[energetic rock music]
♪ ♪
- I'm Jeremy Bartlett.
I'm from Parkersburg, West Virginia.
I am really competitive.
Any kind of sports or anything like that,
I wanna be the best, so I'm ready to compete
no matter what they throw at me.
♪ ♪
- My name is Jacob Gaetz.
I am 20 years old,
and I'm from Royalton, Minnesota.
Martial arts has always been my first love and first hobby,
and then I got into bladesmithing.
They both kind of crisscross
because when you're making a knife,
it's just gotta be real patient with it.
Wax on, wax off.
♪ ♪
- My name is Aubrey Hummer. I'm from Bealeton, Virginia.
Bladesmithing, this is what I do day in and day out.
This is how I help support my family.
Everything I do is focused on them.
♪ ♪
- My name is Robert Taylor. I'm from Brentwood, California.
I'm a sergeant
with the San Francisco Sheriff's department.
I took up bladesmithing 'cause I liked
watching "Forged in Fire".
It's something I really wanted to go further in,
become an ABS smith,
maybe a master smith someday because I love forging.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the Forge.
Now, four of you guys came here to test yourselves
in some high-stakes bladesmithing competition.
You'll be battling out against each other
and against our clock in three rounds.
Now, bladesmiths, at the end of each round
I'm gonna ask you guys to present your work
to our panel of expert judges.
These are the guys who will be deciding which one of you
is taking home the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
and a check for $10,000.
Any of you guys into NASCAR?
You know, sitting out into the sun,
watching number four zip around the track.
Well, guys, that is what is inspiring today's competition.
This is what we are calling the layer race,
Now, at the race track,
it's all about who can finish a certain amount of laps firs.
Well, we're doing things a little bit differently.
This is all about how many layers of steel
you can put together in three hours' time.
♪ ♪
In the pantry, there are stacks
of 1095 and 15N20 steel.
You will each get 20 pieces.
We want you to take those, forge weld them together
into layered Damascus signature blades
that measure between 11 and 13 inches.
Now, this is where it gets a little bit interesting.
Whoever can come forward with the most layers of stel
will get an extra 30 minutes
in the second round of competition.
What we're asking for
is a very high-layer, viable blade.
- Oh, man.
Normally, when I make Damascus,
I go at my own pace.
It could take me weeks to make 300-layer Damascus, you know?
Now I got to do it in three hours.
It's a race, so it's a lot tougher.
- In the second round, you guys will be adding handles
to your blades, turn 'em into
fully functioning weapons at which point
the judges are gonna test for strength
and durability in a wooden dowel chop.
Then they're gonna check your edge retention
and a checkered flag slice. You guys ready?
- Oh, yeah. - Yep.
- All right bladesmiths,
you have three hours on the clock
to stack up as many layers as humanly possible.
Good luck.
On your marks. Get set.
Go.
[tires screech]
- And it's off to the races!
- All right, this is a fun one. There we go.
Hey, there's a little hustle.
All right, we got Jeremy, Jacob, and Robert
all in the grinders cleaning up their bar stock.
- Not only is it a race to gt as many layers as possible.
I still have to make a knife
that I could beat my competitors.
With this first stack, I gotta make sure
that everything is clean.
I don't want any delams that will end up
who knows where in the billet once I keep stacking.
- This competition's really about stacking layers,
time management, and clean, solid weld.
- Yeah.
- I've got 20 layers of steel to start with.
I'm going to forge weld them together,
stretch it out, cut it five times,
and stack that to get my initial 100.
I am welding!
Once I have that, the plan is to do the same thing again.
Cut it five more times to get up to 500 layers.
We'll see what happens. Sit and wait now.
- Welding!
To get a high-layer Damascus billet
is really challenging.
Just like going around the track at 200 miles an hour,
you can't make a mistake on any of the laps.
If you do, you're gonna crash.
My plan is I'm actually gonna make two billets
that are ten layers each
because I'm gonna be able to heat them up faster
and draw them out faster and get them cut faster.
- I think it's really gonna bite Aubrey in the butt.
It's twice as much to cut.
- You have to stack it twice as many times
to get to the same layers... - I gotcha.
- As if you just did it off the bat.
- I feel excited and nervous about this challenge,
but my son is rooting for me at home,
and he made me a good luck charm,
a nice, calming blue painting.
If there's anything that gets me through,
this is gonna be it. Calm down.
♪ ♪
- I came here to be the "Forged in Fire" champion,
So I have to achieve the highest layer count
so I get an extra 30 minutes to finish my work
and make it much better than my competitors.
- They need to interchange the two metals we gave thm
because if you put the same metal
on top of the other, that's one layer, same metal.
- Right now I have 20 layers of steel in my billet,
so when I cut that up into six pieces,
I will end up with 120 layers.
- So far in all the challenges we've had,
the record is 224 layers.
- All right, Chris, you have the unique distinction
of turning in a blade for round one
with the most layer count.
- Whew!
- Guys, we might need to check the replay.
I think that Jacob's got two red pieces of steel
in the middle of his billet.
- Oh, boy.
- Jacob could do the same amount of cuts and stacks
as somebody else and end up with less layers.
- Yep.
♪ ♪
- Oh, looks good.
My game plan is to get at least 100 layers.
Gotta get at least 100 to be competitive in this round.
- When do you know enough is enough?
You still need to make a viable blade.
- I think I would stop stacking at about half an hour
to the end 'cause in 30 minutes I can take a stack,
forge that down into a blade shape, and quench i.
- I tap set my forge welds
and put it right back in the forge.
Whew.
My confidence sample is really good.
I've done a lot of Damascus, so I've got this.
- You have 2 hours and 30 minutes!
Keep on stacking!
♪ ♪
- My billet looks like it's solid.
It sounds solid, so I'm just drawing it out.
- Look at those teeny, little bites he's doing.
That's great for setting your welds.
Those welds are set.
Now you need to get aggressive and start moving some metal.
- I'm gonna get this thing cut up into five pieces
so I can restack them. That will give me 100 layers.
But this chop saw is taking forever.
[bleep]
It's not cutting at all for me.
- A lot of the speed in the chop saw
will depend on the thickness of your billet.
The thicker the material,
the slower, that cut is gonna be.
- I don't know the last time I was in a race,
but this is very stressful. Finally, it goes through.
I gotta pick up my pace and get these things cleaned up
and restacked, welded,
and back into the forge to get hot again.
♪ ♪
- I'm shooting for 240 layers.
♪ ♪
My first step is to cut each billet
that has ten layers into four equal sections.
When I put those together, it's 80 layers.
Then I'm gonna cut it into three tiles,
making 240 layers.
Let's hope this doesn't fall over on me.
- Aubrey just cut his stack into eight pieces,
and he dropped one on the floor.
It's right there. - Does he know he dropped I?
- He's already back at the welder.
- Wow. - He's got 70 layers now.
- That's it.
- All right, let's go back in the fire.
- In a race, when you make a pit stop,
you're gonna make sure all the lug nuts in there.
- Oh, yeah. - He took off with one missing.
- Going to squish.
I'm feeling good about this restack.
Now I punch the gas and to set the welds.
♪ ♪
- Steel's moving great.
I'm gonna go ahead and get all the pieces
cut up at the angle grinder.
- All right, it looks like Robert
is cutting into about three inch pieces.
♪ ♪
- I'll cut it five times. There's my first 100.
Okay.
I have four older brothers,
so I'm a very competitive person.
Everything's always a race with us.
In this, we got to get the most layers we can,
but I actually feel pretty good about it.
One, two, three
Settle.
- All right, bladesmiths, you have 90 minutes left!
There we are! - Look at him go on the press.
He's being super aggressive with the press,
which is great.
- I have 24 inches of steel.
♪ ♪
I can get six pieces of steel
that I can restack and forge weld together.
♪ ♪
- He started off with 19,
so he's at 114 layers now.
♪ ♪
- All right, we're at a critical moment right now.
I got about 80 layers.
- Where you at? - I'm gonna hit 100.
- Huh?
- I hit 100. I did all 20.
- You did? - Yeah.
- Robert has 100.
Now I definitely know that I need to restack again
because I can't be the lowest layer count.
♪ ♪
I get it cut.
I only made two tiles,
so I'm about 160 layers at this point,
and I get them right back in the forge.
Hey, there's steel on the ground.
♪ ♪
[bleep]. Forgot a piece of my billet.
- Aubrey just found that extra piece of metal
he cut off and dropped. - Oh, my goodness.
- I don't have 160 layers. I've got 140.
- Is there anything he can do to use it?
- No. - Ugh.
Now I'm really concerned about where I'm at layer count-wise.
Ah, [bleep].
The time's running down with the layer count
not being what I wanted it to be.
The knife that I was hoping to make,
that's not happening.
Who's nervous?
I look over, and I see my lucky charm.
All right, little buddy. I have to move forward.
Here we go, big squish.
I don't know if anybody's gonna go for higher than 140,
but I just need to make a viable blade.
All right, it feels solid.
- Definitely hot.
So I've got the second stack out of the forge,
and everything seems to stick perfect.
- You know, if Jeremy drew that out
really far and stacked it into six layers,
he would vault for the lead. - That's right.
- I've only got 100 layers, but I'm looking at the clock
and I just don't have enough time to cut this p
and restack it and draw it out again.
I just spent way too much tie
at the chop saw the first time.
I know if I try to cut and restack this again,
I'm not even gonna have a knife to turn in.
So I decided to cap it at 100 layers.
- This competition, in particular,
they should be going for broke on drawing things out,
cutting, restacking.
- Does he have time if he decides to?
- Oh, yeah.
[dramatic music]
- I got my second billet pretty much drawn out,
so I'm feeling good, but I look at the clock.
There's just not gonna be enough time
for me to go ahead and restack. Taking a while.
So I decided to cap it at 100 layers.
New plan of action right now,
I'm gonna do a ladder pattern on the knife.
At least I'll have a better design of my blade
to help bring me through.
- That amount of time it took to cut a ladder in,
you could've got the billet,
stacked it up, and been way ahead.
- Now I've gotta get on it,
shape my blade, and get it done.
Today I'm gonna do a drop point hunter.
It's a knife I like to make. It's strong.
I think it'd be good for the chop
and the flag cut.
Whew. - Let's go.
- Right now, I have 120 layers of steel in my billet.
I'm considering making another cut and stack
to get more layers,
but this could be a dangerous move
because I won't have as much time
to forge out my blade.
- Whoever has the highest layers
gets an extra 25%
of their time in the second round.
An extra 30 minutes is massive.
- I think we're gonna go for 600.
Why not?
In this competition,
the risk is worth the reward on this one.
So I make the decision to stack it again
into five pieces,
and I'll end up with 600 layers.
- There we go.
Bladesmiths, you have 30 minutes left!
- We're good. Okay, cool.
I think the shape of my blade looks really good,
so I'm gonna go ahead and heat treat it.
♪ ♪
- Look how hot it is.
Look at how much fire is coming out of there.
- What are we looking at here? - It's a brittle blade.
- Oy.
- It comes out fairly straight,
but it starts to warp near the tang.
Having a bent tang can knock me out of the competition,
so I'm gonna go ahead and reheat treat it.
The risk I'm taking in requenching the knife
is it could crack. It could break.
It could actually warp even more
But I've got to take the chance.
I need to make a straight knife.
♪ ♪
- There he goes. Quench number two.
- That was a much better color. - Yeah.
- It comes out straight, and I've got a good knife.
This is a race to the finish line.
I got to get over to the grinder,
clean it all up, and get it all done.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jeremy is thermocycling.
- This shape is not exactly what I had envisioned,
but I'm down to almost no time, and I need to quench it.
♪ ♪
- There we go.
Jeremy just quenched his billet.
- It's pretty straight, so I'm gonna go straight
to the grinder to try to refine that shape.
- You guys are going to be
grading these guys based on the layers,
but they have to have a viable blade.
So what exactly are you gonna be looking for?
- It needs to have no delaminations or splits
or cracks... - Okay.
- And it needs to have a shape
that is between 11 and 13 inches.
- You know, Aubrey's blade
actually looks a bit long to me.
- Keep going. Keep going.
- There's more than enough blade there to grind to shape.
Quench to the blade now.
- The time's running down. I have to quench right now.
♪ ♪
- There we go.
- Hopefully, I can just do a little bit more work to i.
I'm trying to make a viable blade.
♪ ♪
- You guys have ten minutes left.
- My billet looks a little rougher
than I would normally do at home,
but I know I don't have the time
to make it perfect.
- Here we go. - Four quenched blades.
We're in. - Whoo!
I'm feeling good. I have a straight blade.
I think that I have a really good heat treat.
- We're hard!
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools. This round is over.
- Whoo! - Whoo!
- Done it!
- There's a lot to do to this billet in round two
to get it back on track, but it can be salvaged.
It can be fixed.
I'm just so happy that I got
this thing across the finish line.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, the layer race is now over,
and it's time to go over the results.
In first place with a total of 570 layers,
Jacob, you just set a new "Forged in Fire" record.
Good job. - Well done, Jacob.
- Thank you.
- Now in second place coming in at 140 layers
of steel, Aubrey, good job.
Now, guys, we've got a tie for third place.
Jeremy and Robert, both of you turned in blades
with 100 layers of high carbon steel,
but judges now have a decision to make
because we asked you guys to turn in viable blades
that fall within parameters.
Jacob, you are up first. Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jacob, that's a really neat profile.
Your handle is probably
a half a finger short for me,
but it's a great looking thing so far.
Definitely a viable knife,
and you won the layer race, so good on you.
- Thank you.
- Jeremy, you're up next. Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jeremy, the steel you have here
there are no visible deep cracks
or anything like that.
There's some surface cracks right there.
Should you move forward, you need to clean this up.
But overall solid steel, and this is a viable blade.
- Thank you.
- Robert, you're up next. You ready?
- Yes. - Please present your work
♪ ♪
- All right, Robert, well, it seems to be on its wa.
It's still massive.
It is still extremely thick at the spine,
but just looking at your steel and your overall shape,
this is certainly a viable blade.
- Thank you.
- Aubrey, you're up last. You ready?
- Yes, I am. - Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- Aubrey, on your spine there's some delaminations
that I can get my finger underneath
and on your edge, there's similar
sort of activity going on with the weld.
Certainly, it looks like it could be a viable blade,
but it looks a little big to me.
Check your length.
♪ ♪
Aubrey, you're 13 1/2 inches from tip
which is half an inch over the maximum length
that we asked for,
and that puts you outside of our parameters.
All right, Aubrey, you fought hard
but unfortunately you did fall
outside of the parameters we asked for.
For that reason, I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off the Forge floor.
- I understand. Thank you.
- Thank you, Aubrey. - Thank you.
- Good job.
- It's not the outcome that I was hoping for,
but, you know, I want to get better at this
so that my son has an example of what it's like
to go through life making mistakes,
achieving things,
and hopefully, this sets an example
so he can achieve his dreams one day too.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, congratulations.
The three of you are joining us in the second round
of our layer race.
Now, Jacob, you came in with 570 layers
which bought you an extra 30 minutes in this competition.
Good work.
Now for the other two, you guys have two hours
to complete your blades.
Now in this round, guys, we want you
to finish your blades by adding handles
turning them into fully functioning weapons,
but this is a layer race.
We're gonna ask for at least three layers
on both sides of your handles.
When this round is complete, the judges are going
to check for strength and durabiliy
in a wooden dowel chop,
and then check your edge retention
in the checkered flag slice.
Jacob, you ready? - Yes, sir.
- All right, good luck. Your time starts now.
- All right.
♪ ♪
- 30 minutes is absolutely clutch
in this round. - Oh, my God.
- It feels really good winning the challenge.
I feel right at home with this extra 30 minutes
of just working alone.
So many choices, ooh.
I use mostly synthetic material
because I know that they're strong
and they won't have any voids like wood could possibly have.
- When he's done with his half hour,
all that glue up is already done.
- It just sets him way ahead.
- Time goes slow when you're waiting.
- Yeah.
- That's gotta be painful for Jeremy and Robert
just sitting there watching Jacob just run away.
- Man, I could use that time.
Watching him work is pretty depressing.
- All right, guys, two hours starts now.
Get going.
- I've got so much work to do on my knife.
- All right, now, these guys are back in the game.
First step, what would you guys be doing?
- Gluing up the handle. - Handle.
- Well, it looks like Jeremy
is just going over the drill press.
- It's part of the handle process,
but you could be doing that while your glue is drying.
- As I'm drilling the holes, it is hard steel.
I cannot get it to go through at all.
I don't have time to waste sitting here
at this drill press. [bleep]
- Should he be hitting it with a torch?
- Well, I think it should be hitting it with a grinder.
It's gonna take a lot of weight out of that tang.
Trying to have less material to drill through
to put the holes in.
- At this point, I cannot drill through this tang.
I'm just going to stick with one pin.
Only having one pin in the back of my handle,
the biggest worry is my handle falling apart
in that strength test,
but I've got way too much work to do.
I'm thinking maybe I should just fuller the tang.
Where I fuller, that'll make a cavity where extra epoxy
can get in there and hopefully everything will hold.
♪ ♪
- [hums melody]
I'm gonna go ahead
and put this knife on grinder weight loss.
So I figured I could do some fullers
- Fullering is a great way to take weight out
and really maintain a lot of the strength.
- Fullers are looking good, so it's going great.
- All right, bladesmiths, you have 90 minutes left.
- Dave commented that my handle was
a little short for his hand.
I should have no issue fixing it
by lengthening my handle a little bit
by grinding material out of my blade.
- With Jacob's handle, like he pointed out,
he can move that up further 'cause he has steel to use.
- I'm just focusing on getting my handle dialed in
as much as I can,
but his hands are different than mine
so I won't know until he tests it.
♪ ♪
- Now it's time to put an edge on this thing,
and I'll put a convex edge on it.
- He's got an interesting blade shape
compared to the other guys.
Do you guys think it's important to have
some semblance of a tip for the checkered flag cut?
- If you imagine where on that blade
is first gonna contact, that part has to be sharp.
You know, it doesn't necessarily have to be pointy,
but it has to be sharp. - Right.
- It's pretty sharp.
I'm ready for them to beat the crap out of it.
♪ ♪
- All right, let's see
if Robert is able to get his spin hole drilled in.
- The first hole right through the knife, no problem.
♪ ♪
Ugh.
Second one hit a hard spot in the blade.
♪ ♪
I go to the opposite side of the knife,
bottoms out in that hard spot again.
When I quenched my knife,
part of the tang got in the oil and got hardened.
I [bleep] can't get through.
I've gotta do something to get the drill bit through.
This is killing me on time.
If I don't get these pinholes in,
I'm not gonna pass this around.
♪ ♪
[bleep]
So I've gotta get this thing softened up.
Get a wet rag and put it on my knife
to keep it from heating up and taking out
the temper on my knife.
- You're ruining the temper. It's gonna be too soft.
It's not gonna hold up to the test.
- I head back to the drill press...
Whoo-hoo.
And then pushed the right through.
I lost some time,
so now I gotta get this handle feeling good in my hand.
- Bladesmiths, you guys have 30 minutes left.
♪ ♪
- Now I need to get a good sharp edge on my knife.
I'm leaving my edge geometry a little bit thicker
towards the spine to strengthen it,
but also have it be a little bit thinner
down towards the edge
so that it'll still slice the flag with ease.
Anyone need a shave?
♪ ♪
I'm gonna start shaping this handle now.
- Yeah, comfortable handle, but, for me,
it kind of breaks down to retention, comfort, style.
♪ ♪
- This thing is super blocky,
and I've got so much material to remove.
I gotta get this thing refined.
♪ ♪
- Coming down at the end, it's looking great.
- Got some acid etching going on.
That's good to see.
- I see some of the ladder patterns
are not as heavy as I'd like,
but the thing is looking awesome.
♪ ♪
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, put down your tools.
This round is over.
- This 100-layer knife,
I'm actually pretty excited about getting it tested.
The only thing that concerns me
is that lack of that front pin.
I don't want it coming apart during testing.
- All right gentlemen, it's time
for the strength test. The wood dowel chop.
Now, remember this test
is not about what your blades do to those dowels,
but what those dowels do to your blades.
Jeremy, you are up first. Ready to go?
- No, but go full J. Neilson on it.
- Full J. Neil--thanks. - [chuckles]
- Now you're gonna pay.
- This is a really tough task, especially with me
only having one pin in the back of my handle.
When he hits those dowels, it's gonna send shocks
all through that blade
and I just expect my handle to explode.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jeremy,
Your edge took no damage at all.
Your handle, the surfaces are all rounded off
except for these gaps up at the front,
but it didn't come out of my hand.
Weapon is still in one piece and sharp, so good job.
- Thank you.
- Jacob, you're up. You ready?
- Yes, sir. - Okay.
♪ ♪
- I'm concerned about all of these dowels
because as my blade passes through them
it can potentially grab it
and either chip my edge or snap my blade.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jacob, running my fingernail
down the edge here, I can feel
two small kind of nicks,
but it's still a very sharp blade,
so nicely done. - Thank you.
- All right, Robert, you're up.
- Bring it. - I will.
- Wooden dowel chop's hard.
My grain has grown cause I heat treated twice.
It could snap the edge. I'm freaking out.
♪ ♪
- All right, Robert, first off, no damage to your blade.
I love the fuller, but I would have loved
to have seen that fuller about twice as big
to take some more of the weight out of this.
Still solid. Good job.
- Thank you.
- All right, bladesmiths, this is the sharpness test,
the checkered flag slice. A sharp edge will cut cleanly.
A jagged edge or a dull edge will do nothing or get snagged.
Jeremy, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this
♪ ♪
- All right, Jeremy, let's talk about your blade here.
Your edge is sharp. These are clean cuts.
Overall, it will cut. - Thank you, sir.
- All right, Jacob, you turn. You're ready?
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
All right, Jacob, let's talk about your knife here.
Your edge, sharp. Easy cuts all the way through.
Overall, sir, it will cut. - Thank you.
- All right, Robert, your turn. You ready?
- Yes, I am. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
All right, Robert, let's talk about your knife here.
Didn't take any damage during the strength test,
and it cut easily through the checkered fla.
Overall, sir, your weapon, it will cut.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, this is a very tight race,
but time has come for the judges
to decide which one of you is heading home.
While they discuss, I'm gonna ask the three of you
to please step off the Forge floor.
♪ ♪
All right, guys, nobody crashed and burned in the testing.
Makes your decision a little bit more difficult.
Ben, where do you stand?
- So I'm looking at Jeremy's blade,
and it's a pretty rudimentary blade.
It didn't take any damage in the strength test,
and it did great in the sharpness test.
Jacob's blade is the only one that took any kind of damage
in the strength test albeit small.
- We're saying only one took some kind of damage,
and that's Jacobs, but then when I really look
closely to it, it's like a glint.
Talking about racecars here,
I mean, you got dents on the side,
but not where the wheels are.
If we go to Jeremy's,
the handle is split on the side.
If I were to use that repeatedly,
my hand could get clipped into that handle.
- To me, I see two blades out there that are intentional,
and one blade that was just finished.
The fullers on Robert's, the clean grinds,
and the handle shape on the Jacob's.
Then we get to Jeremy's blade,
and there are no contours to the handle.
- All right, so Ben, have you made a decision?
- I have. - Dave, how about you?
- I have. - Doug, where you at?
- Yes, I have.
- All right, guys, call them in.
♪ ♪
All right, bladesmiths, this was a very close race,
but you guys know only two of you
can join us in the third and final round.
Our judges have made a final decision
and the bladesmith leaving the Forge is...
♪ ♪
Jeremy, unfortunately, your blade
didn't make the cut today,
and Dave Baker is gonna tell you why.
- Jeremy, when we have competitions like this
where everybody tests out so close to one another,
we have to look at the finer details,
and the handle has some gaps on it.
Small things like that,
but it's been that close a competition, so good job.
- I appreciate it.
- Well, Jeremy, we wanna say thank you
for joining us in this race, but unfortunately,
your time in the competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off the Forge floor.
- Thank you. - Thank you, Jeremy.
- Thank you. - Thanks, man.
- It ended up being a photo finish,
but I didn't cross the line first.
I made some new friends. I had a blast.
The best man will win, and I wasn't that man today.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, congratulations.
The two of you have made it through the first two rounds
of our layer race competition
which means you're going into the final round.
Now, we are giving you four days at your home forges
to battle it out for the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
and check for $10,000.
We want you to build this...
♪ ♪
The Mesopotamian sickle sword. - [chuckles]
- The sickle sword originated in Mesopotamia
at the height of Bronze Age around 2,500 B.C.
The sickle and curved-shaped swords
often symbolized royalty
and power and were primarily wielded
during ceremonies by kings and authority figures.
Although these swords were not common
on the battlefield,
the belly of the blade allowed
for quick, devastating blows
and inspired designs for later weapons
such as the deadly Egyptian khopesh.
- Your blade needs to measure between 24 and 26 inches.
The curve depth needs to be between 2 1/4
and 3 1/4 inches at its deepest,
and your handles cannot exceed 7 inches long.
- The biggest problem I'm seeing,
there's a sharp bend down
and then a short sweep up to a curve.
So that's gonna be hard to make sure
I get the dimensions in right,
but I'm excited to give it a go.
- All right, guys, we know you're capable
of doing great things in this forge.
You raced through the first five hours.
Now, you got a marathon ahead of you.
Good luck. We will see you in four days
♪ ♪
- Back in my home forge.
I'm gonna be making a Mesopotamian sickle sword.
The biggest build I've done yet.
I'm doing 1,000 layers semi-construction,
so I'm gonna go 500 layers of Damascus
on each side with a 1084 center core.
Looking good. I'm doing 1,000 layers.
So I wanna go ten times more than I did in round one.
All right, we're going for a final forge weld.
Long as I'm solid with my steel,
1084 will give it a stronger center.
I feel pretty good on my progress.
I will forge press that out tomorrow.
♪ ♪
- I'm back here in my hometown, Royalton.
I'm just here to build my Mesopotamian sickle sword.
All right, let's see what we can do with this.
I'm gonna put a ladder pattern in this steel.
I'm not quite sure what Robert has up his sleeve for this,
so I'm gonna bring my A game.
I hope he does too,
and I hope we have a real good competition.
Now I can see the ladder pattern
in there already.
The length and curve of this blade
is gonna be difficult to work with
just because I want to make sure everything stays straight
and doesn't have any warps to it.
Looking good so far.
'Cause ultimately that could send me home
if that's not spot-on,
Everything went pretty well on day one
and I'm on track for day two. Here we go.
- Day two
- We're to length now, a little bit over,
which is good, and we're gonna go ahead
and beat it over the anvil.
The place where I want the bend will bend down,
and then the tip will start bending up automatically
as I hit it.
Whacking it on the horn to get it to bend down,
it's easier than using the hammer.
I like it.
Got the billet all ready for the quench.
It's the soul of the blade.
If you do a bad quench, you come out too hard,
the forge welds could pop on me.
If this quench doesn't go right,
I'm gonna have to go ahead and start over,
and that's gonna suck.
♪ ♪
Went in pretty hot.
We'll see if we have any bad forge welds.
We have a hard blade. The forge welds look great.
I'm feeling great.
♪ ♪
- Day two, we're gonna try to quench here.
I feel pretty good about my progress.
Everything looks good. That's good to measure.
♪ ♪
Oh, that is straight. Everything's looking good.
Now we're gonna have to temper it.
That's gonna take away a little of this hardness
and it's gonna add toughness
cause right now it's pretty brittle.
If I just went and smacked it on my anvil,
it would probably shatter.
I think the hardest part is gonna be
getting the heat just right.
I don't have oven long enough to fit this sword in,
so we're gonna have to do it all with a torc.
It's not going to be as precise as having an oven.
Don't wanna overheat it.
Makes me a little bit nervous
because I don't know the ultimate outcome,
but hopefully, we get up just right.
♪ ♪
- Today, I gotta take weight off the sword.
I want to keep it light enough and balanced enough
for somebody to swing it. Getting there.
I feel really good about my weapon.
Getting all the fit-up done, and I think this thing's
gonna slice anything they put before it.
[chuckles]
- This is the final day.
Yesterday, I got my Damascus etched
and my handle on.
I wanna make sure everything is even on this handle
and everything feels good.
As a martial artist,
I'm really into flow and I'm really into feel.
This is good.
I'm not quite sure what my strength test is gonna be,
but I think whatever they throw at it
it's gonna be able to handle it.
♪ ♪
- Well, Jacob, Robert, it's good to see you.
Welcome back to the Forge.
So we gave you four days to work
on your very best Mesopotamian sickle sword.
Guys, they look beautiful. They look sharp.
Before we put it through the ringer,
I want to hear about it.
Jacob, how did the build go for you?
- Things went really well.
♪ ♪
I gave you guys 132-layer ladder pattern
Damascus blade with some orange G-10 liners
on top of some mango wood.
- It looks beautiful. Robert, how about you?
- Build was good.
♪ ♪
I've got two 500-layer billets of ladder pattern Damascus
on a 1084 core,
black wallet handle, and bronze-cast garden pins.
- Well, guys, they both look beautiful.
They both look deadly, but there's only one way
we know how to find out which one of you guys
is going home with the title. We have a strength test set up.
We've got a sharpness test, and up first,
the KEAL. Doug.
- Blademiths, welcome to the KEAL test.
To find out what kind of lethal damage they will d,
I'm gonna take your weapons to deliver some lethal blows
to this ballistics dummy.
Jacob, you're up first. You ready?
- Cut the head off. - Let's do that.
♪ ♪
- I'm really excited for thi.
I wanna set the bar really high,
and I just really want him
to dig into it as best as he can.
♪ ♪
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- All right, Jacob, let's talk
about your sickle sword right here.
Your edge is razor-sharp,
coupled with the fact that this is a very light weapon,
I can use velocity to really wield that sharp edge.
It cuts deep into this ballistics dummy,
and overall, sir, your weapon you'll KEAL.
- Thank you.
- All right, Robert, your turn. So are you ready?
- I'm ready. - All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
- I know my blade is sharp, and I'm just not sure
how my grain structuring is in my blade.
If I take damage, that could knock me out.
♪ ♪
- All right, Robert, let's talk about your sickle sword.
It's a very light blade.
That much lighter than the other one.
And the angle that you have in here lends itself
to use not only velocity but the sharpness of your edge
to cut very deep into this ballistics dummy.
And overall, sir, it will KEAL.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test,
the armored warrior chop.
To test the strength and overall durability
of your Mesopotamian sickle sword,
I'm gonna be chopping into these armored warriors.
Jacob, you're up first. You're ready for this?
- I don't think I got a choice. - You don't have a choice.
♪ ♪
- Come on.
[sighs]
♪ ♪
- What actually happened is your sword bit into
the other sword by about three-sixteenths of an inch,
and it took out this chip,
and once that chip was gone, the whole sword blew up.
Your grain looks good, but unfortunately,
it's just this sword
against that sword, this time that sword won.
- Yep.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jacob, we hate to see this happen.
You gave us a beautiful blade, but unfortunately,
it did suffer a catastrophic failure
on the seventh strike,
but you are not out of the fight yet
because Robert, in order to become the champion,
you will have to survive every single one
of those seven strikes on the armor warrior.
Are you ready? - Let's roll the dice.
- All right, Ben.
- So his sword, it's, like, a 1/4 inch wider than mine.
It's a little heavier than mine.
I'm thinking, "Mine's done."
Striking steel on steel,
that's just a recipe for disaster
'cause something's gonna break.
♪ ♪
- Well, Robert, the big thing is
it's one sword. Nice job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Well, Robert, you made it through all the testing,
and, Jacob, it's a beautiful piece of work,
but unfortunately, due to your catastrophic failure,
we cannot continue testing it,
and for that reason, I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off the Forge floor.
- Thank you, gentlemen. It was an honor.
- Thank you very much.
- Very nice job. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- You know, it totally sucks,
but I really am proud
of the blade I made either way.
You know, they said pretty much nothing
but good things about it up until broke.
And, well, I'd totally come back for this
and maybe get a shot at making it
all the way through.
♪ ♪
- Robert, we never like to see competitors' blades break,
but yours did not,
and that makes you the newest "Forged in Fire" champion.
You just got yourself a check for $10,000.
Congratulations. - Thanks, thanks.
- Fell pretty good? - Crazy, dude, crazy.
[laughter]
- Winning this championship I think
has really pushed me to my limits,
and then that makes me wanna push them even more.
Now, I'm a champion.
I'm gonna go ahead and get my ABS Smith membership
and just really refine my skills.
♪ ♪