[intense rock music]
♪ ♪
- My name is Dan Greene.
I’m 25 years old.
I’ve been making knives about three years now.
From a very early age, I always liked tattoos.
Actually gave myself this sleeve.
In some ways, I would say it’s a little better
than another artist to give you tattoos.
Just...knuckles hurt quite a bit.
- My name is Sean Meadows.
I am 20 years old,
and I am a full-time bladesmith and woodworker.
My mother has lent me 1/2 of her garage
to set my entire workshop up in.
As much as I love being able to work
in my mom’s garage,
winning $10,000 would finally
be the ticket that I need to move out into my own shop.
- My name is JD Bostick.
First learned to bladesmith
about 12 years ago.
I have two kids.
Their names are Kaya and Miko.
They inspired me to get on "Forged in Fire."
They said, "Just don’t get out in the first round,"
so here’s hoping.
- I’m Ron Berkland. I’m 50 years old.
I’ve been bladesmithing for three years.
I was in the military
where I spent 18 years in the National Guard.
And I spent four years active duty,
so I did 22 years complete.
My experiences in the military
helped me feel like I can accomplish anything.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
The four of you have been chosen to take part
in an intense bladesmithing competition
that’ll all culminate with one of you leaving here
with the title of "Forged in Fire" champion,
and a check for $10,000.
- What am I going to be expected to do?
A canister, canoe Damascus.
I am super excited but very nervous.
- Bladesmiths, you’ve all got a cloth
on the anvils in front of you.
Go ahead and take that off for me.
[exciting music]
Bladesmiths, what you’re staring at there
is a bar of W1 high-carbon steel.
All we’re asking you to do
is make a signature blade
in your signature style using mono steel.
- What’s the catch?
It’s "Forged in Fire." There’s always a catch.
- Now guys, just make sure
that those blades fall within these following parameters.
Your blade length measured from tip
to where the cutting edge ends in a straight line
needs to be between 11 and 13 inches.
Each of you will have to turn in a blade
that has a recurved edge.
Now as far as designing for the test goes,
I’m going to leave you in the dark there, guys.
You’re not going to know
how we’re going to test for strength
or test for your edge retention
until we get there.
For this first round of competition,
there are three hours on the clock.
All right, gentlemen, good luck,
stay sharp, your time starts...
[lights power hum]
- What the hell is going on?
[dramatic music]
- Bladesmiths, as you can see, we’re experiencing
a bit of a blackout in The Forge today.
Each of you has a lamp behind you.
Go ahead and light then hang them up for me.
Word is that the electrician will not be available
to turn the power back on until after the second round.
There’s no power to the power tools.
The only things you have are the forges and hand tools.
You didn’t think you’re gonna get off that easy, did you?
- Nah.
No power tools, no Big Blu,
no drill press.
It’s going to be challenging,
but that’s the fun part of it.
- At the end of each round,
I will ask you to present your work
to our panel of expert judges.
They are the ones who’ll be deciding
which three of you are leaving here empty-handed,
and who’s going to be leaving here
with the title of "Forged in Fire" champion,
and that check for $10,000.
Now, good luck, gentlemen, because your time starts now.
[intense rock music]
♪ ♪
Now I got to really pay attention to my watch
’cause with the power going down,
the clock’s out too.
These guys have no clock to reference
how long they’ve got left.
We’ve never done a no electricity competition.
- Yeah, I mean, the only time we’ve ever done
something that was even close is when we were doing
a coal forge situation. - Right.
- And even then, they usually had
electric angle grinders and things like that.
- I am very concerned about overexertion
going into this competition.
I’m gonna need to make sure
that I don’t get off to too hot of a start,
or else I’m never going to be able to finish.
- Learning how metal moves under a hammer on an anvil
are things that a lot of smiths don’t learn.
Most of the stock that we start out with
is already in a bar form.
- I learned all of my skills
from watching videos online.
Feeling like I’m at a disadvantage,
but I’m still gonna try my best.
♪ ♪
- I’m excited about seeing this competition,
but we would have had electricity, Dave,
if you would remember to pay the damn bill.
- [laughs]
- I had used W1 for a few projects.
I have not moved this much W1
and moved it to this extreme,
so this is gonna be a big challenge.
I want to stretch out the bar to meet my blade requirement.
So that’s my biggest focus.
- Just gotta get a blade I can turn in.
W1, it’s really hard to work
and we get a 1-inch round of it,
and we gotta draw this out...
Without power.
If steel gets too cold,
you can definitely develop cracks in W1.
So, I gotta keep it hot and keep it moving.
[bleep].
I’m hammering hot metal, have a piece of slag hop off
and land right on my index finger.
And I can immediately feel it blistering.
Thank you.
- If any guy gets an injury that keeps them
from being able to swing, that can take him
out of the competition completely.
They couldn’t go rely on Big Blu or the presses.
- I just got to push through the pain.
I can’t waste any more time.
♪ ♪
- Doing what these guys are doing with hand tools
in three hours is very, very abnormal.
- Very interesting.
Dan is kind of ambidextrous right there.
He was just hammering in one hand
and switched over and used the other hand.
- I’ve taught myself how to use both hands,
left and right, forging.
I’m going to use it as much as I can
in order not to tire my right arm out.
Even though I’m using both hands,
man, it would be fantastic to have a press right now,
’cause this is brutal.
- All right, bladesmiths, you are 30 minutes in.
You have 2 hours and 30 minutes left.
- Whoo-wee!
- [chuckles] You’re very welcome.
- You can start to see Sean’s profile coming in now.
Just how is he going to work in that recurve?
- The biggest issue is that I’m not used to
working with stock that’s this thick.
- We know what kind of blades they’re making,
I asked for a recurve.
But is there anything really
they can be doing to get ahead of the game?
- With not having the power tools,
they really need to use every portion of that anvil.
- Exactly. - Especially the horn
for that recurve.
That’s what the horn of the anvil is meant for.
- I got this thing looking good.
Now I can move forward.
I think I got it.
- ♪ And that’s the way you do it ♪
I have my blade length,
so now I can work on the shape of my blade.
I don’t know the tests,
but a recurve tells me there’s possibly a chop test.
And then I have to figure in that it could be a stab test,
so I have to have a decent tip on my blade.
- This is one of those competitions that having
a knowledge of a lot of different knife shapes
would really pay off.
Because you can start thinking, okay,
what shape is going to allow me to move
the least amount of metal in the quickest amount of time?
- It’s getting there.
My wife is a big Doug fan.
So I want to try to impress Doug with my blade.
- We have to have a recurve in the blade.
Doing good.
If I don’t give it enough belly,
it’s not going to look like a recurve.
I really want to hear Doug say that my knife’s
"sexy."
- JD is having some trouble moving that steel.
- Seeing some of those really deep curves in the blade
get hung up in testing material.
- Having the blister forming is tough.
I’m feeling the grip already getting sore.
[grunts] That bitch is heavy.
But you just have to keep going.
♪ ♪
- I got my blade to length. So now I can start shaping it.
I’ll probably call the blade shape that I’m going for
some kind of a kukri.
Looks good.
- Dan’s blade is one of the nicer shapes
I’ve seen in a long time.
And he’s doing it all by hand.
- I feel pretty good about the shape.
But I just know I need to get a move on the tang
’cause that’s gonna be fairly time-consuming to draw out.
♪ ♪
- I’m gonna try to get just a bit more length
and then get to driftin’.
- I’ve never drifted a hole.
Always drilling. - Never?
- Never. - I’ve done it like twice.
It’s awful.
Normally, you’re just gonna drill
right through the material, and it’s super easy.
But I don’t have power for a drill press,
so I have to finish up these punches before quench,
because as soon as the quench happens,
the blade will be too hard to punch pin holes.
But, luckily, drifting these tang holes
is surprisingly easy.
Hell yeah!
So I am riding high.
♪ ♪
- Come on, baby!
I’m putting in the bevels on my blade.
Trying to put in the edge on this
is gonna be very difficult
without power tools after it’s tempered.
- Developing the traditional skill sets
with just hammer and anvil really allows you
to branch out and do other things.
- I’m pretty confident I’m going
to accomplish this in the time I have left.
- Ten, nine, eight...
Naw, I’m just kidding, guys.
You’re halfway through.
You have 90 minutes left.
- That’s not funny. - [chuckles]
- If you’re up there it’s funny.
It’s not funny out here. - [chuckles]
After I’ve got these holes drifted through,
next thing I know Dan and Sean,
they are already putting a bevel on this thing.
[bleep], you guys are way ahead of me.
I realized I was falling behind at this point.
So I’ve got to get a bevel in this blade and fast.
But I’ve never filed a bevel into a blade before.
So I’m making the choice
to go with my flattening hammer.
- This right now is gonna be hard for these guys.
They gotta forge those bevels all the way in.
You can’t get a part of the way and grind it down,
so you got to get that drawn all the way down.
- The flattening hammer works great
to beat a bevel into this thing.
I feel like I made up a lot of ground
in the last 30 minutes
and the end is within sight.
- Feeling it, man.
I feel pretty good about my bevels.
But now I’d have to punch holes.
I’m a little nervous.
I’ve actually never done that before,
but we’ll see how it goes.
- Those punches he’s using
are not made to go through hot metal.
We have drifts in here that are specifically made
to punch holes in steel.
- [bleep].
As I’m trying to drift this hole, the punch breaks.
So I’m feeling a little bit frustrated.
But I’ve got to make it work, so I grab another.
[bleep].
It breaks instantly.
- Oh no.
- Well, now, Dan needs to get another punch.
- So I grab a third punch.
And that one breaks as well.
So I’m just, you know,
getting a little bit frustrated with it.
- Dan’s having a lot of trouble trying to get those holes in.
- That punch is spreading out as opposed to going through.
- If I’m not able to punch these holes,
I would definitely be sent home.
I just don’t know what to do.
[bleep].
- There’s a blackout, and there’s no power tools.
So I’m trying to get these holes punched by hand.
[bleep].
And these punches keep breaking.
If I’m not able to punch these holes,
I could definitely get eliminated.
But I’m not just gonna give up or throw in the towel.
I’m--I’m gonna keep smashing them in there
till they’re through.
Right on.
So I finally get the punch through.
It’s a little bit of relief,
but I’ve wasted too much time.
- Bladesmiths, you guys have 30 minutes left
before the first elimination.
- Time is running out.
I need to get this thing in the quench tank,
and I’m freaking out.
It’ll have to do.
If I get a warp in the blade,
I’m not gonna have enough time to fix it.
- With just a bit of time on the clock,
quench the blade, make sure it’s straight,
and you can continue to file a hard blade.
It’s definitely gonna be harder to move metal,
but you’re not gonna get anywhere
if you don’t have that blade quenched.
- There we go, three down. Dan’s gonna be the last to go.
Bladesmiths, you have 15 minutes left.
- I’m running behind schedule.
We’ll see.
I’ve wasted too much time punching holes.
So I’m gonna take my chances
and skip normalizing in order to save time.
The main thing I’m worried about with cutting corners
with normalizing is that there could be cracks.
- You have two minutes remaining.
There we go.
All right, all four blades are quenched.
Dan’s in the oil.
- A little twist.
I do see a small twist at the tip of the blade,
so I’m going to try to straighten it out
with light taps.
There’s definitely a risk to doing that,
’cause now there could be cracking as a result.
I hope this decision doesn’t have any major lash back.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, put down your tools.
The first round of this blackout competition’s over.
- I’m very proud of the work that I’ve done in three hours
without having a press or a power hammer.
But I’m most nervous in the critique about something
I’m not able to see in the dark.
- Bladesmiths, congratulations.
You guys made it through the first three hours
of this blackout competition with no electricity,
solely manpower.
The time has come for the first critique.
Dan, you’re up first. You ready?
- Absolutely. - Please present your work.
- All right, Dan.
You did a real fine job moving that steel by hand.
You were just chugging right along.
But you did rush the heat treat.
That concerns me.
But everything else, good job.
- Thank you.
- All right, Sean, you’re up. You’re ready?
- Yes, sir. - Please present your work.
- All right, Sean.
Got a nice profile with your blade.
But your curvature that you have here,
it’s got to flow a little bit more
so that it doesn’t get hung up.
If you go to the second round,
you just got to smoothen that out and refine it.
But overall, good job. - Thank you, sir.
- Alright, JD, you ready? - I am, sir.
- Please present your work.
- All right, so JD, good job.
The biggest concern I have with your blade is the profile.
Right now, you’ve got this large belly
way at the front of this blade
that may affect the way it cuts.
Handle-wise, it’s sticking up above everything.
Kind of drives everything back into the hand.
But the blade is straight.
Good job.
- Thank you, sir.
- Finally, we got Ron. You ready?
- Moving forward.
- Please present your work.
- All right, Ron.
First up, nice hammer strikes in there.
Now your recurve here, you have a belly
that’s prominent to where I can’t decide whether
I’m gonna cut with this or cut with this belly.
If you move forward, I’d like to see
your recurve here be much more subtle.
But overall, good job.
- Gentlemen, you guys all brought forward blades
that met our parameters.
But, guys, in this competition, only three of you
can join us in the second round.
And although difficult,
our judges did make a common decision.
The bladesmith leaving The Forge is...
[dramatic music]
JD, unfortunately, your blade didn’t make the cut,
and J.’s gonna tell you why.
- JD, that was a really tough challenge
and we had to pick out little differences.
But the reprofiling of your blade is going to have
more work for you than your other smiths.
That’s why we’re sending you home.
- I understand. - Well, JD, you showed us
you’re a talented smith, but unfortunately
your time in this competition has ended.
I’m gonna have to ask you to please
step off the Forge floor.
- Even though my kids said,
"Just don’t get out in the first round,"
I know that my kids will always be proud of me.
But when I get home, I am definitely
gonna remember to pay my electric bill
so I never have to forge in the dark again.
- All right, gentlemen, congratulations.
The three of you are joining us
in the second round of this competition
where you’re adding handles to your blades,
turning them into fully functioning weapons.
But unfortunately, as you know,
the power is still out in The Forge.
So all the tools on the Forge floor are out of commission.
But, thankfully for you,
I was able to scrounge these up.
Gentlemen, we’ve got some battery-powered
drills and angle grinders for you to use
during the second round.
- We get power equipment now, yes.
Drills, grinders, yay!
That makes me happy.
- Now as far as testing goes,
you’re still going into that blind.
But I will tell you, it’s gonna be very difficult.
So work as hard as you can during this entire round.
Gentlemen, you only have two hours
on the clock to complete your blades.
Good luck, because that time starts now.
[intense rock music]
Seems like giving these guys the battery powered tools
makes things a little bit easier for them.
- There’s nothing easy about doing this.
I mean, having those power tools, yeah,
it’s definitely an advantage over having to file,
but it’s still a lot of work that’s got to happen out there.
- As soon as the round starts,
I know that the first thing I want to get on this knife
is a handle.
Trying to find something that I recognize
in this tiny spotlight is very difficult.
- The first round, forging in the dark,
you had all these things that give you light.
- It’s even darker in this round than round one.
- My eyes are immediately drawn to two blocks of maple
because it’s a generally reliable hardwood.
But, they are massive.
If this thing doesn’t index in the judges’ hands,
well, they’re gonna notice.
So I got to start hogging away material fast.
Doing this by hand would be much harder to do.
- Sean’s already got the scales on.
- That is a smart move.
- Praise Thor’s hairy chest-- I have a grinder.
So immediately, I started working on
readdressing my recurve.
If we didn’t have power tools,
I would have had to file by hand.
It is amazing having a grinder.
- What Ron’s doing right now that I like
is he’ll do a few passes with the angle grinder
and then put his hand on the blade
to see how hot it’s getting.
So he’s keeping an eye on not losing his temper--smart move.
- That’ll work.
- Thank goodness these battery powered tools
are going to allow me to have a chance of finishing my knife
within these two hours.
My biggest concern is definitely
the warp in the cutting edge.
So that’s the first thing I’m going to address.
- What are some things that Dan can do
to straighten that tip out?
- Well, he’s got enough material there
that he can grind a lot of that straight.
- My edge is just about as straight as I could
possibly get it, and I need to move on.
- All right, bladesmiths, you guys have 90 minutes left
in the second round.
- Once the handle material is on,
I can start focusing on my next steps.
Doug told me that he would like to see that cutting edge
be brought down a little bit more.
I have to be very careful with this process.
If I end up slipping and taking off too much material
from a place that can’t afford it,
I don’t think I can come back from that.
Hell yeah.
At this point, I’m starting to feel really good
about how it looks.
I think I’m about ready to sharpen.
- I’ve got the pin fitted.
I’ve got the scales roughly shaped.
So now I put an Ito wrap on there.
I do a lot of Ito wraps ’cause I love how they feel
and I love the aesthetics of them.
- You don’t do the cord wrap properly,
and the cord wrap starts to move on that core material,
you’ve got a handle that’s coming loose.
- 100% of the time I feel the urge to be creating stuff
whether it’s tattooing myself, making knives.
I just always have to have something in my hands
and be creating something.
I finish the Ito wrap.
It’s not as clean as I would have liked it,
but it feels pretty good in the hand.
- For the handle, I wanted to find a synthetic material
because I’m used to using it and I have no idea
what the testing is, so I want something I’m familiar with.
- That’s the wrong tool.
- You got hammers all over the shop,
Ron’s using the C clamp.
[groaning]
- Uh-oh. - Not good.
- Ron’s handle material just snapped in half.
- At this point, I am terrified.
I don’t know how much time we have left,
and I have to start over.
So I’m frantic.
[grunts] No!
- [groaning]
- Uh-oh. - Not good.
- Ron’s handle material just snapped in half.
- I have to put scales on this.
So I’m frantic.
I decide to change the game plan.
I am not going to use synthetic material.
I’m going to use wood.
- Bladesmiths, you have 30 minutes left.
Ron is on his second set of handle scales.
Let’s see if this one’s a charm.
- I’m starting over. I am very nervous.
I don’t know if I can complete this in the time left.
- I am in love with the shape of this knife,
but it has to be sharp enough
for whatever test they come up with.
- How hard is it, really, to get that fine edge
with an angle grinder? - Hard.
One of the things these smiths ought to do
is start using the stones.
That way they’re gonna have a nice clean smooth edge
as opposed to a 36-grit flat wheel edge.
- I use the whetstone because we still don’t have
power for the grinders, and I really don’t want to
risk overheating it with an angle grinder.
She shaves hair.
I am ecstatic.
If a blade is sharp enough to pull this hair off
your arm, you know that it’s gonna
be sharp enough to cut anything.
Okay, we’re real close.
- I need to get a sharp blade,
but I’m not super comfortable with whetstones.
- Dan grabbed belts.
We don’t have the belt grinders going,
but we didn’t say he couldn’t use the equipment
that goes on them. - Shoe shining with those belts
is a great idea. - Yep.
- I’m trying to slack grind as much as possible.
I feel more confident that that would build up
a micro-cutting edge.
Hopefully it functions well under testing.
- My new handle goes on faster than I had thought,
which makes me happy.
But I still want to put a good edge on the blade.
I start using pieces of sandpaper
to start profiling the edge a little bit.
It’s incredibly slow,
but I think it’s almost there.
- Would you look at that, guys, the power’s back on.
Just in time too.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, put down your tools.
This round is officially over.
Very well done.
- I am elated. I am excited.
I had to start over, and I still made it in time.
[tense music]
- All right gentlemen, it’s time for the strength test.
And sticking with our blackout theme,
the flashlight chop.
Dan, you’re up first, you ready?
- Absolutely. - Okay.
- The moment I see all the flashlights,
I’m thinking this is gonna be a little more brutal
than I was expecting.
I have no idea what my blade is gonna do
up against those flashlights.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- Right, so, Dan, that’s a really nicely designed blade.
As far as how well your blade held up,
it’s still true, it’s still got an edge.
Might have a little bit of dulling right here.
But you do have a crack in the blade.
When I run my finger on this side of the blade,
I can feel it.
The edge of the blade has moved just slightly away
from that crack.
Beyond that, I think you did a great job.
Well done. - Thank you.
- All right, Sean, your turn, you ready?
- Yes, sir. - Okay.
- I can’t help but feel anything but anxiety.
If I take any edge rolling, who knows
how I’m gonna hold up in the sharpness test?
♪ ♪
- All right, Sean, your blade, still straight,
still in one piece.
And I can feel a lot of sharp parts on it,
but you’ve lost some edge.
There’s sections of this where I can rub my finger.
But the blade held together.
Nicely done. - Thank you, sir.
- Ron. Ready?
- Make it go dark. - [chuckles]
- I broke my scales trying to get the scales on.
I’m not confident
that they can even make it through testing.
I have to survive this.
Survive or go home.
♪ ♪
- I broke my scales trying to get the handle on it
so I hope that they survive this.
[driving rock music]
♪ ♪
- Ron, I was really worried about your handle
going into testing ’cause of the trouble you had
with the broken scales, but I was wrong.
It’s a very comfortable handle.
As far as your edge goes,
I can run my fingernail down this
and not feel any damage at all.
Really, really good job. - Thank you.
- All right, bladesmiths, this is the sharpness test--
the fire blanket slice.
Dan, you’re up first. You ready for this?
- Absolutely. - Let’s do this.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
Right, Dan, let’s talk about your blade here.
The front section right here is very sharp,
but that one area where you have this little crack,
it did give us some of these jagged edge cuts.
And, of course, this area right underneath the belly,
on the last cut, that’s the reason
why it didn’t cut all the way because it’s dull in this area.
But overall, your weapon, it will cut.
All right, Sean, your turn, you ready?
- Yes, sir. - Let’s do this.
♪ ♪
All right, Sean, your edge-- some sections of this
didn’t cut where it meets a dull area,
but where the edges are sharp--it will cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- Ron, your turn. You ready?
- Yes, I am. - Let’s do this.
- My wife told me that if I made it to the second round
of testing, and if Doug does not say,
"It will cut," I am not to come home.
[chuckles]
So I hope my blade cuts well.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[tense percussive music]
- All right, Ron, your edge, because it’s a tooth grind,
it wasn’t a razor cut on the last slash.
But the rest of the cuts...
it will cut.
- Awesome.
[tense music]
- Bladesmiths, I gotta say right off the bat,
it’s been an absolute pleasure
watching all three of you guys work your ways
through a very unique challenge.
Our judges have discussed your blades
and they made a final decision.
The bladesmith leaving The Forge is...
[suspenseful music]
Dan, unfortunately, your blade didn’t make the cut,
and Dave Baker’s gonna tell you why.
- Dan, you designed and built
an absolutely beautiful blade by hand,
and I’m really impressed with your work.
But it looks to me like that heat treat
was too high on that W1
and that crack formed, and that’s a structural issue
that your competitors just don’t have.
That’s why we’re letting you go.
- Dan, you’re an unbelievably talented smith.
It’s been a pleasure watching you work,
but unfortunately, I’m gonna have to ask you
to please step off the Forge floor.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Good job, Dan.
- I absolutely agree with the judges’ decision.
But I had a lot of fun in this competition.
I’m just not a big grinner,
but I’m certainly having a good time.
[chuckles]
- Sean, Ron, congratulations.
Your hard work has paid off and you are both moving forward
in the third and final rounds of this competition.
Now at this point, you get to go back
to your home forges for four days,
using your tools and your electricity to build this....
♪ ♪
The Sword of Mercy.
- Whew.
- The Sword of Mercy, also known as Curtana,
has been used as a coronation sword since the Middle Ages.
The ceremonial blade
is defined by its square-blunted tip.
Legend has it, the sword was broken off
by an angel to prevent a wrongful killing
and therefore symbolizes the mercy it’s named for.
To this day, this benevolent blade
is one of the crown jewels of the United Kingdom
and is still in use in coronations
with kings and queens today,
although even commoners can see it on display
in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.
- Your blades measure from tip to where the cutting edge ends,
and a straight line needs to be between 29 and 31 inches.
Needs to be double-edged, have a blunt, flattened tip.
- The most interesting thing about this sword
is the blunt tip.
I’ve never made a sword with a blunt tip.
So I’m very nervous, but I’m equally excited.
- One of you guys is gonna leave here with the title
of "Forged in Fire" champion and a check for $10,000.
So good luck, guys. We will see you in four days.
[upbeat rock music]
- Here I am in Castle Rock, Colorado,
back in my half of my mom’s garage.
Today we are making the Sword of Mercy.
That’s a ton of steel. [chuckles]
Doing Damascus was really important to me,
because I knew that at the end of the day
if my blade and my competitor’s blade
performed the same,
it was gonna come down to craftsmanship.
I think this is a solid build of steel.
At the end of the day, I’ve been able to forge out
the rough shape of the blade, but I should be able
to finish early in the morning tomorrow.
We’re getting to a good place.
[rock music]
- Here I am, I’m back in my hometown Eugene, Oregon.
I’m getting ready to build the Sword of Mercy.
The original sword is a Damascus.
It’s a single mono steel.
So since I’m doing an actual reproduction,
I wanna spend as much time as I can
to make sure I’m making this
as historically accurate as I can.
I don’t have a power hammer or a press,
so my biggest challenge is going to be
just getting the shape I want.
That’s good.
In round one and two, we had no power,
so similar to my home build here.
I’m able to move half of the length of the steel
I’m working with.
So tomorrow, it’s gonna move a lot faster, I think.
- Today is day two.
Today, we’re gonna be working on
getting that blade quenched.
Yeah, I’m exactly where I want to be.
It is very weird that the blade does not have a tip.
I’ve never been great at grinding double bevel tips.
So, I was actually kind of happy to see it.
I have this blade forged out to shape
and ready for quench.
The more normalizing cycles I have to do
on this blade, the more I realize
it’s gonna be a bitch to get it all up to temp
and ready for quench.
I’ve never had to quench a blade this big.
This quench is worrying me more and more.
I’m terrified.
There’s not much I can do. I can’t start over.
I’m definitely panicking inside.
[dramatic music]
It’s hard.
The blade is great.
This thing hardened as much as it needed to,
which I am relieved to hear.
That’s a [bleep] victory in my book.
- Day three, morning.
Yesterday, I got my blade done
and finished the handle and the pommel.
So I’m really happy.
My main focus is to get the handguard finished today.
The cruciform guard has some twisting on that.
That can take some time.
So I want to make sure that I had as much time as possible.
So as I’m hammering this out, I’m noticing I’m starting
to get a crack on both sides of where I’m shaping this.
The biggest issue it’s going to have is
on a strength test-- more chance of it breaking.
If the blade fails...
I’m out.
- As I’m hammering out my hand guard...
[bleep].
I see some cracks have started developing.
This is a nightmare.
I decide I’m going to scrap it.
Two hours has been a waste.
I enjoy being able to hand forge things,
but I need to start making some progress.
I cut the shape that I roughly need,
and it’s looking pretty good.
On the money. Okay, good.
End of day three, and I have all
the different little pieces done.
All in all, I feel really confident.
- Today is day four.
We are in the final stretch.
The first thing I gotta do is the wire wrap.
The wire’s constantly gonna want to unravel on me.
So for the time being, and my plan is to
just kind of brute force it until it starts working.
I’d rather spend this time inventing a time machine
to go kill whoever decided this was a good idea.
Dave Baker is very picky
about the way things feel in his hands.
So I want to make sure this thing feels phenomenal.
I want to give him as little reason
to complain as possible.
Looks kind of cool.
All that’s left is getting everything together.
As long as it holds up, I should do well.
Hell yeah.
- Day four.
Today, I can just focus on
finishing up, sharpening up,
and putting everything together without any hiccups.
So far, so good.
Everything is going right and tight.
Finally at the finish line, it’s done.
I really like the way it looks,
and I think it’ll hold out in the testing.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Well, Sean, Ron, gentlemen, welcome back to The Forge.
We gave you four days at your home forges
to build your Swords of Mercy.
Now before we get into testing, I want to hear about them.
So Ron, tell us about your blade.
- My blade’s 5160 steel,
brass brush mild-steel fittings,
wire wrap handle and cruciform guard.
- Awesome. Sean, how about you?
- I have 26 layers of 15N20 and 1095.
5160 guard, mild-steel pommel,
and a wire-wrapped maple handle.
- Awesome.
All right, gentlemen, one of you
is gonna be leaving here with the title
of "Forged in Fire" champion
carrying a check for $10,000.
The best way we know how to find out which one of you
will take home the title today--
by putting them through a few tests.
But first, it’s the KEAL. Doug?
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the KEAL test.
Ron, you’re up first, you ready for this?
- Make some pork chops.
There’s some thick bones in there
that I can be concerned with.
I’m just doing everything I can to maintain composure
at this point.
[intense rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Ron, let’s talk about your Sword of Mercy here.
These are sharp chops.
Each cut was very deep.
Followed by the nice weight that’s backing up the sword,
it cuts deep into this big carcass.
And of course as you can see, it’s easy to wield
and follow through and control your weapon.
Overall, sir, your weapon...
it will KEAL.
- Yeah!
- All right, Sean, your turn, you ready?
- Yes, sir. - Let’s do this.
- I’m pretty nervous.
I know these pigs can be pretty gnarly to blades,
so I’m just hoping the mind goes clean through.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Sean, let’s talk about your Sword of Mercy here.
I’m able to hold on to it.
I can tell where the edge is.
But your blade, sir, is not very sharp.
As you can see the first cuts right there,
it’s more from blunt force trauma.
But as you can see with the first sections just here,
you have some spots that are sharp,
and that, sir, is what made your blade...
KEAL.
[tense music]
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test,
the throne chop.
Ron, you’re up first.
You look excited. - Oh yeah.
Let’s overthrow the monarchy.
- Let’s do it.
[intense rock music]
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
All right, Ron, good job.
Edges are still razor sharp.
But that shock wave’s traveling all the way
down this blade and...
[rattling] your guard’s loose now.
But it was comfortable in the hand.
Good job. - Thank you.
- Sean, how you feeling?
- Awful.
[laughter]
- Let’s hope you feel better in a few minutes.
- Let’s hope.
I’m feeling very nervous going into this test.
J. does not pull any punches
when it comes to swinging these swords.
I’m just hoping that everything holds up.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I’m feeling very nervous. [clank]
J. does not pull any punches
when it comes to swinging these swords.
I’m just hoping that everything holds up.
[intense rock music]
♪ ♪
- Good job. - Thank you.
- All right, Sean, it’s all in one piece.
Gotta be proud of that.
Your blade is still straight this way.
Not this way.
Your handle, it’s not loose,
but it’s definitely separated
from the base of the handle now.
But, like I said, it’s still in one piece.
Good job. - Thank you, sir.
- All right, bladesmiths, now it’s time
to find out just how sharp your weapons are.
This is the sharpness test--
the tapestry slice.
Ron, you’re up first, you ready?
- Oh yeah, let’s make it pretty.
- All right, let’s do it.
[punchy music]
♪ ♪
- Well done. - Thank you.
[suspenseful music]
- All right, Ron, first up,
it is loose,
but it did not affect my test.
Overall, sir, your edge...
it will cut.
- Awesome.
- All right, Sean, your turn, you ready?
- Yes, sir. - Let’s do this.
♪ ♪
All right, Sean, around this area right here
you have some sharp edges.
So you can see in the first cut here in this tapestry,
it cut in, but when I’m dragging it through,
it just stops its cut.
But, it still did cut so...
it will cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- Well, Bladesmiths, this has been a good competition
right from the very beginning.
But as you know, only one of you guys
can leave here with the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
carrying a check for $10,000.
Now our judges discussed your blades,
and I’m not going to leave you in the dark any longer.
Today’s "Forged in Fire" champion is...
[intense musical build-up]
Ron, congratulations.
Now, Sean, you fought hard, you’re a talented smith,
but unfortunately your blade did not make the cut,
and Doug’s gonna tell you why.
- Sean, first off, I have to commend you.
That’s a nice Damascus baton you have there.
But during our test, your blade took some bends.
It also underperformed in the KEAL and sharpness test,
and for those reasons, we’re letting you go.
- I understand completely.
- But Sean, we hope you had as much fun
in this Forge as we had watching you.
But unfortunately this time, I’m going to have to ask you
to please step off the Forge floor.
- Thank you all for having me.
- Thank you. - Good job.
- I thought that the whole thing was sharp,
and guess I was wrong.
I’m definitely gonna go home, bust out a bunch of knives
and make sure all those suckers are sharp as hell.
- Ron, congratulations.
That makes you the "Forged in Fire" champion, man,
and you got a check for $10,000.
Congratulations.
[applause]
- I’m--I’m so proud.
I would encourage anyone to come and try this experience.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re new to bladesmithing
or you’re a seasoned veteran.
If I can do it at 50, you can do it at 25.
[metal music]
♪ ♪