- Here in The Forge,
we've put hundreds of smiths to the test,
but one fierce competitor has proven himself
time and time again, Ben Abbott.
An expert blacksmith and bladesmith,
a fan favorite turned judge,
Ben Abbott remains undefeated in this forge,
but soon, all that could change.
Tonight, we've gathered three talented bladesmits
to go head, to head, to head, to beat the unbeaten.
- Come on. - Right there.
- Do they have what it takes to finally beat Ben Abbott?
The competition continues now.
♪ ♪
- I'm Jeremy Gonzales. I'm from Beeville, Texas.
I served in the Navy
on the U.S. submarine force.
I've been forging for
a little over three years now.
I never really had the opportunity
until I went to a PTSD treatment center
in Bandera, Texas called Warriors Heart.
Hopefully, that warrior mentality can push me
over the edge of what it takes to beat Ben today.
- My name's Zechariah Nelson.
I'm from Bowling Green, Kentucky.
I've been bladesmithing for about seven years now.
I'm a custom fabricator for my
parents construction business.
At home, I have five sisters
and four brothers rooting for me,
along with my parents and my amazing wife.
If I can beat Ben at 19, I can do anything.
♪ ♪
- I'm Robert Loveday. I'm from Carroll, Nebraska,
I'm an anesthesiologist
and part-time bladesmith.
I started making knives
when I was about 22 years old.
It was a big stress relief for me and it just stuck.
I really want a chance to go against Ben,
show them what I got and see what he's got.
Gonna be a lot of fun.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
The three of you signed up
for an intense bladesmithing competition
that's going to test every aspect of your skills.
Now, today's competition will not consist of three rounds.
We're not gonna have a whole forging portion
of the competition,
and you're not gonna be going against your peers
for the title of "Forge in Fire" champion
and the check for $10,000.
Instead, in order to take home the win,
you're gonna have to face a fierce opponent
with an unbeaten record, currently 5-0, Ben Abbott.
♪ ♪
Ben, you got anything to say these guys
before they get into it?
- Hope you brought your A-game
'cause it's not going to be easy,
but good luck to all of you.
- Ben is gonna be purely an observer
during the first portion of this competition.
He's not gonna be present during the testing.
Now that is in the hands of our two other esteemed judges.
They are the ones who are gonna be making
all of the critical decisions as to who's gonna stay
and who's gonna be heading home.
Now here's how it's going to work.
You will have five hours to complete a blade
from start to finish.
We don't have any model blade we want you to recreate.
We want you to put together your signature blade
in your signature style.
In order to do so, we want you to use this.
♪ ♪
Bladesmiths, what we have here is a pile of scrap steel
from previous competitions.
Guys, we got everything from sledgehammers,
the excavator bucket from the second chance tournament,
we've got farming tools from the farming competition,
we've got nails. There is a ton of options here.
We just ask that you
source your high-carbon steel from this pile
and use any forge welding technique you want
to make your blades.
You cannot do a mono steel blade,
but you can do a canister, you can do twisted Damascus,
you can do layered Damascus. That choice is up to you.
Now again, you guys have to do a forge-welded blade.
Just makes sure that they fall within these parameters.
By the end of the five-hour competition,
you need to turn in a 13-to 15-inch blade.
When that time runs out, you need to be quenched,
hardened, tempered, and have a handle attached,
fully functional, and ready for testing.
- I see there's not gonna be
an easy layered Damascus with known steel,
but you gotta be expecting a bunch of random materials
if you're coming on this competition.
- Now at the end of that five-hour round,
your blades will get tested by Dave and Doug
and they're gonna check for strength and durabiliy
in a copper pipe chop,
and they're gonna check your edge retention
in a foam tube slice.
Now, bladesmiths, I hope you're rested
because you only have five hours
to complete your very best blade
to prove to these guys you have what it takes
to beat Ben Abbott. Good luck.
Your time starts now.
Here we go.
All right guys, looking at the pile we have here,
what would you guys be going for?
- I'd probably take one of those big, old ball bearings
draw it out, put some mild on the sides.
- Personally, I would grab either the chainsaw chain
or the nails and do a canister so have a lot of options
for drawing that out into a weapon.
♪ ♪
- My game plan is to make a canister Damascus.
I see that coil of piano wire,
I know that it's a good, high-carbon steel.
Somebody want one of these?
Nobody wanted those nice, round W1 bars
and so I snatched those up, too.
I'd probably done 10 or 12 canisters at home
and I've had pretty good success with them.
I need more wire.
I wash everything with acetone
and take the forge scale off of the W1 round.
So they'll--hopefully, they'll get a nice, clean weld.
- Rob's got the piano wire and W1
from the pick of the barrel challenge.
- But that's not really what I would choose.
They're not gonna give you a lot of pattern.
- Welding.
So if I don't get a good weld on this,
the powder can start burning out of there.
Oxygen can get in there, cause some bad welds.
So I'm starting to feel the pressure.
♪ ♪
- This is so [bleep]. [bleep].
I'm a young smith and I may think that I can do anything,
but I know I'm limited in my skill,
so I really didn't want to risk canister Damascus,
so I just saw this train spring.
And I figured that'd be really easy to uncoil once I got hot.
- Well, it looks like Zechariah is going with that coil spring.
- Yep. - And let's see if he's active.
- Welding.
- We do not want mono steel blades.
- Yeah.
- I just have to include a forge weld somewhere,
so I just took my canister,
threw the chainsaw chain in here,
filled up with powder.
- Zechariah's got the chainsaw.
Hopefully, he's going to do a nice Damascus San Mai.
- Probably confused the judges.
Welding.
But I knew what I was doing.
I was gonna make two bolsters with it
and just kind of forge weld those on there.
And I was trying to think outside the box
so I can go up against Ben Abbott.
Gotta get it hot.
- There's scrap left over from past challenges,
so I grabbed this God-awful contraption.
It has a big chunk of spring steel in the middle of it
and use that as my base billet and then use the mild stel
from the side of the bucket for a San Mai,
where you put two different types of steel together
to give it more flexibility for the chop challenge.
- Jeremy is just grabbing mild steel
from the side of the bucket.
- That's a very time-consuming process.
- Oh, yeah.
- I had no idea it was gonna be so difficult to cut into.
♪ ♪
Holy cow, a stick.
- Looks like Jeremy has just tunnel vision
rather than pick up a different piece of metal
that's much easier to forge weld.
- I'm pounding on this thing. It is not working.
♪ ♪
- Come in! - [laughs]
- I'm just not making any progress at this point.
Finally, I decided to use a pry tool and pry it open.
And I just stomped on the thing and it flies off.
Now I can move on to the second piece that I need.
Come on.
- While that Damascus is heating up,
I think a guard might impress the judges.
I hope it gets me through to face Ben Abbott.
So I pull out a three inch thick piece of angle iron
to start working on a guard.
- Good thing about this five-hour round
is they can work on the entire blade throughout.
- My plan is to punch a hole in it.
So I take it to the press.
They got stuck in there.
♪ ♪
Usually, I just can hit it on the side, pound it of,
but today, it's not coming off.
It's stuck in there.
- Rob got that punch stuck in his guard for so long.
He looks tired.
- [bleep].
- Like 20 minutes trying to get the punch out of the guard.
- And I'm wasting time.
[chuckles softly]
Eventually, I get the punch off of the guard.
It's cost me more time than is worth it.
♪ ♪
- While I was waiting on that spring coil to get hot,
I drew my design,
just, like, a camp knife.
Something that you can chop a copper pipe with
or cut a foam tube with in this scenario.
The coil heated pretty quick.
The forges here are pretty hot.
I got it straight by taking a piece of scrap angle iron
and the leftover of my canister.
♪ ♪
It actually worked out really well.
And then that canister in the forge,
I took it and I squished it out
to make two bolsters with it.
♪ ♪
Man, that sucks.
The spring coil wasn't very wide,
so there wasn't a lot of material to draw out.
- Now Zechariah's blade looks like it's getting pretty lean.
- Yeah, you don't want the front of it to flop up
when you're hitting the back.
- Right there.
- I set the San Mai welds by hand and they look great.
I feel like they're sticking pretty good.
And then I think to myself,
"I should probably have a design."
And I sketch out the Bowie knife there,
I think it would be perfect
for the testing of this competition.
It's perfect for chopping.
Has a belly on it, so I can slice through the foam
better than a straight edged knife would.
- I like the look of Jeremy's blade.
It's kind of that a Persian fighter feel to it.
- Yeah.
- Big Blu, of course, makes short worth my billet,
so I feel like I'm on track.
Nice.
- So I checked on the canister. Temperature looks great.
I take it over to the press with the squaring dyes,
feels like it's welding up really well.
I'm going to leave that can on there
and just start drawing out a long, thin piece of steel.
So my plan is to make a recurve chopping knife and to do that,
I need to fuller out the width of the blade
so that the end of the blade
can get that big swell that'll be great for chopping.
- Look at Rob's billet. That is, like, 2 1/2 inches tall.
- I'm deliberately leaving it a little bit thick.
I don't want to be caught
halfway through the competition,
find out I don't have enough steel
to make the knife that I want to make.
♪ ♪
- I shaped my blade pretty well, actually.
I have no mild steel on my blade at all.
So I'm going to forge weld two bolsters onto the side of it
and using that canister that I made.
Cleaned up on both sides and cut it into two pieces,
put bolsters on each side.
- I'm looking at what Zechariah's doing.
Basically, he's got a mono steel blade
with a canister Damascus bolster.
- The rules say you need to have a forge weld
in the creation of the blade of your weapon.
- So this doesn't count.
He did forge weld, but not for the blade.
- The idea is if you forge weld on your blade,
there's a possibility that those forge welds don't take,
and it's a demonstration of skill.
- I get the blade up to a good temperature for a good quench.
You don't want to get it too hot
or else you'll run the risk of cracking your blade.
♪ ♪
- But guys, Rob, just quenched.
What do you think of the temperatures?
- That was a little hot for me.
- Yeah. - Yeah?
- Then I pull it out and it starts to warp.
I don't know why it warped, but it--it warped.
This point, I'm starting to get worried.
I'm going to have to try to straighten out the warp.
I can grind some of it out, but not enough,
so I start bending the blade,
hopefully before it completely hardens.
Try to put a good amount of pressure on it
without breaking it.
I'm really hoping
this isn't going to be the reason I go home.
[bleep].
Seems like everything's
getting a little bit straighter.
I should be able to grind out
any warps that are left behind.
- I'm trying to make sure that color is even
throughout the whole blade before I quench it.
That way, I don't have hard spots
and harder spots and everything.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Oh. - Holy cow.
- It's screaming already.
- It's straight as it can be. Didn't pick up a warp.
Went and took a file to it.
It's hard. [laughs]
Oh, yeah.
- All right bladesmiths,
you guys are halfway through this five-hour round.
You have two hours and 30 minutes left.
- So I'm like, gosh, my blade isn't even quenched yet.
So I'm waiting for it to get the critical temperature.
- Holy moly. - Oh, that's hot.
- Yeah, that is screaming hot.
♪ ♪
- I quench and I just don't have a good feeling about it.
It's way too hot, way too many flames coming up.
[bleep].
It has this huge warp in it.
Try to get it out by pressing the top of it.
I'm starting to get nervous that it's going to snap,
So I make the choice to quench again,
which is not a good idea
'cause you're going to lose carbon in the steel.
First quench didn't go too good.
- Really? - Literally like a banana.
- Quenching multiple times from a very high temperature
gives just a big, big grain. It makes things overly brittle.
♪ ♪
- You know, not the same amount of flame,
so I'm feeling a lot better about this.
Pretty good.
There's a slight warp,
but it's definitely something I can handle on the grinder.
- So my blade is looking really good,
but now I need to focus on the handle.
Handles are very important to me
and one of my favorite parts of making a knife,
and so I had to take pride
in how clean and crisp I get them.
- Good to see that Rob is in there
reaming out that handle material.
- He's certainly far ahead
and he's got a blade that looks gorgeous.
- So I get everything lined up and fit up,
make sure that there aren't any major gaps.
And fortunately, everything goes together really well.
I hope it gets me through to face Ben Abbott.
- All right, guys, you have an hour left.
Go ahead and get it done.
- Yeah, we've got three handles
that need to be pitted up, blued, and shaped.
- I can't wait for my epoxy to dry,
so I go over there with a grinder with clamps on there
and I start working.
I'm just sharpening the blade,
just putting the last little edge on there
just making sure it was razor-sharp,
just making sure it was ready for testing.
- I did say we don't want to see mono steel blades.
And that would be considered a mono steel blade, you guys?
- Oh, yeah.
- I have no mild steel on my blade at all.
And so I have no fear that
when that blade hits that pipe, that it's solid.
That will easily pass the testing.
- All right. Rob is in the acid bath.
We're definitely gonna see a pattern there.
- That's great.
- We got a wrapped-up blade from Zechariah,
so I do not think we're gonna see an acid etch there.
- No.
- A little bit of handle work.
Jeremy, coming down to it, guys.
- I finally get my epoxy.
And then that's when I noticed the huge gap between the guard
and the edge of the handle scale.
Best thing I figured I could do at the time
is just try to fill it with epoxy
to make sure that the guard can stay in a place
and survive the testing.
- Eight minutes for your glue to dry.
I mean, it's five-minute epoxy.
- Gonna get tight.
♪ ♪
Bladesmiths, you have five minutes left before testing.
Ben that means, unfortunately, it's time for you to head out.
We will see you in the next competition, buddy.
- All right.
- So right now I'm hoping
that my emergency fix is going to be enough.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines,
put down your tools.
This round is over.
- Looking at my blade, I feel pretty good about it.
I think I've got a pretty good chance
at making it to the next round
where I get to go against Ben Abbott.
That's the big thing.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to testing.
Now, in the first round of competition,
we asked you guys to use pieces of scrap steel,
use a forge welding technique to build your blades,
and turn in something that was between 13 and 15 inches,
but you cannot make a mono steel blade.
Unfortunately, we do have a parameter issue.
Zechariah, unfortunately, your blade does miss parameters
and Dave Baker is going to tell you why.
- Zechariah, I think you made a really great-looking
blade here, but Grady was very specific
when he asked that part of the blade be forge wel.
You forge welded on a bolster, not part of the blade.
Sets up an unfair testing advantage where both
your opponents have forged weld sections of the blade.
- Now, Zechariah,
unfortunately, your time in The Forge is ended.
I'm going to have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- I appreciate it. - Thank you so much.
- I see David Baker's point. I understand it.
The two bolsters, I figured, it was a nice,
easy way to throw some canister Damascus,
throw a little bit of spice into my blade.
I'm going home my head held high.
No regrets.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen.
It's time for the strength test, the copper pipe smash.
Now, we've seen this test chew the edge off a lot of blades.
But for the proper heat treat, should survive with no proble.
Jeremy, you're up first, you ready?
- Do it to it.
- Sounds good.
♪ ♪
- I'm a little worried about my heat treat.
The second quench is definitely
in the back of my mind and I'm just hoping
my handle stays together at this point.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jeremy.
So start out with the blade here.
Man, this thing's still sharp. Good job.
Your handle construction is-- Yeah, it's a--[chuckles]
It's a bit rushed.
The main problem I have with this
is your handle kind of gets thinner towards the back.
So as I was swinging this,
I kind of had to keep readjusting
to get a good grip on this.
Having said that, your blade held up beautifully.
So good job, man. - Thank you.
- You bet. All right, Rob. You're up. Are you ready?
- All right, let's do it. - Okay.
♪ ♪
- Copper is a really soft metal,
and so the blade edge sinks n
and then any kind of twisting or bending of the knife
will cause it to chip and break out of there and roll the edge.
♪ ♪
- So one of the things I really like about your blade
is I see a crafted blade here.
The handle's got a really nice shape to it.
Two parts, hidden tang, well-fitted-up guard.
There's a couple of small deflections,
but nothing major, and your edge is straight.
Very well done. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths.
This is the sharpness test, the foam tube slice.
Now, unlike the strength, this is all about
how sharp your blades are and how well they cut.
Jeremy, you're up first. Are you ready?
- Let's do it. - Let's do this.
- So this is it.
The last obstacle I have between me and Ben.
So have at it, Doug. Let's go.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jeremy let's talk about your weapon here.
It's got a good feel in the balance.
Now, your edge is sharp.
It has nice cuts to the first strike.
Not all the way through in the last pieces,
but overall, sir, your weapon, it'll cut.
All right, Rob, your turn. So you ready?
- I'm ready. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
All right, Rob, let's talk about your weapon here.
First up,
that's a handsome profile that you have right there.
Now, your edge, it does cut.
The first swing, it cut through
and the second swing on the back-end side
also cut through these foam tubes.
Overall, sir, your weapon, it'll cut.
- Thanks.
- All right, bladesmiths.
Both of your blades performed extremely during our testin,
but in this competition, only one of you can move
forward into the final round and face Ben Abbott.
The judges talked over your blades
and they did come up with a final decision.
Bladesmith who's moving forward
into the final round of this competition to face Ben Abbott
is...
Rob. Congratulations, man.
Jeremy, you fought hard,
but unfortunately, your blade didn't make the cut,
and Doug's gonna tell you why.
- Jeremy, your steel is strong and sharp,
but at the end of the day,
your handle construction with that guard
is not as refined as that of Rob's
and that's the reason we're letting you go.
- Thank you.
- Well, Jeremy, thank you for coming out.
It was a pleasure watching you work,
but unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
Now, I have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- Thank you. I appreciate it so much.
- Thank you, Jeremy.
- I definitely agree with the judges' decision.
I'm still humbled and grateful
for this awesome and amazing experience.
I believe Rob is the perfect guy to go up against Ben.
What's next for me is I'm gonna go home,
I'm gonna continue making knives
and reaching out to other veterans
and helping them as much as I can.
- Rob, congratulations man.
That means you are gonna be going
to the final round of this competition
going head-to-head with Ben Abbott,
where are you gonna choose what blade you're gonna be building
as well as what technique you're gonna be using
to build that blade. How do you feel?
- This is gonna be awesome. I'm excited about it.
- Well, this is the last time
you're going to see these two judges
because they are going into the final testing completely blind.
- Ben Abbott's really good smith.
This is his home turf.
I would love to bring him down.
That would be a notch in my belt
to say I beat Ben Abbott one-on-one in The Forge.
- Rob, congratulations.
You gotta be feeling on top of the world right now, right?
- Yeah, it feels fantastic.
- You just came off a huge win
against two formidable opponents.
But in order to get the title of "Forged In Fire" champion
and a check for $10,000,
you're gonna have to go head-to-head
against our unbeaten judge, Ben Abbott.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [sarcastic evil laugh] - Hey, Ben.
- I am not surprised.
I really respect Rob.
I respect his choices
and I respect his work that I've seen thus far.
I know I got my work cut out for me to go up against him.
- Welcome back, Ben. - Good to be here, Grady.
- Now, you guys are gonna be going head-to-head
in a competition where you're building a blade
from start to finish.
And you will only have nine hours to complete it.
But as you noticed,
Dave and Doug will not be joining us in this competition.
They're gonna be going into the testing completely blin,
not knowing whose blade is whose.
Now, Rob, you chose a weapon from our "Forged in Fire" vault
that you wanted to build up against Ben.
Ben, you're gonna be building this.
♪ ♪
- Uh-oh.
The Irish ring-hilted sword.
- Oh.
- The Irish ring sword was a weapon of the elite
gallowglass mercenaries in 12th-century Ireland.
This extremely long, double-edged sword
was featured in season 5 of "Forged in Fire"
where the smiths were challenged
with not only having to forge out something of this length,
but also the added challenge of putting a fuller in it.
While both smiths struggled to make such a long blade
both light and strong,
one smith went too thin in his design,
causing a bend in testing and costing him the competition.
- Now guys, when you're building your blades,
you have a lot of parameters to follow.
Your blade measured from tip to the guard
needs to be between 29 and 31 inches.
Need to have at least 20 inches of fullers
running up both sides of the blade
and your guard needs to be S-shaped
and have forked terminals
with at least three fingers on each.
And at the end of your handle, you need to have a ring pommel.
And inside that pommel,
you have to be able to see the exposed tang.
Now Rob, you also got to choose the steel you want to use
to build your Irish ring-hilted sword.
You're gonna be building it with this...
♪ ♪
Ladder pattern Damascus.
♪ ♪
- I remember a competition where Ben Abbott said
that his specialty is a ring-hilted knife.
This sword should be right up his alley.
And I hope it sends a message that I'm not afraid
to go up against him with a sword he knows how to mak.
- All right guys, nine hours is not a lot of time
to build this sword in this technique,
but I've got full faith that you can both do it.
Once that nine hours is complete,
Doug's gonna start it off with a ballistics dummy
and water tube slice.
Then Dave is gonna take over
and check for strength and sharpness
in a Kendo stick chop
and at the tatami matt slice.
Good luck. Your time starts now.
[dramatic music]
So these guys have nine hours to complete their blades.
Now, they're starting off with 32 layers of 10-95 and 15N2.
That is gonna be a huge stack
if they decide to do a forge weld all at one time.
- First step is gonna be to be to clean up all these pieces.
If had to figure out a reason that I keep coming back
and competing, it would be a touch of insanity
mixed with a real, absolute passion for this craft
and a passion to be challenged,
especially by some of the best in the world.
I know I can make this sword. I've done it before.
It took me a lot longer than nine hours last time.
So let's see if I can speed it up.
This time, I'm going to go with two billets.
I'm going to draw them out, cut them into even lengths,
stack those, and make a sword from there.
It's something in the region of 80 to 90 layers
and you can cut a pretty good ladder into that.
♪ ♪
- I have done projects like this before
over the course of months, not over nine hours.
My goal is to go for two billets of 16 layers each,
cut 'em into five pieces, stack those up to 160,
and then cut that in half,
stack it up again to get a total of 320 layers.
That should look pretty good in the final product.
- A risk of going more layers is if I get a bad weld,
then I have to start over from scratch.
So I don't want to take too much risk,
but I know Ben is bringing his A game.
So I better go the distance. That man's an animal.
- [chuckles]
Rob took a look over across The Forge and saw that
Ben is now already drawing his first billet out
and chuckled to himself.
Now he's finally realizing
how serious Ben is about his work and this competition.
- The two billets are drawn out to the right lengt.
I have them all cleaned up on the grinder.
And I'm going to chop them into five-inch sections.
I end up with seven layers.
There is some gapping between the layers.
It is a little bit of a concern.
I really would like that to all be nice and tight.
It may show up later as delamination
if enough air gets in there before I can flatten it,
but I just don't have time to grind things flat.
I just have time to grind things clean.
So I weld it all together as it is into one billet
and throw it in the forge.
♪ ♪
- I grabbed my Damascus
and I start setting the welds on the press.
♪ ♪
- Rob did say he wanted to do ladder pattern Damascus,
so they're not gonna be able to get away
with a really low layer count
'cause you're not going to be able to see the patter.
And you can't go too high
because of going to kind of mesh together.
♪ ♪
- I have my Damascus bars drawn out.
I need to divide them up hopefully into five pieces each
and restack them to get a total of 144 layers.
I weld them up at the MIG welder
and put them back in the forge.
♪ ♪
- Now to put the ladder in it.
So I ended up with 85 layers in my billet.
I think that's a high enough layer count
to get a visible ladder pattern.
I'd rather double that,
but I just don't have time to double that,
so I figured 80, 85.
Close enough.
♪ ♪
- So now my main billet is up to temperature.
It's 144 layers,
so I gently start setting those welds.
- That was a tall stack, Rob.
- A bit too tall. I hope it doesn't mush around too much.
- Yeah, that's the risk, right?
He's got to make sure that you can get to
every single one of those layers
all pressed down or welded together at one time.
- Now I'm ready to do another restack.
I can tell Ben's ahead of me.
I think if I can do one single restack,
just double my 144 layers up to 288 layers,
that's a good, respectable layer count.
Hopefully, it will not cost me too much time.
- Bladesmiths, the clock says four and a half hours.
That means you guys are halfway through this competition.
- I finished my thermal cycles.
It's time to quench,
and I really want this quench to go well.
The slightest little warp, somewhere in the middle,
could be catastrophic.
- Ben has quenched his blade.
He's way ahead of the game right now.
- I'll take it.
I'm so happy.
It is absolutely, laser straight.
It's time to grind in the fullers.
♪ ♪
- I found a crack.
- Something bad happened during Ben's quench
and it formed a crack right down the center
of one of the edges that could potentially be
running all the way through the entire blade.
- Got four hours left in this round.
I've got to grind this out
or to find some other way to fix it
'cause I don't have time to start a new blade right no.
- He's currently unbeaten,
and this could mean his first loss.
I can grind it.
If it's still somewhere bad, MIG weld it.
- He's in frantic grinding mode
trying to get it all the way out.
- I think I took care of it.
I ground it way back, so I think it's gone
so it's not gonna be an issue.
I was very happy
I was able to grind that the delamination away.
- There are a couple of ways to do fullers.
One is you grind off metal,
but I'm worried that I'm not going to have enough steel,
so the other way is to forge them in with the press.
Ugh. Not very straight.
It's not great, but it is what it is.
I've got to move on.
Hopefully, I can fix it a little bit at the grinder.
♪ ♪
- I put the blade into the temper oven
and now it's time to start thinking ahead
for the ring-hilt pommel.
Doing a nice, small pilot hole first.
- So Ben's got a piece of mild steel,
just a disk that he drilled a hole through
and now he is drifting that whole to make it wider
finished that pommel off.
- I drill the holes for the tang to fit through.
Some of the difficulties with making a donut shape
is that it's really obvious
when the hole isn't in the middle.
All right.
There's a lot of different parts of this blade.
I can't waste any time. I've got to keep going.
♪ ♪
- All right, cross your fingers.
In the last round, I had a big warp
and I don't want it to be an issue for me again.
So this time,
I do everything I can to avoid warps.
I did a good normalization process,
so I expect it to be pretty good.
Ben seems to be about two steps farther along than me,
so I've got a lot of ground to make up.
It looks pretty darn straight.
- Bladesmiths, you're down to the final two hours remaining.
- I'm working on grinding the sword,
back to the guard, back to the pommel.
Suddenly, I realized,
"You haven't even started the handle."
So I find a piece of poplar.
It's a relatively light wood, but it's pretty strong.
I don't have to worry about going to a nice, fine finish
'cause this handle is going to get wrapped.
This just got a lot harder when I can't open my fingers.
I coated my fingers with so much contact cemet
that the string is sticking to my fingers
more than it's sticking to the wood.
Ah, I'm so sticky, but the spring isn't sticking.
It looked like something out of a Charlie Chaplin movi.
Everything was sticking to everything.
Finally, I get the wrap going okay.
But at the end of the last competition,
I really just hated how the handle came out.
I hated how much I rushed.
That damn thing on the [bleep]damn wrong side.
And now, that big, red clock is breathing down my neck.
I can feel it.
- Excellent.
I know that a guy with Ben's skills is not cutting corner,
so I need to at least make my guard look good.
The guard's coming together.
It has good symmetry, good form.
I kind of liked the way that the arms sweep up.
Everything's going great right now.
♪ ♪
- I've got about 27 minutes left.
Why don't we just go ahead and fit this stuff up?
Nope.
This slide is on the crossguard and it's loose.
♪ ♪
- If it comes down to it,
they both have strong and sharp blades.
What they're working on right now
with the fit and finish could mean the difference
between a win and a loss.
- I take the edges of the slot,
I hammer them from the top and I bend them in like thi.
Then I take a squashed pipe.
I drive that crossguard all the way down.
And now, I know that that crossguard
isn't going to start rattling
during testing, it isn't gonna be an issue.
♪ ♪
- We're down to the final 15 minutes before testing.
- I am frantic.
I'm scrambling trying to get everything together
to do my glue-up.
Oh, no. Not good.
The edge of the ring is hitting the tang
and I'm unable to lock everything down.
If this gives way during the strength test,
and things could start to rattle and cut loose,
so I'm worried.
Ugh.
To fix this, I have to grind off some of that tag
so I can get it back on,
hopefully before the epoxy's set enough
that I can tighten everything down.
If I don't get this done, it can be a disaster
and it'll definitely cost me competition.
I guarantee Ben's sword's gonna be tight.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
You guys just finished a nine-hour build.
Well done. [claps]
- When I look over at Ben's blade for the first time,
it looks good.
But I know that as good as Ben's blade looks,
what it's gonna come down to is the test.
If I can perform well on the test
and he has some kind of problem in the test,
then I can still come away with a victory.
♪ ♪
- Well guys, welcome back.
I got to say, you missed an epic competition.
Rob and Ben had nine hours
to build their Irish ring-hilted swords
in ladder pattern Damascus.
And up to the last minute,
I had no idea if they were going to finis.
What do you guys think? Doug?
- Beautiful work. I'm really impressed.
I mean, they're so close.
The first thing I noticed is when I picked up silver,
the balance and the light feel of that,
it's comfortable in the hand.
- Dave, what do you think?
- It's got a lower layer pattern
probably by a hundred layers.
So you get a less dramatic ladder.
Still a ladder pattern, it's just not as dramatic.
Now we get to green.
♪ ♪
Now, green's definitely a more stout sword.
I like the detail on the handle
and I really liked that ladder pattern.
- Although green is a heavier blade
and that's why you have a bigger ring on it.
- All right, guys, well,
it sounds like you're impressed by the blades,
but there's only one way we know how to find out
who's taking the win.
Ready for testing?
- Oh, yeah. - Giddyup.
- Let's call 'em in.
♪ ♪
Well, Rob, Ben, I got to say guys,
I am thoroughly impressed.
You guys took on the monumental task
in building a 30-inch sword in nine hours.
Right now, Ben, you're in this to defend your champion title
and go for your sixth win on "Forged in Fire."
Rob, you're trying to knock him off his throne,
go for your first win, and a check for $10,000.
I wish I could give you guys both the prize here,
but the best way we know how to find out
which one of you guys is going home with the win
is by putting your blades through some tests.
First dynamic kill test with Doug.
♪ ♪
- Alright, bladesmiths, welcome to the dynamic kill test.
To find out how lethal your weapons are,
I'm going to deliver some deadly blows
on this ballistics dummy and cut some water tubes.
♪ ♪
- I'm going first.
I know my blade is sharp and I'm pretty sure
it's going to cut deeply into that ballistics dummy,
but those water tubes are quite telling.
So there might be a small section
and that's all it takes to just stop dead
in some of those tubes.
♪ ♪
- All right guys,
when delivering the cuts over here,
they slash nicely to the water tubes
and just demolished that ballistics dummy.
On that piece, probably ran out of blade
as I'm cutting on the back end, but it's, you can see,
the cuts, they are very sharp.
Overall, It will KEAL and cut.
♪ ♪
- The sharpness test is the test
that I'm most concerned about
because I know the edge on my blade is kind of heavy.
It makes it difficult to cut.
♪ ♪
- All right, first up.
When I picked this up,
you can tell there's a big difference in the weight.
The edge is sharp,
so when I'm chopping into the ballistics dummy,
it's a deep cut,
but it's heavier and harder to control.
It cut the first two tubes and then push the rest.
But overall, looking at the damage of the ballistics dummy
and some of the cuts, it will KEAL.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen,
it's time for our dynamic strength test,
the bamboo sword chop and tatami mat slice.
I'm not only looking at how well your weapons
hold up in this test,
but how they feel and how well they cut.
Silver's up first.
- This was an eyeball heat treat,
so I'm pretty sure it looked even to me,
but it's a thin sword.
We'll see what happens.
My heart will be pounding
to the point where I can hear it in my ears.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys.
Right off, the blade is really, really light.
The edges are really sharp.
All in all, I think this is a really well-crafted sword.
Held up very nicely.
There's just no damage on this edge.
♪ ♪
All right.
Right off, this thing's a destroyer.
[laughter]
It's not outside the realm of proper weight.
This is kind of the outside edge.
When cutting, you feel the blade slow down
as opposed to just pass through the tatami mat.
So it's got a lot of drag on it and that really has to do
with the thickness of the blade and the style of the grind
that's on its edge,
but it held up well, it cut good. Good job.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, the time has come to find out
if Ben, you're going to keep your unbeaten streak going
or if Rob, you've dethroned the king
and you're taking home the title
of "Forged in Fire" champion and a check for $10,000.
I got to say this was a very close race
and you made a difficult decision for the judges.
Today's "Forged in Fire" champion is...
♪ ♪
Ben Abbott.
Ben, congratulations. You are now 6-0.
Now Rob, you gave him an unbelievable run for his money,
but unfortunately, your blade didn't make the cut
and Doug's gonna tell you why.
- I mean, Rob, with nine hours, your blade was a work of art.
But it came down to the weight distribution effect
in some of the tests.
For those reasons, you didn't win today.
- Rob, you're talented.
There's nobody here that will question that.
But unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- All right. Well, thank you. I had a great time.
- You're welcome. Nice job on that blade.
- Thank you.
Well, Ben won.
- Nice job, Rob.
- The judges made the right call and he deserved it.
That was an amazing blade.
I'm going to go home, see my family,
and make a really nice Irish ring-hilted sword.
It's gonna take me a lot longer than just nine hours.
- Well, Ben, that's 6-0, buddy.
- [chuckles] - You are unbelievable.
You are yet again the "Forged in Fire" champion.
Congratulations. [applause]
- I can't believe it. I can't believe it.
Rob is a great smith, a really fun guy, great competito,
and I'm really happy to have worked next to hi.
- Looks like you're keeping the unbeaten streak alive.
Congratulations, man.
You're not done yet. We've got more of this to com.
- Oh, my God. What did I sign up for?
- Good job, bud. [applause]
- For those that are coming to try to beat me,
I'm still here. Still undefeated. Bring it on.