[dramatic music]
- here in the forge, we've seen some of
the most talented bladesmiths battle it out
for the coveted title of "forged in fire" champion.
- Oh, yeah!
- But sometimes, even the best fall short.
We're gonna have to ask you to please leave the forge.
We decided to bring back eight smiths
who've proven to have the drive, the skill,
and the determination it taks to become a champion.
This is our second chance tournament.
The smiths will be placed
into four head-to-head competitions,
but only one will come out on top of each duel,
earn them a check for $2,000 and a spot in one final battle
to finally earn the "forged in fire" champion title.
♪ ♪
tonight the dueling continues.
♪ ♪
up first, the runner-up duel.
Both of you guys came this close
to winning your rounds last time,
but you didn't quite seal the deal.
- Last time I made it through all the tests,
but my competitor's blade
was just better balanced than mine.
So hopefully this time I'm gonna win.
- Last time I felt pretty crushed
because I couldn't quite make it over the finish line.
This time I'm here to win it back.
- And later, the untested duel.
♪ ♪
when you guys were last here,
your blades did not have a chance to be tested.
- Last time I was here I missed one of the details,
and I totally blew my opportunity to get tested.
This time if I miss parameters,
I'm going to lose my ever-loving mind.
- I wanna get to the finals this time so I can show
that I can make a blade worthy of competition
and hopefully get to the home forge,
where I can show you where the real magic begins.
- The duels start now.
♪ ♪
- my name is rick rabjohn.
I'm 58 years old. The last time I was here,
it was the balance of my sword that did me in.
- Okay, rick, these swords are designed to be fast
and point-oriented.
Having that balance point so far forward
makes it more of a cutting sword.
- I wish I would have won, and that's why I'm back
here again today, give it another go.
It should be fine. [laughs]
♪ ♪
- I'm michael seronde. I'm from tucson, arizona.
Last time I was here it was so close.
I think the judges loved my sword.
It was just splitting hairs.
- Michael, you've brought us an amazing barbarian sword.
You should be proud.
It came down to the finer details.
Ethan won. You didn't lose.
♪ ♪
- it would mean so much to me
if I make it through this duel to the final round.
I'd really love a second shot.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, welcome back to the forge.
It's great to have you guys here.
This is your chance to turn it all around
and take home the title.
Welcome to the second chance tournament.
Both of you guys came
this close to winning your rounds last time,
but you didn't quite seal the deal.
That's why we've got you guys in the runner-up bracket.
Now, gentlemen, this is how this round's gonna go.
You guys are gonna go head-to-head
in five straight hours
of forging competition where you're gonna have
to build a blade from start to finish.
They both need to be quenched, tempered,
and have handles attached by the end of the five hours.
- Oh, boy. - Now, once that time's up,
you'll present your work to our judges.
These men behind me are the ones who are gonna decie
which one of you will leave this round of the tournament
with a check for $2,000.
Now, not only do you get $2,000,
but one of you guys will get yourself a seat
in the final round of the tournament,
giving yourselves another chance
at that coveted title of "forged in fire" champion.
The judges for today's competition ae
abs master smith j. Neilson,
historic weapons re-creation specialist dave baker,
and edged weapon specialist doug marcaida.
Since you guys both came in second place
last time you were here,
we decided to make this competition all about twos.
On your anvils you guys have a cloth.
Go ahead and remove that for me.
Gentlemen, in front of you are stacks of 1095 and 15n20 steel.
We're gonna ask you to make damascus blades.
It sounds easy, right?
Well, you guys are some of the best,
so we decided not to make it that easy on you.
Today we do not want you to make a blade.
We want you to make two different blades...
[dramatic musical sting]
a damascus dagger and a damascus chopper.
- Are you kidding me?
Two blades within five hours, of which they're damascus?
It's a huge order.
- Now, gentlemen, at the end of that round,
you guys are gonna present your work to our judges,
and they'll put them through some rigorous tests.
We're gonna test for strength and durability in a skull chop
and a stump stab
and then check your edge retention in a water tube slice
and a canvas bag stab.
Gentlemen, we know you both have it in you.
It's gonna be one hell of a challenge.
Good luck. Your duel starts now.
♪ ♪
it's not an easy competition. They're building two blades.
They're going up against somebody who's very capable,
very qualified. They want to stand out.
- Yeah, doing two blades at the same time
during a challenge really messes with your head,
especially when you're making two totally different style.
It's a lot of work for five hours.
- Both the smiths went straight for their grinders.
They're cleaning up their metal,
getting ready to stack it up, heat it up,
and forge weld it together.
- It feels so great to be back here at "forged in fire."
since the last time, I've been focused mostly on my business,
the booyah forge. We do metalworking.
We do bladesmithing and blacksmithing.
So I've been pretty busy, mostly with blades,
so I'm ready to go.
Hey, hey!
- With rick, I do remember his flamberge rapier.
It was well done,
but the balance was off to controlling the cuts.
- They give you a lot of steel to start with, you know?
You just have to figure out how much you're really gonna need.
What I'm aiming for is the sweet spot, right?
I don't want too much steel. I don't want too little steel.
I want just a right amount.
I figure a billet of about ten layers is plenty big enough,
so I'm gonna make two billets, ten layers each,
so I'm hoping I'm calculating this correctly.
♪ ♪
- I actually
specifically remember michael's barbarian sword.
- Yup.
- And we had such a hard time
trying to figure out who the winner is.
- Everything was just spot-on.
There was such a small difference in the weight
and the balance, but he nailed it.
- Since the last time I was here,
I got my master's degree.
I bought a house. I got married.
I have a full-time job. I've been teaching classes,
so it's been a busy couple years.
Biggest concern is making two knives
out of damascus in five hours.
That's out of control. I've never done that before.
Instead of just sitting, looking at the steel heat up,
I have time to get my handle materials ready
and do anything I can to set myself up for success.
- This is smart.
Find that handle material. Find that guard material.
Find whatever it is you wanna work with to get her done.
- This is the runner-up duel, so my opponent
came just as close as I did, so there's no room for error.
♪ ♪
- I think it's critical to establish
good forge welds in your billets
because that is what's gonna determine
everything else, right?
If you do a bad job with forge welding,
you could have a catastrophic failure down the road
when j. Neilson is hammering your blade,
and j. Doesn't hold back any. [laughs]
- it's hard enough when we're multitasking
to make one blade, one design in your head.
Now you have to multitask to think of two different blades
totally different from each other
and still think of the steps that each one needs.
- This challenge is particularly difficult
because they're two very different blades,
one built for, you know, stabbing and slicing
and the other one built for chopping.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna focus on the dagger first, make sure that's righ,
and then move to the chopper.
The dagger is a little more complicated than the chopper.
- The dagger, there's a lot going into it.
- Yeah.
A dagger profile is difficult in that you have to shape
four identical sides instead of two
to get that traditional diamond shape of a dagger.
- My biggest concern is definitely the time.
- Bladesmiths, one hour down!
You've got four hours remaining in the duel!
♪ ♪
- look how much mike has already accomplished.
- Billet's drawn out to almost being blade-sized.
- So my billets are looking great.
That one's solid.
I'm bouncing between the dagger and the chopper.
- It's nice, what mike's doing is once he's done with on,
puts it back to get heated, he's working on the other,
and interchanging back and forth.
- Michael's very good at using the time efficiently.
- As I'm drawing things out,
I realize I've got plenty of damascus,
so before I start shaping my knives,
I'm gonna shape the guard for my dagger
out of one of my damascus billets.
- Straight over to the chop saw for michael.
- I want sort of a thicker,
little bit heavier guard to sort of put a lot of weight
in the middle of the dagger for balance,
and then also it'll be nice and comfortable for the hand.
- Now you've got a damascus guard.
That's gonna look great.
- You already got it there. You've already made it. Use it.
♪ ♪
- gentlemen, you guys have three hours remaining!
♪ ♪
these guys have got to be exhausted.
This one, it's a tall order-- two blades, damascus?
- I got the chopper to length and pretty much to width.
Whew!
It's taking a lot.
My shoulders are starting to cramp up.
Well, I am retired,
and I take a nap every day around 2:00,
so yeah, I'm tired. [laughs]
I gotta hustle.
♪ ♪
well, now I gotta start shaping both blades.
As the clock is ticking,
I wish I was a little bit further with these blades,
but as I'm grinding,
I'm realizing that hey, you know what?
The forge welds went well. I'm feeling pretty good.
♪ ♪
- at this point my knives are really taking shape.
They look solid. Now it's time to quench.
The time constraints are a little bit challenging,
heat-treating two blades back to back.
I need to nail my heat treat.
- Boom, mike's got his chopper in the quenching oil.
♪ ♪
- the file doesn't skate. I don't think it's hard enough.
- You're not gonna get
a correct skating when it's that hot.
- That sucks.
- Just give it time, man. Slow down.
- Oh!
I know that I didn't hit the heat treat properly.
I have to do it again.
- No, no, no, no, michael's gonna go back in the forg.
- It's not what I needed at this part in the game.
- Now, that's a thing that could really
throw a competitor off,
is they've done all this meticulous work.
Everything looks great,
and then they get it in their head
that the blade's not hardening,
and that throws them into panic mode.
Feels like he's rushing through this.
- Oh, that's just the worst.
Every single quench is putting more and more stress
on that blade.
There is a lot of work to do. Gotta get going.
I don't have time for this.
-Second quench puts a bunch of stress on his blade.
- I have to do it again.
♪ ♪
- mike's in the oil, second time for a quench.
♪ ♪
this time it works.
I don't have any more time to waste.
It's time to move on to the dagger.
It's a little bit thinner.
It has two cutting edges, so I have to make sure
the heat is even more even than it was in my chopper.
♪ ♪
- oh, dagger quenched.
- It's straight.
Yes.
It is hard as can be.
One and done on the dagger.
Here we go.
Now that both my blades are quenched,
it's time to move on to profiling,
cleaning things up,
and then get ready for the temper.
Quenching hardens the steel.
Tempering draws back that hardness
so that they're durable and tough.
♪ ♪
- it's three hours in.
I gotta quench, temper the blades,
and then I gotta get to the handles,
but first I wanna put a little hole at the top left corner
because that is kinda what distinguishes a chopper.
When you see it, you go, "oh, it's a chopper."
[metal squealing]
- ooh. [metal squealing continues]
- [bleep] damn it.
It's not drilling.
- Well, there's not enough time for that.
Rick really needs to get moving and get those blades quenched
and get them in the tempering oven.
- You know what? This is a nicety.
It doesn't affect the functioning of the chopper.
I'm gonna move on to the quench.
♪ ♪
- all right, well, he's got one in there.
♪ ♪
- yay!
I'm delighted.
I've got two hardened blades. Now I gotta temper it.
- All right, gentlemen,
you guys have 90 minutes remaining in this round.
- I've got a chunk of mesquite wood from earlie,
and I have to attach handles to two knives.
There is a lot of work to do in not very much time.
I've gotta get going.
My chopper just needs to hang out.
That glue needs to set,
so I need to move on to the dagger.
I'm gonna do a hidden tang for the dagger.
I heat up the guard so that I can hot fit it to my dagger,
start smashing it down.
It goes down a little bit but not far enough.
I don't have time to mess with this guard.
Back into the forge.
Yup, okay. Well, that sucks.
I get a piece of angle iron
to try to force it down tight to the tang.
- I think that guard of michael's dagger
is really tripping him up.
- Oh, god.
I am running out of time, so I need to get it done.
- Well, bladesmiths, you guys only have one hour remaining.
- All right, rick is working on his handle.
That's good.
- So I grab one big block of black walnut.
- I like the fact that rick got a block of wod
that might be enough for both of his knives.
- I'm gonna do a full tang, so in this way,
I just put scales
on both sides of the tang and leave it at that.
I got that done. Now we work on this one.
- He's got a handle in his dagger,
and now he's putting a handle onto his chopper.
- As the clock is ticking,
I still have a lot of work to do to shape the handles
and put the final sharpening.
It's gonna come right down to the wire,
but I'm confident I'm gonna make it.
♪ ♪
- well, so michael's still working on that guard.
- This is nuts.
- Well, I mean, he's done so great
managing his time, managing materials,
and then that guard tripped him up.
- At this point I am running on fumes
but running 100 miles an hour, and I have so much work to do.
- Tang fits through his guard.
- Finally I get the guard all the way down.
Time to put a handle on this dagger.
I put a piece of leather between the guard and the wood
to make that connection look good and be tight.
♪ ♪
I look at the clock. There's 30 minutes left.
I have a dagger on a 2-inch square block handle.
That is not gonna fly.
I blast through the block,
trying to get that handle
to something that is comfortable enough.
The key is "enough."
I'm trying to dribble a little bit of glue
because I'm afraid I don't have enough epoxy
to make everything stick together right.
- He's hitting that leather. Problem is, is that glue,
a lot of time, it dries and makes little spikes.
- Yeah. - That's right there
where your hand's gonna be.
Rick has a very thick blade.
- I only got ten minutes.
I've gotta finish the final grinding of the edge
and then to etch it.
I need to hog some material
off of both blades because I made them beefy.
- We got rick etching.
- Oh, good. - Right on.
- You can color me impressed. Told him to make two blades.
That is one hell of a feat.
- I'm at the grinder with both my dagger and my chopper.
At this stage I feel like I'm sprinting between tasks,
and I keep bouncing between these two knives.
♪ ♪
- five, four, three, two, one.
Gentlemen, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools. This duel is over.
- Good job. [applause]
- [sighs]
- done.
In five hours, I have successfully made
two damascus knives.
I am feeling relieved and proud of myself.
They're quick and dirty,
but I'm pretty stoked with how they turned out.
♪ ♪
- all right, runners-up, it's time for our
doubled-up strength test, the stab and chop.
I'm gonna take your daggers, stab them into our stump here,
and then I'll take your choppers and attack
both the post and the skulls.
Michael, you're up first on this.
Are you ready? - I--yeah.
♪ ♪
oh, man, I'm super nervous.
In the strength test everything could go wrong.
My edge can roll. My knife can break.
It's destructive testing for a reason.
They might get destroyed.
♪ ♪
it's awful watching something
you make go through these tests.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
- okay.
♪ ♪
- oh!
♪ ♪
it didn't break. - It did not break.
- All right, mike, let's start with your dagger.
Right off, the weight and feel of this blade,
I mean, this is super comfortable.
I could play with this all day.
Got a wicked edge and a wicked point on it,
which I really like.
I poked it in there.
It dug in deep and held up fine.
What I don't like is that that leather spacer you put in here,
you then covered it with crazy glue.
That turned it into some sharp edges.
When you're thrusting into something,
that's not really a good thing.
As far as your chopper goes, again, nice weight on this.
You didn't take, really, any damage.
This is still a wicked sharp blade.
So all in all, nice set. Well done.
- Thank you.
- All right, rick, you're up next.
You good? - Yeah.
- All right, let's do it. - Yes, I am.
I wish I had more time
to spend on fit and finish on the handles
and making them more comfortable, better indexing,
but oh, yeah, I'm ready for te--no,
I'm actually not ready for testing.
♪ ♪
that was great.
- So right off the bat, rick, this is a heavy dagger.
There's a lot of metal there.
What really got me was all this right around here,
there are kind of sharp, jagged edges,
and since the handle doesn't really have any contouring,
there's no way to keep off that guard.
Now, on your chopper, again, that's a lot of material there,
but it does have an edge,
and that edge didn't take damage, so that's grea.
They held up very, very well, so good job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- all right, bladesmiths,
we know your weapons are strong, but are they shar?
This is the water tube slice
and the canvas bag stab and slice.
To find out how sharp your weapons are,
I'm gonna take your weapons and slash across
these water tubes and canvas bag.
Double your weapons, double the slice,
double the nice.
[laughter]
mike, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Oh, yeah. - All right. Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- whew! - Beautiful.
- [laughs]
- all right, michael.
Off the bat, these feel really good.
Even though they're two different designs,
they feel equally balanced on both hands,
and they are wicked sharp.
On the slash on the water tubes, very clean slice.
You have a sharp edge here, sir.
Also on the stabbing and slashing with your dagger,
those are very clean cuts.
Overall, sir, both your weapons, they will cut.
- [laughs] sweet.
- All right, rick, are you ready, sir?
- No. No.
[laughter]
- well, we're gonna do it anyways.
- We're gonna do it. - [laughs]
♪ ♪
- [chuckles]
- [exhales]
- all right, rick, let's talk about your weapons here.
First up, these are heavy beasts.
Even for a dagger, it's very forward-heavy weight,
the same with your chopper.
With a chopper, it's expected. For a dagger, it's very heavy.
But I was still able to cut cleanly.
You have a sharp edge on your chopper here.
Overall, sir, they will cut.
- Thank you. - Good job.
- Thank you.
- Very well done, gentlemen.
[both laugh]
we gave you guys a tall order,
and you guys both delivered--
two damascus blades each in five hours.
You should both be really proud of your work.
We gave you some very difficult tests,
and all the blades performed well.
But only one of you guys can leave here with a check
for $2,000 and a spot
in the final leg of this second chance tournament.
The bladesmith who won this duel is...
♪ ♪
michael, congratulations.
You're moving forward into the final round
of the second shot tournament.
Unfortunately, rick,
that means you're not gonna be moving forward,
and dave's gonna tell you why.
- Rick, I gotta commend you for all that work you put in
to deliver two weapons
that could be tested and tested well, actually.
But this came down to an issue of the weight
and that handle construction... - Sure.
- And that's why we're letting you go.
- Okay. Fair enough.
- Well, rick, again, be proud of your work, man.
You did something that no smith I've seen has been able to do,
and two of you guys both did it.
You have what it takes to fight in the forge,
but unfortunately,
I'm gonna have to ask you to please leave.
- Okay, take care. - Yeah.
We'll see you. - Good job.
Last time my competitor's blade
was just better balanced than mine.
I still can't get it right.
I agree with the judges' decision,
but I'm also proud of what I accomplished
in getting through this tough challenge.
It was fun, and always good to meet other bladesmiths,
and once again it's been a great experience.
Hey, if there's a third chance tournament, I'm in.
- Michael, congratulations, man.
That means you broke the second-place curse,
and you came out on top of your duel,
which also means you're moving forward
into the final round of our tournament,
and you are leaving here with a check for $2,000...
- Whoo-hoo! - So congratulations, man.
- Very well done. - Thank you.
Thank you.
- We will see you
for the second round of this tournament.
- Winning feels incredible.
This challenge was the hardest smithing challenge
I've ever done.
Knowing that, I can't even begin to imagine what's next.
The next stage of this competition
is gonna be that much harder.
Every one of the smiths in the next round have already won,
so I know they're gonna bring their best.
I have to bring my best. It's gonna be brutal.
♪ ♪
- my name is sam a. Smith. I am from sanford, maine.
Not only did I have an incredibly hard challenge
last time, but I also took some of my time
to help a competitor, and I didn't finish my blade.
I ran out of time.
- Can you hold that vise down for me?
- Yeah, I'll help you. Let's do it.
- Look at that. You see?
There's camaraderie right there.
He's--sam helping out colton. - There you go, kid!
- He needed someone with enough mass to keep that thing
from spinning around and around and around.
- You know, that took away time from his own work.
- I wanna get to the finals this time
so I can show that I can make a blade worthy of competition
and hopefully get to the home forge,
where I can show you where the real magic begins.
- My name is jason palmer. I'm from the st. Louis area.
Last time I was here,
we had to make three mini canisters,
each one of them with a different steel,
and then combine them to a single blade.
After one of them failed,
I had to make a fourth canister,
and I made the wrong billet,
so I did not have all the steel involved in my knife.
- You decided to start again with a new can
on the assumption that the one that failed you
was 52100 ball bearings.
What I found was the outline of a railroad spike,
which means that your knife
doesn't have any railroad spike in it at all.
- This time if I miss parameters,
I'm going to lose my ever-loving mind.
- Well, sam, jason, welcome back to the forge, guys.
It's great to have you here.
The two of you are about to take part in a very uniqe
"forged in fire" competition.
We're calling this the second chance tournamen.
In your first competition in the forge,
you did not have the chance of getting your weapons tested,
so you will be both taking part in our untested duel.
Now, the way this is gonna work
is you guys will go head-to-head
in five straight hours of forging competition.
Then you will present them to our judges,
who will finally put them to the test.
These men are the ones who are gonna decide which one of you
is gonna come out on top in this duel
and get a check for $2,000, but better than that,
whoever wins this round solidifies themselves a seat
in the finals of the tournament,
where you will be competing for that coveted title
of "forged in fire" champion.
I'm sure you guys are eager to get into it,
so on your anvils you have a cloth.
Go ahead and remove those for me.
Gentlemen, what you guys have there
is a 6-inch bar of round stock.
It is w1 high carbon steel.
- I look down, and I see this massive chunk of w1 steel.
I know nothing about this steel other than it's tough as nails.
- Now, gentlemen, when you guys were last here,
your blades did not have a chance to be tested,
so we figured why not bring a blade out
from the "forged in fire" vault that also has not been tested?
Today I want you guys to build this.
♪ ♪
the haladie.
[both laugh]
- featured in season three of "forged in fire,"
the haladie is an iconic double-sided,
double-recurve weapon originating in ancient india.
Used by the fierce rajput warriors,
this dangerous weapon
contains four sharp edges used to deliver slashes and thrusts
against an enemy in close-quarter combat.
Ultimately, this unique weapon was unable to be fully tested
due to one smith's failure
to put the required recurve into his blades.
- Your haladies will have to have dual recurve blades
that measure between 9 and 11 inches.
All four sides need to be sharpened and have a handle.
- Dear god, what am I walking into?
I'm not 100% certain how to get from this
chunk of steel
to that thing up front.
- Now, guys, this was a round three weapon
that was built in five days.
You only have five hours.
That is building your blades, quenching them, hardening the,
tempering, adding your handles,
and getting them ready for testing.
This is your second chance,
and because you didn't get your blades tested before,
we're gonna put them through a keal test
with a ballistics dummy,
and then we'll be testing for strength and durability
on an armored man.
So good luck, and let the duel begin.
♪ ♪
the haladie, so what's the history about the haladie?
- It's an indian weapon,
more of a ritualistic combat blade than a battlefield blade.
- It's a pretty difficult weapon
'cause those two blades need to be symmetrical.
- Yeah.
A lot of aspects to a blade like this that you really
have to focus on that is incredibly important.
♪ ♪
- I have never made any sort of a two-sided blade,
but I do new things all the time,
so I do feel ready for this challenge,
but last time... [clicks tongue]
I felt ready too.
- Jason's last time in the forge,
he missed a parameter.
He needs to get it down to the t.
- I have a feeling my ruler is going to be overused today
because I am not gonna miss a parameter if I can help it.
Looks simple at a glance. It's just two pointy ends,
but there's a lot of stuff in the middle
I have to pay attention to.
This great big behemoth has to soak for a while,
so I'm just trying to look at this
and to set myself up for the next step.
♪ ♪
- taking forever.
- Yeah, it's not a small chunk, is it?
- This is a 6-inch piece of w1.
They gotta have it in that forge for quite a long time.
- Yeah.
- Just because the outside is red
doesn't mean the inside of that is hot.
- I'm excited to be at the second chance tournament,
but it's a lot of work for five hours.
My biggest concern is time. It's a lot of material to move.
We're essentially building two blades
attached on the same handle.
Last time I was here, I wasn't able to finish,
so time management is everything.
Game plan is to take the billet and stretch it out
as fast as I can so I can move on to shaping this blade
and finally see my blade tested.
[exhales] let's do this.
♪ ♪
this is a new experience,
making a double-ended blade as elaborate or exotic as this,
so it's gonna be fun taking all my skill set
and making it happen.
- Jason just pulled out what looks like a steel rose.
- Maybe a little luck item.
- I started making these roses a while back,
and my wife really decided she liked the looks of the,
so I made one for her.
I brought this rose to remind me
of my wife and family while I'm gone.
♪ ♪
- jason's just over there measuring the step
and the horn of the anvil to use that as a length guide.
- I do not want to miss parameters.
Each blade needs to be between 9 and 11 inches.
I'm gonna shoot for 10 inches.
It's kinda like blade algebra.
- Don't make your blade too long, my friend.
[laughs] - yeah.
Oh, man.
I've finally got this thing to the size
that I think is gonna work,
so what I'm gonna do is go ahead
and try and get the tips in and make certain
I have enough material in the middle
to have a grab-able handle.
- Bladesmiths, there's an hour off the clock!
You guys only have four hours left to complete your blades!
♪ ♪
- I'm choosing to build this blade
in one homogenous piece from the solid billet,
and the reason being is homogenous steel
is always stronger.
- Theoretically, it would be stronger to have one piece
just in case there is something wrong with the weld
or something like that.
It could potentially come apart.
- Right now, as the blade's taking shape,
I'm getting to the point where I'm looking forward
to the most, which is putting the recurves into the blades.
I get the blade on the anvil. I'm loving it.
- Designing that properly
is what's gonna take up most of their time.
- Oh, because of all the curves in it.
- That's one of the big things, that recurve aspect,
because that was the parameter failure
the last time we had the haladie on the floor.
- Your blade does not have that s-shape recurve
that we're looking for.
We cannot move on to test your blade.
♪ ♪
- now, this is the hardest part-
getting two crooked angles to be in the same plane.
- Are you looking at that clock?
- I keep turning my head.
I got a crick. Oh.
Serious business, that clock.
- You know, I wonder what the mindset is
going through our competitors.
With sam, it was a failure to finish,
and now he's looking up at that clock,
whereas jason, he missed parameters.
- Jason just keeps going back to his anvil,
taking the measuring tape out. - Yeah, my issue is, though,
that we still don't have tempering.
We still don't have handles.
We still don't have a finished shape of that blade.
- I'm feeling like I don't have as much time
as I would like right now.
I've gotta get the recurve pieces put in there.
I've got quite a long way to go,
and I haven't even touched the grinder yet.
- All right, there we go.
Jason's over on the horn putting in his recurve.
It's crazy how fast you can put the curve in there.
- The curve's the easy part, putting it in.
Matching it exactly on the other side's the tricky part.
- I've never made anything with two recurve blades
going opposite directions.
- They have to be identical.
- How would you go about trying to match them?
- Do the first one, then get a soapstone
and mark that on the face of the anvil,
and just keep checking it to make sure it matches up.
- Right now I have no idea where I stand on time.
Right now I'm on god's good graces.
- Two hours and 30 minutes remain on the clock!
- Sam's going for a quench.
♪ ♪
- I can't wait to see them test them.
- [laughs] - that's what I wanna see.
- Isn't that what we're all watching for?
- I want dave and doug to beat the hell out of them.
- [laughs]
- it's a little tricky quenching this long blade
because I had to do a little gymnastics
to get both tips in there.
[bleep].
♪ ♪
but I think I've accomplished a hardness.
I'm gonna put it in the tempering oven.
What makes this challenge so interesting
is we get to actually temper ourselves.
We have to do it in our time limits.
- Explain the tempering process to me.
- It'll relax all the strain in that blade.
So it'll go from being brittle
to being more of a spring or malleable quality.
- I put my blade in the tempering oven.
It's gonna be sitting there for a while,
so I'm gonna head over to the pantry
and find some good handle material.
I don't really know what I wanna do.
[blows raspberry]
- you guys have two hours left in your five-hour challenge.
- Jason's doing his magnetic test.
♪ ♪
there he goes.
- Everything looks pretty straight and true.
I've got a hardened blade that should meet parameters.
Now I'm gonna start tempering the blade.
- These guys have been neck and neck.
I mean, one'll come ahead a little bit,
but now both the guys have their blades shaped, quenched,
and in the temper oven.
- I'm looking at the clock, and it's winding down,
and I really gotta start this handle.
♪ ♪
I start cutting it. It's a nightmare.
[bleep].
- Well, now sam was just shaking his head.
- When you wanna cut wood,
you need to let the blade cut it.
You can't force it.
If you force it, the blade'll start to deflect.
You'll get that wobbly cut.
- I go over to the big porta band,
starting cutting a piece there.
[machine whirring]
- nope.
- This is more chaos. Murphy's law.
I sabotaged two blocks.
I ruined that.
Plan b, I-
I should have checked the blade first,
and maybe I was pushing too hard.
- There's so many pieces of handle material over there
that are already cut.
- Well, when you get competition in the mix,
your head plays tricks on you.
- These small hiccups are starting to add up
and give me a little anxiety.
- Thinking about it is not getting anything built.
- Oh, my god.
- These two smiths are here for a second chance.
Sam didn't make it through because he didn't finish.
I hope history doesn't repeat itself.
- This is very much unnerving. I don't know what to do.
The last thing I wanna do
is not finish a blade for a second time.
I'm running out of time.
- Sam's having a mental block in what to do.
That's gonna make him fall behind.
- Oh.
That was a good piece of wood. It took me a second to find it.
So as the world comes crashing down around me
in the handle department, I figured,
"you know what? I'm gonna go nontraditional
and start wrapping it with paracord."
paracord handles has been proven okay in the past
on "forged in fire."
- I hope he did it in such a way
that it's comfortable in the hand.
It won't move around.
- I'd rather have had a wooden handle,
but cord was the fastest way.
- A hail mary, last-ditch effort
to get something turned in.
- [sighs] lot of handle.
- All right, gentlemen, you guys are down to one hour!
Jason is working on his handle now.
- With only an hour on the clock,
you got a lot of work to do,
get that handle on there, tidy and glued up,
mechanically connected, and shaped.
- But I find a piece that looks like it's gonna be big enough.
- Oh, jason's splitting his handle material
down the middle, making two scales now.
Let's see if he gets the wobble like sam did.
- Now I got a pretty clean cut.
I get my epoxy on.
I slap the scales on,
and I start to just try and tap this pin in.
- Mechanical connection on those handles is paramount.
- Mm-hmm. - It is almost a must
because of the things that we do to the blades.
- The way I'm planning on designing this handle
is basically try and create something of a dog bone shape
so that there's a stop to keep the hand from sliding.
- I'm going to spend the rest of my time
getting the edge built and profiling my blade.
This haladie needs to have an edge on all four sides,
so that just compounds the complexity of the challenge.
There we go.
My goal is to work on one side at a time
and then go back and make it look pretty afterwards.
[exhales]
it is extremely difficult to grind the edges
into these curved blades.
- Bladesmiths, you have ten minutes remaining!
- Oh, no.
- We've got two different styles,
but they both have handles.
They're both in sharpening phase.
I think these guys are finally gonna get their weapons tested.
- I know I'm gonna be standing at this grinder
for a hot minute.
- Not only are you grinding a dagger
that's got four bevels, you're grinding two of them
and then the recurve on top of that.
- If I'm thinking back to algebra class,
the slope of the line is where you wanna keep it,
so you have to constantly move it,
so it's a lot of tricky grinding to be certain
that you end up evenly ground across.
- Watch what jason's doing. Is he sharpening both edges?
- There's definitely a spine on one side.
- These are dual daggers.
It's not a dagger unless both sides have edges.
This is a real issue.
- I don't know if I'm gonna get this thing finished
to the level I want it or not,
but I'm not gonna stop.
Come on, baby.
No matter what, I'm turning something in.
- Jason's grinding to the last second.
Five, four, three,
two, one.
Gentlemen, turn off your machines.
Put down your blades. This round is over.
- I'm pretty proud of my blade.
The blade itself got a little bit thinner
than I had intended,
but I feel like I hit all of our parameters.
We'll see.
- All right, bladesmiths, now, you guys
are in the untested bracket of this tournament.
Well, guess what? It's time to test your blades.
Welcome to the keal test.
To find out what kind of lethal damage your haladies will do,
I will take your weapon and deliver lethal blows
on this ballistics dummy.
Sam, you're up first.
You ready for this? - Yes.
- Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- whew! I'm pretty anxious.
I am concerned about my handle,
but it was the best choice I could make
with the time I had,
so I don't know what's gonna happen.
♪ ♪
- [exhales] whew.
- All right, sam, let's talk about your haladie here.
First up, your handle construction.
There's so much handle.
Normally a haladie here has one
where the hand just marries right into it,
and you have a guard there so it's easier to wield.
This is more like a haladie-da. [laughter]
but you know what?
The cord wrapping here actually works.
It gives me a good grip.
Now, the blades that you have here are wicked shar.
They penetrated very deep into this ballistics dummy.
Overall, sir, your haladie will keal.
- Thank you. - All right, jason,
are you ready for this?
- Yes, I am. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- my biggest concern is in my zealousness
to get this sucker ground down,
I noticed I've ground it
thinner than what I'd intended.
Hopefully the temper is right.
If it's not, it could easily break.
♪ ♪
- mm-kay.
♪ ♪
jason, you've built a beautiful blade in five hours.
It's got two opposing recurves,
but we asked for double-edged recurve blades.
Unfortunately, that is a parameter failure.
We cannot test it evenly and fairly,
and it will remain untested.
So for that reason,
I'm gonna have to ask you to please leave the forge.
- Thank you.
It really sucks that I didn't get my blade tested agai.
I just was so tied up with the measurements
that the second edge was the one that just left my min.
Yeah, I made a dumb mistake.
I make those every day of my life,
but I can walk out of here knowing that I did something
that most people aren't willing to do.
- Sam, congratulations.
You are the winner of the untested duel.
- Thank you.
- You absolutely earned it.
Now, winning this duel means you get a check for $2,000,
and you'll be moving forward
into the final round of the tournament.
You have a shot at an additional $10,000
and the coveted title of "forged in fire" champion.
- I'm glad that I've won my duel,
but winning the duel is just winning the battle.
It's time to win the war and move on to the finals
and see how I perform.
- Well, sam, again, congratulations.
We'll see you in the next leg
of the second chance tournament.
- It's time to get my game face on.
♪ ♪