[dramatic music]
- Here in The Forge, we have 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.
His current record is seven wins and zero losse,
but soon, all that could change.
♪ ♪
Tonight we are bringing back two smiths
from Ben Abbott's first time competing in this Forge
who are looking to rewrite history.
Do they have what it takes to finally beat Ben Abbott?
The competition continues now.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
- My name is Brent Stubblefield.
I'm 40 years old, from Richmond, Virginia.
I am a full-time smith,
and last time I competed on "Forged"
I was sent home because of inexperience.
- Brent, when heating that spine, you let that heat travel
all the way to the edge, and that really puts
the strength of your blade's edge in question.
- But now I am a full-time bladesmith,
and I'm here to win and take no prisoners.
♪ ♪
- My name is Nathan Zimmerman. I'm 31.
I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
and I'm a full-time bladesmith and knife sharpener.
The last time I competed,
I put a bunch of spiderweb cracks all over the blad.
- Well, Nathan, I can see two large cracks
going across the spine, a few smaller ones,
and, plus, we've actually got lateral cracking.
That's a very big issue.
- My skills have vastly improved since last time,
so if I were to come back and beat Ben,
it would obviously be a legendary feat,
that's for sure.
♪ ♪
- Well, Brent, Nathan, gentlemen,
welcome back to The Forge.
Now, guys, you have been selected for an epic rematc.
The last time you were here was back in season two,
and that just so happened to be the same competition
that was Ben Abbott's first time in this Forge.
Now, I don't want to get into the history of it
and get into the details, but we all know how that went.
- Ben, congratulations.
You are the "Forged in Fire" champion
and will be receiving a check for $10,000.
- Now, one of you is gonna have the chance
to rewrite history
and potentially beat Ben in this Forge,
earning you that coveted title of "Forged in Fire" champion
that comes with a check for $10,000.
Since you last met Ben, he has tallied up
quite a few more wins, and he is currently undefeated
with a record of 7-0.
So, bladesmiths, you have your work cut out for you.
The two of you are going up against each other
in a five-hour straight bladesmithing competition,
where we want you to build a signature blade
in your signature style, but before we get in to I,
I gotta ask, do you guys think
you have what it takes to take Ben down now?
- I hope he's ready.
[laughter]
- Brent, how about you?
- You know, I'm cautiously optimistic.
[laughter] - That's fair.
Ben, do you have anything to say to the guys
before we get going?
- I know you guys are feeling confident and that's good,
but all I can say is good luck.
- All right, guys, in this competition,
Ben is going to be solely a spectator.
He is not gonna be testing your weapons.
All the crucial decisions are gonna be left
up to Dave and Doug; they're gonna be the ones
deciding which one of you
will be going forward to the final round of the competition
to face Ben.
Now, I said you guys are gonna be building
your signature blades,
but as far as techniques go,
we're gonna leave that up to the Wheel of Forging.
I'm gonna spin the wheel for each one of you,
and wherever it lands is the technique
you must use to build your blade.
Brent, you're up first.
- All right. - Let's see what you get.
- I really don't want that wheel to land
on Canister Damascus.
I want to make a pattern Damascus
and show that I can do that.
- I gotta say, Brent, you are about the luckiest guy
that's walked through this Forge.
You just landed on Choose Your Own Pattern Damascus.
I gotta ask, what do you want to do?
- I want to do something that'll really wow the judges.
Twisted crushed Ws, we'll see how that looks.
- That is a massively tall order.
You think you have what it takes?
- We're not gonna win this thing
without taking a few risks.
- That is very, very true. Nate, you're up. You ready?
- Yeah. Come on, same thing.
There was a couple options on there
that I really don't want
to have to be doing in this competition
because having to do a jelly roll,
having to do a Turkish twist,
is just something that I don't think
that I could do within the allotted time.
- You have to do Raindrop Pattern Damascus.
- Raindrop Damascus is something
I've done quite a few times
and I've played around with a lot.
The most difficult part of this process for me
is gonna be making sure that I have clean forge welds.
- Now, guys, once the clock expires, the judges
are gonna check your blades for strength and durability
in a log chop and check your edge retentin
in an apple slice. You guys ready?
- Ready. - Ready.
- Let the epic battle begin. Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
- All right.
- Ben, you seem pretty tickled about this one.
- Yeah, man, you know, these are buddies of mine,
so it's just really great to see these guys again.
- Now, are you concerned? - Yeah. Yeah. I'm concerned.
These are good smiths, and, you know,
we belong to a larger group
that freely shares information to and fro.
So I don't really have any secrets from these guys.
- That can be dangerous.
- I only have five hours to do this really complex pattern.
I am trying to go above and beyond.
I want to show the judges that I'm not afraid
to risk everything
because this is my chance to prove
that I've got what it takes to beat the unbeaten.
So I want to get that steel stacked and welded
and in the forge immediately.
There's so many things that have to go right.
Nothing can go wrong.
I have to hit the bull's-eye with this build.
- Brent got to choose whatever he wanted to do,
but he chose crushed W twisted.
- Yeah. - Never seen it. No idea.
Please explain.
- All right. So you take your stack
and you stack it up as normal, you'll forge weld it togethe,
then you turn it on its side and you squeeze it,
and what that does is it takes those layers
and it crushes them into sort of like a U-shape.
Then you restack that again and you squeeze it again,
and they get more crushed and they actually,
instead of just being a U,
they've become Ws all the way down the billing.
And if you twist it, every now and then you see
a little bit of that pattern as it comes around.
- I tack it up
and get it into the forge in 17 minutes flat.
♪ ♪
- Coming into this competition a second time,
my focus is slightly different.
I'm not trying to make the best knife I've ever mad.
I'm really trying to just mae a blade that will,
first off, be finished.
Second off, not have any cracks.
Third off, perform well in the challenges
because I think that that's what's gonna
make me go on to the second round.
I gotta keep 'em in order.
My game plan is to get my steel cleaned,
'cause that's, I think, the most important step
in forge welding.
- It's only 15 layers is what he's got right now.
When he draws that out, is that anywhere near enough
to be able to see that raindrop
or does he have to draw, cut, stack?
- Yeah. I would love to see him draw that out,
cut in in at least five pieces,
maybe six pieces, restack that.
- Yeah. With a few layers you end up with raindrop
that looks kind of like a ring and a dot, and that's borin.
- I know that I have a low layer count.
I can make it look a lot cooler
with a higher layer count, but I don't want
to have to forge weld twice in this round.
So I think I can make it work as long as I drill
my holes deep enough, I forge my blade thin enough,
and I don't grind all that raindrop away.
♪ ♪
- I have my billet up to heat,
so not it's time to squish some welds.
This has to go absolutely perfect.
This is a really complex pattern.
I just don't have the time to restart.
I know that I've gotta get that in there
and give it just some nice light compression
and get it right back in the forge.
- Oh...
- Any weakness in those initial forge welds
will shear apart later,
destroying my chances at winning.
The forge weld looked okay,
but we won't know until much later.
- I think he's positive that those welds have held
and now it's about drawing that billet out
as quickly as he can.
- And that's really important.
Time management is absolutely paramount in this competition.
- Not only that, he's got to cut and stack it,
but after the next build it's got to be
almost like a square so he can twist it.
- That's right.
- I'm not doing amazing, but I'm doing okay.
I go over to the chop saw and cut it up.
Once everything's stacked to my liking,
I take it over to the welder, tack it up,
put it back in the forge again.
I really want to have this thing forged out
at about the two-hour mark.
I think I'll be okay, if everything goes perfect.
♪ ♪
- We're getting pretty close here.
So once the billet is about the same temperature
as the forge, I take it out
and I lightly press it on the forge press
just to set the welds very lightly.
- Now, that's a good color. - That's it.
Once I know my billet is solid,
I really feel a lot better
about my chances in this competition.
♪ ♪
- My second stack is welded,
and now I gotta get it back to welding heat
so that I can twist it.
- You really want to get this twist
looking kind of like all thread.
It needs to be really, really twisted
for that pattern to really show up well.
[dramatic music]
- I'm 150 pounds soaking wet,
so I'm kind of struggling with this thing.
Now, one of the things about not being able
to twist it as much as I'd like,
is it leaves bigger, wider deep places
that will create all kinds of cold shuts and nasty stuf,
but that's gonna be a concern for later.
I gotta get moving.
No more.
It wore me out, but I got it done.
Not as tight as I want it, but I got a twist in ther,
which is all I told them I would do.
- I really enjoy building my tools of the task,
so decide to do this complex spider shape
with a curved cutting edge
because that'll chop wood very well.
I want to put a bit of a guard on my blade for safety.
Any big knife like this should have a finger catch
or something like that.
I'm just hitting into the edge of the anvil,
very carefully, because that could be
a point of stress where it could break.
It could cost me later in the competition.
But I do think it's cool to be true to my own style
and make a blade that really looks like something
that might come out of my shop.
All righty.
Right after I put that step in,
I'm feeling pretty good.
So I head over to the drill press
and start drilling into the blade
to get my raindrop pattern.
- Is raindrop on the same level
as the twisted crushed Ws?
- Well, I would say it's not
the same level of difficulty,
but done correctly, it's just as dramatic.
- Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
- I know that I've gotta be quenched
by about the two-hour mark
if I have any hope to finish on time.
♪ ♪
- All right. Brent is quenched.
- I can't believe how straight it is.
Now I can take it back to the grinder
and grind my shape just like I want.
- So really all I want to accomplish in this first roud
is have one of my knives get tested by the judges
because I didn't get to do that the first time
I was on the competition.
- Nathan, I loved what you were doing with that design,
but you put so many structural flaws in that blade
that we cannot test that blade.
- But I'm expecting much better results
this time than previously,
because I know my blade doesn't have cracks,
I know my forge welds are at least solid.
- Shazam! - Nathan's in the oil.
- Good color for Nathan.
- I pull it out, and I'm very happy with my quench,
but if I take a freshly quenched blade
and try to chop a log with it, it's gonna snap in half
because it's very, very hard and it's very brittle.
So I temper it just
to bring that hardness down a little bit
and make it faster to grind and make it tougher.
- When I'm doing any kind of a torch temper,
I like to get that blade completely clean
because I want to see where the color's moving
and how deep it's moving through
and how quickly it's moving through the blade.
- So you'd go and do, like, a quick pass on the grinder,
just to expose... - Oh, yeah.
- So the temper went pretty well.
I didn't overheat any of my spots.
But I hear Brent grinding away across the shop.
The time is starting to tick down,
I know I have a lot left to do,
so I decide to move on to the handle.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, you have one hour left.
[rock music]
- So I'm grinding away all this extra material,
and right by the bolster
where it's not as thick as I would like,
there's a little place on both sides
that could be fissures for a break.
[bleep].
- Uh, that's not a good sign.
[dramatic music]
- This could be disastrous.
- If it's a deep enough crack, it's a structural issue.
- If I can't fix this blade right now,
I'm not gonna be the one facing Ben.
I just decide to go tack-weld it.
- Not a good time for Brent to have to weld on to his blade.
- No.
- If it's a deep enough crack, it's a structural issue.
- People get sent home for that,
so you just-- You want to address it.
- Now, there's a risk to this because it's easy
to overheat your edge, and the last time
I competed on the competitio, I was sent home
because I overheated the edge of my blade
while I was trying to take a warp out of it.
[dramatic music]
- Did you notice the color in the center of Brent's blade?
- Yes, I did. Yes, I did. - [laughing]
- There's little to no hardness
right in the center of Brent's blade now.
- And I really don't want to do that this time.
It may give me some weld in the pattern,
but hopefully this one little tack-weld on that spot
won't look too bad.
All right.
It looks consolidated, but time is running out.
I need to get this handle done.
- Bladesmiths, you guys are down to 45 minutes.
[rock music]
- Time is starting to tick down,
and I know I have to get the handle scales
fit up and shaped.
I like to put a tapered handle.
It has a little more mass up at the top of the handle
and a little less at the back.
It makes a really comfortable handle and also helps
with the balance of the knife.
There we go.
So I get the tang of my knife ground approximately flat.
I epoxy it all together with some quarter inch steel pins.
I know that I can't waste the five minutes
that the epoxy is drying, so I clamp it up
and I immediately start trying to thin my edge don
and get the finish that I know I need to show off
the Damascus pattern that I made.
♪ ♪
- There's 30 minutes left.
I've got the handle installed,
but I've gotta let it cure before I can shape it.
I'm going to finish grinding while the epoxy is setting up,
and I'm hoping that I can get that pattern etch
to sharpen the blade in the last few minutes,
and I want to make sure that my edge geometry is robust
so that it's great at chopping that log.
I check the edge, make sure it feels pretty good,
and put it in the acid.
- Fifteen minutes left, guys. - I hope this is pretty.
I pull it out of the etch.
The twisted crushed W pattern looks great.
It has some really bold line,
and I'm just really hoping that it's gonna be
something that the judges just haven't seen before.
- We got five minutes on the clock.
Fare thee well, buddy. - All right, brother.
- See you later.
- I'll see you guys on the other side.
- All right, Ben.
- Yeah, you better get ready, Ben.
- At this point, I have basically a sharpened edge,
but I also know that I need to get a good finish
on this blade to show off the Damascus pattern,
so I want to make sure that's all etched.
- Nate is etching.
- I'm really happy to see
that there's rings all over the blade.
Some of them are not very bold.
That's because I have a low layer count,
but they are on both sides of the blade
and I'm really thrilled to see that.
I'm feeling pretty good about my blade.
I'm happy that my pattern's showing.
I'm happy that it feels good, so I'm really hoping
that my blade performs well in the testing here.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines,
put down those blades.
This round is over.
- Previously on the competition,
my blade didn't even get tested,
so I'm thrilled to be able to see that
and I'm excited to see how my blade performs.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen.
It's time for the strength test, the log chop.
Now, to test the overall strength
and construction of your blades,
I'll be chopping into this log multiple times.
Now, this is not about what your blades do to the log,
but what that log can do to your blades.
And Brent, you're up first. You ready?
- Go for it, Dave.
[dramatic music]
I want to get through this so bad, but these wooden logs
are a lot tougher than wooden dowels.
The bark's all been shaved off,
so there's gonna be no soft stuff.
We're going right into the hard stuff.
I'm really nervous.
♪ ♪
- That flew straight by.
- Brent, you can see right there, that brown.
- Yeah.
- There was some kind of a microfracture in there
that when I hit this, it made contact just behind it
and it just peeled off, you know?
You know, the grain structure looks great,
but that crack being right where it was on the spine,
it looks like it was just one of those microfractures
that you just don't see.
What can I say?
- Last thing I expected, to be honest with you.
- Me too.
♪ ♪
- All right, Brent.
Unfortunately, your blade
did suffer a catastrophic failure
on the first strike of the test,
so we cannot continue testing your blade.
But you're not out of the fight yet
because, Nathan, in order to move forward
into the final round of the competition
and go against Ben, you have to completely survive
one of the same strikes on our log.
Are you ready?
- Yeah. - All right.
Let's do it. - Let's see it.
Right now, I just need my blade
to make it through one strike
and then I'm off to face Ben Abbott.
So I'm excited, but also a little bit nervou.
♪ ♪
Oh, [bleep]. - Oh!
- No. No!
- You've got to be kidding me. - Come on.
[dramatic music]
- Exact same thing, microfracture right there.
You can see the brown.
- Yeah. Yeah. I can see it from here.
- It's etched in to it. Yeah. - God, come on.
- I know how you feel, man. - [laughing] Yeah.
♪ ♪
- Well, bladesmiths, you've put us
in a very unique situation.
Just two minutes ago, we had two beautiful blades
coming out of a five-hour competitio,
but now, after two strikes,
we have two broken beautiful blades.
The time has come for the judges
to discuss your blades and make a difficult decision.
They've got to decide which one of you
is gonna be moving forward in this competition
and facing Ben.
So while they discuss, I'm gonna ask
the both of you to please step off the Forge floor.
- I'm hoping that because my blade bit in so deep,
that they'll pick my blade,
but it's all gonna be up in the air now,
and it's completely up to the judges' decision.
♪ ♪
- So, guys, we've got two broken blades,
both beautiful, but only one of these guys
can move forward in the final round.
So have at it. Dave, what do you think?
- I think both smiths did a great job.
I just think that Brent's willingness to risk
and do a complicated pattern
and have it come out as well as it did
is top-notch work.
- Okay. Doug, what do you think?
- Both smiths present us with great Damascus patterns
through the process they chose; it really shows.
So both blades broke,
but one blade, if push comes to shove,
I can try to test it for a sharpness test.
There's enough blade there to cut apples.
The other one doesn't.
- So for you guys, is this just coming down
to which break is worse?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Brent's blade broke with that much blade and a handle,
whereas Nathan's blade broke right at the handle.
There's just nowhere to hold that blade anymore.
- All right, so it sounds like
both of you guys are on the same page.
- I think so. - Are you ready?
- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.
- Let's call them back in.
♪ ♪
Bladesmiths, one of you is still moving forward
into the final round to face Ben,
going for that redemption, a check for $10,000,
and the title of "Forged in Fire" champion.
And the bladesmith that's gonna be joining us
in the final round and facing Ben Abbott is...
♪ ♪
Brent.
Congratulations.
- Good job, buddy.
- I wish winning felt better. - [laughs]
- Nathan, man, you fought extremely hard,
but unfortunately your blade did not make the cut,
and Dave Baker is gonna tell you why.
- Nathan, you brought us a great-looking blade
that was really comfortable in my hand,
but it came down to where that blade broke.
Brent's blade still has about 4 inches of blade on it,
and yours, there's just no way to hold onto it anymore.
- Sure. That's fair.
- Well, Nathan, unfortunately, due to the fact
that you no longer have a viable blade,
your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off the Forge floor.
- I had a fun time here,
and I was confident that I put out a good blade,
but just that one little section
with some wonky forging led to a tiny crack,
that led to the blade snapping right in half.
I'm excited to see what Ben and Brent pull out.
I know Brent's gonna kick ass,
I know Ben's gonna kick ass,
so we'll see what happens.
♪ ♪
- Brent, congratulations, man.
You made it through the five-hour challenge,
and that means you're going forward
in the final round of the competition.
You're gonna get a second chance at Ben Abbott
in a competition of your choosing.
Are you ready?
- Yeah. I feel like the last few years
of my life have been, like, leading up to this point,
and I am just ready to rock on that.
The whole reason I came here was to go up against Ben,
so it's such a relief.
It feels so good to get that chance.
- Well, Brent, it may be unconventional,
but you made it to the final round of this competition.
You're gonna go head-to-head against the smith
whose current record is seven wins and zero losses,
and to see if you have what it takes
to beat the unbeaten.
♪ ♪
Ben Abbott.
- Brent, big surprise.
Brent and I have been friends ever since that first episod.
That was a hell of a time. [laughs]
I know he's an amazing smith, so I'm gonna have to
go all out plus a little to keep the streak going.
- Well, bladesmiths, I gotta say, guys,
I am thoroughly thrilled about this competition,
not only because we got two talented smiths here,
but because you guys have a little bit of history.
You know each other, you've worked side by side before,
and I'm very, very excited to see you guys battle it out.
In the next eight hours, gentlemen,
you will be going head-to-head in a bladesmithing competition
where you need to make a blade from start to finish.
Now, as you guys can see, Dave and Doug
are not gonna be joining us for this round.
For fairness, they're not gonna have a clue
whose blade is whose when they get into testing.
Now, Brent, because you won the last round,
you were able to choose whatever blade you wanted
from our "Forge of Fire" vault
that you wanted yourself and Ben to build.
So for the next eight hours, you are both
gonna be working diligently to build this.
[dramatic music]
The Ida Sword.
- [chuckling] Oh, an Ida.
♪ ♪
- The Ida Sword
used by the Yoruba people of West Africa
features a double-edged, leaf-shaped blade
ideal for harvesting crops in the fields
as well as inflicting lethal slashes and stabs in battle.
This deadly weapon appeared
in season four of "Forged in Fire,"
where both smiths produced ornate Damascus patterns,
but one smith's mistake during his quench
caused his sword to chip during the strength test,
costing him the competition.
- Your blade length needs to be between 23 and 25 inches.
You have quad hollows
giving you a double-edged blade,
and you have an integral bolster to put on.
- The biggest part of this blade
is the quad hollow grind.
It's just not one of my strong suits.
I really feel a little bit on my back foot on this one.
- Now, Brent, along with choosing the weapon,
you were able to choose the technique
that you'll both use to build your Ida Swords.
Bladesmiths, in eight hours,
you need to make your Ida Swords using this.
What you have here are stacks of 1095 and 15N20
along with wrought iron chain.
We want you to combine those three elements
in the Damascus San Mai.
- Cool.
- Now, Brent, because this is your second time
in this competition and your second shot
at the title of "Forged in Fire" champion,
we wanted to raise the bar a little bit
and see if Ben had any spins he wanted
to put on this competition.
So, Ben, you've got anything?
- Yeah. I think that that there's something missing
from that stack up, Brent.
I think we need a little nickel.
- Ooh. - Ooh. All right.
So we're talking Damascus Go Mai now.
- Yes, we are.
I really enjoy adding nickel to my San Mai,
making it into a Go Mai.
The transition between the dark cutting edge
and whatever you put above the nickel,
it really pops to the eye.
I think it's really beautiful.
- When that eight hours is up,
we're gonna start off with a dynamic KEAL test
on a ballistics dummy and a pork loin slice.
Then Dave's gonna take over
and put your blades through a dynamic strength test
with a ammo can chop and a foam dummy slice.
Good luck. Your time starts now.
[rock music]
- This is unchartered waters going on right now.
Now, the process these smiths are gonna have to go through
in order to get this built correct,
we've seen before; we've seen Damascus.
- Whoa. Dagnabbit.
- We've seen Go Mai.
- Charlie wanted to go Go Mai
'cause he wanted a thicker blade.
- We've seen nickel used.
- I've never worked with nickel before.
This is gonna be a bit of a challenge for me.
- But we've never seen all of them put together in one.
This is gonna be very interesting.
♪ ♪
- The whole reason I came hee was to go against Ben,
so it feels so great to get that chance.
But after this last testing, I'm a little rattled.
The first time I was on this competition,
my blade didn't hold up that well to the testing.
- Brent, we definitely have waves in the blade.
- This time, I thought I had a great knife,
and it exploded,
so I want to make a blade
that can pass the "Forged in Fire" testing.
- How are you feeling, bud? - Pretty good. Pretty good.
- So what's your plan for the billet?
You went with the crushed Ws last time,
you saw how that worked out.
- No. You know what we're gonna do here,
we're gonna stage the parameters,
so I'm gonna go with a natural pattern.
- Okay. - Some people call it random.
It's natural when I do it. - [laughs]
♪ ♪
There is a lot on the line here for Ben.
If he loses one competition,
he will no longer be the unbeaten.
- I feel really good about my record so far,
but every single challenge is a brand new mystery
and a potential failure, and I don't want to lose.
♪ ♪
I draw the wrought iron,
and while that's heating up, I clean up the steel
that I'm gonna use for my Damascus billet.
I'm gonna go with a 26-layer
alternating stack of 1095 and 15N20,
draw it out to a 24 plus inches long,
cut it into six pieces, and make 156 layers
that I will make the core of my Ida Sword out of.
Ninety percent of what you're gonna see
at the end of the day is gonna be the Damascus,
so I really want to put extra effort in
to that Damascus to make it beautiful.
- So as my billet's coming up to heat in the forge,
I'm working on forging out my wrought iron.
- Is there anything specific about wrought iron
that makes it more difficult to work with?
- It can split really easy, so if I'm not really careful
and open this just slow at real high heat,
then this can tear; I don't want to do that,
so I'm just gonna open it up,
as painful as it is, a little slower.
Now it's time to squish some welds.
♪ ♪
This feels really solid, really good,
but I have to move on because I know that this sword build
is gonna take every minute that I have.
♪ ♪
- After the welds are set, I get the billet to length.
Now it's time to start grinding all that scale off
of both sides of that billet
so that I can cut it and restack it.
- This is a really important moment for Ben.
If he doesn't get the faces of this steel,
the billet, cleaned up, when he cuts and restacks it
he runs the risk of having delaminations
or cold shuts in that final billet.
- So I cut all my pieces to 4 inches long.
There's a huge risk each time I win.
It becomes more and more important
to keep the streak going.
I don't want to get a first number and a second number.
I like "0" as a second number.
So as this billet is heating up,
I try to select a nice piece of wood for my handle.
- Brent just put his final stack in the forge.
So he's got a Damascus center
collided with the nickel and then the wrought iron.
- I'm getting a little nervous.
This is a critical moment
'cause I've got to have good welds.
There we go.
It looks good, it's not splitting apart at the ends
in any significant way, and I'm really happy with it.
- Brent, Ben, you guys have four hours left.
We're halfway through.
Now on Ben's side of The Forge,
he's going for a high-layered Damascus in the core.
Then he's still got to collide it with the nickel
and the wrought iron
and go back for another fourth weld.
- All I've got now is one more weld
to get the wrought iron and nickel
stuck onto this billet, and I am off to the races.
- Ben is welding up his final stack.
He's got a lot of work to do
to catch up to where Brent's at right now.
- This is both the scariest
and most fun part about this build.
If the weld doesn't stick, it would be catastrophic.
This weld has to take.
♪ ♪
Now I'm relatively confident that this billet is welded.
But because of my choice to restack my billet,
it's put me behind.
I need to catch up to Brent.
[rock music]
- The shape and profile of this sword
is a little tricky 'cause
it's nice and flowing like a leaf or a reed,
but then I have to contend with this quad hollow grind,
so we have to be able to take those grinds from all the wy
from the hilt to the tip and keep that central lin,
as well as our edges, as straight as possible.
So I have this idea that maybe I can make tooling
to try to press in some of this hollow grind.
- Brent built his own dyes for the press
using some wrought iron cylinders
next to each other on the bottom and on the to.
- Let's see if it works.
The center spine that I forged in on my tooling
is not really straight; it's very lumpy,
but I have so much to do, I have to move on.
♪ ♪
- The next step is to cut the shoulders for the bolster,
where the bolster matches up to the handle,
and my first squeeze is on the tang side
of what's gonna be my bolster.
I have to be really careful here
because it could end up being a weak spot, it could break.
So I'm paying very close attention
to make sure I don't over squeeze
that junction between bolster and blade.
You look a little tired, Brent.
Why don't you take a nap, man?
- You think you're, like, lulling me into,
like, a sense of security, you're not, man.
- [laughs]
The bolster is looking really good,
and now it's time for the quench.
♪ ♪
- Ben went from being relatively far behind
and now he's the first one quenched.
♪ ♪
- This is a critical moment because this is the moment
where this thing becomes a sword.
It's warped, so I'm going straight to the leg vice
to start to look at straightening.
I don't love that I'm pulling on this blade back and forth
to bend it into the correct shape,
but of course it's very brittle from quench
and I could break it.
- This is dangerous, 'cause if anything happens right now,
he's only got three hours left
to completely build a new blade.
- If I go too far and snap my blade,
it's all over for me.
I won't be able to finish.
[grunts]
- Okay. Let's stick with that.
I've got a really warpy blade,
but I still have a lot of mass on this blade,
so I can grind a little off of this side,
a little off of that,
and find a center that's straight.
♪ ♪
- It's time to start working on the quad hollows.
What makes a quad hollow grind tricky
is to do correctly it needs to have a medial ridge,
so if you waver,
it's very easy to see, and it looks bad,
so it's gonna take a lot of work to get right.
Good stuff.
The hollow grinds are looking good.
It's time to start working on the handle.
- You're running out of time, guys.
You have one hour left.
- I take my blade out of the temper,
and I realize that I gotta get this handle going.
- On Brent's side, he's doing a multi-piece
through tang handle construction.
He's gonna have brass, wood,
and then a brass pommel on his blade.
- I want to make sure it indexes well
and it's not too round; I want those judges to fel
like it was shaped proportionate to their hands.
I just want it to be comfortable for them to use,
and safe, of course.
I finally get the thing shaped up.
I just grab that handle and feel that sword,
and this moment is the first moment I felt like a sword.
It's great.
♪ ♪
- Ben's now gonna get his acid etch on his blade.
We're gonna see that beautiful 156 layers pop.
- I've given all the time I can give
to the blade and the acid.
It's now time to take a look.
Dude! It looks boss. I mean, I see the nickel,
I see the wrought iron in the center,
and I'm super excited.
It's just a matter of the last little bits now.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one. Great work.
Please put down your blades
and prepare yourselves for testing.
- So I'm finished with my blade.
I'm really happy with the way it looks,
and I look at Brent's blade, and I'm intimidated.
I really want to win,
and my thus far undefeated record
is on the line.
Now it's all down to the testing.
- Doug, Dave, guys, you missed
yet another intense competition.
Brent decided he wanted he and Ben
to build the Ida Sword, so now you guys
got your chance to put your hands on the weapons
and I want to hear what you think.
Doug, what do you think of silver?
♪ ♪
- I really like the overall symmetry of the blade,
the way it feels, the grinds,
and the way it just, you know, transitions nicel.
- Now let's talk about gold.
♪ ♪
- I like the configuration of gold's handle.
The flare it's got fits my hand really nicely.
It's easier to control that weapon.
But once you move forward, things start changing.
The edge is still in line,
but the medial ridge is moving like that.
- Ready to put them to work? - Oh, yeah.
- Let's do it. - Let's get to it.
I'll call them in.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, Brent, Ben, congratulations
on making it through that very difficult
eight-hour build for your Ida Swords.
It's coming down to this.
Gentlemen, the stakes are high.
Ben, you're trying to keep your unbeaten streak
of 7-0 going.
Brent, you're trying to be the first smith to beat Ben,
taking home the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
and getting a check for $10,000.
Best way, gentlemen, we know how to find out
which one of your swords is gonna come out on top--
By putting them through a few tests.
And up first, we have the KEAL test with Doug.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths.
Welcome to the dynamic KEAL test.
To find out lethal your Ida Swords are,
I'm gonna cut through this ballistics dummy
and pork loins. You guys ready?
- Yes, sir. - All right. Let's do this.
- My blade broke in half on the first round...
♪ ♪
So the stakes are high,
and I'm just ready to see wht Doug can do with this thing.
♪ ♪
[dramatic rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, the first thing about this
is when you pick it up, it's forward heavy
'cause you have thicker grinds right here.
But when you swing it, it's manageable.
I like the flare that he put over there
'cause it's really giving me a nice counterbalance,
especially when you're swinging something
that has a forward weight to it.
Overall, it will KEAL.
♪ ♪
- I'm most concerned that my blade is gonna
be heavier than Brent's because it's bigger in profile
and heavier sometimes can be worse.
♪ ♪
[dramatic rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen.
When I pick up this blade,
I can feel the distribution of the weight
be far more even compared to gold's over here.
When I'm cutting this, because of that distribution,
it's even a deeper chop into this ballistics dummy.
Now, when I'm grabbing onto the handle here,
actually it feels good, it's ovoid,
I can really tell where the edge is.
Overall, it will KEAL.
[rock music]
- All right, gentlemen.
It's time for our combined strength and sharpness test,
the ammo crate chop and foam dummy slice.
Gold anvil's up.
- During the strength test, anything can happen.
It can have bending or warping and, of course, breakage,
and I definitely do not want breakage
for the second time in competition.
I'm really nervous.
♪ ♪
- So right off, when you pick up this weapo,
there's a lot of weight up here in this blade.
But in that test, the blade took a warp right there.
As far as the edges of the blade go,
they held up quite well.
But there's really no getting around that bend.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
All right.
This thing is a superior cutter.
Those cuts took maybe half the effort
to get deeper into that target.
As far as the strength test goes, it took no damage.
Nice piece.
[suspenseful music]
- Well, bladesmiths, in eight hours
you were both tasked to build a very difficult blade
with an even more difficult technique,
but in this competition only one of you
can come out on top.
The winner of today's "Forged in Fire"
competition is...
♪ ♪
Ben Abbott, you are now 8-0, buddy.
Congratulations.
Brent, man, you're good.
You're an unbelievable smith,
but unfortunately, you didn't come out on top today,
and Dave Baker is gonna tell you why.
- Brent, I know how difficult this blade is to make
and you did a great job making it,
but you did take a slight bend in the strength test,
and those uneven grinds
towards the front of this blade,
those are the two reasons we chose the other sword.
- Well, Brent, again, I want to say thank you
for coming back and letting us all watch
you work in the Forge; it was a pleasure,
but unfortunately you're not the champion today.
This time I'm gonna have to ask you to please step of
the Forge floor.
- I was able to do something pretty incredible,
I think, in eight hours,
but Ben's a whole nother level.
It looks like he took four days on it,
like a normal challenge.
Unbelievable.
I'm a two-time loser. [chuckles]
♪ ♪
- Ben, Ben, Ben. - Holy guacamole.
- Current record of 8-0 in The Forge.
How are you feeling?
- I feel amazing. I'm super excited.
Brent is such an amazing smith,
and to be able to pull off a win against him,
I just feel absolutely amazing.
But here I am, still undefeated.
With any luck, I'll be able to keep this streak alive
forever and a day.
There's a lot of smiths out there
that might want to take me down,
but I'm here, I'm ready.
Bring it on.