- Here in The Forge, we've asked smiths
to make Damascus from all kinds of materials.
- [laughs]
- Son of a b****.
- But this time, we're asking them
to use something a little scarier.
- [chuckles]
- How am I gonna make this? Where do I start?
[intense music]
- This is the Frankenstein Damascus challenge.
[high-pitched scream]
[upbeat rock music]
- My name is Stanley Yee.
I'm 46 years old.
I was in the army as a captain for several years.
My time in the military
definitely built up my tolerance for pressure.
From extremely stressful environments
to long, drawn-out processes as well.
♪
- My name is Benjamin Bays.
I'm 23 years old, I'm from Downs, Illinois,
and I've been bladesmithing for about six years now.
I first thought when I was in fifth grade,
I could make a sword by melting aluminum cans.
I learned that that doesn't work out very well.
So I would like to say
I've come a long way since then.
[chuckles]
- My name is Erik Greiner.
I'm 36 years old from Lubbock, Texas.
I've been bladesmithing for about eight years.
I was actually born in Namibia,
the country above South Africa on the West Coast.
And when I was one, we moved to the U.S.
I have four little girls. Oldest is 11.
The youngest is 6.
They think making knives is pretty cool.
- My name is Travis Halling. I'm 40 years old.
I've been blacksmithing, bladesmithing,
probably about seven, eight years.
I'm in the Coast Guard full-time.
If I did win,
I really would like to get a press
and save my old dying shoulder.
♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
The four of you are here to compete
in three intense rounds of bladesmithing competition.
Now, after each one of those rounds, I will ask you
to present your work to our panel of expert judges here,
and they are the ones deciding which one of you
is leaving here with the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
and getting a check for $10,000.
♪
Now, bladesmiths, you guys are gonna be happy
to hear that today, we want you to make
your signature blade in your signature style.
♪
But there is a catch.
Gentlemen, in order to make your blades,
you are going to need this.
♪
Bladesmiths, this is a competition we are calling
The Frankenstein Damascus Challenge.
Sitting here in front of me are cutoffs
from competitions over the past few years.
Now, every time a smith has gone to the chop saw,
somebody has been there to pick it up.
Some of this steel was just excess on great billets.
Some of it is riddled with delaminations
or bad forge welds.
Your task today is to select at least three pieces
from this pile here to make your Damascus billets.
- That's just a pile of crappy steel.
[laughs]
That's okay. I can work with that.
♪
- And when you turn your blades in,
make sure they fall within these parameters.
Your blade length needs to be between 13 and 15 inches,
and those blades will have to be set up
for a full tang handle construction.
Now, for the three of you joining us
in the second round of this competition,
you will add handles to your blades,
turning them into fully functioning weapons.
We will then check for strength and durability
in an antler chop.
And then for edge retention in a playing card slice.
All right, guys, there are only three hours
on the clock, so good luck.
Your time starts now.
♪
Now, these guys have to use
at least three pieces from this pile.
We've got good stuff. We've got really, really bad.
There's one chunk in there that looks like a PayDay bar.
- But they have way more time and way less stress
than the last smith that abandoned this bar, right?
- Big pile of junk steel.
Most of them look like they're about to just blow apart.
It's pretty slim pickings.
- What would be the best and quickest method
for these guys?
- Canister.
Now, these smiths can find the best pieces
that don't have to be that big,
cut them up, clean them up, and drop them in that canister.
And 1095 powder bonds to stuff really nicely.
♪
- So I chose canister Damascus.
I'm a little more familiar with it,
and in my experience, I've run into more trouble
forging layered Damascus.
♪
- I've made a lot of trash-mascus,
so what I'm gonna try to do is layer it up and pound it out.
- Travis is not setting up to do a canister.
- If you're going to stack and weld,
you have to have that stack cleaned up,
stacked nicely where you don't have a lot of pieces
sticking off in different sizes,
and then weld it up.
♪
- It's shocking using discarded steel
because you don't know why it was discarded.
I'm thinking canister on this because I don't
have to rely solely on the Damascus.
I can use the powdered steel.
I know there's some good steel in there somewhere.
Three hours is a crazy time frame.
I don't normally do it this fast,
but I can get it done.
♪
- The one and only time I've done canister Damascus,
I used White Out, and the can peeled right off,
and I'm hoping that this time, it's gonna do the same.
- I don't like seeing that White Out.
He's buying himself another
30 minutes of busting that can off
if he doesn't do it right the first time.
- When I'm cleaning the pieces,
there's a few cracks
and cold shuts that stick out to me,
so I just start grinding away on them
and clean it up best as I can to get it ready
to chop up and put in my canister.
- I like that a lot of the bladesmiths
are not just cleaning the steel,
but really examine what you're picking up.
♪
- Working with a canister, I need to reach
some good forging temperatures
and making sure the scrap pieces
will forge weld.
If I start too early, it could form cracks.
It could delaminate.
Hot steel!
- Look at that can.
That's the heat you want to see.
- The steel I selected so far is working great.
Nothing disastrous has happened,
so I'm very happy.
- So, guys, right now we've got three smiths
who've committed to a canister
and we've got one who's doing set Damascus pattern.
- After I get my billet to forge welding temperatures,
I choose to set my welds by hand.
I'm very familiar with that.
- Travis is taking a bit of a risk with not having
quite as much steel as the other competitors.
But if he can pull it off, it's bumping him ahead.
- Oh, yeah.
It seems like it's all consolidated.
- You see how he's got that little uneven spot at that tip?
Lose that.
Any problem that develops is gonna start right there.
♪
- I'm feeling really good.
All the welds have set,
so now I have to start just drawing this billet out.
- Bladesmiths, one hour has elapsed.
You've got two hours remaining.
♪
Erik at the press going for his first weld
on the squaring dies.
- Really nice. He had a good heat.
- Everything's looking solid,
so I start stretching it out.
- Now he's just squishing his can.
- Yeah. - It seems a little aggressive.
- I get done and get to the handle.
[bleep].
I look at the edges
and they're starting to split open in a couple of spots.
- Uh-oh.
Looks like he's got a bunch of cracking
on the sides of the can.
- Well, he was going aggressive.
- There's the chance that
there is no solid steel in there.
- What may have happened is, when he was
getting really aggressive on the press,
is that he let the heat drain out of that billet.
That's when you're gonna get the metal to actually crack.
- [bleep].
I keep grinding, I'm not getting any solid steel.
Starting over.
- Uh-oh.
Erik's completely restarting.
- If I kept going with this billet,
I don't think I'd make it to round two.
I'm choosing to stick with canister,
but I'm not gonna go as aggressive on the press,
which is where I screwed up last time.
♪
- Ben, back on the press for round number two.
- I see my can folding away from my billet,
so I'm pretty sure that the White Out worked.
- He went to the squaring dies to consolidate it,
but now he's drawing it out on Big Blu.
Is he still gonna be able to get this can off?
- Not as easily.
- [bleep].
I may have gone a little bit too far on Big Blu.
- Ben is having a hell of a time peeling this can off.
Wonder if he's regretting throwing the White Out in.
♪
- I'm too far into this billet to start over,
so I just gotta work with what I got.
♪
- Bladesmiths, you have one hour and 30 minutes left.
- So Travis has that little piece
at the end of that billet.
That's just a problem waiting to happen.
- I know that the test is gonna be a chopping test,
so I stick with what I know.
I draw out a Bowie that's gonna have a thicker spine.
♪
As I'm making the clip portion of my Bowie knife...
♪
[bleep].
I notice some detrimental delaminations,
and this is not gonna work.
- Oh, no.
We said it was gonna be a problem.
He drew that out without dealing with that,
and now he's dealing with it.
- Oh, he's dealing with it.
- Delaminations on the tip of my knife,
that will be a critical failure.
I don't have enough material to cut that portion off.
I don't know how far those delaminations go.
At this point, this will send me home.
I need to figure this out as soon as possible.
♪
Ugh. Okay.
So basically, I figure
if I flip this thing upside down,
I can make a seax.
If it's on the spine, it's not on the cutting edge,
I should not have a catastrophic failure.
- He's working the spine of his blade,
making sure he doesn't have delaminations
running all the way through.
- This is not the original knife I wanted to make.
However, it is what it is at this point.
[rock music]
- Erik restarted his billet.
Instead of just going really aggressive
in one position, he decided to switch
back and forth, even hitting up on the end.
- I'm relieved.
I do not see any of the cracks on the edges
like I did last time.
It's looking good. I'm happy with it.
♪
- Finally. - Oh, Ben.
Ben was able to get the rest of that can off his billet,
but he's got a ton of work to do
and far less time than he needs to get it done.
Meanwhile, on the other side of The Forge,
we've got Stanley who's getting very close to a quench.
This is pretty early in the game.
- Profile, not exactly where I want it,
but I need to quench this.
- Stanley has enough time to see, "Oh, no,
"there's mild steel across my edge.
I'll grind that away."
- Not knowing what those scrap pieces of steel are,
quenching could be the source of warping and cracking.
♪
- All right, Stanley is in the oil.
30 minutes left on the clock.
- I don't hear any pings or anything.
Now I have to get this mild steel canister off.
- Look at Stanley's blade.
There's a lot of meat right behind that edge
that I'd really like to see him address.
♪
- I bet right now, Ben is really wishing he had
that extra 30 minutes that it took him
to put that can together in the first place.
- And that 20 minutes it took to get the can off.
- Yeah.
- [bleep].
As soon as I set it with my hammer,
I see these cracks forming on one side.
That's the last thing I need on this competition.
It's an issue because I don't want them
to travel all the way through my billet,
and I do not have enough time to start over.
- The fact that it's not breaking into pieces tells me
there's some good welds in there somewhere.
- Just start grinding away on those cracks as best I can
and getting most of them out with my angle grinder.
I have no idea if I'm gonna be able to do this,
but I'm gonna give it a shot.
Clock is ticking and I need to start
getting some progress done.
We're just gonna go for it.
- At this point, I am feeling good.
There's no delaminations anymore.
I'm gonna quench this thing.
♪
- Travis has quenched.
♪
- Everything seems fairly straight.
Let's get this thing cleaned up.
I'm looking pretty good at this point.
- Gentlemen, you've got 15 minutes remaining.
♪
Here we go.
- All right. - All right, Erik in the oil.
Three down, one to go.
- That'll do it.
I've got a hardened blade. It looks straight.
Okay, I have something I can turn in to the judges.
♪
- Yeah, buddy.
You did it!
- Yours is looking good.
- What's Stanley working on other than checking out Ben?
- Stanley's working on nothing.
- This is the time to be grinding the shape.
- Whatever it is he needs to do,
he's got a little bit of time to do it.
- I am happy with my blade. I met the parameters.
I feel I've done enough.
- Ben, quench it! [laughs]
- Stanley's rooting him on. - Yeah.
- That'll have to do.
- Ben's giving it everything he's got.
I love seeing it.
There we go.
Ben has a quenched blade, and that thing was hot.
- It's kind of straight.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
This round is over.
- Whoo!
- I know my blade shape is not pretty,
and I know my finish is far from even close.
I'm just hoping the judges think
that I have something salvageable.
♪
- All right, gentlemen,
in the first three hours of this competition,
we gave you a very difficult task
of taking forgotten steel, smashing it together
into your own Frankenstein billets.
The time has come for the judges to take
a closer look at your blades and decide which three of you
are joining us in the second round of this competition.
Stanley, you're up first.
You ready? - Yes.
- Please present your work.
♪
- All right, Stanley.
So you did very well with your canister Damascus.
You were way ahead over there.
You drew it out nicely, and then you stopped
with 10 to 15 minutes left to go.
And I say that because, well,
there's so much metal over here,
and there are some delaminations where the can is.
And, you know, using that time that you had,
you could have ground that out.
If you move forward,
you definitely have to refine the handle
and really lighten the blade out
and take out some of these delaminations.
- Thank you.
- All right, Ben, please present your work.
♪
- So, Ben, right off,
it's got that great chopper shape to it.
It's got a handle that's scaled properly for my hand,
so your profile's come together very nicely.
You've got a warp in this blade
that's outside of grinder range.
It's something that's gonna have to be fixed with heat.
So if you move forward, a lot of cleanup,
but a really good job of not giving up
and pushing through to the end.
- Thank you.
- Erik, it's your turn. Please present your work.
♪
- All right, Erik.
Well, first of all, I got to say nice job
knowing when to start over.
And what you ended up bringing in,
it looks really good.
The welds on the faces look really good.
There's a little bit of can sticking out the side up here,
and some kind of delamination is visible,
but I think the spine just needs some cleanup.
Your handle is about an inch, inch and a half too big.
But I think if you move forward,
you've got a good starting point
to go on from here.
- All right, last up, we got Travis.
Please present your work, sir.
♪
- All right, Travis.
So you are the only one who didn't go
with the canister Damascus, but you found good metal
because, I mean, this is solid right here.
Now, you do have some deep hammer marks,
but it's something that you could probably clean up
if you move to the second round.
But overall, good job on being able
to give us a solid piece of steel.
Just a lot of refinement going on to the second round.
- All right, gentlemen,
you guys all have a ton to be proud of,
but as you know, only three of you can join us
in the second round of this competition.
Now, after deliberating and discussing every aspect
of your blades, the judges did make a final decision.
The bladesmith leaving The Forge is...
♪
Stanley.
Unfortunately, your blade did not make the cut,
and Ben's gonna tell you why.
- Well, Stanley, you started out this round
really strong, but the blade
that you actually presented to us,
it starts out refined at the tip,
and as you move towards the tang,
it gets less and less refined and bigger and clunkier.
There was some time you had towards the end of the round
where some of that could have been addressed.
Sometimes every minute in this competition
really, really counts, and this is one of those times.
And that's the reason we're letting you go.
- Thank you.
- We want to say thank you for coming out,
fighting so hard in The Forge,
but unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please surrender your work
and step off The Forge floor.
- Looking back, I probably should have spent
just a little more time
just refining it a little more.
I had every intention to just have a great time,
meet some amazing smiths.
But for anyone coming on the competition,
if you've got ten minutes on the clock,
use that ten minutes.
I will make blades until the day I can't make blades.
- All right, gentlemen, congratulations.
The three of you are joining us in the second round
of this competition, where you will fix
any issues that the judges brought up,
refine your blades, and add handles to them,
turning them to fully functioning weapons.
Now, as far as handle materials go,
we are keeping with the Frankenstein theme.
And in order to complete your handles, you'll need this.
♪
- What we have here are more discarded pieces
from handle rounds, and you will need to use
at least two of them in the construction of your handles.
- There's not a single piece big enough
to make a whole scale on its own.
This is gonna be frustrating.
- All right, gentlemen, when this round is over,
your blades will go into the hands of our judges
and they will check for strength and durability
in an antler chop.
And then we'll check your edge retention
in a playing card slice.
Gentlemen, you guys have two hours
to complete your blades, and that time starts now.
♪
All right, there is a lot of material on that table,
but not a lot of it is really all that useful.
- Whatever you pick up, drop it on the floor.
Because some of these materials were results of materials
breaking open or breaking while they were being used.
- I want to try to use
the simplest material I can find.
I'm looking at cuts.
If there are holes in there, can I fix them?
So I grabbed three pieces of wood.
♪
And then I start to refine my blade.
- Travis immediately listening to your critiques
and hogging material out.
- I just keep grinding away,
trying to do the best with what I got at this point.
Come on, baby.
♪
- I decided to go with three different pieces
because I could not find two pieces
that were long enough to fit my entire handle.
Ben said I have delamination.
So while my handle material's setting up,
I head to the grinder.
I'm giving myself about 30 minutes
to refine my blade shape.
I'm hoping to start working on the handle
at about an hour and a half left.
♪
- Ben's blade, he's got a warp, which he's gonna have to use
some kind of heat to straighten that out.
- He's got a lot of work to do.
- I know I need to fix the warp in my blade.
My goal is to heat my blade's spine up
and keep my edge cool so I don't ruin the temper
of the edge.
♪
- And...
- Please be good.
- I'm cranking it just enough
that it doesn't snap the blade in half.
Think that's as good as it's gonna get.
- Bladesmiths, you have one hour and 30 minutes left.
Travis is already working on fitting up his handle.
- At this point, I start popping holes in my tang.
I grab what I think is the right pin stock,
and I just epoxy the bejesus out of it.
I'm having a good time. It is
Any time you're in The Forge,
it's better than a day at work for me.
♪
- I want to put a pin through each of these pieces,
make sure I got a strong mechanical connection
so it will be less likely
to break off a piece of material.
I start drilling through the tang
and I'm able to get through it real quick.
Starting to put the handle scales on the handle...
[bleep].
And one of the pins doesn't fit.
- One of the things Erik has to be careful of is,
his scales are made of three pieces that are glued together.
You start hammering on one section of that,
you could pop that glue.
- Oh, yeah.
- I have epoxy, two pins going through,
and the third one does not go all the way through,
so I stick one pin on either side of the hole
that's not lining up in the hopes that I can
get a little bit of the pin in the hole,
so I can have a bit of a mechanical bond.
It's not ideal, but it's what I've got.
I still need to get an edge on there
and I still need to etch it.
- Bladesmiths, you are down to the final 45 minutes.
- I'm definitely feeling some panic right about now.
I grab two pieces of wood that are long enough
to make two full scales out of,
and I have to get the holes drilled through my tang.
And then I put my handle scale on, and....
I did not think that through right.
...run the pins to the wrong side.
So I have to pull them out before the epoxy sets.
- Ben's running into a lot of walls fitting up
his handle scales with the holes in his tang.
- I start running around, and it's about half
trying to get my pin stock through,
and half absolute panic.
- Even if Ben's just got two pins all the way
through both scales and filled the rest with glue,
at least we'd have something to test.
- If I don't get my handle scales on,
I won't have a handle.
Then I'm out of luck. I'm done.
- This looks a lot more like panic to me than intent.
- The clock is ticking and I'm running out of time.
♪
- I think Ben is playing,
"get it done, get it done, get it done."
- It might be our most Frankenstein-y blade out there.
- [laughs] - Absolutely.
- Thank God.
I finally get my scales on, but I don't have time to wait
for the epoxy to cure because I have to get my blade sharp,
finish shaping my handle, and get an acid etch.
Not giving up paid off for me last round.
- Bladesmiths, you have 20 minutes remaining
in this round.
- So at this point, I start
removing material on my handle.
One side is super thick, the other one is super thin.
My handle is not exactly where I want it to be,
but I don't want to reshape this handle
because I'll be taking off too much material.
However, I think it'll work for what it is.
Whew.
[rock music]
- I'm looking for a nice round handle
that's not too circular.
I want to make sure it stays in their hand
and doesn't fly off and hit somebody.
- Erik is showing some real efficiency.
- I feel like he's gonna have plenty of time
to get this finished the way he wanted to.
This will be an intentionally finished blade.
- Yup.
- I need to get an edge on this thing,
so I put a nice apple seed grind on there
so this blade can be as sharp as it possibly can.
♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines,
put down your tools.
Second round of this competition's over.
[clapping]
- The pins didn't go all the way through.
I did what I could to hopefully get
my handle attached properly,
but I'm not 100% confident in it.
♪
- All right, gentlemen, welcome to the strength test,
the antler chop.
Ben, you are up. Are you ready?
- No, but it doesn't matter.
- You're right. It doesn't.
♪
- I'm pretty concerned that my knife isn't sharp enough.
The judges get a rusty,
tortured piece of metal to test.
I'm just hoping dumb luck will carry me through
this time again.
♪
- So, Ben, right off, the handle's big enough
for my hand, it fits beautifully.
But as you can see, when I was hitting that antler,
each hit looks like it took one chunk out.
I hit it four times.
And you got one, two, three,
and another small divot here--four.
All I can think is that this edge is really brittle.
I have a feeling it's just when you quenched this,
it was really, really hot.
But the feel of it's really fantastic,
so nicely done.
- Thank you.
- All right, Erik, you're up. Are you ready?
- Yes, sir. - Okay, let's do it.
♪
- I'm excited to see what my blade does,
but I'm nervous at the same time.
Somebody's beating your knife against an antler.
It's not natural.
I hope it stays together.
♪
- All right, Erik.
And this is what happens when you just rely on the glue.
And I can see that you didn't quite get that hole
through there, so you put a pin on either side.
Good cosmetics, but without that pin
stabilizing the handle,
it just blew apart with the force of those blows.
So you're now sort of missing a handle.
♪
- All right, Erik.
Because it did break after two strikes,
we consider this a catastrophic failure.
We cannot continue testing.
But you are not out of the fight yet.
In order to continue on, Travis, you're gonna have
to survive two strikes on this same brutal test.
Are you ready? - I think so.
- All right, Dave, take it away.
♪
- Can my knife make two strikes?
I'm really not sure.
I start thinking about all the delaminations
in my knife, and hopefully I have
enough material to absorb the shock of this.
♪
- All right, Travis, congratulations.
You made it through those two strikes on the antler.
Now, Erik, you fought hard, you gave us a good blade,
but due to the catastrophic failure with your weapon,
at this point in time, we all want to say
thank you for coming out and fighting,
but unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please step off
The Forge floor.
Thank you. - See you, guys.
- Thank you, guys. - Good looking blade.
- Other than the fact that my handle broke
and now it's a baby-sized handle--
my handle's about the size of my kid's hands--
it's always good for personal growth
to challenge yourself and do things that are uncomfortable.
I'm happy with what I did and how I did.
I'm grateful I got to be here.
- Ben, Travis, gentlemen, congratulations.
You have now made it into the third
and final round of this competition,
where you're going back to your home forges
for four days to build an iconic weapon from history.
Gentlemen, you're gonna be building this.
♪
The Crusaders Bible Falchion.
- [laughs]
- The Crusader Bible Falchion traces its origins back
to the illustrated manuscript called the Crusaders Bible.
It is in these pages that the unique falchion can be seen.
The sword features a spatulated tip
with four points for puncturing armor
and a hook handle to prevent disarming.
This deadly chopping, slashing weapon has been
recreated and redesigned by bladesmiths for centuries.
However, no one knows if it ever existed
before the paintings in the Crusaders Bible.
Today, these iconic illustrations can be seen
in person at the Morgan Library & Museum
in New York City.
- Now, guys, the ones you build
must fall within these parameters.
Your blade length measured from tip
to where the cutting edge ends
needs to be between 21 and 23 inches,
needs to swell to a spatulated tip
and feature four points,
and needs to feature a hooked handle.
- I'm a little bit relieved
that it's not a 5-foot-long sword.
But then I see the weird spatula end of the blade,
and I'm starting to wonder how the hell
I'm gonna shape a billet into that.
- Well, we're excited to see what you bring back,
so good luck.
We will see you both in four days.
- Let's do it. - All right, right on.
[upbeat rock music]
- We're in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
It is day one.
I do get lonely in the shop,
so I had to bring in a couple friends.
My wife makes some amazing artwork.
One of the big reasons why we hit it off,
going to the junkyard and finding metal scrap.
So I have never made anything like this.
This is gonna be my inner core, this 5160.
And then we're gonna do Damascus on the outside.
I'm doing Damascus with a San Mai inner core,
because I think if I keep a 5160 leaf spring steel core,
it will hopefully stand up and be resilient
to the judges' tests.
So in The Forge, they got Big Blu.
I have Little Orange.
It's like taking Big Blu...
actually, it's nothing like taking Big Blu.
It's a little guy.
♪
It's five tons,
but it's sure as heck's saving my shoulder and my arm.
At the end of day one,
I have 65 layers of solid steel.
We have way too much material,
but that's really gonna help me refine my shape
into the rough shape that we need by tomorrow.
♪
- We're in Downs, Illinois.
I have never made a blade this big before,
so it's gonna be a challenge.
I plan on making San Mai 5160 leaf spring
salvaged from a semi-truck trailer,
and I'll forge that flat and square.
And then my shells are coming from wrought iron wagon wheel.
The wrought iron should have a very pretty wood grain look
by the time I get it ground down and etched.
There we go.
That's good wrought iron temperature.
As I'm forging along....
Oh, [bleep].
I'm starting to notice a large crack
forming on one of my pieces of San Mai.
If I'm not able to address this crack,
it's gonna take away
some structural integrity from my blade,
and my blade won't be able to hold up to the testing.
[bleep].
I don't have time to make a mistake.
♪
My plan is to keep flexing it up
and forge weld it down.
It should be welded back together.
Once I put it on the rest of my steel,
it should hold together.
We're about halfway sealed up.
I see that the crack is mostly closed up.
So far, it seems like my billet is
welded tight and everything's holding up.
I just hope my luck carries through.
[upbeat rock music]
- Day number two.
The blade right now is just a hunk of metal.
It is ugly.
Get this thing in the forge
and I'm gonna start drawing this out.
I'm getting to a point where I'm gonna try
to create this handle.
I basically have to make a candy cane
or a horseshoe, start putting a curve in.
I overcompensated and kind of had it come in
a little closer than I thought.
So as I strike here, it's gonna push this around
and flatten it out a little bit.
The curl for the handle, it's not perfect.
I am a little concerned about the ergonomics of this.
The judges do want a handle that fits well
in their hand, but I gotta push through.
I gotta get this blade quenched today.
I want to keep myself on the forward progression
that I'm in right now.
♪
I pull it out...
♪
Whew!
And we are straight.
That's exactly where I wanted to be at by the end of day two.
- Well, it's day two, and the first thing
I have to do this morning is form that spatulated tip.
I'm using a fullering tool, and I'm hammering my billet.
♪
I've got my blade mostly to shape and profile.
It's about time that I start moving on to heat-treat.
♪
So then I pull it out to inspect it.
My lines are looking okay.
Just by nature of me flying by the seat of my pants,
I feel like I'm behind schedule,
but I'm hoping I can just pull something out
and make it work.
♪
- Day four.
Thing's looking really good.
I'm gonna focus on the handle.
So I got both pieces cut out. My pin's in.
I'm going to start shaping.
I want to make my handle more ergonomic.
It's just not right where I want it at.
I think the only way to really get in here
and do this is with a lot of hand sanding.
I can only do so much with the tools I have
to hit this radius on the inside.
I'm going old school.
I'm going hand sanding on this.
I'm gonna run it through the grids just to get
that groove where it needs to be.
The maple that I have is pretty hard.
I did not know it was gonna be this much of a challenge.
I put a lot of heart and soul into this.
I think I'm good with my blade.
I want to hear Doug say those three little words,
"It will KEAL."
- Day four.
Today, I need to shape my bolster and handle material.
♪
Decided to just use a rasp to shape my wood
because it's the only tool that's gonna
fit in there in a timely manner.
I've got my blade finished.
Now it's time to get an edge on this thing.
I still feel that it's 50/50,
but I think I was able to make a pretty blade,
and I'm satisfied with what I got accomplished.
♪
- Well, Ben, Travis, gentlemen, welcome back to The Forge.
You guys, it's great to see you.
Now, you just came back from what probably seemed like
four very short days where we asked you
to build the Crusaders Bible Falchion.
Guys, they look beautiful.
They look strong and sharp.
Now, before we get into testing,
we want to hear about these blades.
Ben, how'd it go for you?
- Overall, I think it went all right.
♪
I ended up taking some wrought iron wagon tire
and making a San Mai sandwich
with a truck leaf spring in the middle.
- Nice. Now, Travis, how about you?
- Mine went pretty well. Had a couple hiccups.
♪
I used 1084 and 15n20.
And I did 32 layers on each side
and put a piece of 5160 in the middle.
The wood is a curly maple that came out of an old dresser.
- Guys, these blades look strong.
They look sharp. They look deadly.
But the best way we know how to find out which one of you
is leaving here today as a champion
is by putting them through a series of tests.
And first off, we've got a KEAL test with Doug.
♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the KEAL test.
Ben, you're up first. Are you ready for this?
- I'm not, but I hope my blade is.
- All right, let's do it.
- I'm feeling pretty good about my weapon,
but I know my opponent is bringing
a awesome, potent weapon as well,
so I'm not sure what's gonna happen.
♪
- All right, Ben, let's talk about your weapon here.
What I like about the handle, it's ovoid enough
to where it fits my hand perfectly.
Your edge is sharp
and it chopped this pig not once,
but twice.
Overall, your weapon, it will KEAL.
♪
Travis, your turn, sir. Are you ready?
- Ready as I'm ever gonna be.
- All right, let's do this.
♪
- I've hunted some pigs.
They have huge shoulders, big dense bones.
You hit one of those hard bones,
you could pop a weld,
a delamination, you can chip a blade,
but let's see what this thing will do.
♪
- All right, Travis, let's talk about your weapon here.
First up, I appreciate
the pattern you have with your Damascus.
Your handle has a cylindrical feel to it.
It's very smooth.
And because it's a forward heavy blade,
it rides back here.
There is nothing for me to be able to get a good retention,
so every strike, I had to adjust a couple of times.
But your edge is sharp.
It chops deep, and as you can see,
it chopped the pig carcass in half.
Overall, your weapon, it will KEAL.
- Thank you, Doug.
♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test:
the pavilion pole chop.
Not only did we get the crazy shape of your falchions
out of the Crusader Bible,
we also found this test in there.
There's a scene in the Bible where Abraham's forces
are chopping down the tent poles of their enemies.
So we're gonna do the same thing
and see how your Falchions hold up.
Ben, you're up first. You ready?
- As ready as I can be.
- All right.
♪
Well, Ben, first off, that's a beautiful piece.
I mean, it really captures the essence
of what's in the Crusader Bible.
The handle is really well-proportioned for my hand.
I'm just touching the hook while I have a comfortable grip
on the rest of the handle, so nice job.
The edge held up great.
All in all, I think it's a spectacular piece.
Nice job. - Thank you.
- All right, Travis. You're up, man. You ready?
- No, but let's do it.
- All right.
- I'm not feeling great, if I'm being honest with you.
Honestly, like, seeing Ben's Falchion perform,
I know I'm behind.
I guess we'll see how it goes.
♪
[intense rock music]
♪
- All right, Travis, well, your edge held up great.
That being said, the handle, it's really long
and it kind of curves from the beginning.
So as I'm trying to hold up here, you know,
I'm sliding back, and when I close my eyes
and index exactly where I want to be,
it's kicked over by about five degrees.
So I had to compensate for that.
That being said, I really think you did a great job
of capturing the spirit of this particular falchion.
Nice job. - I appreciate it. Thank you.
♪
- All right, bladesmiths.
This is a sharpness test, the zip line sandbag slice.
♪
Ben, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Sure. - All right, let's do this.
♪
- All right, Ben, let's talk about your weapon.
On the different areas that you have,
especially on that sweet spot, it cut cleanly on the bag.
On the lower half over here, metal and resistance,
but it also cut.
Overall, your weapon, it will cut.
- I'll take it.
- All right, Travis, it's your turn.
Are you ready? - Oh, I'm ready.
- All right. Let's do this.
♪
All right, Travis, once again, cutting with this
on the sweet spot, it cut cleanly on both bags.
Go a bit lower on this section right here,
it cuts, but not all the way through.
Overall, your weapon, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- Well, well, well.
All right, gentlemen, I gotta say
that this is the kind of competition we love
to see here in "Forged in Fire".
But at the end of the day, only one of you guys
can leave here with the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
and get that check for $10,000.
Today's "Forged in Fire" champion is...
♪
Ben. Congratulations.
Travis, you were beat out by just this much,
and Ben's gonna tell you why.
- Well, Travis, you brought us a Damascus
San Mai blade that was both beautiful and sharp.
But at the end of the day, this came down
to your handle design.
It was harder for us to control,
and that affected its performance in the tests.
And that's why we're letting you go.
- I completely agree.
- Well, Travis, I hope you had as much fun
as we had watching you in the first two rounds.
We want to say thank you for coming out,
but unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
step off The Forge floor.
Thank you.
- Awesome.
- It was an amazing experience,
but my handle just was not where it needed to be.
And Ben knocked it out of the park.
I'm going home, give my wife a hug and kiss
and tell my boys, Daddy didn't win,
but that's all right, you know?
He made it here.
That's a prize in itself.
♪
- Well, Ben, congratulations.
That makes you a "Forged in Fire" champion.
You'll be receiving a check for $10,000.
Congratulations.
[clapping] - Thank you. All right.
I did not at all expect that I would
make it to the end, but here we are.
Every step of the way of this process,
there's been some sort of challenge or hiccup
that I've had to deal with, but I'm just so grateful
I got the opportunity and I won,
so I'm happier than I could ever be.
♪