- Here in The Forge, America's best bladesmiths
have gone head-to-head in hopes of becoming
a "Forged in Fire" champion.
- Can you believe it?
- Over the years, we've seen members
of the same family compete in our arena...
- I'm here to avenge my father, and I wanna win.
- But never at the same time, until now.
Tonight, in a "Forged in Fire" first,
it's father versus daughter, dad versus son,
and family versus family.
Only one of these competitors
can be the "Forged in Fire" champion.
- I think I've got the advantage.
All my joints are still nice and healthy.
- I'm gonna give it everything I got.
She's gotta earn it.
- It's the ultimate family feud.
Loyalties will be put aside,
and only one of these smiths will bring home the title
and $10,000.
- Oh!
- My name is Ron Hardman.
I'm from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- My name is Jessica Hardman. I am 20 years old.
I am also from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- Jessica is my daughter.
Think I was about 15 years old when I made my first blade.
- My dad is actually the one who got me interested
in blacksmithing. My grandpa was a shop teacher.
I've just been around this my whole life,
and found that I actually really liked it.
- You're meticulous, you're detail-oriented,
and so I think you are gonna do a spectacular job in this.
- Thanks, Dad.
- My name's Jesse Harrison. I'm from St. Augustine, Texas.
- My name's Robert Harrison.
When I was about eleven, I built a cowboy cooker
for our 4H show.
And that kinda kick-started everything.
- This is my son.
Robert's a great bladesmith because he is persistent.
- I'm gonna say that my weakness
is also that same persistence.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
You are here to engage
in three potentially home-wrecking rounds
of competition specifically designed to test
every aspect of your skills,
all in front of our panel of expert judges.
These are the guys that will tell us
which of you is our next "Forged in Fire" champion
walking outta here with a check for $10,000.
Let's meet your judges now.
Up first, two-time "Forged in Fire" champion
Ben Abbott.
Next, historic weapons re-creation specialist
David Baker.
And last, edged weapons specialist
Doug Marcaida.
Now, this is a free for all.
There is only one title of "Forged in Fire" champion.
Jessica, what do you think of your dad as a competitor?
- He's a great teacher and a great smith,
so I have my work cut out for me.
We're usually a team, and--so it's very interesting
to be separate.
I will be competitive, but he's also my dad, too,
so I won't trash talk him that much.
- All right. Robert, is Dad a good teacher?
Can you whup his ass?
- I think I can.
If I beat my dad--well, I think there'd be
a little tension, there.
Might have to stay away from the house
for a couple days.
- Okay. Bladesmiths,
in your first round of competition today,
you'll be using these.
On this table, we've got ball bearings, band saw blades,
bike chain, we've got all manner of high carbon steel.
And in this first round of competition,
you'll have to choose at least three of the steels
here on the table and combine them
with 1095 powder into a canoe canister
to make a canister Damascus billet
from which you will forge a signature blade
in your signature style.
- A canoe is something that neither one of us
has done before, so it's gonna be a challenge, for sure.
- If you make it to the second round,
you'll have a chance to make your blades fully functional
by attaching handles to them so that we can test them
for strength and durability in a pole chop,
and for edge retention in an apple slice.
When the time runs out on the clock
and the judges have evaluated your work,
one of you will have to surrender your blade
and leave The Forge.
Good luck, and you young uns,
make your mamas proud; whup your dads' asses.
Your time starts now.
We've got the Hardmans versus the Harrisons over here
competing against each other,
and then against each other at the same time,
but you're seeing them communicate together.
How does that work?
- I think each of them would like to win,
but their larger goal is to make sure that the family wins.
- You need any of this material here?
- Um, I will, yes.
- Well, my plan is to, first, get everything clean
to make sure that it's gonna be a good forge weld.
So I've got a bike chain, some nice small ball bearings,
and then some band saw blades.
- Mind if I use some of this? - Go for it.
- I am using the same metals.
It seems to me that the smaller pieces,
things that are all roughly about the same size,
usually work together best.
- I like what I see going on over here.
They're actually cleaning the material
that they're gonna be putting in their canister.
- It's smart work, 'cause you know,
how many times have we seen where you save
five minutes on prep but it costs you
another hour and a half on starting a new can?
- Right.
- Coming in here as a family
and working together with Robert,
I really cherish this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
- Did you get enough? - Yeah.
- I think we both know that we need to pick our three metals
based on how clean we can get 'em.
The fishhooks look good, the ball bearings look good,
so, really, the only ones we need to clean
are the cylindrical bearings.
And we didn't even have to communicate that, you know?
We just both knew, that's what the plan was.
- And I'm making sure that we get plenty
of 1095 powder into the canister
to fill it completely up.
I know that that's one of the most important things,
is not leaving any voids in there that could show up later.
- There's no white out going on out there at all,
which is great. That means these smiths
are gonna save themselves, what,
20 to 30 minutes of banging those cans off?
- Welding!
- Jessica, she's the last one of our smiths doing prep work.
- The potential biggest issue for me in this challenge is,
I have never had a canister fail on me,
so I don't know what to do if it does.
I have done...
three canisters.
- Ron's taking his billet over to the drill press.
- Yeah, he might put a vent hole in his canister.
- If you wanna be exacting,
do it the same way every time and you'll get the same results
She's going for drilling a hole as well.
- There you go. Same thing.
- This is the way the family does it.
- Yep. - Looking good.
- My biggest concern is making sure
that my billet is heated thoroughly.
It's not hot enough, like, your welds will fail.
- Don't swing for the fences.
- Yeah.
- Wow, that's--look at that. That's a glowing billet.
- We take turns getting our welds set,
then neither one of us has to sit there and wait
on the other one.
- Robert and Jesse are on the same page,
you know what I mean?
They're working at pretty much the exact same pace.
- There's gotta be some kind of comfort being in a competition
with somebody else that taught you, like, you know,
a father-son, father-daughter thing.
They're right there. There's an emotional support.
- We're gonna help each other as much as possible,
and at the same time, do what we came to do.
But this little rascal's been following me around
ever since he was big enough to walk,
so he knows everything Dad knows.
- Hot metal.
- So Ron comes off the press--
- Hot metal coming back through.
And like clockwork, Jessica's right there to take his place.
- Okay, Jessica's not really pressing
as much as she oughta be.
- I don't have enough weight behind me
to actually make the bar go down
as much as I want it to go down.
I have to kind of rock myself, kind of put my weight forward
and move back, and have to go forward again.
- I noticed Ron while she was doing that
- Of course, you're watching over
your little apprentice, there, your own child; it's like--
and either you're beaming with hope, or you're concerned.
- How you doin' on your schedule?
- So far, so good. - Yep.
- My first reaction is to run over there and help her,
but I resist the urge.
I have a really good forge weld.
I know that I'm gonna do an integrated bolster,
and so I'm setting that up.
The reason I'm putting in the bolster in the first place,
is because I've got such a long blade,
I want more weight to be right back by the index finger.
- Bladesmiths, 90 minutes has elapsed!
Jesse's profile is coming along great.
- I wanna make that I have holes in my tang
by the end of the round.
And drilling through hard steel is never a good option.
So I've decided to go ahead and drift those holes in.
Couple of heats and had all three of my holes done.
- Drifting your holes should, in theory,
save you some time.
But for some reason I just can't get my holes
to drift correctly.
- Jessica's really gonna have to ramp it up here,
because she still just has a rectangular billet.
- It's taking me slightly longer
to forge out my billet than I had hoped.
I'm behind everybody on the floor.
Hopefully, if I pace myself right, I should be okay.
- I'm under a lot of pressure.
I'm behind my dad, but I can't quit on it.
- So Robert's using close to 20 minutes
just trying to drift a hole in there.
- Well, I'm a little worried about running out of time.
But stubbornness kicks in, I have to make sure
those holes get drifted.
- If you allow your punch to warm up like Robert just did
then next time you punch down, you start to feel that anvil.
You're actually swelling your punch out.
It gets stuck more and more easily every time that happens.
- Come on.
- He's getting his ass kicked.
- For some reason, I can't get my holes to drift correctly.
- Flip it over. Punch it from the back.
- Robert's been wasting time on that.
- There you go.
- Bladesmiths, 30 minutes remaining in the round!
- I've got a small warp, it's nothing I can't take off
with the grinder
- Jesse, really doing a bang-up job.
- I'm behind schedule.
And so I start to second guess, a little bit,
the decision on putting a bolster in there.
There are risks with doing this.
This was not something that the judges asked for.
I don't know if they're going to appreciate it.
- I like what Ron's doing, putting in an integral bolster.
- Super sexy pants.
- Do it. How you doing?
- Hangin' in there. - Time good?
- I think so.
- It's different in this environment
with my daughter here because I'm not just thinking
about my own thing in my head
I'm also thinking about hers.
I'm not interfering, not doing anything,
but it's still in the back of my head,
"I wonder how she's doing."
- Look at Jessica swing this hammer
like she wants the money.
- Finally, Jessica's making a blade.
- So my plan now is to be done forging in about five minutes,
and then have my holes drilled through my tang,
and then get it to brine, to quench, and get it etched.
And there's a lot of little steps,
which means a lot could go wrong.
But a lot could also go right.
- Looks awesome, Jessie. - Thanks.
- 20 minutes!
- Oh, this is definitely coming right down to the wire.
- Yeah, Dad. Whoo.
- Yes! - Good.
- Nice. - There we go.
- At this point, both fathers have quenched,
and neither child has quenched.
- Robert, where he drifted those holes,
they are not in-line with anything on his blade.
- And it's not only that, it's the dimensions
he's gone for that flair, you know?
- Man, it's-- - Big handle.
- Whoa!
You didn't need that ponytail, did you kid?
Jessica's blade seems to be very, very thick,
and she has yet to grind down to a high carbon steel edge.
- Yeah, and then get it clean enough you can ash it.
- Yep.
- What I love is the family dynamics here.
Because you're not doing it alone,
there's a spiritual support that you're going through.
- I know my blade is too thick.
So I try to hog some steel off real quick.
- Robert just quenched.
- During the quench, I'm definitely nervous.
My blade could warp. It could crack.
If it cracked, it would be all over.
It's got a slight warp,
but it's something that I could work out
at the grinder.
I'm just trying to get something turned in.
- Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one!
Bladesmiths, pull your blades out of the acid!
This first round of competition is over.
- Time's finally up, and I don't know
whether to pass out or lay down.
- Good job, kiddo. - Good job.
- At the end of the round,
I'm definitely a little nervous.
The most apparent thing is that my handle's not complete.
- Bladesmiths, it's time for the judges
to take a closer look at what you've done.
Ron, you're up first.
Please present your blade to the judges.
- Well, Ron, the first thing that strikes me
on picking this up is the sheer mass of it.
I mean, this is a heavy, heavy blade.
That being said, this integral bolster you put in here,
I give you mad props for doing it
in this short amount of time.
But if you move forward from here,
there's gonna have to be a lot of grinding.
- Yes, sir.
- All right, Jessica, you're up.
Please present your blade to the judges.
- All right, Jessica.
It's a straightforward camp knife.
There's nice scaling to it, but then when you look
at the edge over here, there are no bevels here.
It doesn't taper to its edge.
So if you're gonna move forward, there's a lot of metal
here that needs to be removed.
- Thank you.
- All right, Jesse, you're up.
- So nicely done, Jesse.
It's a clean profile
that doesn't really need to change that much.
But there's certainly a lot of mass in this blade
that has to just go away.
You know, if you move forward,
it's gonna be a lot of grinding
and not a lot of time to do it in.
- Thank you.
- All right, Robert, you're up next.
Please present your blade to the judges.
- All right, Robert.
This is the heaviest of the lot.
You know, I commend people who never quit,
but in a timed competition, it was 20 minutes spent
to try to drift these holes in.
That could be 20 minutes spent grinding away.
I like your blade shape,
it's just that the scale of this handle,
putting your hand around it, makes it very uncomfortable.
If you move forward, this is your big problem child
right here.
- All right, bladesmiths,
the judges' deliberation is complete.
They've made their final decision.
The bladesmith leaving The Forge is...
Robert.
Your blade didn't make the cut.
Doug Marcaida's gonna tell you why.
- Robert, where the amount of metal and weight were an issue,
your blade was the heaviest.
That, and the size and scale of your handle:
It's for these reasons, we're sending you home.
- Robert, you did a great job.
But at this time I have to ask you to, please,
surrender your blade.
- Of course I'm disappointed.
Time management is a huge factor
and I just let stubbornness get the best of me, I guess.
I'm not coming home as a winner,
but, Dad, give 'em hell,
To represent the family.
- Good job, man, good job.
- Thank you. - Love you.
- I love you. You got this.
I think you can bring this home.
- Bladesmiths, congratulations,
you've made it to the second round of this competition,
which for you, Jesse, I'm sure is bittersweet.
This is a competition
where we take sons and daughters and fathers,
and pit them against each other.
So we thought it only appropriate
to add this to the competition.
A grandfather clock.
In this second round of competition,
you'll source the material that you need
to finish your blades, from this grandfather clock.
You'll have just two hours to finish your blades,
make the handle, attach it to your blades,
and have them acid etched so that we can test them
for strength and durability in a pole chop
and for edge retention in an apple slice.
Good luck, bladesmiths, your two hours starts now.
- That's what you're looking for.
- What about this bottom piece right there?
Let me get--I'm gonna go grab a whole band.
- All right, let me get a crowbar.
- I can go get another one, too.
- These guys have to basically harvest wood
off of this grandfather clock.
- I'm thinking that all the panels and all
will be hardwood.
And they're not.
No good.
- Some of it's just straight up cardboard.
- Right there.
- Look at Jesse, he's pointing at it saying,
"look, check this thing out." - Yeah.
- That's good, man.
- One, two, three.
- It's cool to see people working together like this.
- I'm pretty sure these two pieces are the only good ones.
- All right, let's get to the saw.
I wanna take care of the handle first to get that epoxied
and in place.
Seems like it's hickory.
Hickory is great stuff.
We use it actually when we're making hammer handles.
Nice.
- Ron and Jessica, you know, they have the benefit
of putting four hands on any project, which can make,
you know, the workload a little bit lighter.
- So the handle's my top priority,
and then grinding, so it's a lot to do.
So I really need to plan,
and, hopefully, stick to that plan.
- All these guys need are scales, flat wooden scales.
Keep it simple 'cause get to the grinder,
those are heavy blades right now.
- For my handle construction,
I'm just gonna stay with something simple,
something that the judges can swing with no issue.
I wanna put my blade on a diet
and get some of the weight off of it.
Robert's not here, I'm gonna just keep grinding.
I've gotta represent both of us now.
- I wanna get the handle on there right now
so that the epoxy has time to set
while I, then, turn my attention back over
to the blade to turn this beast into a knife.
I'm just watching every minute and trying to go methodically
through this process.
It's a little stressful.
- I wanna spend this first hour
getting the weight down on that blade.
And then second hour, I'm gonna tackle the handle.
- Jesse, he's got grinding skills.
He just has to do a lot of it.
- I'm hoping that this drop-point Bowie
that I'm making will kind of be the answer for both tests.
Historically, it's been used to do everything
from chop brush out of the way to cut up your dinner.
- My tang is really thick right now.
And I decided to keep it that way
because I think that my knife will need a lot of balance,
because it's so long.
- Setting a handle on that tang, at this point,
absolutely pointless.
That tang is still 3/8 of an inch thick.
It needs to be ground down. It needs to be reshaped.
- Then I realized, because I haven't ground my tang,
there are several gaps between the pieces of my handle.
And the less contact I have, the less sturdy
it's going to be, which means later, in testing,
it might break.
- Bladesmiths, you have less than an hour remaining
to finish your work!
- So I gotta think of a way to improvise.
And I decide to put more epoxy down in it,
and, hopefully, when grinding, it will kind of fill
with some sawdust, and kind of be unnoticeable.
- How's it going? Doin' all right?
- I think so.
- Jesse's trying to work on his handle now.
- My handle construction's just gonna be
my two handle slabs, epoxy, and a stainless steel pin.
Give it a good mechanical and chemical connection.
- Starting with the blade, going to the handle,
coming bacto the blade. It's a great tactic.
- You can definitely tell we're related.
Just the way we're doing stuff. Kind of funny.
I still need to finish grinding,
get the edge on there, and finish the handle.
And finally etch, so I have a lot to do.
- Bladesmiths, you've only got 20 minutes left,
and then we're testing the hell out of these things!
- I know I'm not gonna be able to spend
anywhere near the time
that I would normally spend on the handle with this,
but you gotta do what you gotta do.
- I could take my blade down slightly thinner,
but I'm looking at the clock, and I decide it still needs
more sharpening work done on it.
- Time's ticking down, and I've got to etch my blade.
- We have 45 seconds left.
Both Jessica and I are at the grinders,
and no communication was necessary.
We need to etch.
- Both of the Hardmans going to the acid right now.
Oh, my God, don't struggle with that lid.
Don't struggle with the lid.
There we go.
Hurry up!
Five, four,
three, two,
one!
Bladesmiths, stop what you're doing.
Pull your blade out of that acid.
- This second round of competition is over.
- Oh, my God.
- Good job.
- Did you see Ron squirt Jessica's blade as he ran by.
- I saw it.
- I don't get to neutralize mine,
but I never would have made it back to my blade.
I'm 46 years old, and I don't run that fast anymore.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test.
To test the strength and durability of your edge
as well as the overall construction of your blades,
I'll be bashing them mercilessly into these poles.
Ron, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Absolutely, have at it. - All right.
- I know that I didn't have enough time
to put on a good edge.
You could end up with a broken blade on something like this.
It could roll an edge.
I don't know what's gonna happen.
- Well, Ron, you've got a pretty obtuse edge,
which is good at avoiding damage,
not the best for fine cutting.
There's one tiny place here that has glinting on it,
but other than that, the edge is in good shape.
One thing I don't like about this knife is right here.
It is round and small, and there was a couple times
when I was hitting where the blade would just
twist in my hand.
But it's comfortable, it's just difficult to control
because of the size of it.
- Yes, sir.
- All right, Jessica, you see what we're up to.
You ready? - Yes, sir.
- All right, let's do it.
- I am starting to sweat a little bit.
I mean, did my heat treat go okay?
If it breaks, will it break big
or will it just make a dent in the side?
I am both excited and very nervous.
- Good job.
- Well, Jessica, there's a glint
that happened right there.
The rest of your edge held up really well,
but there are sharp corners here on the handle
that were biting into my pinky,
but much less weight than it had before,
so well done.
- Thank you.
- Jesse, you're up. How're you thinking?
- Little nervous, but have fun.
- All right, I will.
- I'm concerned,
I didn't have quite as much time as I'd like to.
The other two blades have survived
with hardly any damage whatsoever.
So the pressure's really on for my blade to perform.
- Well, Jesse, I like the profile you've got here.
It's got a pretty obtuse edge for everyday use,
but it makes a good chopper
so it held up well in this test.
Although it's a relatively simple looking handle,
it's a comfortable handle.
So, in all, your edge held up well.
It's a good feeling and good working knife.
Well done. - Thank you.
- All right, gang, it's time for the sharpness test,
the apple slice.
Now, I'm looking for cuts where the apple is cut
all the way through.
Not cut partially through and broken the rest of the way.
Ron, you're up first. You ready?
- Absolutely. - Okay.
- I'm concerned about Ben saying,
"There isn't a sharp edge on this."
There might be more applesauce than apple slices.
You know, I could be sent home.
- Okay, Ron, so--pretty obtuse edge.
And you can see that half that apple is cut smoothly,
and then it cracks.
It's a fat edge, but will it cut?
Yes, it will cut.
- Gotcha.
- All right, Jessica, you're up next.
You ready? - Yes, sir.
- Okay.
So, Jessica, you can see on this blade
that one side is almost flat and the other side
kinda curves down to it.
So I start going through the apples
It's just "whoosh," like a wing,
rode right up out of them.
The biggest thing is the square edges on this handle.
I feel all these corners.
But you did a good job getting a lot of the weight
out of the blade of this knife, and it will cut.
You got that going for you.
- All right, Jesse, you're up.
You ready? - I think so.
- Okay.
So, Jesse, what I'm looking at here
is actually some pretty clean cuts on these apples.
- Thank you.
- That's a good shape, cut apples nicely.
Good job. - Thank you.
- All right, bladesmiths.
The judges' deliberation is complete.
They have made their final decision.
It's time for one of you smiths to leave The Forge.
The bladesmith leaving The Forge is...
- Jessica, your blade did not make the cut,
Doug Marcaida's gonna tell you why.
- Jessica, your edge wasn't as sharp
as that of your competitors.
And your handle had some hot spots
that made it uncomfortable for Ben to swing
during the strength test.
For that reason, we're sending you home.
- Right.
- Jessica, you did a fantastic job.
But at this time, I have to please ask you
to surrender your blade and leave The Forge.
- Obviously I'm disappointed, but at the same time,
I'm thrilled for my dad.
I get to go back home and be my dad's biggest cheerleader.
Take it for the Hardmans. - Aw.
This competition came down to the details.
When I get home, I'm gonna give my family a big hug,
and go hang out with my dogs.
- Ron, Jesse, I'm renaming this competition
"Papa Don't Take No Mess,"
because it's just the patriarchs of the families
goin' at it in our final round of this competition,
where we're sending you back to your home forges
to re-create this iconic weapon from history.
The Inigo Montoya inspired rapier.
You know the guy.
"You killed my father, prepare to--"
Forge, all right?
- Considered one of the greatest swordsmen
of his generation,
Inigo Montoya is a fictional character
from the cult classic "The Princess Bride."
According to the story,
this famous blade was the finest sword ever crafted
by his father and parallels Spanish swept hilt rapiers
of the 17th century,
featuring a diamond cross section
and a complex, elaborate guard.
Intended for dueling, rapiers are lightweight
and feature a narrow point allowing for quick cuts
and deadly, accurate thrusts.
One of the most recognized swordfights in pop culture,
Montoya infamously uses the weapon
against his father's killer,
fulfilling his quest for revenge.
- Inigo Montoya's rapier is a classic sword in movie lore,
and my family and I have seen the movie a hundred times
- In this final round of the competition,
you will have to forge an effective
and working version of the weapon that you see here.
Make sure it falls within the following parameters.
The length of the blade, from the tip to the ricasso,
must be between 37 and 39 inches.
Your handle must have two top rings, two side rings,
two upswept quillion, two arms, a knuckle-bow, and a pommel.
You'll have just four days at your home forges
in which to complete all this work.
And, of course, at the end of those four days,
you'll return and present your weapons
to our panel of expert judges.
And after they've thoroughly tested them,
they'll declare one of you the "Forged in Fire" champion,
who gets to take his family a check for $10,000.
Good luck, bladesmiths. We'll see you in four days.
- It's day one, I'm about to start building
Inigo Montoya inspired rapier.
There's not a whole lot of room for error.
So slow and steady will be the name of the game.
But I would really like to be through with the blade today.
The guard is very intricate, and it's gonna take
a lot of attention to detail.
And the sooner I can get on it, the better off I'll be.
Here, in a minute, we're gonna start getting ready
for the heat treat.
- I'm really worried that a blade this long
is gonna come out warped.
- This is the make or break moment.
So we're kinda at a mystery place.
We don't know whether it's hard
and we don't know whether it's straight.
Time's over for today.
I guess we'll find out in the morning.
- Jessica, I'm gonna tell you a story about making
an Inigo Montoya inspired sword.
As the story goes, Inigo Montoya's sword
took a full year to make.
I have four days.
I am almost positive that
they're gonna do some kind of a flex test.
So I'm choosing 80CRV2, and that should help with that.
The hilt is one of the more complex pieces here.
I'm actually gonna use some really old wrought iron.
One of the really nice things about wrought iron
is that it's beautiful, and my plan is to acid etch
so you can see the lines around this thing.
I'm working on my normalization.
This is make or break.
If it works well, I'm all set.
I grab hold of it with another pair of tongs and go for it.
I am very pleased right now to have, at the end of day one,
a quenched blade, ready for temper
So far, I'm on track.
- That doesn't sound too bad. I'll try to stay awake.
- After coming out of the temper,
I noticed that there was
just a slight little yaw in the edge.
Try and take all that out in grinding today.
Next, I'ma move on to the hilt.
I'm planning on forging all the parts for the hilt
out of an old wagon wheel that my grandfather used to own.
So I'm flipping it over, and I ended up getting a crack.
Got a small crack that's developed in the piece
that I was forging for my pommel.
I'm gonna try to see if I can get that crack out of it.
Crack seems to be just getting worse.
I've been chasing this crack for about an hour.
I'm wanting to make the whole thing out of wrought,
but if this doesn't work out,
I'm gonna have to find another option.
Luckily, it took one more good, hot weld and heat,
and we're good to go.
I think I feel better today than I did on day one.
End of day two, I'm ready to go put my feet up.
- Well, my goal is to actually get done with the blade today.
It leaves me two days to work on all of the embellishments.
I may get into doing some of the hilt work today,
I wanna see how it goes with the grinding.
If I over grind, I could completely destroy the blade.
There's a reason that it took Inigo Montoya's father
a year to make this sword.
There are so many pieces to this.
But for Jessica, I'm gonna get this done in four days.
- Got a little bit behind where I would like to be.
I'm gonna try to make up a little time,
I'm gonna go ahead and forge out a knuckle-bow,
and hopefully by lunchtime,
I'ma startfabricating the hilt.
This hilt's been pretty demanding.
There's about six different pieces here.
We spent a lot of time trying to make sure
everything was dialed in.
End of day three, my hilt all came together pretty nicely.
Just pulled it out of the etch, everything looks good.
Tomorrow will just be fit and finish.
My boys popped in to see it.
- Daddy, he's the one that taught us everything we know.
- That--you'll never hear that again.
That's the only time they'll ever admit that.
I would have much rather be forging
with and against my son, but now I need to try
to bring this home for me and for him, too.
- Last day, I have to get done, well, everything.
Now I can focus on getting that really complex
handle and hilt all together.
I'm forging out these bigger rings
that are on the side of the handle.
That's eventually gonna become this really complex basket.
Not perfect, but for day four, I'll take it.
Regardless of the outcome on this thing,
I've had a blast making this. Win, lose, or draw,
it's just been so much fun.
- Good job. - Thank you.
- Ron, Jesse, welcome back to The Forge.
- Ron, tell us about your blade.
- It's 80CRV2 for the blade, wrought iron for the guard,
and for the pommel.
And then it's a resin-ivory handle.
- Okay. Jesse, how'd it go for you?
- Went pretty well.
I've used 80CRV2 as well for my steel,
and the wrought iron for the hilt and the pommel,
and the handle is a green lemon Micarta.
- All right, gentlemen.
The judges will now put your blades
through a series of three tests.
There will be a strength test, a sharpness test.
And up first, Doug?
- All right, daddy bladesmiths,
my name is Douglas Marcaida, I will kill the dummies.
They are prepared to die.
To find out what kind of lethal damage your weapons will do,
I will take your rapiers and deliver some thrusts
and slashes on this ballistics dummy.
Ron, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Absolutely.
- Let's do it.
- When Doug picks up the sword,
I know exactly what he's thinking
and that it's a little bit on the tip heavy side.
And I'm pretty nervous.
- All right, Ron, let's talk about your rapier here.
It is a little bit on the heavier side,
but it's wieldable,
and with a nice swish of a slash, it cuts deeply.
Overall, sir, your rapier, it will KEAL.
Good job. - Thank you.
- All right, Jesse, it's your turn.
Are you ready, sir? - Yes, sir.
- Let's do this.
- I'm extremely nervous.
I immediately start questioning my heat treat
and, you know, just a million things go through your head.
- All right, Jesse, let's talk about your blade here.
It's about the same weight,
the thrusts penetrate all the way,
and to slash, well, deep cuts.
Overall, sir, your blade, it will KEAL.
- Thank you, sir. That's what I came to hear.
- All right, gentlemen,
it's time for the strength test.
And yes, I am going to torture your blades.
Ron, you're up first.
- All right.
- If you haven't guessed already, it's a flex test.
- I'm feeling a little nervous coming in to this test.
If I left any uneven spots, that could impact
the flexibility of that blade.
- Good job, man, good job.
- Okay, Ron, that's a brutal test,
and you did really well.
If you look at your blade,
there's the slightest bend in one direction,
barely noticeable.
The dimensions of the guard are spot on
- Thank you.
- And it's definitely a strong blade.
Nicely done. - Thank you very much.
- Jesse, you ready for this?
- 'Bout as nervous as a long-tailed cat
in a room full of rocking chairs.
But go ahead.
- First thing is, Jesse,
the guard's in the proper scale.
Really nicely done.
Issue is, you picked up a bit of a bend.
Still a completely functional, useable blade.
Well done. - Thank you.
- Bladesmiths, this is the sharpness test.
This is all about how sharp your blade is.
What it does to this dummy.
Ron, you're up first, you ready for this?
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this.
All right, Ron, let's talk about your edge here.
This cut through the clothing and right into the foam.
Of course, when thrusting it goes deep.
Overall, sir, it will cut. - Thank you.
- All right, Jesse, it's your turn.
So you ready? - Yes, sir.
- Let's do this.
All right, Jesse, I can still see the little bend
it took at the tip, but the edges are razor sharp.
On the thrust it goes deep, it will cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- Ron, Jesse, you guys have turned in
some really quality blades.
This is a difficult decision for us to make.
Our "Forged in Fire" champion is...
- Ron.
Congratulations,
you are the new "Forged in Fire" champion.
Jesse, unfortunately,
your blade did not make the cut.
Ben Abbott's gonna tell you why.
Well, Jesse, the craftsmanship on your sword is commendable,
and the balance on it was really well done.
But at the end of the day, in the strength test,
your blade took a bend, and that brings into question
the heat treat on your sword.
It's for this reason, we're letting you go.
- Jesse, please surrender your blade.
- Not being the "Forged in Fire" champion
is, kinda, not what I was looking for,
but, I lost to a heck of a competitor
and a heck of a blade.
- Well done. - Thank you.
I'm very proud of the blade I turned in,
but if I made this blade again,
I woulda took a little more time on my heat treat,
made sure I had it perfect.
Being able to start this journey
with my son was pretty awesome,
and I may not be the "Forged in Fire" champion,
but I think I represented my family well.
- Ron, congratulations.
You are the "Forged in Fire" champion
You've led your family to this position,
and you'll be taking home a check for $10,000.
Good job, brother. - Thank you.
It feels spectacular.
From beginning to end,
this has been a great experience.
Getting to come here with my daughter, Jessica,
getting to go through this experience with her,
has been amazing.
So the Hardman house is getting
the "Forged in Fire" championship.