[intense rock music]
♪ ♪
- My name is andrew suchka.
I'm from crystal lake, illinois.
People are rooting for me back at home.
I got a call from my son.
He's a fireman.
And he said the whole firehouse is rooting for me.
So if I win the 10,000,
I'm gonna throw a big party, and everybody's invited.
[chuckles]
- My name is ben seacrest.
I'm 33.
I'm from hardeeville, south carolina.
For my main job, I sell shoes.
I would definitely like to prove
That I have an idea of what I'm doing,
That all this time that I've invested
In learning parts of this craft,
That I'm actually able to apply it.
♪ ♪
- My name is richard b.
I'm a systems integrator on the fa team for the navy.
I do a lot of problem-solving.
We need to keep, you know, air crew and the people
Who are operating this equipment safe.
I do think that my problem-solving abilities
Will give me an edge in this competition.
[airplane engine roars]
- My name is cheyenne brown.
I'm 26 years old.
I am from vandalia, illinois.
I'm absolutely ready to compete.
I'm ready to show them that it's not just a guys' thing.
A lot of people will go, "no, females need to do this
And guys need to do this."
Shut up. Screw you. Let's do it.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.
Now, in this competition, there are three rounds.
And at the end of each round,
You'll be asked to present your work
To our panel of expert judges.
They'll be deciding which one of you will ultimately be
Leaving here with the title of "forged in fire" champion,
Along with a check for $10,000.
I don't know about you four, but for me,
I spent a lot of time as a kid hunting, fishing,
Hiking, camping,
Going on survival trips around the world.
And I always found myself needing something
Very reliable.
Today, we want all of you to build
Something sturdy, strong, long-lasting, and sharp.
Now, in order to make that blade,
You're gonna need this...
♪ ♪
What we have here are hundreds
Of high-carbon steel tent stakes.
This is what you'll be making your blades out of.
Now, as far as techniques, that's all up to you.
- Hey, let's forge tent spikes.
I guess it's metal. [chuckles]
- Now, let's talk about what you're gonna be building.
You're gonna be building this.
♪ ♪
Bladesmiths, this is the sawback machete.
And when you're building yours,
Make sure they fall within these parameters.
Your blade length needs to be between 11 and 13 inches.
You need to be set up
For a full tang handle construction.
Now, by the end of round two, you will all need to have
Between 8 and 10 inches of the spine of your blade
Covered in saw teeth.
Moving into the second round of this competition,
You will add handles to your machetes,
Turning them into fully functioning tools,
At which point you'll be handing them over to the judges
And they'll be checking for strength and durability
By sawing and chopping into a tree.
Then we're gonna check if your edges held up
In a water canteen slice.
All right, bladesmiths, the four of you
Only have three hours on the clock
For this first round of the competition.
So good luck. Stay sharp.
Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
- Yeehaw. - All right, and we are off.
We've got the option of throwing 'em in the can.
What else could they be doing?
- If you want to be really creative,
You could flatten those out and try to stack them up.
But it's gonna be a pretty thin stack.
So the can's the safe way to go.
Richard's already got a can on his table.
- I'm working on a canister damascus billet.
It's the quickest,
The most probability of success.
First thing I have to do in the round is
Get the tent stakes to the dimensions
That are gonna fit in the can.
- What I'm hoping to see is,
Once these smiths get their can in the forge,
They come up to the example, start taking measurements.
Hopefully, these guys keep in mind it's a machete.
It's supposed to be thin.
- Cleaning before damascus is critical
To having any chance of success,
And that's my way I approach it.
If I don't have time to do it right the first time,
When am I gonna find time to do it over?
[chuckles]
- I don't know, I must be having flashbacks,
But is that a ray kirk?
Look, right there what richard's doing.
- As soon as richard came out,
I thought it was a ray kirk wannabe.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- I have done canister damascus one other time.
I'm a little nervous about that, but that's okay.
I'll do what I can.
- You never want the smiths to rush in this competition,
But whoever gets a billet going first
Is way ahead of the game.
- I started making blades by watching "forged in fire"
With my wife, amber.
My wife asked me to make her kitchen cutlery.
I have a paring knife that I made for her,
And she uses it every single day.
♪ ♪
I need to make sure
That powder settles down at the bottom.
And if I don't,
Then I'm probably gonna have voids.
If I have voids in my canister,
Then I'm gonna have big holes in my steel,
And that is no good.
♪ ♪
- I am choosing canister due to the fact that I believe
It will be the safest route to go.
- So now it looks like the question is,
To use white out or not to use white out.
- That's gonna be the big thing.
That could be a game changer in this challenge.
- I have never used white out in my canister.
I was always taught just to grind it away.
- In this challenge, I might opt to remove the can
Because the machete is actually a very thin blade,
And you don't want a bunch of steel
Like you want on large or thick knives.
It doesn't have that thickness.
- I actually am a stay-at-home mom.
I have two wonderful children.
They are age four and seven,
And they're the light of my life.
♪ ♪
- Andrew is the only one who used white out.
- I decided to use white out because it lines
The inside of the canister,
And then the metal billet should come out easier.
White out is risky because if I don't do it right,
I may not be able to get the can off.
♪ ♪
- Richard's going to the press.
- Go, go, go.
I am going to set my welds three times
'cause the worst thing that you can do
With damascus is have unset welds.
You open that can up and powder and clumps of stuff fall out.
- Richard's can's pretty bright,
But it could be hotter.
- It's really, really hard to overheat a canister.
- Yeah.
- So on the third pass, and I feel it's behaving
Like a solid piece of metal in the canister,
Not loose stuff.
So good welds. Happy with that.
- Bladesmiths, you only have two hours remaining.
♪ ♪
Cheyenne's going for her first press.
- It is not super hot.
- I am waiting for it to get it back up to heat,
And it feels like it's taking forever.
I feel like that I'm, well,
Waiting for my own kid's childbirth.
- The thing is, patience is key.
You put it there, let it get hot.
- I'm rushing around.
I'm moving way too fast, getting ahead of myself.
[bleep].
And I burned myself.
- Looks like cheyenne burned her finger.
- Not that hard to do out there.
- Oh, no.
- I have to hurry up and get it taken care of
Because I need to keep working on this blade.
- So her having spent time with the medic
Really might have helped her with that heat.
- But that's not a recommended strategy, folks.
[laughter]
- All that is going through my mind is,
How is my metal doing in that forge?
- Oh, look at that.
That's what we should be seeing.
That downtime she had seeing the medic,
Look how hot that bar is.
That's gonna consolidate any weld problems
That she has at this point.
♪ ♪
- Now that I've set my welds,
I head straight to the grinder
So that way, I can check and see
If I have solid steel underneath it.
If this goes wrong, I am in trouble.
- Hey, guys, why is ben spending
So much time in the grinder?
- I think he's actually grinding the can away
Before he works on the blade.
- Okay.
The welds look pretty good.
And now it's time to start drawing it out on big blue.
♪ ♪
- My steel is compressed to how I like it.
And now I need to cut off the canister
Because I used white out.
- If andrew does this properly, it might take him
Ten more minutes to knock that can off on the outside.
If he doesn't, if he's welded that can in,
If the white out didn't work for him,
He could be banging on that thing
For the next 30 minutes.
- It's sticking to the billet.
Son of a bitch.
- It is not moving at all.
- Right now is a nice time to use a small pry bar,
As opposed to using a hammer and chisel.
- I'm really getting worn out.
[groans]
At this point, so much time has passed,
I won't be able to start over.
I have to do whatever I can to get the canister off.
- Get it! Get it!
♪ ♪
- Finally, it pops off.
[laughter, clapping]
I'm looking at the clock.
The pressure's now on me
Because there's absolutely no time
To make another blade.
♪ ♪
- Richard's billet's not looking too bad.
- Now that I'm getting my billet close to the thickness,
I decide to use the angle grinder
To cut in the tip and cut in the handle.
- I mean, the idea behind a machete is,
It's a super basic utility tool.
They're very thin, about 1/8 of an inch
In thickness, but if you look, I mean,
It's got a 1/4 inch bevel on it.
- The decision to cut them in is not my normal way,
But it saves me time,
And at this point, I need to do that.
♪ ♪
About time.
- Bladesmiths, you are down to the final 60 minutes.
♪ ♪
- Shaping my blade is extremely difficult
Because I need to not only get the shape
Right to the standard,
I also have to add a saw blade on the back.
- Cheyenne's already working on the saw teeth
On the spine of her blade right now.
- Right now, my blade is thick.
It needs to be thinner.
It needs to be lightweight and strong at the same time.
Right now, I have the strong part,
But I don't have the lightweight.
♪ ♪
- Ben put salt on his blade. - For what reason?
- Salt melts at 1,475, perfect quench temperature.
- That's awesome.
- Now that my salt's melted,
It's time for me to go into the quench.
♪ ♪
I get a giant fireball in my face.
It was pretty hot.
- Boom. All right. Ben in the oil.
- It looks straight.
Thank god. [chuckles]
But my blade is extremely thick.
I need to head straight to the grinder.
♪ ♪
- All right, andrew's blade is screaming hot now.
- Yeah, it's plenty hot.
- What happens when you go past that critical temperature?
- You're actually increasing the grain size,
The structure of the blade, and that gives
Basically larger surfaces for the blade to fracture on.
♪ ♪
- Holy moly, that was a hot blade.
- When I pull it out of the oil,
It looks pretty good.
I file test the blade, and it skates right across,
So I have a perfectly hard blade.
♪ ♪
- There you go. Not bad.
So richard just quenched.
- I pull out my billet, and there's a warp.
- It's not a good time to have a warp.
- Given the time left, I don't have any options
For correcting this warp.
I can correct the warp in round two.
It's just my only option at this time.
This warp could send me home.
♪ ♪
- All right, cheyenne's quenched.
- The file skates off the blade.
I want to scream at the top of a mountain that I did it.
And I'm ready to move on.
- It's still very, very thick. - And heavy.
- I have my sawblades. I have my parameters.
Now I just have a thick blade.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, you have 15 minutes left!
♪ ♪
- The clock's running down and I got to remove
As much meat as I possibly can.
And I'm hoping to get it etched.
I don't want to turn in a blade
That still has mild steel on the edge.
♪ ♪
- Ben's in the acid now.
- It's tough to see, though.
I feel like I'm in a great place
Now that I've etched the blade and I know
That I have no mild steel on the edge of my blade.
Whew! - Looks good.
- I don't know. I got something.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- All right, andrew's putting his saw teeth in now too.
Going a different route with the angle grinder.
- That works.
- Once I got the sawback on the spine of the blade,
I see there's not much time left,
So I'm gonna do as much as I can on the grinder.
As I'm grinding my blade,
I could see a crack towards the tip
And another crack in the middle.
[groans]
- Oh, whoa!
- I believe that the quench is what went wrong.
I quenched it a little bit too hot,
And then that caused the cracks.
If I make it to round two,
I think I could address these issues.
Hopefully, this is not enough to send me home now.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools.
The first round of this competition is over.
- Way to go, man. - Yeah, man, you too.
♪ ♪
- I can't believe that I just did
A canister damascus machete in three hours.
I'm not sure if this is gonna get me to the next round,
But I hope it does.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, well, you all made it
Past the first three hours of this competition,
So congratulations.
But the time has come
For the judges to critique your work
And decide which one of you will not be joining us
In the second round.
All right, andrew, you're up first.
Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, andrew.
Your shape, pretty much a machete.
It's got a little bit of a curve to it.
But the part that really worries me is the cracks.
You got here. You got delaminations up here.
When you quenched, it was just way too hot,
And it caused issues.
But overall, you did a great job.
- Great. Thank you, sir.
- All right, ben, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, ben.
First up, I like the shape
That you have with the blade here.
It has a nice look for a machete.
But the thing that gives me pause is
The thickness of that spine.
The good thing is, I do not see any delaminations or cracks.
Just needs to lose a lot of the weight,
And also, you're gonna have to start
Putting that sawback back over there.
Good job. - Thank you, sir.
- Richard, how you feeling, sir?
- Feeling good. - All right.
Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, right off, when I look at this,
I see the profile that I was expecting to see.
So well done on that.
But the biggest issue that this blade has
Is that warp.
Now, there's a lot of ways to take care of this
In a second round,
And if you move forward in the second round,
I think that's one of the most important things
You can do for this blade is to get that straightened out.
But I think it's doable.
Nicely done. - Thank you, sir.
- Cheyenne, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, cheyenne, let's talk about your machete here.
You have a nice profile of a machete.
The thing here, though, is,
It is a very thick blade, making it very heavy.
A lot of this has to be removed
To make it much lighter and wieldable
If you move forward.
- Well, bladesmiths, you all did a great job.
But unfortunately, only three of you are gonna be
Joining us in the second round of this competition.
Our judges have discussed your blades
And they made a final decision.
The bladesmith leaving the forge is...
♪ ♪
Andrew.
Unfortunately, your blade didn't make the cut,
And dave baker is gonna tell you why.
- Andrew, you did a great job removing that can,
But your blade developed some problems.
Both delaminations, cracks,
And that puts into question
The structural integrity of that blade.
That's why we're letting you go.
- I understand, sir.
- Well, andrew, unfortunately,
Your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please surrender your work
And step off the forge floor.
Thank you so much.
- I feel pretty disappointed.
I probably could have done a better job.
But at the end of the day,
There were cracks and delaminations in my blade.
I'm sure if you struck that knife on something,
A hard surface, it probably would break.
♪ ♪
- Well, ben, richard, cheyenne, congratulations.
The three of you are joining us in the second round
Of this competition.
Now, in the second round, in addition to adding handles
To your blades, you'll need to make sure
You have the 8 to 10 inches of sawback on the spines.
Now, as far as handle materials go,
This is a competition about the wild.
So all the manufacturing materials
In the pantry are completely off-limits.
Now, what you're allowed to use is this.
♪ ♪
The lightly burned firewood here.
♪ ♪
Now, to keep things interesting,
We're gonna put a little bit of a twist on this round.
Machetes are a blade that needs to be light
And easily wieldable for a long period of time.
That is why we also have a weight parameter
In this round.
Your blades will not be tested if they exceed
A pound and a half at the end of the second round.
♪ ♪
- I feel like my blade weighs,
Like, 7 pounds or something.
I have no idea how much it weighs.
I have to get it under a pound and a half.
It's pretty nerve-racking.
- Now, when the second round is over,
The judges are gonna test your blades for strength
And durability by sawing and chopping into a tree.
Then we're gonna check if your edges held up
In a water canteen slice.
All right, bladesmiths, you have two hours
On the clock for the second round.
So good luck.
Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
So what are you guys thinking?
About 50/50 grinder, then handle work?
- Maybe 70/30.
I mean, we're talking about slimfast over here.
That's a lot of grinding.
- My blade is at 3 pounds right now,
And I still have to add a handle and penstock.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna start hogging material off like crazy.
♪ ♪
- Holy smokes.
Cheyenne just weighed her blade, guys.
It is over 4 pounds.
- Wow. - Wow.
- That's a lot of weight to remove
To get down to a pound and a half.
So I lean into the grinder with all my might.
- There you go. There you go!
- Get it!
- There is a shower of sparks.
- You can see a big change in cheyenne's blade,
But that thing is still thick.
♪ ♪
- Of the three, who would you say has
The least amount of catch-up work to do
Before they start doing their handle?
- Well, I would have said richard right off the bat,
But he's still got to straighten that blade out.
- I'm at, like, 3 1/4 pounds.
So yeah, lose a little better
Than half the weight of this blade.
My ordering of the steps is all predicated
On the thought that it will be easier to correct the warp
On a thin blade than a thick blade.
So get the weight off, and then adjust the warp.
♪ ♪
- I've been on the grinder a while,
And it's looking a lot closer
To the weight that I need to get under.
But I need to make sure I get a handle on this,
So I'm gonna go take care of that right now.
- All right, ben is off the grinder.
Over to the bandsaw.
Gonna start cutting up his handle scale.
- The fact that it's burnt,
I'm really not too worried about,
As long as the inside isn't cooked up.
If it's not, I think I can do all right with this.
- Ben's setting himself up to be able
To turn a finished blade in.
- So now that I have my handle glued together,
I still need to go back to the grinder
And start removing more material
To try to get down under my pound and a half.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, you have 60 minutes remaining.
- My blade's 2 pounds still,
And I need to try to do time management
'cause I also have to put the handle on her,
Adding a little bit more weight.
- Cheyenne is getting the pinholes in her tang,
Trying to get her handle all set up.
But she still has a long way to go
Getting down to the pound and a half.
♪ ♪
- Drilling into the tang, it's skating.
♪ ♪
It is taking way too much time.
So I keep adding the oil to it,
Trying to lubricate it a little bit.
Thankfully, I'm able to put two holes in it.
But that is my last worry.
I need to get this weight off
And get these handle scales on.
♪ ♪
- There is still a massive warp in richard's blade.
- So what's richard doing at the welder?
- Not a clue.
- So the reason I am going to use the welder
For corrections work is,
I have two edges to pay attention to.
I have the knife edge and I have the saw blade edge,
And I don't want to detemper either one of those, right?
So what I'm trying to do is put in a bead.
It's gonna cool and contract
To pull my blade back to a straight.
- I have no idea why richard did that
And what it's supposed to accomplish.
- The welding is not having the effect
That I want it to have.
Ah, [bleep].
But that's why we make plans,
So we have something to deviate from.
♪ ♪
- I have no idea what richard was thinking.
- At this point, I have added enough weld material and heat
To detemper the center and replaced
Some of that hardenable steel with mild steel.
And I can probably get away with pulling on it in the vise.
- Ooh. - What do you think he's doing?
Oh, my good god almighty! - Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!
- I am pulling very hard on this knife,
But given the time left, I don't have any options.
- Oh! - Oh, boy.
- Ah! - No.
[dramatic music]
- I still have a warp,
Not as severe, but it's still there.
At this point, though, you can't play spin the blade.
- Bladesmiths, you have 30 minutes left before testing.
- Ah! We're at weight!
- Ben just weighed everything.
He is right at the pound and a half,
And he's still throwing sparks, so he's good.
- And he's working on the saw teeth.
- I've never put saw teeth on anything,
But I'm gonna try this scalloped idea.
I don't know if that's gonna cut,
But we're gonna try.
- Ben's doing the serrations.
He actually needs to get those gullets thin enough
Where they're sharp, where they'll cut.
- What's concerning to me is, I don't know
How functional the saw teeth will be.
That makes me nervous whether I'll be sent home or not.
♪ ♪
- I'm not really going for the strongest handle possible.
I'm just going for a handle that is able to be usable.
- She might not be hitting that weight yet,
But she's not slowing down and she's not giving up.
- No. Not at all.
- At this point, honestly, I said screw it.
I have the handle on and I'm running back over
To the grinder while it's still wet.
The biggest thing is, will I have enough time
To be able to take all this weight off?
♪ ♪
- My teeth are not pretty, but I'm at the point
Where I need to get that handle on.
- You guys are gonna be seeing a sticky mess of a handle.
- At least it won't fly out of anybody's hands.
- Two minutes left!
♪ ♪
We are cutting it about as close as I've seen.
- We got two smiths that are definitely in survival mode.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
Put down your tools.
Second round of this competition is over.
♪ ♪
- The handle, it's a block of wood.
[chuckles]
The only possible way
To round three for me at this point is
Somebody else's failure, probably.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna take your machetes
And try to saw the top of the log.
And then I might give it a few taps here and there
To see how your edge holds up.
But first things first, we got to see
If you made the weight parameter.
Ben, you ready to check?
- I'm ready to go. - All right, let's do it.
- I'm pretty sure I'm under weight on my machete,
But there's always a little bit of doubt,
So we'll see what happens.
- All right, ben, you're at 1 pound, 7 ounces.
- Oof. - Just under the limit.
Good job. - Okay. Thank you.
- Now you wanna see what it'll do?
- Tear it up. - That's what I do.
- Yeah. [laughs]
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
- [sighs]
♪ ♪
- All right, ben, you survived.
Good job.
Your sawback here is almost more like serrations,
But it cut in both directions.
Good job there.
Your edge is still good for the most part.
You did take some damage.
♪ ♪
You know, one piece of your edge actually curled over,
But everything's still tight.
Nice job. - Thank you.
- It's always fun for the second guy, right, richard?
- Yeah, it's not getting any lighter.
Let's go.
♪ ♪
- 1 pound, 1 ounce.
You ready to see what it'll do?
- That's why I came. - Same reason I'm here.
- Any of the judges are gonna hate that handle.
I don't like it myself.
But I still want to see how this blade performs.
I mean, I still want to see j. Try and break it.
I am hopeful that they will test it.
♪ ♪
[dramatic rock music]
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
- All right, richard,
Not the most comfortable handle I've ever held.
You got a lot of gapping, but nothing came loose.
You still got quite a warp in there,
But it didn't get any worse.
I have to ask, though, what was the deal
With all the mig welding?
- My intention with the welding was to warp it
Back to a straight.
- So you were trying to do that heat
On one side so it pulled the steel straight?
- Right. - That's what we were guessing.
- Mm-hmm.
- All right, well, everything stayed together.
You survived. Good job. - Thank you.
- How you feeling, cheyenne?
- Not too confident.
- I'm gonna do it anyway. - Right.
♪ ♪
- I have a little bit of hope
Due to the fact that I was grinding
More of the blade off.
But I also have that feeling in the back of my head
Saying that you don't have it yet.
♪ ♪
- Oof.
♪ ♪
All right, cheyenne, you're at 2 pounds, 4 ounces,
Which is well over our weight parameter.
♪ ♪
- Well, cheyenne, this is never how we want to see a smith go,
But unfortunately, due to the parameter failure,
We cannot test yours fairly against the competition.
So at this point, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please step off
The forge floor.
- Thank you. - Thank you, cheyenne.
- Honestly, I'm very proud of myself.
I showed a lot of people that, "hey, I can do this."
I'm going to go home to my kids,
Tell them that this is not the end,
That this is only a part of the beginning.
And we're going to show them what mommy can still do.
♪ ♪
- Ben, richard, gentlemen, congratulations.
You will be joining us in the third
And final round of this competition.
We are sending you back to your home forges
For four days building this iconic weapon from history.
♪ ♪
The parang nabur.
♪ ♪
- The parang nabur traces its roots
All the way back to 19th-century malaysia.
Resembling a modern machete,
This sword features a sturdy curved blade
Ending in a wide tip, making it a versatile tool
For everyday tasks like clearing brush
And butchering animals while also being
A formidable slasher during combat.
This fierce weapon remained popular
Throughout southeast asia through the second world war
And was most notably used by guerrilla fighters
On the island of borneo
Against their japanese occupiers
During the jesselton revolt in 1943.
- Now, bladesmiths, this blade features
A 20- to 22-inch curved blade,
And it needs to feature a stirrup guard,
A rear quillon, and a flared handle.
♪ ♪
- A parang nabur?
I have no idea what that is.
And now I have to make one?
Okay.
[laughs]
- You have four days in your home forges
To build your very best version of this blade.
One of you will ultimately leave here with the title
Of "forged in fire" champion and a check for $10,000.
So, gentlemen, give it your all.
We will see you in four days.
- Good luck, man.
♪ ♪
- It's day one of the home forge.
I'm here in st. Matthews, south carolina.
♪ ♪
My biggest challenge is gonna be
Probably keeping it straight
And getting the curve that I want into the sword.
So I'm deciding to go with a mono steel 80crv2 blade.
I'm just more comfortable
With how I'm gonna be able to heat-treat that,
And I want it to perform really well.
Yeah, that should work.
I am pretty on schedule for my sword at this point.
I still have some weight to shave off,
But I'm gonna call it a day.
Okay.
♪ ♪
- We're back at my home forge
In prince frederick, maryland,
And today, we're building a parang nabur.
1084, 1075.
On this build, I'm actually gonna go
For, like, 200-layered ladder-pattern damascus.
So yeah, it's quite hot down in there.
I have not made a sword like this before,
But I'm looking forward to it.
It's gonna be a cool build,
And being able to survive testing
Is gonna to be a challenge.
♪ ♪
I feel at the end of day one, I'm exhausted.
I'm falling behind.
And what that means
For the rest of the competition is,
I am using up time on fit and finish,
And it's gonna come down to that.
Ok, come on.
♪ ♪
- Day two.
It's time.
The quench is one of the most nerve-racking parts.
If that goes wrong, then I'm gonna lose
An entire day's worth of work.
Hopefully I don't hear any pings or pops
Or developments of cracks.
I'm kind of screwed if this doesn't work.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
It looks straight.
So I still have quite a bit of work.
I'm gonna go ahead and move forward with my guard.
♪ ♪
- Day two.
I'm doing a modified ladder pattern.
I'm cutting grooves into my blade.
This is gonna make a really cool pattern
Once I etch it.
The quenching process is critical.
If you quench too hot,
You're likely to have cracks develop.
♪ ♪
Okay, we're there.
We are at the end of day two,
And I got done what I needed to get done.
That is, get to a quenched and hardened blade.
So I am ecstatic and worn out. [chuckles]
♪ ♪
- It's day four, and I have
Quite a bit of work to do this morning.
I need to get my handle finished out,
And I also would like to test it today too.
Well, we have a mechanical connection.
♪ ♪
I've been working on this handle
For, like, two hours now.
I have got to get it glued up right now.
All I really have to do now
Is put an edge on it and test my blade.
♪ ♪
Yeah, that was a pretty clean cut.
I guess I'm good. I don't know.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- Going into the last day, I am starting on the quillon
And fitting the handle up.
I feel that's the highest risk item at this point.
I have to lose this little point here
So it doesn't hit anybody's fingers.
What I wanted to get done today was the perfect weapon.
What I actually got done today was a weapon,
But I do have a finished blade.
♪ ♪
- Ben, richard, gentlemen, welcome back to the forge.
Now, guys, we gave you four days at your home forges
To build your very best parang naburs,
And, guys, they look beautiful.
I want to hear about them. So, ben, how'd it go for you?
- Went pretty well.
♪ ♪
I made a mono-steel 80crv2 blade
And a maple handle and a forged guard.
- Richard, how'd it go for you? - It went great.
♪ ♪
It's a three-steel damascus, 1095, 1075, and 15n20
With a red heart handle and a steel quillon.
- Guys, both your blades look strong.
They look sharp. They look deadly.
The best way our judges know how to find out
Which one of you will be leaving here with the title
Of "forged in fire" champion and that check for $10,000
Is by putting them through a series of tests.
We've got a strength test, we have a sharpness test,
But up first, the keal.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the keal test.
♪ ♪
Your parang naburs look beautiful,
But it's time to find out if they're deadly.
To find that out, I'm gonna take your weapons
And deliver some slashes and blows
On this ballistics dummy.
Ben, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yeah, let's go.
The first thing that I noticed
With the ballistics dummy is that it doesn't have, like,
Chain mail or armor on it, so I'm excited about that.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
[laughter]
♪ ♪
- All right, ben, let's talk about
Your parang nabur right here.
First up, the bounce you have on this blade
Allows for velocity and full control.
Your edge is sharp, and I'm able to put
Deep cuts into this ballistics dummy.
Overall, sir, your weapon,
It will keal.
- Thank you.
- Richard, ready to have fun?
- Oh yeah. - All right, let's do this.
- Looking forward to it.
♪ ♪
This is really gonna test the edge of my blade.
If I did not hit the heat treat on here,
It's gonna roll.
But I am confident in my heat treat.
It is what it is with the time I had.
♪ ♪
- All right, richard, let's talk about your blade here.
That piece that you have here at the end of your guard
Digs into my hand on every strike.
As you're swinging with this, it rides up
And it catches my finger right there.
But the edge and the lightness of your blade
Delivers very deep cuts into this ballistics dummy.
Overall, sir, your weapon,
It will keal.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen,
It's time for the strength test,
The dreaded terracotta pot chop.
Ben, you're up first.
Are you ready? - Break some pots.
- Okay. All right. [chuckles]
♪ ♪
All right, ben, as far as the blade
Holding up in this test,
I really can't feel any deflection
On the edge at all.
Really strong blade.
Good job, ben. - Thank you.
- All right, richard, your turn.
- Let's do it. - Okay.
- So going into my strength test
With ben's blade having taken no damage,
I'm nervous,
But I have to trust in what I've done.
But I know I have to get through it with no edge damage.
♪ ♪
[dramatic rock music]
♪ ♪
- So, richard, issue I have is that
The handle's a little bit on the small side,
And that one fishtail point
Is right there where it hits my finger.
Other than that, your blade held up beautifully.
Nicely done. - Thank you, sir.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths.
This is the sharpness test, the pumpkin slice.
♪ ♪
Now, to find out how sharp your weapons are,
I'm gonna take your weapons and try to cut
Through these pumpkins.
Ben, you're up first. You ready?
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
- All right, ben, your edge is sharp
Because every cut was so clean.
Overall, sir, your weapon,
It will cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, richard, your turn, sir.
You ready? - Oh, yeah.
- All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
♪ ♪
All right, richard, so once again,
Your handle construction here with the guard,
It still has a protrusion
That just keeps on bumping into my pinky,
But your edge,
Every cut that it made was nice and clean.
Overall, sir, your weapon,
It will cut.
- Thank you, sir.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, you guys started this competition
With tent stake machetes,
And you ended with two beautiful swords.
I wish I could give you guys both the win,
But in this competition, only one of you is gonna
Leave here with the title of "forged in fire" champion
And a check for $10,000.
Today's "forged in fire" champion is...
♪ ♪
Ben. Congratulations.
Richard, you fought hard,
You brought us a beautiful blade,
But unfortunately, it didn't make the cut.
And doug's gonna tell you why.
- Richard, you have a lot to be proud of.
That's a beautiful looking blade.
But it came down to your handle.
That one hotspot made it very difficult to wield,
And with continued use, that's gonna be an issue.
- Understand.
- Richard, unfortunately,
Your time in this competition has ended.
I want to say thank you for coming out here.
But at this point, I'm gonna have to ask you
To please step off the forge floor.
- It's been a fantastic experience.
Thank you, gentlemen, for having me.
Dang. - Thank you, richard.
- Ben won.
I fully agree with the judges' decision.
You know, function over beauty.
The handle hotspot compromised function.
I have learned so much from this experience,
So no complaints.
♪ ♪
- Ben, congratulations.
That makes you today's "forged in fire" champion.
You just got a check for $10,000.
Congratulations. [clapping]
- Somehow, someway, I just won "forged in fire."
I don't know.
- You have plans for the money yet?
- Mortgage. [laughter]
- Not a bad place to put 10 grand.
- No. No, it's not.
I'm grateful for the people that have taught me,
And I can't believe it still.
I really can't.
My name is ben seacrest,
And I'm the next "forged in fire" champion.
[laughs] it's pretty sweet.
♪ ♪