[intense dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[rock music]
- my name is garrett campbell. I'm 41 years old,
and I've been bladesmithing for about two years.
♪ ♪
what I like about bladesmithing is it's a big,
hot piece of steel.
You can't take your eye off that.
And you have to be in the moment.
♪ ♪
- I'm davy wilson. I'm 49 years old.
And I'm a master barber.
Unfortunately, I'm losing the master barber's hair
on top of my head.
My dad and I took a class together,
and after we built our very first knife,
I looked over and I said, "hey,
you want to build another one?"
he said, "I sure do."
part of the reason I am here now is to make dad proud.
♪ ♪
- my name's terry dickey.
I'm a retiree and a part-time bladesmith.
I like to bladesmith
simply because of all the challenges it brings.
My wife wants me to win the $10,000.
It's already earmarked for a new garage.
[chuckles]
- I'm chevy wattips.
I'm from lee, florida, and I'm a part-time bladesmith.
I'm doing this for all the moms.
It's so important, as a mom,
that you find something that lights you up
that has nothing to do with anybody else.
♪ ♪
- well, bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.
You're about to take part in a forging competition
that's been designed specifically to test
every aspect of your knife making capabilities.
There's gonna be three rounds in this competition.
At the end of each one, you're gonna present your work
to our panel of expert judges.
The judges for today's competition are
abs master smith j. Neilson,
historic weapons re-creation specialist, dave baker,
and edged weapons specialist
and kali martial artist, doug marcaida.
♪ ♪
now, these judges are the ones who are gonna decide
which of you is gonna be leaving here
with a title of forged in fire champion
and that check for $10,000.
Now, throughout history,
the art of bladesmithing has been shrouded
in a bit of mystery.
Not many people have the skills to take a chunk of steel
and turn it into a sharp, reliable, and strong blade.
And that's what today's competition is all about.
We are calling it forge of mystery.
♪ ♪
let's get into the mysteries.
The first one is, what kind of blade are you gonna make?
We want you to make signature blades in your signature style
using a san mai technique.
That is three alternating layers of steel.
Now, those blades need to measure
between 13 and 15 inches,
measured from tip to where the cutting edge ends.
They'll need to be quenched, hardened,
and acid etched by the end of this round.
As far as the second mystery, well, that's on your anvils.
Go ahead and uncover those for me.
♪ ♪
this is the steel you need to use to make your san mai blade.
And that is the only steel you can use
to make your san mai blade.
In that pile, there is both mild and high carbon steel.
It's up to you guys to figure out which is whic.
Now, the final mystery:
The clock is off today.
♪ ♪
you guys will have no way of knowing
how much time has elapsed
and how much time is remaining, aside from my time calls.
Hope you're good at time management
and you got a good internal clock.
I know I don't.
- That's dirty. - [laughs]
- no clock may be my worst nightmare.
I can become so zoned in on what I'm doing
that I actually lose track of time.
- Now, in round two of the competition,
you'll be adding handles to your blades,
turning them to fully-functioning weapons,
at which point the judges will be testing them for strength
in a mystery material chop
and for sharpness in a mystery fabric pillar slice.
All right. You have three hours
to complete your san mai signature blades.
And that time starts now.
[upbeat dramatic music]
♪ ♪
this is an interesting one. - [laughs]
the hard thing is is identifying the steel.
- Looks like everybody's going to the grinder,
doing the spark test.
- The first thing I'm gonna o is spark test these rounds.
Going to the grinder and looking at the spark load,
or the lack of sparks.
I definitely see one steel
giving me a very large spark fuel,
which I normally see in my high carbon steels.
- All those billets are numbered, right?
- Yeah. - And we know which one's
the hard one. One and three was hardenabl.
♪ ♪
- the shorter showers tells me it's a mild steel.
The longer shower tells me that that one is hardenable.
Number one is hardenable, so what I need to do
is stretch out my hardenable steel,
and then stretch out the mild steel,
making a san mai sandwich, if you will.
And if everything goes right,
it'll forge and stick together,
and I'll be a happy man.
♪ ♪
- I can't even tell.
- Chevy's got number nine and number ten.
- There's sparks, but they all look the same.
- The hardenable steel they have is a w1 steel.
With the mild steel that's out there,
if you haven't done it a lot, the differentiation
between the two sparks isn't that great.
- I need to find another game plan going into this.
- Chevy's going to use an angle grinder to cut some pieces off.
That's a good idea.
Heat them up, quench them, see if they snap.
♪ ♪
- awesome.
I've got my high carbon steel,
and I'm feeling pretty good.
- My plan is I'm gonna cut pieces off and quench them,
and then file test them.
I'm confident that three is hardenable
and five is mild steel.
- You guys think it's a big factor
that they can't see the clock?
- It's gonna be like a rat gnawing on the back
of your head. Like, "how much time's gone?
How much did I use?"
- knowing how much time is on the clock
affects what you do second by second.
- Bladesmiths, you have 2 hours and 30 minutes.
- It's time to draw out my steel.
The mild steel, I'm gonna make longer,
'cause I'm gonna cut that in half.
That will go on each side of that high carbon stee.
- They need to forge weld
three pieces of steel together.
The longer those billets are, the thinner they are,
the harder that weld is to do.
- Just draw it down to a rectangle,
stack them and forge weld them.
Less surface area, less likely to have a problem.
And then just draw it out from there.
- Coming.
♪ ♪
- I flattened out one bar stock
that I've got as my cutting stock,
and then I've got one bar flattened out
for my sides of the san mai.
I am pretty confident in my stack right now.
I've got mild on the outside, hardenable in the middle.
♪ ♪
I'm a little concerned about my welds
because I don't do a whole lot of welding with a mig welder.
Welding!
So I'm a little concerned going into this
that I'll do the proper welding
to make everything stick and hold together.
- It looks to me like they'll just clad the blade
and leave the tang as hardened steel.
The problem is, if you've got squared off corners
on those top two pieces, they'll actually push in,
and then you can wind up creating a spot
where you don't have welds between the steel
and the steel that's under it.
- We'll see how good my welds hold.
Ooh, it's ugly, but I think it'll work.
♪ ♪
- to accomplish my san mai,
I'm just gonna clean up the welding surfaces
and mig weld the mild steel away from the edge
and near the spine of the billet.
- When garrett went through his testing,
the piece of steel that had the work stick
was the high carbon.
- Welding.
- That's what he's got in the middle.
So he's set up with mild, high carbon, mild.
- Perfect.
- Hot metal, davy.
- Garrett's sprinting through this challenge.
- He doesn't know how much time he's got left.
♪ ♪
- I don't know how much time I have.
So I figure, they don't tell me
how much mild carbon steel
has to be on the knife.
They just told me I have to make three layers.
- Chevy is taking those small pieces.
It looks like she's gonna go ahead and clad
those on the outside of that hardened steel.
- If I get the mild carbon steel smaller,
it will heat up about the same time
as the larger, high carbon steel,
and I can just forge weld them together faster.
- What do you guys think about it?
Is that san mai? - It's a san some.
[laughter]
- bladesmiths, there's 1 hour and 30 minutes remaining.
- The temperature color looks good to me.
So I'm gonna forge weld this san mai.
♪ ♪
[bleep].
- No.
Terry's trying to set his weld in the press,
and it's just going all over the place.
- Oh, [bleep].
- The longer those billets are,
the thinner they are, the harder that weld is to do.
- At this point, it's better for me to restart,
as opposed to chasing this problem.
- Damn it.
- Oh, that was not good.
- Exploded apart.
If I cut the delams off,
there's not enough steel left to make me a knife.
I've got a piece of hard steel,
I've got a piece of mild steel.
We are going to throw them back in the fire,
and I'm gonna slow down,
and I'm gonna make this billet work.
- I have no idea what time I have left in this round.
But I'm gonna turn something in.
♪ ♪
- my welds came out surprisingly good.
I walk up to big blu, 'cause I know
there's only one way to move this much metal.
- Garrett's profile from here is banana-like.
- That's not good.
- I start getting a little banana hook
because I have thicker steel
on the spine of my blade than the front.
So I have to adjust
and go over and use the fullering die
on the edge of my blade to help even it out.
Ah!
- I start shoving my steel through this press,
and it's smooshing like melted marshmallows.
♪ ♪
it's a big, ugly hunk of steel.
But somehow, I'm watching my pieces weld together.
I'm just happy that I have three layers at this point.
- Bladesmiths, you've got 30 minutes remaining.
- I have the steel where I want it.
I have the center core,
and I have the two pieces for the mild.
- Terry's doing the exact same thing.
- Drawing out these long billets.
- I mean, if it didn't work the first time,
why would you do it again?
♪ ♪
- son of a [bleep].
♪ ♪
- it's like groundhog day.
It's exactly what happened before.
- Yep.
♪ ♪
- [bleep]. - Bladesmiths,
you've got 20 minutes remaining.
- Garrett quenched. - We have one quenched blad.
- Nice. - It looks good.
I have hardenable steel on my edge
and mild steel above it on either side.
I'm feeling great.
- Garrett quenched at a pretty hot temperature.
And if you're too hot, that mild steel cools
at a different rate than the center steel,
and we've literally seen them being pulled apart.
- I definitely quenched way too hot.
It could have just completely destroyed my blade.
However, there's nothing I can do about it now.
Off to the grinder.
♪ ♪
- chevy quenched.
- That's just awful. [chuckles]
I have a huge warp.
I don't have enough time to address it
because I still need to get it in the acid etch.
So I'm just going to hope
I can get this addressed in round two.
♪ ♪
- I'm feeling pretty lost right now
with the shape of my blade.
It's not sticking together.
- Terry is trying to do the same thing over and ove.
It just kind of hurts to watch him.
- [bleep].
♪ ♪
- it looks to me like davy's got a weld.
- I got my steel clean as a whistle,
and it's sticking.
Now, I still need to quench, then grind it.
But yeah, I got all the time in the world to do this.
- Yeah, there you go. Davy quenched.
- One, two, three blades quenched.
♪ ♪
five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools. This round is over.
- I don't want to go home, but looking down at my blade,
I'm just thinking, "if this were in my shop,
it would go straight into the trash."
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths, we've got round one behind us,
and it seems like the forge of mystery
turned into a bit of a forge of misery for a few of you.
But the time had come for the critique.
So, without further ado, garrett, you're up first.
Let's see what you got.
♪ ♪
- I like the profile of the blade.
It's got a nice edge tip.
Your handle is a little bit on the blocky side.
As you move forward, you kind of, like, make it fit
the handle where the hands don't open up that way.
Now, down the center of your spine,
you have a big crack right there.
The saving grace: It's on the spine.
So moving forward, I hope you have some ways to fix this.
Otherwise, good job. - Thank you.
- Davy, you ready? - Yes, sir.
- Let's see what you got.
♪ ♪
- all right, davy. Well, first of all,
I gotta commend you for coming back.
It ain't the prettiest beast in the world,
but you did finish a blade.
You've got a lot of steel here. And it's a good thing,
because you've got basically an s-curve going down,
and you've got several delaminations.
There's a very large one right about the sweet spot.
The scary part, though, is back here.
That didn't weld together, and that's the junction between
the tang and the handle, so that's very stressful.
If you more forward, I hope you correct that,
'cause that could also be very dangerous to the user.
But again, you fought back. Good job.
- Chevy, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- all right, so you've giving davy
some competition here. There's a lot of steel here.
You've decided to only clad this small section,
and that creates a couple problems,
in that you've pushed these two billets into this steel.
Now, it did weld, but what you've done
is you've pushed this in
so this outside piece kind of has a t-shape to it.
The other thing is this curvature to it.
There are ways to straighten this out.
There is still heat on the floor,
so if you move forward, there's a lot of work here.
- Thank you. - All right, terry.
Well, I think you know what's about to happen.
♪ ♪
you worked very hard. You did not give up.
But unfortunately, you do not have three layers
of forged steel for us to critique.
So for that reason, I'm gonna have to ask you
to please leave the forge.
- My takeaway on this experience is that
I have some work to do.
But it's not a setback.
This is a passion of mine.
And I've had a lot of fun.
But it's time to go back home and get back to work.
- Bladesmiths, congratulations.
The three of you are moving forward
into round two of our competition,
where you will fix any issues you have with your blades,
add handles to them,
and turn them into fully-functioning weapons.
Now, in keeping with the mystery theme,
the pantry's closed, so you guys
are gonna be choosing your materials at random.
You're gonna come up, reach into the barrel,
and select your handle material.
Whatever you choose is what you're stuck with.
Chevy, you're up first.
- All I'm thinking is: Another mystery.
♪ ♪
- don't look so excited.
- I'm thrilled.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
I'm looking at this beautiful piece of gorgeous wood.
It is just like what I use at home.
So I'm not worried about the handle.
I can do that later, I hope.
There is a lot to address from round one.
- Garrett, you're up, go ahead. - Yep.
I'm a little concerned about random handle material,
since I typically only work with a couple of things.
There could be all kinds of really gnarly stuff
I don't want to work with in there.
[groans]
♪ ♪
the mystery box provided a giant block of g-10,
so I'm happy with that.
♪ ♪
- all right, davy. You're up.
♪ ♪
ooh. - Awesome.
- Doubled up.
- Garrett and I were on the same wavelength.
We both pull out some g-10, which is a strong,
man-made material that will work great,
and help me also alleviate maybe some of these problems
that I'm having back in my handle.
♪ ♪
- you guys will have two hours in this round
of the competition to fix your blades,
add the handles, and then we're gonna get into testing.
The judges are gonna test for strength and durability
in a mystery material chop
and for sharpness in a mystery fabric pillar slice.
You have two hours, and that time starts now.
[rock music]
- a lot of work out there for two hours.
- The fact that chevy went ahead
and still finished it to submit something
gives her a fighting chance on this one.
♪ ♪
- this piece looks like a leaf spring
and I need to get it straight,
and I have got to get all of this material removed.
All right.
♪ ♪
my plan with this oxy torch
is to heat up my material enough
and make it malleable enough to straighten it.
[torch pops]
♪ ♪
it's starting good, and then it pops and goes ou.
I don't have time to mess with it,
so I go to the next best thing.
♪ ♪
- one of the biggest things that chevy needs is heat.
And now she's switched over to a little bottle of propane.
There's no way.
It's not gonna provide enough heat to straighten that steel.
- I might need two of these.
♪ ♪
- first thing I'm gonna do is repair
the crack on the back of my blade.
Three minutes in, I know it's deep,
and I know the only way I'm gonna fix it is by welding.
♪ ♪
- if garrett just throws a weld down the spine,
depending on what our mystery material
is for the strength test,
it could pop that wide open again.
- I'm trying to do small, little sections at a time,
so I'm not putting too much heat
in any one area of the blade.
♪ ♪
- I need to thin out my knife and I need to address
the delamination that is close to the handle.
♪ ♪
I can hear the difference
between the way the front of my blade sounds
and the pitch as I get back closer to that delamination.
♪ ♪
- you know what that singing is?
That's an echo chamber coming off the gaps in that metal.
- Oh, that's not good.
- I have to address this delamination by welding it.
- Bladesmiths, you've got an hour and 30 minutes
remaining in this round.
♪ ♪
- so, I'm heating up my blade, and it is just taking too lon.
- Chevy's wasting a lot of time
and not getting anything done out of it.
- I know it's not going to straighten.
So I figure I'm just going to set to work
with the angle grinder.
♪ ♪
the clock is ticking away.
I'm thinking of all that's left to do.
♪ ♪
- chevy hasn't done any work on the tang.
Hasn't even touched the handle material
since she pulled it out of the barrel.
- The thing is, we're not seeing efficient use
of tools or time.
♪ ♪
- now that the issue with my spine's fixed,
I can move on to my handle.
At the drill press,
I get the hole all the way at the end of the tang in.
I get the middle hole most of the way through.
And then nothing.
Right in the finger well
that I really feel is the most important hole.
- Oh, that sounds terrible.
- Not what a drill press is supposed to sound like.
- Oh, there's sparks coming off of that thing.
[buzzing]
oh, man. - Ouch.
- That's making my teeth hurt. [laughs]
- [bleep].
I'm about 30 minutes in
to just trying to get holes together on my handle.
- I understand that garrett's a strong guy, but, you know,
you can't just force that drill bit through the metal.
- If I don't get these pinholes in,
I don't know what I'm gonna do.
- You have one hour remaining.
- [bleep].
I've completely destroyed this drill bit.
I already have little divots, so I think
I'm just gonna be able to torch cut through the holes,
and then I'll clean them up enough
so I can just get the pins through.
♪ ♪
I realize this is the thing
that I need to stop messing with,
deal with two pins, and move forward.
♪ ♪
- welding.
Now that my holes are drilled,
I still have to address the delamination in my handle.
- Davy definitely has to address that junction.
It's very easy to burn it right at the joint
of the handle and the blade,
and that could be, actually, a safety issue,
trying to swing that, 'cause that blade could snap
and come right back at the user.
- As I'm welding, I notice that I've burned through
the edge of my handle.
This bad weld here could really be
a problem for me in testing.
But I'm gonna have to move o.
♪ ♪
- chevy is still grinding away at that blade.
Has not addressed the tang at all.
- I still have to remove all this stock.
I have to get a tang.
And I have to get holes drilled for my pins.
- At this point, she can still do it
if she would take her eyes off the edge
and give something that you guys can at least
grab onto and test.
- She's been looking at the clock.
She's been shaking her head.
- I am nervous because time's running out,
and I really, really hate failure.
- One of the biggest self-eliminators
in all of our competition is anxiety.
People get anxious about what they're doing,
and when they do that, they lose the ability to think
and come up with a new direction.
♪ ♪
- I know I don't have an edge on it yet,
and I know I have a lot of handle shaping to do.
As soon as I've cut my pins,
I'm gonna move the clamp around
and I'm gonna go start on my edge.
♪ ♪
- it's time to glue the handle, clamp it togethe,
and then start shaping my handle.
It's always anybody's game.
Obviously, I want to go through.
But I'm not gonna go in with a haughty attitude.
♪ ♪
- five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, put down your tools.
This round is over.
♪ ♪
- I look like over at davy's blade,
and he has climbed a mountain in the last two hours.
But I'm still feeling good.
Once we're in testing, it is what it is.
♪ ♪
- well, bladesmiths, you made it through two intense rounds
of forging competition, and now it's time
to put your blades to the test for sharpness,
for strength, and for overall usability.
But chevy, although you worked very hard,
you do not have a handle on your blade.
Unfortunately, the guys are not gonna be able
to put your blade to the test.
And for that reason, I'm gonna have to ask you
to please leave the forge. Thank you for coming out.
- Thanks, guys. I had a lot of fun.
I didn't have the problem-solving skills
that were necessary to conquer round two.
Time was moving way too fast,
and I had way too many things to do.
It didn't pan out exactly as I wanted.
But when I get home,
I'm definitely gonna try some san mai techniques.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- well, gentlemen, congratulations.
The two of you guys are moving forward
into round three of the competition.
But we've still got some testing to do.
So, whichever one of your blades performs
better in round two testing, you will have the option
to choose your round three blade.
Whoever performs in second place,
you will have to choose your round three blade blindly.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, welcome to my favorite part,
the strength test.
Today, we have a mystery test.
What's under the tarp?
So we're gonna have some fun here.
I'm gonna take each of your blades and beat them repeatedly
and pretty viciously into this material.
Now, what your blades do to the material is not a big concern.
I want to see what the material does to your blades.
Garrett, you're up first. You ready to go?
- Let's do it.
♪ ♪
I have no idea what's under there.
All I know is j. Neilson's
gonna try to break my blade on it.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
well, garrett, you survived. Good job.
I mean, there's a lot of weight to this.
The handle's rough, but comfortable,
so I was able to control it without a problem.
You do have some chipping on the edge.
Nothing catastrophic.
But it didn't move at all.
Your handle stayed tight.
You survived. Good work.
- Thank you. - All right, davy.
It's always more fun for the second guy.
You ready? - Yes, sir.
- All right. - Let's do it.
♪ ♪
just before j. Goes to swing my blade,
I can feel my heart flutter a little bit.
I just hope it doesn't destroy what I've got here.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- all right, davy, you survived.
Good job. It's very heavy.
I mean, it's--it's a monster.
Striking on this mystery material
was enough shock--took a piece of your cladding right of.
And then you had a couple seams open up right back here,
and then right up here on the spine also.
That being said, your edge held up well.
The handle is fairly comfortable.
I was able to control it well,
so you did it. Good job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths. Congratulations
for making it through the mysteries.
But there's still one more mystery to solve.
This is the sharpness test:
The mystery fabric pillar slice.
Now, to find out how sharp your weapons are,
I'm gonna take your weapon and try to slice
through these mystery fabric pillars.
Now, unlike the strength test,
this is all about what your edge does to these pillars.
Garrett, you're up first, you ready for this?
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
all right, garrett, let's talk about your blade here.
It's very comfortable to hold on to.
Now, your edge.
Despite suffering some chips right here in the middle,
it cut easily through the first pillar.
On the second, halfway through.
Overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- Davy, your turn, sir. You ready?
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
all right, davy, let's talk about your blade.
On the first pillar, it cut all the way throug.
On the second one, it aptly hit with the part
where you had some dulling over here,
but on the follow-through, it actually went up
and cut with your top edge over here, which is sharp.
♪ ♪
so overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- well, garrett, davy, as I said before,
whoever came out on top in the testing
will have the option to choose your round three blade,
where we send you to your home forges
to build one of these two weapons
from our "forged in fire" vault.
The judges made the decision.
The bladesmith who came out on top...
[suspenseful music]
was garrett. Congratulations.
- Thank you. - Well, davy, that's means
that you're gonna be going into round three blin.
So, you've got the choice between anvil number one
and anvil number two. Pick your poison.
- Well, I've been standing at anvil number two
since this competition started.
There's an old saying from texas:
"you dance with the one that brung you."
number two.
- All right. The weapon you'll be building
in round three is...
♪ ♪
the pira sword.
- I'm seeing this sword with a wonky,
zorro-shaped handle,
and about a 24- to 28-inch blade.
And I'm thinking, "not so bad.
I think I can make this."
- well, garrett, that means you've got the choice
between the pira sword or this:
♪ ♪
the khora sword.
So what's it gonna be?
- In the pira, I've got upswept blade
with a slight curve and it fans out at the end.
The khora sword, I've got opposite curve,
edged blade, fuller, flat back spine.
So in my mind, I want to go with somethig
I know I can overperform on versus struggle to finish.
♪ ♪
pira. - Doing the pira as well.
- Featured in season seven of "forged in fire,"
the pira is an ornate, versatile sword
used by the yakan tribe in the southern philippines.
The weapon's unique blade shape and long pommel
proved to be challenging for both smiths
who were ultimately forced to start over
on the third day of their builds.
Ultimately, one smith was unable to secure
the mechanical connection to her handle in time,
forcing the judges to issue a vote of no confidence
due to safety concerns.
- Well, gentlemen, for round three,
your parameters are no mystery.
Your blade length needs to be between 21 and 23 inches
with a clip point
that is no less than 4 1/2 inches.
The base width of your blade needs to be
no more than 1 1/2 inches and it needs to swell
to no less than 2 1/2 inches.
Now, your handle needs to have a wrap
or a collar at the neck,
and it needs to contain a tail
that is no less than 5 inches long.
You have will four days at your home forges to wok
on your pira blades.
So good luck. We'll see you then.
♪ ♪
- it's day one.
We're in westerly, rhode island,
and I'm gonna start working on my pira.
Let's do this.
The first thing I'm gonna do is get the forge fired up,
get the metal in the fire, and get it hot.
I have no power tools. It's just all this.
Hot hands. Whoo.
I want to do as much by hand possible
because it is a forging competition,
not a cutting with an angle grinder competition.
Now that I'm roughly to shape...
Feels good.
I'm gonna go over to the belt grinder
so I can cut more material away.
I check parameters and I'm dead on.
Murdered it.
We're pretty close to quenching.
I feel like I made good progress.
It's where I wanted to be for the end of the day.
I feel like I'm in a good place.
♪ ♪
- today, we're here in beautiful branson, missouri.
I'm tasked with making the pira.
The handle will probably be the most challenging part
of this build.
♪ ♪
well, hey, dad. - Hey.
- Had a visitor this morning.
Just about to get started on this sword.
Anytime in the past, when dad would stop in,
he'd jump right in and help me with a knife build.
I don't know if he was disappointed or relieved
that he didn't have to help with this build.
- I'd like to help on something like that.
But at least it's a shorter one.
- That's right.
It's different than anything we've done before.
- I'll see you later. - All right, see you.
I got into knife making in 2007.
My dad hit me up and asked if I would like to build knives.
♪ ♪
feels good.
I believe that he's gonna be extremely proud
of how this blade performs.
I believe we've got a good, straight blade.
♪ ♪
- going into day two, I'm ready to heat treat.
♪ ♪
yesterday went well.
I got to exactly where I felt like I should get.
I'm trying to be patient and take my time.
♪ ♪
we might have to quench again.
She's not skating like she should.
I'm not happy with the file test.
So I'm gonna quench again.
I just don't think it sat in there long enough.
♪ ♪
this quench, the temperature looked better.
It looked more even. Longer quench.
All right, we're good.
If anything goes wrong,
it better be tomorrow and not day four.
Whoo! Crisis averted.
- Starting off day two.
Things are looking pretty good so far.
My plan for today is clean up the blade a little more
and then to get started on the handle.
♪ ♪
I'm having trouble just getting
this walnut cut through.
I'm having to use some chisels.
Sometimes it needs a little persuasion.
Whoo! Finally, it works.
♪ ♪
it's been a long day,
but I feel like I've made really good progress.
Bet that ought to make a pretty handle.
♪ ♪
- morning of day three. First thing today:
Getting things ready for final fit-up.
I start working on what's essentially a guard.
I'm drilling it out to make it fit the tang.
It was a little fiddly.
I'm hesitant about the fit and the quality,
but overall, I'm happy.
Side note: This is the only piece of this wood I have.
♪ ♪
everything's going smoothly.
♪ ♪
[wooden ting]
I hear a piece of wood rattle against the ground.
Nothing wrong with that edge. Oh!
After all the fiddling with this handle,
I broke it anyway.
- That was my fear.
I don't have more handle material.
[bleep].
First thing tomorrow, I'll go get more handle material,
and if I can't get it right, I'm done.
♪ ♪
[intense music]
- good morning. It the beginning of day three,
and I'm pretty excited about getting started today.
My plan for today is to start with gluing the handle up.
Once we epoxy and pin the blade to the handle,
it's gonna be one homogeneous piece.
Looking good. It's holding there.
I've got the handle to a comfortable point.
Now it's time to test.
It's pretty sharp, but it's not--
not where it needs to be.
For my first pira, I'm pretty happy with it.
It's the end of day three,
and I'm feel like I got a lot accomplished today.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, welcome back to the forge.
It looks like four days was more than enough time
for you guys to work on your pira swords.
They both look phenomenal. But as you know,
only one of you guys will be leaving here
with the title of "forged in fire" champion
and that check for $10,000.
So garrett, how'd it go for you?
- Went well. A couple of small hiccups.
♪ ♪
blade's made of 80crv2 with an oak handle,
and a 15n20 guard
and a galvanized steel wire wrap.
- That looks great. - Thanks.
- Davy, how about you?
- Had a great time.
♪ ♪
the sword is made out of 5160 with a brass guard.
Then I did a black walnut handle with a g10 liner.
- It's a beast. - [laughs]
- well, gentlemen, the only way for us to know
which one of these blades is gonna come out on top
is to put them through a couple tests.
Now, in keeping with the theme of forge of mystery,
these tests are gonna be blind until we go live.
We've got a strength test, we've got a sharpness test,
and up first, the keal. Doug.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, welcome to the keal test.
To find out how lethal your weapons are,
according to its historic design,
I'm gonna take your weapon and deliver some lethal blows
on whatever's behind the curtain.
I'm gonna find out how effective your weapons are,
at the same time, how they feel when I wield them.
Garrett, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yep. - Let's do this.
- I don't know if they're just gonna swing through the sheet
at whatever's on the other side.
It's just, you know, one more game in the forge of myster.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
- all right, garrett,
let's talk about your pira sword here.
Your handle construction--well done.
Your edge is very sharp. It allows me to cut deeply
and swing well with your weapon.
Overall, sir, it will keal.
- Thank you. - All right, davy.
Are you set, sir? You're next.
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this.
- My heart flutters.
I am feeling a little apprehensive.
I'm hoping, at this point, that my blade will perform
at least as well as garrett's did.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
- all right, davy, let's talk about your pira sword her.
First up, in your design.
It's a very forward-heavy weapon.
As you can see just by looking at the spine,
it's thick here and it to tapers down to the guard.
Now, your edge is sharp.
With the forward weight, it shops into the pig carcass,
but slicing, not quite,
because you have to control the weight of the weapon.
But, it will keal.
- Yeah, it will.
♪ ♪
- gentlemen, you know what time it is:
The mystery strength test.
Now, these strength tests are not concerned
about what your blades do to the target.
More what that target does to your blades.
Garrett, you're up first. Are you ready?
- Let's do it. - Okay.
[dramatic music]
- when this curtain drops, the last thing I want to see
is my blade break.
It's up to my work to perform. It's in somebody else's hands.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[gong bangs]
♪ ♪
- damn. The guard.
The weld. - Right, yeah.
Both: Where it welded. - Yep.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- so garrett, right off,
I liked the feel of the weapon. The balance was nice.
The weight was nice. I had no issues.
Looking at that break, your grain structure is beautiful.
All I can really say is that that tang
is a little on the lean side,
and maybe that where this married up,
there was just enough movement in there
that it allowed it to blow apart,
as opposed to being tight and held together.
- Mm-hmm. - But it
definitely felt like a nice weapon.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- garrett, that is painful to see, man.
But you are not out of the fight yet.
Davy, your blade has to survive one strike on this brutal test.
And if you do, you win.
Dave?
- I did not want to see garrett's blade destroyed.
I am really nervous now.
'cause he's gonna go up there and try to break my sword.
Anything can happen at this point.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[gong bangs]
[resonating ringing]
♪ ♪
- all right, davy.
Man, there's a lot of weapon here.
Your grinds are beautiful.
I think your handle's beautiful and comfortable.
There's no edge damage on this at all.
- Awesome. - I would not run my finger
down this blade.
You nailed the heat treat on that.
Good job. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- well, davy, the bell is rung, and you survived it, man.
Congratulations.
Garrett, we hate to see this happen.
We always want to see more testing done.
But unfortunately, your blade did break during the testin.
We can't continue.
For that reason, today you are not
the "forged in fire" champion.
Want to say thank you for coming out.
Gonna have to ask you to please leave the forge, man.
- Thanks. - Thank you, garrett.
- The experience was a lot of fun,
and I still have a lot to learn.
I wanted to make something that performed.
I wanted to make something light and fast.
And I did that. And it [bleep] broke.
[laughs]
at least I'll have 15 minutes of fame.
Single, by the way, ladies. [laughs]
♪ ♪
- davy, your blade survived the test.
That makes you the "forged in fire" champion.
You're gonna be leaving here with a check for $10,000, man.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
[applause]
- you have any plans for the money?
- A little more mustache grooming stuff.
[laughter]
I am so elated right now.
Thank you so much.
Knowing where my journey started,
when I didn't know anything
about swinging hammers and forging metal.
Dad, I'm the new "forged in fire" champion.
I'm coming home a winner.
[intense music]
♪ ♪