- 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.
- But now for the first time ever,
our judges are gonna be
the architects of this competition.
This is the judge's takeover. Over the next four weeks,
they will be choosing every aspect of the competition,
the weapons, the challenges, and all of the tests.
With the judges at the helm, the smiths are going to be
challenged like never before, with each of our judges
bring their own unique twist to the competition.
It's time for the judge's takeover to begin.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- I am Dale Brannigan from Shelby, North Carolina.
I design technology systems for banks
and financial institutions.
I like forging for the escape,
get to hit things with hammers, and play with fire. [laughs]
- My name's Wesley Crum.
My full-time job is a wildland firefighter
for the state of Mississippi.
Being a firefighter, sometims you've got to make
a split-second decision going one way or the othe.
So I think it's prepared me for this competition.
- I'm John Blankman from Avon, Utah.
I'm a fire sprinkler contractor.
I like bladesmithing 'cause at this point in my life,
I'm stuck behind a desk most of the time
and this allows me to get back out
and do things with my hands, and it's just fulfilling.
- My name is Tyler Grantrodm. I'm from Ordway, Colorado.
The way I got into bladesmithing
was actually "Forged in Fire."
When I saw the competition, it kind of gave me a push
to give it a try and the knives that I've finished
ended up looking a little more like a knife than I expecte.
So I made another and then another
and then another and here I am.
- Bladesmiths welcome to the Forge.
You're all here because you are talented bladesmiths,
but what we want to find out
is do you have what it takes to compete for $10,000
and the title of Forged in Fire Champion.
We've got three intense rounds of bladesmithing competition
lined up for you. At the end of each one,
you're going to present your work
to our panel of expert judges
who will then make a critique and an elimination.
Those judges are ABS Mastersmith J. Neilson,
Historic Weapons re-creation specialist Dave Baker,
and edge weapons specialist Doug Marcaida.
You four are lucky enough to take part
in a series of challenges we're calling the judge's takeover.
Now in each one of these competitions,
our judges have decided the weapons, the tests,
and the challenges that you will be going through.
- I'm feeling a little freaked out right now.
Worried about what's coming
and which judge it's going to be.
- Tonight, it's J's turn to take over.
- He's just got that crazy look on his face.
If you look up insanity in the dictionary
you're going to see a picture of J. Neilson
rubbing his hands with a crazy smile on his face.
It's very frightening.
- Welcome to my competition.
I guarantee you this is not going to be easy.
First of all, you guys see you got a cloth on your anvil
if you haven't watched my DVDs, you're going to wish you did.
Go ahead and pull that cloth.
Your challenge today, gentlemen, is to make a blade
using one of my favorite techniques,
canister Damascus, but I don't want you to make just any blade
I want you to recreate a unique blade that I made.
♪ ♪
This, gentlemen, is what I call a serpentine push dagger.
The idea for this design
actually came from this competition.
I decided I want to challenge myself.
Now, you're going to recreate my serpentine push dagger,
but you have to stay within these following parameters,
your dagger blade must be between 8 and 9 inches,
but your blade also has to have a recurve,
you need to be set up for a full tang design,
and you must remove your canister.
I'm not going to make it that easy on you guys.
- Now, 2 1/2-inch recurve is a big recurve
on a 9-inch knife.
- All right, guys, good luck.
- That's going to be a challenge.
- Now in round two of this competition,
you will add handles to your blades turning thm
into fully functioning weapons at which point our judges
will check for strength and durability
in a sheet metal punch and a metal chain slash.
Then we're going to check for edge retention
in a canvas stab and slice.
You have three hours on the clock.
Good luck, gentlemen, make J proud.
Your time starts now.
- Boy oh boy, this is brutal.
- I have watched J. Neilson's DVDs
on how to make canister multiple, multiple times.
My wife is sick of seeing them. [laughs]
First thing I'm going to do
is get Wite-Out in that can and let it dry.
- This is where preparation is really important.
- Yeah, and you really have to follow the steps
just like a recipe to get that Wite-Out dried out
because if you don't then those ball-bearings
are going to have Wite-Out on it
and then they're not going to weld together,
and then the can can fuse to the billet.
- It's going to be hard for e to concentrate
knowing that J. Neilson is going to be staring there
and I'm just going to feel it in the back of my head.
I think that's gonna help me though and be like,
"Hey, you better bring the A-game."
- Why do you want to see the can off?
- Having this double-edged dagger, it's not super wide
so I'd want the can off completely
so it won't be right on the edge or anything.
- While I have my steel in the forge
to give it a little extra soak time,
I go over and I measure the serpentine dagger.
- You can leave that canister in there for quite a while
and I wouldn't take it out until I saw the outside
of the can starting to melt like a stick of butter.
- My favorite thing about J.
Neilson is his complete lack of mercy.
- All four of the smiths have grabbed their canister,
filled them with ball-bearings,
and sometimes to save time they leave the can on.
- Well, we weren't doing that this time.
- You are evil.
- I think J. Neilson's just the guy that likes a challenge
and he likes to see other people challenged too.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- Whoa, Tyler's got a big burn hole
coming through his canister there.
- I see that I have a hole in one of my wields
so my Wite-Out is leaking and causing a little fire.
I need to weld that back up. I'm a little worried
that I might've burnt out all of my Wite-Out
'cause it possibly could stick to the can.
So I can't peel something that's welded on.
I hope it's good.
- This moment is crucial.
Setting the welds is the most important part
'cause if you give it too much pressure
or not enough pressure, you're starting over.
- Wesley on the press.
- There he goes. Wesley's cooking.
- First weld set. I feel good.
Hopefully, I can peel this can right off.
[bleep]. It's not moving. It's welded solid.
So I don't know if I didn't use enough Wite-Out
or if I didn't let it dry enough or what,
but I can't spend any more time on this.
I decided that I'm just going to leave it on,
forge it out, and then grind it away.
- Grinding a can off is very time-consuming.
Wesley goes through all this, etches it,
and you could see patches of canister on there.
Does not bode well for Wesley's chances.
♪ ♪
- My can looks nice like hot melty butter.
Now it's time to set my first weld.
- Dale's gone for his first press
and he looked like he was pretty hot
and he didn't bite down too hard
on that first pressing which is great.
- Almost there.
♪ ♪
- John just did his first pass in the press
and it looked like he was nice easy touches.
- But that billet was not as screaming hot.
As we've seen not having enough heat in the billet
you might find
that the core of that billet isn't welded properly.
- It seemed to be moving well.
I'm going to try to peel a can off.
♪ ♪
Oop. It was not welded yet.
- Uh-oh, John didn't like what he saw in there. Uh-oh.
- Too soon.
So I--back to the welder seal it back up again
and go back in the fire.
- One problem with that is the Wite-Out is already cooked
so now it's probably going to weld to the billet inside.
- Bladesmiths, you have two hours remaining!
♪ ♪
- I'm trying to peel my can by grinding off the corner,
but the problem is I don't see a seam anywhere.
So that tells me that my billet is weld into the can.
- I think my Wite-Out ended up burning out
through a little bit of holes I had.
So it didn't stop it from sticking like it should.
So I'm going to have to grind it off instead of peeling.
- Tyler and Wesley I'm really worried about the amount
of grinding they have in front of them.
- I'm pretty far behind, so I gotta pick it up.
♪ ♪
- All right, looks like Dale has a clean billet.
Got the can ground off.
- It is shiny all the way across
and I'm going to start to use the press
to stretch out the billet lengthwise
and to isolate the handle.
- This would be the ideal time for Dale to go over one,
isolate that small section at the back,
and then go and fuller it out.
- You really need a T-shaped blade.
- Yep.
- Oh, I think that's what he's doing.
- When I make normal knives,
the tang goes in line with the knife.
This is perpendicular, so I have to stretch
this thing out sideways, which is not something
that I do on a regular basis.
♪ ♪
- Well, I get it out and pressed again.
Try this again.
- Again, I don't know if he was hot enough to get it to weld.
- Here we go. Let's see.
- What in the hell? I can't peel the can off.
The canister had actually pinched on
to the harder steel inside.
- John's tired.
- Oh, he's beet--he's beet red. - Oh, hell.
I don't even know if I can save this billet.
If I can't peel that can off
I'm going to be the first one to go home.
I guess I gotta start over.
♪ ♪
- An hour and 20 minutes in, and John is starting over.
- John's biggest thing he needs to do is get the can together
and leave it in there to get hot enough.
- The pressure has doubled but I don't quit.
- Bladesmiths, you're halfway through round one!
You have 90 minutes remaining!
- I got to fix and 'bout--cut about half of my billet off.
I have gotten to start folding the shape.
The shape of this blade is very difficult.
Not only do you have four bevels to deal with,
but you also have the extreme curve to deal with too
and that just makes it insanely hard.
We're going to bend it some more.
- I mean, who would have thought
this would be a hard challenge?
- Gosh, J, you came up with it.
[laughter]
- If you don't challenge the smiths, they won't improve.
- But Tyler's aggressively hammering on that horn trying
to get that deep 2 1/2-inch curve in there.
- Tyler is doing a good job.
- He just got so much material.
♪ ♪
- Dale's is looking pretty good.
- I am feeling exhausted, but it's looking really cool.
It kind of looks like a python.
I have everything nice and straight.
I go start getting ready for my quench.
Do a couple of quick heat cycles.
Hopefully, refine whatever horrible grain I created.
♪ ♪
It's definitely hard. That's good. I gotta go and--
- Bladesmiths, you're down to one hour!
- On the second billet
I'm feeling a lot better about the heat.
So I should be good with the forge welding.
- John did, fortunately,
at least let that billet get hotter.
That color was a lot better the second time around.
- Oh, yeah, it was.
- I know I don't have any time left to do anymore,
but I start peeling the can off.
♪ ♪
- Well, let's hope John has better results this time.
- Go, John!
- There we go, John. - There we go.
- The billet is good.
Now I have to go to town with metal.
- Bladesmiths, you have 30 minutes remaining!
♪ ♪
- I pull my blade out of the quench,
and it does not look like it really warped any
and so it looks okay.
And now I'm gonna try to bring it to the grinder
and try to grind off as much of this can that I ca.
- Wesley, I'm really worried about
because it's less than 25 minutes.
He got to shave and grind all that canister off and quench.
- He's kind of missing that recurred shape that you have.
- Pull it out. I see there's a little warp,
but I don't have time to mess with it.
I've got to get to the grinder maybe I can grind it out.
I'm just running out of time.
- Bladesmiths, you have 10 minutes remaining!
♪ ♪
- My shape on this thing is really rough but I just hae
to pull the plug on making it look pretty,
and get it in there to get it quenched.
♪ ♪
- John has done a fabulous job
of coming back from absolute disaster.
- Five, four, three, two, one. Gentlemen,
turn off your machines, put down your tools.
This round is over!
- [grunts]
- That was a lot harder than I expected.
I am extremely happy
with what I was able to do in an hour and a half.
I didn't think that I was gonna be able to do it,
but I knew I wasn't going to quit trying.
- All right, gentlemen,
in the first three hours of this competition
we asked you to make canister Damascus and recreate
J's serpentine push dagger.
Not an easy challenge, but you all came through.
So congratulations.
But the time has come for the first critique and eliminatio.
Dale, you're up please present your work.
- All right, Dale,
by far you, have the closest design over here
to what J has good job on that, but the problem with your blade
is you've got to tip really thin at the end
and that could be a problem in testing.
If you move forward it's about refining your blade
and making it functional
so that it operates without any issues at all. Good job.
- All right, Wes, you're up next please present your work.
- All right, Wesley, first off your steel looks pretty good,
but we do have a couple issues.
You definitely need more mass on the handle
to make it comfortable and match that.
You could always add material and stuff like that.
My big thing is even if you add the material the point
is supposed to be lined up with the index finger,
and you could tell it's not.
Doing a thrust with this I'd have to move my arm
and kind of hook into it to stab with it.
You just need to find a way
to make this look closer to that.
- John, you're up next. Please present your work.
- John, first off, man, you worked hard to make this.
I commend you on that.
You don't have that forward point,
but there's enough mass in this blade
that I can almost trace
that blade onto this blank which is a plus.
For the most part, you've got a solid piece of steel.
It's good work.
- Thank you.
- Tyler, please present your work.
- All right, Tyler, there's a lot of steel still here,
but on the plus side, you got the shape pretty close.
You do have that forward-facing tip,
but you definitely need to do something down here.
Add some more to the tang.
If you move into the second round,
I think you've got a good chance
of making a viable copy of this knife.
It's a good job. - Thank you.
- I made this blade in an hour and a half.
I'm just nervous, tense, and expecting the worst.
- All right, gentlemen,
the judges have made the decision and the bladesmih
leaving the forge is...
Wesley. Unfortunately, your blade didn't make the cut,
and Doug's gonna tell you why.
- Wesley, I really appreciate all the effort and time
that you put in, but at the end of the day,
your blade has the least amount of material
to make it a viable blade and get back on track.
And for that reason, we're sending you home.
- Understood.
- Well, Wesley you fought hard
through a very difficult competition,
but unfortunately, your blade's not going to be moving forward
to the next round.
For that reason, I'm going to have to ask you
to please surrender your work and step off the Forge floo.
- This blade was extremely difficult.
It's definitely the hardest thing I've ever done,
but I am going to go home and make a serpentine push dagger
and it's going to look just like J. Neilson's
and I'm going to send him a picture of it.
- Gentlemen, congratulations.
The three of you are moving forward
into the second round of this competition.
And in this round, J's got a stipulation for you.
- Bladesmiths, remember you have to sharpen both your edge,
being a dagger, and you have to add handles.
And for that you're going to use one of my favorite
handle materials, burl wood
- Now, guys, at the end of this round,
the judges are going to test for strength and durability
in a sheet metal punch
and a metal chain slash.
Then they're going to check your edge retention
in a canvas stab and slice.
Bladesmiths, we've put two hours on the clock
for this round of the competition.
Good luck. Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
- Well, Dale set himself up
in a really good position for this round.
He's got the least amount of work to do.
- I have to work on the tip
so hopefully it'll hold up in the sheet metal punch.
- Dale's tip is a little bit lean and longer
than what yours is.
Do you leave yourself open
for the testing of that tip to snap off?
- Basically, I just have a knife blank
with a very rough shape.
So first thing I'm gonna do is take my knife up to the example
and try and trace out a little bit of a shape.
- Look what John's doing... - That's smart.
- Perfect. He had a billet bigger
all around than your example. So now just reduce to the size.
- Exactly.
♪ ♪
- Tyler's got a lot of grinding to do.
- Good thing about Tyler's blade
is it's got the form that we're already looking for.
- Yeah. - My to-do list for this round
is I have to get all this weight off this knife
and then try to get my thick,
thick edges into some sort of edge.
- Making a push dagger handl, which is T-shaped,
the tang is perpendicular to the blade.
We have to put some wood scales on there
and it has to be large enough to be comfortable
and small enough to fit in the hand.
- You look at J's design and the handle size
isn't that big, that does not mean
it's any less complex than any other handle.
- I got my pins in the handle material,
I just got to shape it, make it comfortable,
take the hotspots off, and get it ready.
- Bladesmiths, you are down to one hour!
- I got the handle roughly ground out.
Figured it's time to get some pinholes in it.
It's drilling great--
[groans] and then it hits hard spot.
Nope. Figured I am not wasting any more time
I'm gonna go straight to the cutting torch.
- John's got the hot wrench.
- John is blowing holes. - Yeah, he's blowing holes.
- He's blowing holes. - Oh, no.
Let's hope he doesn't accidentally overheat that
and lock that tang right off.
- Using now the torch, I can overheat my metal
and lose my temper and hardness in the tang,
but I just don't have time. I've got to try it.
So I've got one shot. I got to get this done right.
- All right, moment of truth.
Oh, wow, those are the cleanest holes
I've seen with a torch.
- I got the holes burning through the tang,
but I know I still have a lot to do.
So now I have to move on.
- Bladesmiths, you have 30 minutes
before testing and elimination!
♪ ♪
Tyler's still taking a ton of material off.
- I've been at the grinder for a while
and I'm just going to continue
until I get it to where I can feel an edge.
So once I'm there I'll go to my handle.
- Oftentimes we see the smiths their handle
is like an afterthought,
but their handles often times send them home
because they're not refined enough
or they're actually dangerous for you guys to swing.
♪ ♪
- I'm feeling pretty good about this blade.
Trying to make it as sharp as I can
before the end of the round.
- With all the curves around it,
it's important that aptly dip
to every edge of that which is gonna be difficult.
- The inside curves are horrible.
I have to use a small wheels and grind them vertically
to get in there and get them sharp.
- Now I need to start getting the handle shaped.
- It looks like he's got
a pretty bulbous egg-shaped handle
which is pretty important for this one
because you have to have a good solid grip.
- Yeah.
- And a lot of material in your palm.
- Tyler still doesn't have that handle shaped at all.
- I still have to make a punch dagger-type handle
so it's going to be a pain in the neck
to try to get inside those little grooves
to grind a perfect little handle for your fingers.
- Really worrying about Tyler. His handle is tiny.
There's so little to grip on to.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Gentlemen, put down your tools. This round is over!
- I feel pretty good.
I actually have a usable knife in front of me.
I wish my tang was a little bit longer,
but I think it feels pretty good for my hands.
We'll have to see.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test.
Our sheet metal punch and steel chain slash.
Remember, it's not what your serpentine daggers
do to that steel
I want to see what the steel does to your daggers.
And Tyler, you're ready to go?
- I guess so. - All right, let's do it.
- I am concerned a little bit about my handle
because it is a little smaller than the other ones,
but I'm hoping they can hold on to it
I tried to make it nice and thick.
- [laughs]
[metal music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Tyler, you survived.
Good job. Your blade is super thick, still, I mean,
it's--it's almost a 1/4-inch-thick
and you did take some chipping on the chain.
The handle is a big problem.
There's very little to hold onto here.
This thing keeps twisting
and--and digging and biting into me.
It's just really hard to comfortably use this piece,
but that being said, you did survive.
It's a good job.
- Thank you.
- You ready to go, John?
- Ready as I'll ever be.
- All right, well, let's do it then.
♪ ♪
- The chain is a lot bigger
than I thought it was going to be
and all I can think is, "Here comes the end."
[metal music]
♪ ♪
- All right, John, you survived. Good job there.
The first few strikes went in real deep,
you know, a thinner blade, good edge on it. Good job.
- Thank you.
- Hey, Dale, how are you feeling?
- Uh, I'm feeling okay.
- Let's do it.
- J is punching that sheet really hard.
I'm worried that my tip's gonna break off
in that sheet metal, and then I'm worried
that the chain is going to destroy my edge.
[metal music]
♪ ♪
- [groans]
- Well, Dale, your edge held up really good,
but you had that extension on the tip
and when I did the chain it just--the tip flew off.
But seriously, looking at your grain structure, it's not bad.
So it's not from a poor heat treat.
It was probably just, you know,
some slight flaw in there that you couldn't see.
It's not a catastrophic failure.
We'll just call it a violent re-profiling.
I think you're still good.
- Thank you.
- All right, bladesmiths, time for the sharpness test.
To find out how sharp your weapons are I'm going
to take your weapon and stab and slice on this canvas.
Tyler, you're first, ready for this?
- Yes, sir.
- Let's do this.
♪ ♪
All right, Tyler, let's talk about your serpentine dagger.
First up, the handle, the handle is just too small
for a big blade like this
because of that with prolonged use
it could hurt the user quite a bit.
Now though stout,
you have some sharp edges where you have a clean-cut,
but there are also areas over here with some dullig
that actually just rip rather than cut clean.
But overall, sir, your serpentine dagger it will cut.
- Thank you, Doug.
- All right, John, it's your turn. So you ready?
- Yup.
- All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
All right, John, let's talk about your dagger right here.
First up, this area right here is sharp enough
to puncture on this canvas.
The edge cuts cleanly.
Overall, sir, you're a weapon it'll cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, Dale, your turn, sir. You ready?
- Yeah. Let's poke some stuff.
- All right. Let's poke.
♪ ♪
All right, Dale, let's talk about
your serpentine dagger right here.
You're a tip, despite getting some damage
during the strength test it was able to puncture.
Not easily, I mean, I pretty much popped it,
but it was able to go through. Your edges are sharp.
So you've got some nice clean cuts in there and overall, si,
your weapon, it will cut.
- Thanks, Doug. - Good job.
♪ ♪
- Well, gentlemen,
J did not go easy on you in this competition.
He gave you a very difficult task, but you all delivered.
But only two of you are going to be moving forward
in this competition.
The bladesmith leaving the forges is...
Tyler. Unfortunately,
your blade's not going to be moving forward,
and J's gonna tell you why.
- Tyler, I got to commend you for working so hard
on a very difficult challenge,
but at the end of the day, that blade is very heavy
and the handle is very small, and it hurts the user
and I've got the marks to prove it.
That's why we're sending you home.
- Thank you.
- Well, Tyler, you have a lot to be proud of,
but unfortunately, you're not going to be going forward
in this competition. This time I have to ask yu
to please step off the forge floor.
- Thank you, guys, it was a lot of fun.
But it's disappointing that I can't move on
to the final round,
but I am happy that I was able to get this far.
It was fun to actually make this knife
that was specifically designed for us by J.
He made it difficult on purpose.
I'm happy that I was able to get
as far as I did with that.
- Bladesmiths, congratulations. You're moving forward
into the third and final round of our competition.
Where we're sending you back to your home forges
to build an iconic weapon from history.
Now, I'm gonna apologize in advance
because I didn't choose this blade that was up to J.
- Bladesmiths, you didn't think I was gonna start
taking it easy on you now? Did you?
- No.
- I want you to build this.
A Maguindanao Kris.
- [sighs]
- The Maguindanao Kris traces its origin back
to the 14th century Mindanao,
the second-largest island in the Philippines.
This double-edged sword is defined by its distinct waves
designed to inflict wide deadly slashes in combat.
The amount of waves in a warrior's weapon
also indicates your status within the tribe.
The more waves, the higher the rank.
The Kris was the most common Moro sword
and many can be seen today in museums across the worl,
including the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City.
- Now gentlemen, when you're building
your Maguindanao Krises,
you need to fall within these parameters.
Your blades need to measure between 22 and 24 inches.
The base part needs to be flamberge with two peaks
and two valleys.
The base of your blade needs to feature a Kris-styled flare
and you need to add on a bird's beak-shaped handle.
- Hardest part of making this blade at home
is going to be the curves again.
I mean, it's--it's a whole new thing to me
and so I got to get that figured out and quick.
- You have four days in your home
forges to build your blades.
Good luck, gentlemen, we'll see you then.
- Good luck. - Good luck.
♪ ♪
- Day one, so I decided to use Damascus on this
'cause I know my competitor is going to bring
a really nice blade and I want to jazz it up a little bit.
Okay. So this sword--once again they're throwing curves at us.
Curves are not my thing. I haven't done them,
but I'm pretty confident I can get this thing done
and have it turn out pretty nice though.
Making some pretty good time on this.
So for day one, I got everything forged,
welded, and drawn out to a rough shape.
Everything went pretty well.
♪ ♪
- Here we are, back in my home forge
ready to get started on this Maguindanao Kris
it's gonna be fun.
I've never made anything that really resembles
the Kris' shape, but I'm confident
that I can make this blade.
I have the skills to get it done
it's just--do I have the time to do it?
Steel's moving slow.
Press is a little weak.
Keeps bending it all over the place
so I have to keep straightening it out.
We're getting there.
It's starting to look like a Kris.
We're just about at the end of the day,
and I feel pretty good about where I'm at.
Yay!
♪ ♪
- Day two, we're gonna start
getting the curves into the blade itself
then taking a lot of weight off of it.
So now I set up some jigs
to get these curves bent into the blade,
but I ain't getting' [inaudible]
When you're putting these radical of a bend in it,
your steel could rip and have a tear in it.
You got to kinda cross your fingers
that you're doing it right. That should work.
So the blade's come along really nice.
It's in pretty good shape where I want it to be.
Oh, crap. Got a little bit of a crack here.
Having a weak spot in your blade
like that can cause a catastrophic failure
and the blade could break.
I'm hoping I can grind this out
and still have enough width left.
If that goes all the way through,
then I'm gonna be starting over.
Seriously?
If I can't get this crack ground out, then this is junk.
Okay.
Finally, I get to the bottom of it
and it's still savable and I don't have to start over.
Big sigh of relief.
- Feeling pretty good.
I Just want to get this handle on today.
We're getting there. Yesterday, we got the quench done.
Everything went perfectly.
Handle material is pretty close to shape already.
I got my holes through
and now I'm trying to put in the pins and they don't fit.
Whenever something doesn't fit, the only logical solution
is to use force.
Dammit! And surprise, I cracked the handle.
So we'll do that again.
The only thing I can do now is make a new handle.
It's gonna be tough to get this blade finishe.
- Day four, things are going along pretty good.
Trying to get the blade polished up a little bit,
get the handle put on to it,
and get it etched and finish it up.
Looking good. So with my handle,
I'm trying something a little bit different.
I'm gonna use just a clear scale
so that you can still see the Damascus underneath it.
So it's not as polished as much as I'd like,
but I've got to get the edge on it.
All right, got it all sharpened up let's go out
and give her a quick test.
I'm feeling great about what I've accomplished.
I do believe that's all I can do.
♪ ♪
- It's the last day. We have a lot of work to do.
All right. The handle is glued up.
The epoxy is set. It doesn't look bad.
Now, I'm going to wrap the handle with hemp.
It's not a requirement, but it'll give a good grip
and it looks kind of cool. I have a completed weapon.
Just to turn in something complete
at the end of these rounds is a kind of a feat,
so I'm super happy that I'm done.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, welcome back to the Forge.
You guys spent four days
building your Maguindanao Krises,
and they both look fantastic,
but before we get into the testing
I want to hear about them. So, John, how'd it go for you?
- Oh, it went pretty good.
That's 48 layers of 1095 and 15N20.
I had to go with the a little extra
so I went with the clear handle.
So you can see the Damascus in that as well.
- That's really neat.
Well, Dale, how'd it go for you?
- Went pretty well.
It's a 5160 steel blade with a twist Damascus guard
and a black walnut handle with a hemp wrap.
- Both your Krises look fantastic.
They both look deadly,
but there's really only one way for us
to find out which one of you is going to leave here
with the title of Forged in Fire Champion
and a check for $10,000. We have a strength test.
We have a sharpness test and up first, the KEAL. Dou.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the KEAL test.
To find out what kind of lethal damage your weapon will do
I will take your Kris and deliver some lethal blows
on this pig carcass.
John, you're up first. You ready for this?
- You bet.
- All right, let's do this.
- The pig carcass is a tough test.
A lot of bone, thick skin,
can cause your edge to start chipping on the bones.
You know, I can just tell it's not gonna be a cakewalk.
♪ ♪
Sweet!
- All right, John, let's talk about
your Maguindanao Kris here.
I really appreciate that you have this large flare
because it's a very forward-heavy blade,
but because of that weight
and a very sharp edge you have here,
these are very, very deep cuts on this pig carcass.
It'll KEAL.
- Cool.
- Dale, your turn, sir. Are you ready?
- That's what I'm here for. - All right. Let's do this.
- That is a huge pig up ther.
It's full of ribs and a long spine.
So fine edge on big bones.
I'm scared to death.
Who knows what's going to happen.
♪ ♪
- Neat, man. Good job
- All right, Dale, let's talk about
your Maguindanao Kris.
First up, it's a lot lighter.
Now that allows me to use velocity
to cut down a pig like this
with the same amount of strikes.
The edge will cut that deeply and overall, sir,
your weapon it will KEAL.
- Awesome.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test.
One of my personal favorites, the ice block chop.
I'm going to take your Kris swords
and try to free those masks. We're going to have some fun.
John, you're first. You ready to go?
- I am. Go make snow cones.
- We can do that.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
- Holy cow.
- Nice work, John, Love the Damascus. Very heavy.
It tears through the ice, but if the ice block
was any bigger it'd be tearing through me too.
And you got a bit of a warp, but still razor-sharp.
Good job.
- Thanks.
- Dale, you ready to go?
- If anybody's going to break my sword
it might as well be you.
- I appreciate that. Let's do it.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
Dale, nice job.
The only complaint I have is your wrap here is loose,
but everything's still tight. Your edge is good. Nice job.
- Thanks, J.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, this is the sharpness test,
the palm slice.
To find out how sharp your weapons
are I am going to take your Maguindanao Krises
and try to cut through these palms.
John, you're up first. You ready for this?
- I am.
♪ ♪
Nice.
♪ ♪
- All right, John, let's talk about your weapon here.
First up, your edge is still very sharp.
It's just that the weight of this has me holding on to it
because I don't want this to be flying around,
but for this particular test, it'll cut.
- Thank you.
- Dale, your turn, sir. Are you ready?
- Slice it up.
- All right, will do.
♪ ♪
All right, Dale, let's talk about
your Maguindanao Kris here.
It's thin and razor-sharp.
Definitely, the type of edge you want in cutting
these brushes, and overall sir, your edge you will cut.
- Thanks, Doug.
♪ ♪
- Well, bladesmiths, before we get
into the hard part I want to say
it's been a pleasure watching both of you guys wor.
There's been a lot of twists and turns in J's challeng,
but this is a competition and there's only one champion.
The Forged in Fire Champion today is...
Dale, congratulations.
John, you did a fantastic job, but unfortunately,
you're Kris isn't going to end up on the wall
and J's going to tell you why.
- John, you did a great job in all of these challenge,
but during a strength test that bend in the blade
and the overall weight of the blade,
those are the reasons that we're sending you home.
- Oh, I agree.
- Well, John, unfortunately, your time
in this competition has ended. I'm going to have to ask you
to please step off the forged floor.
- All right. It's been a great experience.
I appreciate it. - Thank you, John.
- Great job. - This whole journey
with "Forged in Fire" has been incredible.
Knowing that no matter what happens, what goes wron,
you keep going, keep pushing,
and you can overcome whatever obstacle comes in front of you.
- Well, Dale, congratulations, man.
That means you are the newest Forged in Fire Champion.
You just won yourself a check for $10,000. Well done.
- I'm blown away. Super proud.
Literally, the day before I started that was five years
to the day I lit my first forge.
- No kidding? - Who knew five years later
you'd be a Forged in Fire champ?
- Everybody who knows that you make knives ask,
"When are you going to be on 'Forged in Fire?'"
Now I can tell them not only have I
been on "Forged in Fire,"
but I won a J. Neilson challenge.
♪ ♪