,
We have a sharpest test, we got a strength test,
And up first, the keal. Doug?
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, this is the keal test.
I'm gonna take your weapons.
I'm gonna deliver some lethal blows
To this ballistics dummy.
Garrett, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Sure. - All right. Let's do it.
♪ ♪
- Since the test is so brutal,
I think my biggest worry is taking edge damage.
♪ ♪
- Ah!
Oh!
♪ ♪
[groans]
Damn. - [laughs]
♪ ♪
- All right, garrett, let's talk about
Your ames cavalry saber here.
First up, your handle construction.
So I'm able to get my hand in it and I've got a good grip,
But your guard is small, because every time I swing,
I'm hitting it with my knuckle right thee
And I can feel that impact.
But that edge cuts very deep
Into this ballistics dummy even on the thrust.
Overall, sir, your ames cavalry saber,
It will keal.
- Thank you.
- Okay, fermin, it's your turn, sir.
Are you ready? - Yes, I am.
- Let's do this. [laughter]
- The ballistic dummy is a very tough test
Because there's bones inside.
You don't want to get the blade shift
Or you don't want to even have bend.
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
- Hell yeah.
- All right, fermin, let's talk about your cavalry saber here.
This is a heavier blade, but it really aids in the cuts.
These are much deeper cuts because of the weight
That you have in here.
And of course, at the end,
It sliced and diced the head off easily.
Overall, sir, your saber, it will keal.
- Yeah!
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen, it's time for the strength tes,
The caisson chop.
I'll be taking your sabers
And chopping into this ammunition case.
Now, this test is not about
What your blades do to that case
But what the case might do to your blades.
♪ ♪
Garrett, you're up first. You ready?
- Yeah.
It's pretty brutal slamming into that thing like that.
You never know what could happen.
When he comes down a little bit odd,
Could break my edge.
If that happens, I'm going home.
♪ ♪
- All right, first off, garrett,
Your blade edge took no damage whatsoever,
Which is great.
But what's happened is, you've got these leather washers
Top and bottom of your guard, and those are compressed,
So now you've got a guard that's loose.
But it's still really maneuverable.
You got the balance and the weight really nic.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
- Fermin, you're up. You ready?
- Yes, sir. Yes, I am. - Okay.
♪ ♪
- Oh, my god.
♪ ♪
Oh!
♪ ♪
- All right, fermin,
Your blade is in good shape.
There's one section right here
That's just not that sharp.
Your handle is a little on the large side,
But the leather underneath here
Made it comfortable, but all in all,
Still solid, still in the one piece.
Nicely done. - Thank you, sir.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, this is the sharpness test,
The canvas tent slice.
♪ ♪
To find out how sharp your sabers are,
I'm gonna take your weapons
And slice on these canvas tents.
Garrett, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Let's do it.
♪ ♪
- Nice job, bro. - Yes, sir.
- All right, garrett,
Let's talk about your saber here.
Your edges took no damage and are razor sharp.
The guard is still a little loose,
But overall, sir, your saber, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, fermin, it's your turn, sir.
You ready? - Yes, sir.
- Let's do it. - All right.
♪ ♪
- Here we go.
♪ ♪
- All right, fermin, let's talk about your edge over here.
So you have a sharp edge all the way through
Except that one section right here you missed.
But it still cuts on the canvas,
And overall, sir, your weapon, it will cut.
- Yes.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths.
Well, I got to say it's been an absolute honor
Watching a bunch of fellow veterans come into our forge.
But the armed forces redeployment tournament
Has come to an end, and the judges have made a decision.
Today's "forged in fire" champion is...
♪ ♪
Fermin. Congratulations.
Now, garrett, you fought hard,
And I'm happy to watch you work here,
But unfortunately your blade did not make the cut toda,
And doug's gonna tell you why.
♪ ♪
- Garrett, you brought us a blade that not only
Is beautiful; it's sharp, and I love the balance.
But these sabers are known to take a beating
As well as give a beating,
And your guard loosened during our test.
That's the reason why.
- I understand.
- Well, garrett, I know I speak for everybody here when I say
Thank you for your service to our country,
But unfortunately I'm gonna have to ask you
To please step off the forge floor.
♪ ♪
- Good job, brother. - All right, thanks, man.
All right, thanks, guys.
Fermin made a really great sword,
So he definitely deserved
To take home the title, that's for sure.
There was eight guys to start out with,
And to go through all that we have gone through
Was pretty incredible.
I'd love to take home that title,
So yeah, I'd probably give it another go.
♪ ♪
- Well, fermin, congratulations, man.
That means you are the champion
Of the armed forces redeployment tournament,
And you just won yourself a check for $10,000.
Congratulations. - Whoo. Man!
Man, I just became the "forged in fire" champion.
Wepa!
I feel great. I feel blessed.
The army took it again.
- Fermin, seeing you at a loss for words...
[laughter]
- I want to go home, have a beer, relax,
And just enjoy the moment.
[laughs]
♪ ♪