- Over the past few years, we've seen 199 groups of smiths
from all over the world enter this sport
to put their skills to the test
in hope of earning the title of Forged in Fire champion.
Tonight, we reach a new milestone,
our 200th competition. In honor of that achievement,
we are turning things over to those who got us here,
our fans.
- This episode is their episode.
- Every aspect to this competition, the weapons,
the challenges, and the tests have been chosen by you.
- Thanks fans. [chuckles]
- Which of tonight's bladesmiths
will come out on top
leaving The Forge with 10 grand
as the champion of our 200th
Forged in Fire competition.
[rock music]
- My name is Tim Jane.
People call me TJ, and I'm 60 years old.
♪ ♪
I started forging by eight years ago
once I saw "Forged in Fire'" s first show.
Wife says it kept me from going insane. Or did it?
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
- My name's Michael Bizark.
I'm 39 years old and I've been forging for six years.
I've been a fan of "Forged in Fire"
since the very beginning.
I've practiced every technique I've seen on this competition.
And I definitely have what it takes to be the next
Forged in Fire champion.
♪ ♪
- My name's Jimmy Coronado, 38 years old.
I'm a full-time groundskeeper and a part-time bladesmith.
It feels great to be part of the 200th episode.
I'm here to have some fun, make some blades
and hopefully take home some money.
♪ ♪
- My name is Chris Moss.
I'm 34 years old and I am a full-time knifemaker.
When I started making knives, people thought I was a freak.
This competition made knife-making cool.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
[suspenseful music]
We are all pumped up because this is the beginning
of the 200th "Forged in Fire" competition.
We've had hundreds of talented smiths come through that door
and we have 199 championships blades mounted on our wals
and inside the "Forged in Fire" vault.
And one of you guys is going to be joining that group.
Just like always, they're going to be three very intense rounds
in this forging competition. And at the end of each one,
I'm gonna ask you to present your work
to our panel of expert judges
who'll then critique your blades and make an elimination.
The judges for this 200th competition are two-time
Forged in Fire champion, Ben Abbot,
historic weapons re-creation specialist,
Dave Baker, and edged weapons specialist, Doug Marcaida.
They're the ones who will decide
which one of you smiths will be leaving here the 200th
Forged in Fire champion.
That also comes with a check for $10,000.
Being 200 in, it's a milestone.
But we know that without the smiths
who come share their skills with us
and all the fans who tune in every single week,
we would not be here today. So to say "thank you,"
we decided to leave this competition up to those fan.
The weapons, the challenges,
and the tests have all been handpicked by them.
Let's start this competition off
with what you're gonna be building.
We gave our fans a choice between a karambit, a kukri,
and a tomahawk and the fans have spoken
with an overwhelming 41% of the vote.
Bladesmiths, you guys are going to be building this.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
The kukri.
- Yeah. [laughter]
- Now this isn't any kukri.
This one was specifically handmade
for our 200th competition by the very first
Forged in Fire champion, Matthew Parkinson.
You guys have any questions?
- What are we making it out of?
- That's a good question. We left it up to the fans.
They had to choose between you guys
salvaging steel from the back of a dump truck,
doing 200-layer Damascus or salvaging your steel
from heavy machinery and equipment.
With an overwhelming 69% of the vote,
the fans have spoken.
You guys are gonna be building your blades out of this.
♪ ♪
200-layer Damascus. The fans want you to give us
exactly 200 layers of alternating steel.
- Getting to 200 layers is a challenge in and of itself.
It's time consuming.
But after that, I still have to be able to forge a kukri.
It's a very tricky shape to get right.
- If you can get exactly 200 layers of Damascus,
you're gonna be rewarded in the second round.
You definitely have your work cut out for you.
And typically, I'd let you know what the testing was gonna be,
but we're going to hold that in our pocket
until the time comes.
You have three hours on the clock
for the first round of our 200th competition.
So good luck. Your time starts now.
[rock music]
200th competition.
- And a special throwback to that first episode,
I'm wearing black.
- Oh, God.
- Wow. That's--that's quite an homage.
- Yeah.
- You've decided to give us a 200-layer kukri
to make on the 200th episode. Thanks, fans.
- Welding, to be at 200 layers, I'd take 10 layers,
weld them together,
draw it out and then cut it into five.
That should give me 50 layers.
Take that, weld it, draw it out again.
Cut it into four.
And I should be at my 200 layers.
- What I love about this one, guys,
is that our fans chose everything about it.
- Yeah. - I have to figure out
how I'm gonna get to 200 layers.
My plan was to forge weld to 10 layers together
and then stack it to get 20 layers.
And then I split my billet in two.
And then I will forge the first one, two times ove,
which will give me 40 layers.
And I will forge the second billet four times over
and I have 80 layers.
Then you take that and double that,
which will be 160 layers.
160 plus 40 is 200.
- Welding.
You can do two billets and work two billets at a time
and then eventually work them together.
But you're adding steps.
- 200 layers is a beast.
- Half the smiths who come in here
started smithing because they saw these competitions.
- Yep.
- I've got to be able to make sure
that I don't end up with 199 layers or 204 layers.
So I've got to lay out the math
and make sure I'm gonna do it right.
- We started with five pieces of material each,
that makes 10.
You have to draw it out.
You cut it into five pieces that makes 50.
You cut that into four pieces, that's 200.
Hot steel.
- Chris is already on the press
setting his weld for the first time.
- Cool.
♪ ♪
- I am concerned going into this competition about time.
So I wanna get those welds set.
Then I can go hog-wild and do what I want
and I'm not gonna mess up the steel.
My plan is to stack 10, fold it once to 20,
stretch that out, fold it once to 40,
stretch that out and make five pieces.
Stack them up and got your 200.
My plans always sounds simple.
Execution might not be the same thing.
- This is a pretty big blade,
but do people actually carry things like this in real life?
- Oh yeah, man.
On a 200th episode. You need 'em.
- [laughs]
- Jimmy, just going ham.
- I think I have my first weld complete.
So I'm gonna cut it into the five pieces
in preparing them for the weld.
- They should consider cleaning it after cutting
and stacking together
because there's going to be a lot of forge skill on that.
And we've seen that happen before where they cut it
and they stack it without cleaning
and the welds don't take.
- I got to start cleaning them up
because if I have a delamination at this point,
I'm not sure that I can fix it.
- Jimmy's got a stack of 50.
He's heading to the press to get it all consolidated.
- It seemed to be
a solid consolidated billet at this point.
♪ ♪
- Two hours left in your first round.
- This being our 200th episode,
I've done 212 weapons for this competition.
One of the things we discussed in the very beginning
was we shouldn't ask smiths
to do anything we haven't tried to do ourselves.
♪ ♪
- The weld's stick. So I'm gonna cut that in 1/2
and I'll have to separate billets.
- By using those two billets,
it's gonna add a weld into the entire process,
which is gonna take him a good 20 minutes.
- My plan with the first billet
is the stack it to get 20 layers.
And then do that one more time, take to get 40 layers.
- Perfect.
- The weld stick. I'm excited.
Now I'm gonna let that billet cool off
as I work on the second billet.
♪ ♪
- I just put my 50 layer billet in the fire.
My steel is looking good
to draw out the length on this billet.
- Chris' billet, I mean, that thing looks dead solid.
- I have 200 layers ready to be forged into a kukri.
♪ ♪
- I have to wait long enough for it to be peened up
to make sure that first weld gets set.
- He's been struggling to push that down
and he's still at 10 layers.
It looks like TJ's gassing out a little bit already.
- It's hot.
I've seen all the competitions and I've seen people sweating.
- I'm sweating profusely. I'm starting to feel shaky.
- It was hot.
- TJ cut his in half
and I think he's gonna go with just restacking
those two pieces.
- Making it 20.
- He's gotta go the long way.
- All right, bladesmiths,
you guys have one hour left in your first round.
- Now, I got 200 layers
and I don't have much time to forge out a kukri.
[bleep]
- Uh-oh.
- I squished too much.
And that messed up my shape on the bottom part of the kukri.
- That's not looking like a kukri.
- Oh, snap.
- The only thing I can do to try not to waste time
is forge it out the best I can,
and then simply grind away or whatever doesn't look nic.
It's not the prettiest work I've ever done,
but I think I'm managing to get it
where it needs to be.
♪ ♪
- This is the 200th episode.
I want to be able to go above and beyond.
I wanna cut in a ladder pattern.
- And 200 layers with a ladder pattern has a beautiful,
we call it a chatoyance, but it's like pearl wood.
- Ladder pattern is beautiful. It's also quick.
♪ ♪
- That's a nice-looking shape over there that Chris has got.
- It's the closest to the example we've got.
♪ ♪
- I have two 40-layer billets. One is welded perfectly.
So I need to forge well the second billet.
- Look at Mike at the press, guys.
- Oh, this thing is falling apart in front of u.
- Damn it.
All: No!
- It stuck to the press.
- All right, this is start over time.
- What the heck. I don't have enough time to start over.
Just have to improvise, by 40 layers
in one billet, 20 in another,
I can forge weld them together and have 60 layers. Is it 200?
No, but I think I can put together a salvageable blade.
- I think Mike is hoping to outrun the other guy.
He doesn't care about the bear anymore.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- I've got my 200 layer together.
I'm gonna start drawing this thing out
and start shaping it. It's getting too hot.
♪ ♪
- He's so tired. He's missing the steel.
- I'm exhausted. - Oh, okay.
- Hey, keep eyes on him. He's about to fall.
- Get someone on TJ.
- Hey, you wanna take a minute or two and step outside.
- I'm feeling kind of light-headed.
- Guy, this is coming up on the end of this 200th competition.
TJ is gassing out so the medic took him off.
He's gonna check his vitals.
Give him a minute to get his bearings back, cool dow.
- I'm feeling kind of light-headed.
- Okay. Your sugar is a little high.
I'm gonna put you on some oxygen.
I wanna see how you turn around with the oxygen on
and we'll go from there. Okay?
- He still got a chance to come back in.
- [scoffs]
[rock music]
30 minutes remaining, gentlemen.
Chris just quenched.
- Hot, looked like a great color too.
- I'm not seeing any warps,
but I also need to see if it's hard.
♪ ♪
It's hard. I have plenty of materials to move,
which I have to get to right now.
♪ ♪
- Here we go. Jimmy's in.
- It looks as straight as can be,
and I need to take my blade over
to the grinder and clean it up.
- Jimmy has a shape closer to a sickle than a kukri.
- At this point, I'm okay with the shape of my blade.
♪ ♪
- Looking at Mike's profile.
It doesn't have the belly of a kukri.
- I lost 25% of my steel, but I feel
like I have enough material to complete this challenge.
- Mike just quenched.
- I'm pretty satisfied with the way it came out of the quench.
The blade's thinner, it's lighter than anticipate.
It's not always a bad thing.
- My worry is with TJ.
- I recommend you go to the hospital.
- That's fine.
- Reason being,
if your sugar gets any higher, you could pass out.
- The medic pulled TJ out and he just made the call.
He's not going to come back in. Involuntary withdrawal.
There's no shame.
That guy has worked his ass off to the point
where he had to be escorted out.
- His health is more important than any competition.
- Five, four, three, two, one. Bladesmiths, the first round
of our 200 challenge is officially over.
- Good job, dude.
- I wasn't able to get the 200 layers,
but 60 layers in three hours, it's still not an easy task.
- All right, bladesmiths,
in the first three hours of this competition,
the fans voted to have you guys build your kukris
with 200 layers of Damascus.
Now, unfortunately, the heat got the best of TJ
and he had to leave the competition.
After being treated at the hospital,
he has been released
and he has made a full recovery,
but his time in The Forge has ended,
but our judges need to take a closer look at your blades.
Mike, you're up first, please present your work.
[suspenseful music]
- So, Mike,
we saw that you opted not to do the 200 layers.
You went 60 layers here, but what I'd really like to see
if you move forward is a lot of refinement.
Right now, you've got a super obtuse grind on this thin.
I mean, that's thicker than an axe head right there.
It's gonna take some grind to get done.
- Yes, sir.
- All right, Jim, you're up next, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jimmy, first of,
congratulations on getting us 200 layers.
Your steel looks solid,
but let's talk about your design here.
The thing about the kukri,
it's got a belly that comes to a point
to allow the cut-through and continue on.
You have an extreme angle over here.
And with this, it's going to snag and get in there.
On the second round, it would be nice to at least
get some kind of design over here or reprofile this.
- Yes, sir.
- All right, Chris, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- This is a crazy cool kukri, Chri.
I mean, this is exactly what we were looking for.
The shape is perfect.
The steel here, all the welds look great.
The big issue I have with this is its weight.
It's really, really, really heavy,
but you nailed it. Nice job.
- Thank you.
- All right, bladesmiths. Well, congratulations.
All three of you guys are moving forward
into the second round. Jimmy, Chris,
you guys were able to do exactly what the fans askd
and you gave us 200 layers of Damascus.
So the two of you
are getting an extra 30 minutes
for the second round.
- My decision to keep it 60 layers.
I'm happy with that, but I absolutely wish
I had that extra 30 minutes.
- Now, bladesmiths, same as in the first round,
we asked the fans what they wanted you to do,
and they spoke with 50% of the vote.
The fans want you guys to add three mosaic pins
that show the number 200.
That is one pin with the two and two pins with a zero.
Now, Jimmy, Chris, you guys both have two hours
and 30 minutes for the second round.
Mike, you've only got two hours. You guys ready?
- Sir.
- All right, gentlemen. Good luck.
Your time starts now.
Oh, poor Mike.
He gotta sit on his hands for 30 minutes
watching the other guys get to run away.
- As soon as the round start, immediately
I've got to start on my mosaic pins
because those have to be ready to go
when I'm ready to do my handle.
I take brass flat stock
and with my pliers I bend the curve into a two.
Then I have to squish it down to make sure
that it will fit inside of the mosaic pin.
- The trick is to get that two as small as you can
so that you don't have
to have a 1/2 inch hole pin to make it work.
- Then I have to get my epoxy into the pins so they can set.
- All right, Chris has already gluing up his pins.
- Doug told me that I needed to add a little more curve
to the front of my blade
because the angle was a little bit too steep.
So the first thing I do
is put a little bit more curve in there.
- All right, Jimmy trying to get that curvature
you were looking for, Doug.
- Nice.
- And once I got to a place where I liked, I just decided
I need to move on and start working on my handle.
- Wow. Jimmy has really fixed that profile quite a bit.
We're coming really close to the two-hour mark
where Mike finally gets to get started in the second round.
- I'm going to have to really hustle to get this blade
completed in time.
- All right, Mike, your two hours starts now.
- And there goes Mike.
- First thing I'm gonna do
is try to shape this number two.
I filled the round bar with epoxy,
which I stained with a blue dye
and I set the number twos into the round bar.
And no mistakes can happen at this point.
- I run over to the drill press,
drilling a pilot hole then I upsize to a quarter inch bit.
The pilot hole is gonna help a lot with that larger pin.
- Oh, yeah.
- The middle hole. It was hard as glass.
- Chris is still struggling with those holes.
- Yeah. That's the kind of thing
that could really just trip a person u.
- It starts to scream a little bit,
then it hangs up in the hole and I'm stuck.
- At this point I am full on panic mode.
It's taking too much time. I have to be able to pivot.
So I already have a 3/16-inch hole all the way through.
So I'm just gonna go
with a 3/16-inch pin in that center hole.
At home, I wouldn't be happy, but it's what it is.
I've got a lot of work left to do.
There is not much time left.
- Bladesmiths, you have one hour and 15 minutes left.
♪ ♪
So being on both sides of this competition, Ben,
what's been your favorite experience?
- The friends that I made while competing.
- [whistles] Yeah, buddy.
- Wow.
- Oh man, there you go.
- Hold on to it from the other side.
- It's a crack with comradery.
- I think I'm about ready to glue,
so I need to get everything lined up
and one doesn't quite fit in the middle.
So I need to get a little bit of material off there.
[bleep]
- Oh, go, Jimmy is grinding
and he lost his pin stock into the vacuum catcher.
[tense music]
- That's in another dimension.
- Oh, come on, man.
I don't know whether I'm gonna, waste time making another pin
because the clock is moving very fast and I'm freaking out.
[groans]
So try not to waste time.
I decided to just cut my remaining zero pens in half
and hope that--that's enough
to take care of the two zero pins.
- I pin the handles on...
What the...?
And I realized the epoxy that I added blue dye to
did not set. How they gonna [bleep] work?
I'm an idiot. I know the problem was
I added too much dye to the epoxy.
I've got to start over.
- He's gotta restart.
- Oh, my goodness.
- To say frustrated is an understatement,
but I need to keep moving forward.
So I went back to the bench
and started bending some sheet metal again.
I don't know if I'm gonna have enough time,
but I'm gonna do my best.
- So now I have my handle on. I've got to get to the grinder.
The judges told me that my blade steel looked good
but it definitely needed to go on a diet.
So one of the fastest ways to remove steel
is to put a fuller. It allows you to remove
a lot of material quickly and reduce the weight.
- Look at the size
of that fuller on the side of Chris' kukri.
- Yep. - Whoo-hoo.
- My fuller is not pretty,
but it is reducing some weight.
I have 30 minutes left. I've got to dash.
- I have my handle glued up,
clamped up and now it's drying.
So I'd start working on the edge a little bit.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jimmy's working his edge pretty aggressivel.
- Well, I cut my finger on it. So it's pretty sharp.
[chuckles]
- Bladesmiths, you have ten minutes.
- So as the clock is ticking down,
I know I have to put an edge on this blade.
I've seen 199 episodes.
I know they're gonna abuse the living heck out of this blad.
I don't know what they're gonna hit with it,
but they're gonna hit something.
They're gonna try to break it.
I'm designing this blade to have a convex edge
because it's the strongest edge
a blade you can possibly have.
Hopefully it's gonna be sharp enough
to pass the cutting test.
- Five, four, three, two, one, bladesmiths,
turn off your machines. Put down your tools.
The second round of our 200 competition is now over.
- I am not scared at all. I wanna see my blade
smashed through whatever they're gonna do.
- All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test.
Once again, the fans have spoken,
and with 38% of the vote, they chose the ice block chop.
Surviving this is quite a feat.
Chris, you're up first. Are you ready for this?
- As ready as I'm gonna be.
I'm freaking out.
I have seen so many blades
get damaged or broken on ice block chop.
It's brutal.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
- I have no idea what's gonna happen.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
Dear God.
- All right, Chris, it's still razor sharp all the way along.
The ice didn't affect your blade in any way.
It was a lot of fun to swing, but still on the heavier side.
Nice job.
- Thank you.
- All right, Jimmy, are you ready for this?
- I was, but give it hell anyway.
- All right.
- I'm worried that because of the extreme angle
I have in my blade, it might just snap right off.
I really hope that holds up.
♪ ♪
- [exhales]
- All right, Jimmy, you survived.
You got to still have a sharp edge
and you're still straight.
The thing that gets me about this kukri
is the proportions. It's just difficult to control.
That being said, it held up well
and so nice job. - Thank you.
- All right, Mike, you ready for this?
- Let's smash some ice.
- Let's do it
- Ice is not forgiving.
My fear is my blade is too thin and it's gonna break.
♪ ♪
- All right, Mike, you're all in one piece.
Nice job, but your edge here has some spots
where the weld has let go.
A chip came off over here, so it did take some damage,
but in general, held up from the strength test. Nice job.
- Thank you.
[dramatic music]
- All right, bladesmiths,
welcome to our 200th competition sharpness test.
The fans have spoken and they've chosen the rope slice.
[dramatic sting]
By the way, the fans have requested
that we turn the heat up.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Chris, you ready for this?
- Uh... Yeah.
[dramatic music]
- That's an intense test.
If my knife doesn't cut, I'm going home.
♪ ♪
[exhales]
- All right, Chris, let's talk about your kukri here.
This is a sharp edge, sir.
No issues in cutting through the rope and overall, sir,
your 200-layer kukri, it will cut.
- Awesome.
- All right, Jimmy, your turn, so are you ready?
- Yes, sir. Let's do this.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Jimmy, let's talk about your kukri here.
Your edge took two slices to cut all the way through.
Overall, sir, your kukri, it will cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- All right, Mike, your turn. So are you ready?
- Yes. Doug, let's cut some rope.
♪ ♪
- All right Mike, let's talk about your kukri here.
The edge you have here is obtuse.
Now, while it cut a little,
it didn't cut all the way through.
So overall sir, your kukri, it will cut, a little.
- Thank you.
[suspenseful music]
- Well guys, through and through in this competition,
the fans have not failed us.
They gave you a very difficult competition.
But the time has come for us to find out which two of you
are gonna be joining us in the third and final round.
The judges have made a decision and the bladesmith
who's gonna be leaving The Forge is...
Mike.
Unfortunately, your kukri didn't make the cut
and Ben Abbott can tell you why.
- Well, Mike, you put a pretty obtuse grind on your blad,
which didn't do really well on the sharp test,
and it didn't really hold up well
in the strength test either.
It's for those reasons we're gonna let you go.
- Well, Mike, you fought hard but unfortunately at this time,
I'm gonna have to ask you to please exit The Forge.
- Thank you.
I'm going home, but I'm okay with that.
I've watched 199 episodes. I thought I was fully prepared
but there's no way to prepare for this challenge.
I did my best and I'm gonna continue making blades.
- Jimmy, Chris, congratulations guys,
you made it through the first two rounds of our 200th
"Forged in Fire" competition. Now, in this final round,
we're sending you both back to your home forges
to build an iconic weapon from the "Forged in Fire" vaul.
Just like the rest of this competition,
we asked the fans, what they wanted you to build.
Now, they had the choice between the spadroon,
the Darb Sri Gun Chai, and the hunga munga.
Well, gentlemen, with 45% of the vote,
the fans have spoken.
The two of you guys are going back to your home forges
to build...
the Darb Sri Gun Chai.
- Featured in season seven of "Forged in Fire,"
the Darb Sri Gun Chai is a double-handed sword
originally from 18th century Thailand.
This five-foot-long, single-edged blade,
was designed to destroy enemies
with deadly blows and slashe.
The signature flames and valleys of the spine
prove the difficult challenge for previous competitors.
However, one smith's decision to put slippery rabbit fur
on the handle grip ultimately cost him the competition.
- It is a massive blade,
but it needs to fall between these parameters.
Your blade length needs to be between 29 and 31 inches.
Needs to be single-edged. And on the spine of your blade,
you need to have at least two flames and a valley.
That big old handle needs to be between 26 and 28 inches.
- Thank you, fans. That's the one I wanted.
That looks like a fun weapon to make
but it's also a massive feat to undertake in four days.
- Bladesmiths, good luck. We will see you in four days.
- Good luck, man.
- Good luck. - You got it.
[rock music]
- We are back in my home fore in Asheboro, North Carolina,
getting ready to start the 200th challenge
with the Darb Sri Gun Chai.
I'm ready to rock.
In keeping with the 200th episode,
I wanna put 200 layers of Damascus in my blade.
I wanna go above and beyond.
I think it's something that I can manage.
♪ ♪
I forge them to the same size, clean up the edges,
file them together and now I have 200 layers.
At the end of today, I have good Damascus.
I'm ready for tomorrow.
♪ ♪
- It's day one, feel good.
I mean, can't get mad while forging, right?
[chuckles]
So today I'm working on four separate Damascus billets,
one for the guard, and three to form the sword.
Once that gets screaming hot,
I can start taking it over to the hammer.
I have my billets all welded up.
Bet I can get a nice twist going in each of my billets.
And now I'm going to take the billets
and weld them together
and forge my blade out of that.
I managed to get my billet welded up. I feel all right.
♪ ♪
- Morning of day two, I got a lot to get done.
Forging is done. Get this started.
The quenching is always nerve wracking.
You could ruin everything that you have.
- It definitely sabered,
which meant it curves off to the side.
- I caught a warp. That really sucks.
- You could literally snap your blade in half.
- And then I'm there holding two blades.
Damn it. This sucks.
- All right, here goes something.
Definitely a little bit of a nail biter.
Now we're good. That is a huge relief.
Looks good.
♪ ♪
- Day three, yesterday I got a good heat treat.
So today my biggest concern is the handle.
So I'm attempting a canister pommel,
and I forged out the numbers 2, 0, 0,
and I put them inside the canister,
hoping that when I forge it all out,
I should get a nice 200 visible there inside the pommel.
2, 0, 0.
Kind of a two. I have everything together.
I can't believe I'm at this point alread.
Now I just have to see
what my finished blade looks like tomorrow.
♪ ♪
- Day four.
We're on the home stretch for the Darb Sri Gun Chai.
There we go. Gotta get this thing put together.
There it fits on.
All of my components for the handle are done
and ready to be assembled.
Now I get to the point that I've been dreading.
I've got to put these flames in.
Should've used a finer marker for this.
Let's make it flaming.
A single slip of the grinder and I could fail parameters.
We should be good.
Man, I'm so glad to be done with these flames.
This weapon is massive.
It's fitting for the 200th episode.
I'm ready to see what it can do.
- Going into day four, I'm tired.
Well, while grinding, I found a very slight warp.
[groans]
It could be grounds
for elimination out of the competition.
So I'm going to attempt to straighten this warp
using the three-pen jig in my vice.
When you're putting that kind of strain
on a heat-treated blade,
there's always the possibility of snapping.
If something goes wrong here, I don't know what I'll do.
End result, blade came out straight,
and it worked like a charm.
I did it. It's done.
And I cannot wait to see this thing be destroyed
or destroy something.
[chuckles]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Well, Jimmy, Chris, welcome back to The Forge.
These are some beautiful blades,
but before we do some damage, I wanna hear about them.
So Jimmy, how'd it go for you?
- It went well.
I made my blade out of multi-bar Damascus.
I use cat's claw, Manzanita and bloodwood in my handle.
- Pretty impressive, man. Chris, how did it go for you?
- It went pretty well.
I made the blade out of 200 layers of 15 and 20,
1084, 1075,
and W2, solid brass fittings and a leather wrap.
- Guys, these Darb Sri Gun Chai are immaculate,
but there's only one way we know how to find out
which one of you guys is taking home the 200th title
and that check for 10 grand. We've got a sharpness test.
We've got a strength tests and up first, KEAL. Doug?
[suspenseful music]
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our 200th KEAL test.
In honor of our 200th competition,
we're bringing back two of our favorite ballistic dummies.
The lovely Medusa and her snake headband,
and our bluer than blue dummy of the north.
Jimmy, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Absolutely. - All right, let's do thi.
♪ ♪
- Going into the testing, I'm a little bit concerned.
They're big dummies and they got all sorts of boe
and stuff inside them
and it could just come flying apart.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[giggles]
[suspenseful music]
- All right, Jimmy. Let's talk about
your Darb Sri Gun Chai here.
First up, the handle construction.
You have it ovoid enough to where when I wrap
my hand around it, it's a good grip.
It's a very light weapon.
Now your blade had a little bit of a warp,
but it is sharp and overall, sir, it will KEAL.
- Thank you, sir.
- All right, Chris, it's your turn,
so are you ready?
- Yeah. - All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
- Honestly. I'm worried that when Doug hits the head
that my blade is just gonna break in half.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Chris,
first up, it cuts deep,
because it's a wieldable weapon.
The edge is very sharp, no marks whatsoever.
And overall, sir, your weapon, it will KEAL.
- Thank you, sir.
[suspenseful music]
- All right, gentlemen, 200th competition.
That's almost 400 Smiths that have had their blades
go through our strength tests. Today we're gonna turn it up
with a fan favorite, the skull chopper,
but not just one skull, six skulls.
♪ ♪
Jimmy, you're up first, you ready?
- Have fun, Dave. - Okay.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [laughs]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Jimmy. Your blade took some small roles here,
but the blade is in the same shape it started out with.
Good job. - Thank you, sir.
- All right, Chris, you're up. Ready?
- Give it all she got.
- There're six enormous animal skulls
waiting to completely demolish my blade.
It's got me really worried.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- All right, Chris, blade held up,
still in one piece, still solid. Well done.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the sharpness test.
The multiple targets slice.
♪ ♪
Jimmy, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yes, sir. - All right.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
All right, Jimmy, there is one dull spot here,
which I think might've got caught up on the second
to last of the ballistics tubes.
But all of the rest of the cuts were super sharp. So nice job.
- Thank you.
- All right, Chris. You're up next. You ready?
- Give it all she got - All right.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
All right, Chris. Well, as you can see,
great cuts on all of the media up ther.
In all, this thing is one hell of a cutter. Nice job.
- Thank you.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Guys, this has been exciting.
Our fans have put you through a very difficult challeng,
but you guys came with your A games ready
and gave us beautiful blades.
But the time has come to decide which one of you
is taking home the 200th Forged in Fire champion title
and that check for $10,000.
The winner of the 200 "Forged in Fire"
competition is...
[suspenseful music]
Chris, congratulations.
Now, Jimmy, you rocked it the entire way,
but unfortunately your blade didn't make the cut
and Dave Baker is gonna tell you why.
- Jimmy, you brought us a beautiful blade,
but like when we have a competition this close,
we have to look at the smallest things,
the warp on the tip of your blade
and then the damage you took in the strength test
actually affects the cut and the sharpness test.
That's why we're letting you go.
- I understand.
- Well, Jimmy, unfortunately, your time in this competition
has ended. I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- Thanks, man. Respect.
I'm disappointed, but I gave it all I could and Chris's blade
just performed a little bit better.
Coming here for the 200th competition
has been a great honor. The fans had no mercy on us
and I--I think they're a little nuts.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- Chris, congratulations.
You are the 200th Forged in Fire champion.
You've got yourself a check for $10,000. Congratulations.
- Thank you. Thank you.
All of these obstacles that the fans have put in our way
and they consistently picked something that would be awesome
and really hard. It's what I would want to see.
I just won the 200th competition
of "Forged in Fire."
[rock music]
♪ ♪