[upbeat rock music]
[adventurous music]
[whip cracks]
♪ ♪
[eagle screeches]
[whip cracks]
♪ ♪
- I'm gary graham from elkmont, alabama.
12 days after I turned 18, I enlisted in the army,
Flying uh-60 black hawks.
Started making my first blade
After I got home from deployment,
And it continued to grow to a small business now.
♪ ♪
- My name's eduardo sol.
I am original from mexico.
I moved to the u.S. ''cause I was
A foreign exchange student during college,
And I met the woman of my dreams.
She got me into blacksmithing, and I got hooked on knives.
♪ ♪
- I'm matt aaron. I'm 31 years old.
I use bladesmithing as a way to supplement my hobby
As an armored combat enthusiast.
Being able to create my own weaponry
To a historical spec certainly
Keeps my creative juices flowing,
And it keeps some money in my pocketbook.
♪ ♪
- I'm josh langpit. I am from newport, virginia.
I got my start in bladesmithing just before 16.
My dad handed me a fantasy novel that a character
Made a sword using a volcano.
I cried bs at that point.
He asked me to go do some research,
And I found out that it's possible,
And that kinda set things in motion from there.
♪ ♪
- Well, bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.
You're here to test yourselves and your bladesmithing skills
Against each other and against our clock.
Now, we've got three intense rounds
Of bladesmithing competition set up for you.
At the end of each one, I'm gonna ask you
To present your work to our panel of expert judges.
Now, bladesmiths, keep in mind they're the ones
Who will be wielding your blades,
Testing them, and making the decisions
As to who's gonna be leaving here
With the title of "forged in fire" champion
And a check for $10,000.
But bladesmiths, today in this competition,
We're gonna be paying tribute
To some badass cowboys from south america:
The gaucho.
Smiths, we want you to build this.
♪ ♪
The gaucho knife.
♪ ♪
The gaucho knife, also known as the facon,
Got its name from the nomadic cowboys
Of argentina and uruguay, who made it popular.
Tracing its origins back to the 19th century,
This weapon features a sharp single edged blade
Long enough to deliver lethal slashes.
Its short enough to be easily concealed,
Making it the perfect weapon for the gauchos
To use in close quarter combat
Against the spanish soldiers
During the war of independence.
While this knife is known as a fighting knife,
The gauchos still use it for hunting today.
Now, smiths, to build this iconic knife
You're gonna need what is on your anvils
Under that cloth.
So go ahead and remove it for me.
♪ ♪
What you see there is a bar of 1084 high carbon steel
And next to it, two bars of mild steel.
We want you to build your gauchos
Using the san mai technique.
That is high carbon sandwiched
In between two bars of mild steel.
Your blade length measured from tip
To where the cutting edge ends
Needs to be between 11 and 13 inches.
And you need to have an integral bolster.
Now, by the end of the first round,
You have to have your blades quenched,
Hardened, and acid etched.
- I've never made a gaucho knife before.
The challenging part is, its all one piece construction,
Having that bolster separated from the blade
And be able to get your tang out of that.
And not to make your bolster too small.
You can't put material back on,
But it's easy to mess it up and make it too small.
So metal management is the key to this competition.
- Now, moving on into round two
For the three of you who join us,
We're gonna ask you add handles to your blades,
Turning them to fully functioning weapons.
You're gonna hand your blades over to our judges,
And they're gonna check for strength and durability
In a wooden gate chop.
And then see how your edges held up
In a gaucho blanket slice.
You guys, you have three hours on the clock.
Good luck and saddle up, 'cause your time starts now.
♪ ♪
All right, I love that blade.
- Now, you know what's interesting about the gauchos
Is that it is a subculture in south america
In brazil, argentina, uruguay,
And that is one of the things that defines them.
It is part of their wear.
- San mai, I have made quite a bit of it,
So I am ready to rock and roll.
The 1084, it is clean.
The mild steel is still rough, so that will not forge weld,
So I clean off one side of each
Of the two mild steel bars
So they will mate perfectly.
- You don't need to clean all sides of everything.
- So just a real quick pass.
- Yeah. - Clean it up.
- That's really all it takes.
- I stack my steel like a sandwich--
1084 is the meat, the mild steel is the bread.
The good 1084 steel is your cutting edge.
That'll hold.
The mild steel is nice and soft and ready to absorb any blows.
I feel great.
I think I set myself up for success.
♪ ♪
- San mai is a process I use quite a bit in the forge,
So I really lucked out with this challenge.
The first thing I need to do
Is get the two pieces mild steel cleaned up.
I don't wanna take any chance of a delam during my weld.
- Gary went straight back to the mig welder,
And he's putting it together.
- I think the crossover between flying helicopters
And bladesmithing is the attention to detail.
You got to be mission oriented and know the time on target
That you've got to be there,
And it's the same with this competition.
You got to break down on legs of what you've got to do
To get to the next step,
And you got to be on time in three hours.
♪ ♪
- I am familiar with the san mai technique,
But I have not made the gaucho knife.
I've seen them.
Welding!
- Having done "forged in fire" in latin america,
I actually got to be exposed to the gaucho knife
Because we had a contestant that was a gaucho,
And he made a gaucho knife.
- It's time to get ready to set the weld.
My biggest concern is making sure
My weld set off the get go.
With the san mai construction,
You don't have that many layers to back up any delaminations.
You have two welds, and those two welds have to hold.
- You start hammering on that cold,
Your chances of popping those two welds really goes up.
- Billet appears to be right at about
Where I think welding temperature is at,
So I'm going to set my welds nice and light.
Just nice, even taps to get everything stuck together.
My welds are looking pretty good.
Right back into the forge to keep it hot.
And now we wait.
- I think the most difficult aspect
Of the entire competition is that time constraint.
Also, I don't have much practice in a gas forge.
I exclusively use coal.
- Josh is setting his first weld with a hand hammer.
- Yeah.
- There's a little bit more propensity
Of weld flaws if you do that.
- Bladesmiths, you only have two hours left
To finish your gaucho.
♪ ♪
- Things are looking good at this point.
I go to the press, and I do some nice gentle presses
To get it welded together.
♪ ♪
- And when I see that first weld, I wanna see
That billet the same color as the inside of the forge.
- Well, he wasn't quite there.
- He's pressing everything down pretty cold.
All you're doing is building stress in the steel.
- I look at my layers,
And I don't see any shadows between those pieces,
So I'm confident my forge weld was stuck.
♪ ♪
- What makes a gaucho knife unique is that integral bolster
At the back of the blade.
It acts as both part of the handle
And a guard as well.
- I would definitely start out by isolating that bolster.
Whether I form it immediately or not, I'd isolate it.
- I am isolating my bolster from the rest of the blade.
I use the corner of the anvil to kind of mark it
And make a nice little step down.
Everything looks good to my eye,
And I just need to shape the rest of the blade.
♪ ♪
- This challenge was made for me.
I have made these knives before,
I have actually met gauchos, and I know I can do this.
The trick about forging an integral bolster is,
It's all the same metal.
If I'm not careful, it will be lopsided
And can get me sent home.
- On first appearances, the gaucho knife
Seems relatively simple, but when you get into it,
Especially around the bolster and the heel area
Of this knife, you really got to know
How to move the middle where you want it.
- I get a rough blade profile, and I am ecstatic.
♪ ♪
- As I start to shape this blade,
I'm really concerned about that bolster in particular.
So I wanna isolate that area so that I make sure
That I leave enough material there that I can get that
And the length I need to make a through tang.
- It seems that josh is only
Using his hammer in this process.
- You know, with a timed competition there comes a point
You're just using too much time and moving too little metal.
- I'm used to hand hammer and hand tooling.
While I really do want to represent that skill set,
I don't have that luxury here.
I'm starting to feel the pressure of the clock,
And as I'm working that bolster by hand, I realize
That if I use a press, I can save time
And a whole lot of effort. [laughs]
Looks like it's coming together just fine.
- Bladesmiths, you are down to one hour.
♪ ♪
- I was on forging, the tang's gone big blue,
I look and I see the end of my tang
Starting to mushroom out.
Damn it.
Obvious cold shuts on the end of it.
If I continue without getting rid of it,
It'll progress all the way up into delam end on my bolster,
And I would have to start out with a new billet.
- So working his billet cold has definitely bit gary.
- I decided to tack weld that up
To eliminate that problem so I wouldn't have
Any future problem with the end of my tang.
Time's ticking, and I need to forge out my blade.
I'm feeling worried.
- The san mai has a tendency to warp in the quench,
Especially if you have heated one side more than the other
Or you have thinner mild on one side than the other.
So to mitigate this, I wanna quench thick
And then grind thin.
- Look at matt's blade right now.
That is way above where it needs to be to be quenched.
- Yeah, with the wrong temperatures,
We've seen them split apart.
♪ ♪
- So matt's in the oil.
- Everything's straight.
I have a lot of weight on this blade,
So I let it cool down as much as I can.
I'm gonna hog a lot of metal off.
♪ ♪
- Everything is rough shaped, the blade is ready to rock.
♪ ♪
- Eduardo just quenched at the right temperature.
- The hardest part is over.
[laughs]
My blade is hard.
Now I just need to pretty to this bad boy up.
I hit the grinder, and I'm just digging into it.
♪ ♪
I stop to check parameters.
- Something's going on.
I grind my blade under 11 inches.
I no longer meet parameters. - Uh-oh.
If he's short, then he absolutely
Has to get that length in order to move forward.
- Oh, [bleep].
I can't figure a way out without putting this back
In the fire to stretch my steel.
My blade is 90% done, and I have to go back in the fire.
I'm worried that I don't have the time
To get this blade done.
[bleep]
- I have to get back in the fire.
- He has to get within parameters.
- I'm very overwhelmed, but I'm up against the clock,
So I just gotta get this blade ready to requench,
Making sure I have way more steel than I need.
- Bladesmiths, you have 30 minutes.
♪ ♪
- Josh, if you look at the profile he's got,
The blade profile is pretty spot on.
♪ ♪
- Jeez, that's hot. - Holy--
- Everything looks like its good,
But it does have a little bit of a snake to it.
But I really feel like it's still within grindability.
Hopefully, I'll be able to get it done.
♪ ♪
- I'm ready for quenching.
♪ ♪
- Eduardo's in the oil,
Extremely hot, we might see some splitting going on.
- It comes out straight,
And I'm well within my parameters.
I am so relieved.
But I still got a lot of things to do and not much time left.
Whew.
- I'm on the grinder and getting towards the end,
So it's time to quench.
♪ ♪
- There we go.
- Nice color. - Nice.
- All right, four quenched blades.
- I've got one little warp, so I go over
And correct that on the anvil.
I put a little pressure on it, straighten it up.
I still had enough meat left on it to straighten it out
On the final grind before turning it to the judges.
♪ ♪
- As I'm grinding the blade for a second time...
Oh, [bleep].
I feel a pop.
There is a seam from the top of the blade
All the way to the bottom.
[sighs]
I have a catastrophic failure.
- We've probably seen dozens of times when we ask a smith
To do the san mai technique,
The problems really start to arise
When they hit the grinder.
- I have to basically re-forge weld my san mai.
I'm thinking I'm gonna get sent home.
I don't have the time to start over,
But I am not giving up.
- It's not a good sign for eduardo, man.
He's in for his third quench now.
- With a third quench, the grains are going to expand,
My blade has become brittle.
I am terrified that this is gonna just shatter like glass,
But I don't have a choice.
♪ ♪
I have to get this blade to a grinder
And finish this blade and meet parameters.
- Bladesmiths, you have 15 minutes.
- In order to finish off this blade, I need to pull
The mild steel back and reveal the core metal.
As I'm grinding away, there's a frickin' crack
Almost the whole length of the spine.
- Oh, what is going on here?
- Given the time constraints, I'm gonna go over,
Put a bead of weld right down the spine of this.
That's gonna at least give me a point of contact
So that I don't pop loose anything else in the billet.
- When you have a delamination on the blade,
One of the things you really have to be smart about
Is cleaning it out, or what you're gonna have
Is rust forming down at the base of that crack.
So that mild steel weld at the top is gonna keep it
From cracking there.
That crack might open from the edge now.
- I'm fairly comfortable that I've alleviated this crack,
But right on the edge, there's this travelling crack.
I'm starting to run out of time,
So I can't redo this again.
I think I'm pretty okay in just grinding this back.
Hopefully it doesn't come back and bite me in the butt.
♪ ♪
- I get my blade to a shape that I like.
So I put it in the etch so that I can see
That I've exposed high carbon material
All the way down my blade.
I've got high carbon steel all the way down the middle.
Everything looks right until I flip it over.
I have a crack right down the center of my blade.
- This could be disastrous.
- We talk about the problems that develop with san mai,
Some of the splitting that we see,
Most of that comes from the fact
That the smiths are quenching these blades
Hundreds of degrees hotter than they should be quenched.
- Yep.
- It's looking deep, and I don't know
If I have enough material to grind this thing out.
If can't get it out, that could send me home.
So I run over to the mig station to keep the crack
From spreading any further.
I think I've managed to stop the crack from spreading.
It's back to the grinder again
To get as much of that blobiness out of it as I can.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, the first round of this competition is over.
- I am elated that I am turning in a blade.
But with a third quench, the grain of this blade
Has expanded and contracted.
I am very concerned that my blade
Is gonna be a lot rougher than my competitors.
- Bladesmiths, in the first three hours
Of this competition, you took three pieces of metal
And turned them into your own renditions of the gaucho knife.
The time has come for your first critique,
And unfortunately, an elimination.
Gary, you're up first. You ready?
- I'm ready. - Please present your work.
- All right, gary, you've got a nice form
Of the gaucho knife.
And you were very careful with your temperatures,
Especially when you quenched, so the steel looks pristine.
The bolster looks great. Overall, clean work. Good job.
- Thank you. - Eduardo, how are you feeling?
- Pretty good.
- All right, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, eduardo, it's pretty much spot on
As far as the profile goes.
If you move forward,
There's the slightest crack on the steel here.
I have a feeling it's very close to the surface
And not very deep, very slight, but would be a good idea
To address, but it's looking good.
- Matt, how are you doing?
- Pretty good, all things considered.
- All right, please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, matt, first thing I feel
When I pick up your knife is that it's got
A lot of mass left, a lot of grinding ahead of you
If you move forward from here.
Your forge welds look good.
But the one thing, though, that is alarming to me
Is that there is a crack along the edge of your blade
Deep enough and wide enough for me
To get my fingernail deep in there.
That's in a very critical spot, and it's quite deep,
And it's right in the center.
- Josh, last but not least, you ready?
- Indeed. - Please present your work
♪ ♪
- All right, josh, after you quenched,
You were able to identify a crack on your spine.
You welded that in.
In doing so, you opened up some cracks
On the edge where it's really critical.
The good thing is, you were able to grind out most,
And you have a strong edge here.
Should you move forward,
There's a lot of grinding right here
To get it even, but good job.
- Well, guys, in the first round of competition,
You guys all turned in blades that met parameters,
So you all have something to be proud of,
But the judges had a decision to make,
And the bladesmith that's not
Gonna be moving forward in this competition is...
♪ ♪
Matt.
Unfortunately, you didn't make the cut.
Dave baker is gonna tell you why.
- Matt, it really comes down to that crack
Being dead center on your edge.
It's splitting the actual steel right down the middle.
There's really not an easy fix for that,
And that's why we're letting you go.
- I understand.
- Well, matt, you're very clearly a talented smith.
But unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please surrender your work
And step off the forge floor.
- I did not see that crack until I etched again.
- Really good-looking profile, matt.
- Thanks, guys.
So there's really very little I could have done about it.
But the experience here was a blast.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, congratulations.
The three of you are joining us
In the second round of the gaucho knife competition.
Now in this round, we ask you add handles to your blades,
Turning them to fully functioning gaucho knives.
But first, you got to fix any of the issues
That the judges brought forward.
The good news about this round, guys, is the pantry is open.
Bad news is, the only thing you can use from there
Has to be sourced from an animal--
Bones, antlers, horns, or leather.
When this round is complete, we're gonna test your blades
For strength and durability in a wooden gate chop.
Then they're gonna check your edge retention
In a gaucho blanket slice.
We've got two hours on the clock for you,
So good luck.
That time starts now.
If you guys were in this competition right now,
What handle material would you be seeking out?
- There are a number of antlers over there
That are perfectly usable.
And the nice thing about antler is,
Is you need to drill a hole through it,
Taper the ends a little bit, and you're done.
I mean, that's all that is right in the example.
- There's some warthog intestine.
- I've never used that stuff,
So I'm trying to stick to what I know.
- All right, so it seems gary's
In a pretty good spot right now.
- Oh, yeah. - Oh, yeah, by far the best.
- I feel pretty confident to be able to take my time
And pace myself through round two.
I like that.
I select a piece of water buffalo.
♪ ♪
I knew that it would be easy to grind down
And get to the shape I was looking for.
- A water buffalo horn is really tough.
You can throw it on the ground,
It's bomb proof, it's waterproof, good stuff.
- I drill into my horn,
Fit it up with my tang, I'm feeling good.
That's pretty nice.
So now I can get it into the glue
Up on the handle.
♪ ♪
- The judges told me
That there was a slight crack on the blade.
So I've got to really make sure I get that crack ground out.
- Something josh could do that would help him a lot,
Is do a hollow grind on that blade.
Then he'd be pushing that crack higher and higher,
Come back, reweld that crack,
Then marry that all in with that faded hollow grind.
- I did the best I could to grind the crack out,
But it's still there.
I can feel the time running down on me.
I really have to move on to the handle.
- I'm very relieved I've made it this far.
Top of the list.
I've got to address the minor crack on my cutting edge.
- Eduardo, as he grinds, that crack could get worse,
Or if it's a surface crack,
As he grinds, that could go away.
- Perfect.
I am so relieved everything has held up.
There are no cracks, and I have a great, solid blade.
[laughs]
- I've got my handle on my tang, and I know
I've got to add a mechanical bond
To hold that butt cap onto the handle.
- He's gonna peen the tang over.
Yeah, there you go.
- I'm really concerned about ruining my epoxy and my handle
By getting the tang too hot.
If I destroy my epoxy bond,
During impact, that butt cap can come off,
It is a critical failure, it could send me home.
I'm hoping that it's strong enough bond to hold
That butt cap onto the handle.
All right.
- All right, guys, you're halfway
Through this handle round.
You have one hour left.
- I am not a fan of using animal products
Because it stinks to high heaven.
Oy.
But the judges get what the judges want.
It's time to stack this up, so the leather goes on
Because I need something soft to mold to my integral bolster.
The leather does that, and then I put my bone
And then more pieces of stacked leather.
That way, when I peen this down,
There is no chance of anything splitting.
- He is using leather as a transition piece,
Then it looks like he's gonna put a butt cap
On the end of that.
- Okay, so does that work? - Yeah, it'll work.
- I know I'm gonna need that five minute epoxy to harden
Before I get that butt cap peened on.
♪ ♪
- Well, I get the handle all fit up, and I can work
Over the peen on the end of the knife.
- It works better if you don't have epoxy.
You can see that little flame pop up
Where he's burning the glue.
- Everything is bent over just well enough
So I can start grinding this to shape.
♪ ♪
Ah, you [bleep].
- Oh. - Yeah, that's not good.
- Unfortunately, what we've seen a lot of
Are smiths heating things over and grinding away
All the work that they just did.
- The brass piece has melted the glue 'cause it got hot.
'cause the butt cap got hot,
And it's starting to shift.
What can I do?
If I don't have a really tight fit,
Then I'm definitely going home.
Time's running out, and I'm starting to feel
A little bit frustrated.
I'm gonna have to apply some superglue and hope that
That is gonna make everything solidify a little bit.
- Krazy glue is a quick thing to use as a filler
But not necessarily something to hold tightly together
Because sometimes, I've seen you guys,
You just snap it, the vibration makes it brittle.
- Yeah.
- Bladesmiths, you have 20 minutes left.
- C'est la vie.
- I've got to have a good convex edge on my blade.
I don't wanna go into the testing with a blade
That's not gonna hold edge,
But I don't want that edge to be so thin
That it's gonna shatter or chip during the test.
- A wood chop, it's a tough test,
But a properly done edge, chop wood all day.
- I've got a good, sharp, shaving blade.
You know, I'm pretty proud of the blade that I made
Within the timeframe that I had to do it.
My tip's sharp.
♪ ♪
- Looks like eduardo got that tang peened over.
- The blade's pretty much where I need it.
And I gave a five minute epoxy enough time to harden
So it's just straight to the grinder,
And I'm ready to start on my handle.
That way, it's as smooth as a transition I can get.
There's nothing that's gonna bite the judges.
Look at that.
- I feel fairly confident in the construction of the blade.
So I go ahead and start working on
Putting an apple seed edge on and buffing things up.
- Right now, it looks clean and shiny.
- It looks really good.
- My biggest concern with josh's blade
Is that I haven't seen him
Really go to the welder and weld up that crack.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, put down your tools
And turn off your machines.
This round of the competition is over.
♪ ♪
- My blade winds up feeling pretty nice in my hand,
But it's an ugly pig when you look at it close.
Hopefully, those flaws don't come back
And bite me in the butt.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test,
The wooden gate chop.
To test the strength and durability of the edge
As well as the overall construction
Of your gaucho knives,
I'm gonna be chopping and stabbing into this here gate.
Gary, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Let's get it on. - All right.
♪ ♪
- When he swings the knife, his feet come off the ground,
He hits so hard.
So really hope that peen is good on my butt cap
And I don't have any catastrophic failures.
I'm more nervous than a house cat
On a porch full of rocking chairs.
♪ ♪
- Well, gary, that's a good looking gaucho knife, man.
The tip is nice and acute for stabbing,
It held up well, and your edge also held up really well.
So well done. - Thank you.
- All right, eduardo, how do you feel?
Um. Beat it like it owes you money.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- I'm very nervous.
I did quench three times.
There is a lot of stress in my blade,
And I'm afraid that when ben abbott strikes that fence,
It's gonna explode.
♪ ♪
- Well, eduardo, first things first, you're all in one piece.
Everything's still tight. Nice job.
Your edge just hit this one spot here.
It's just got a little bit of a glinting to it,
But you have a relatively obtuse edge,
So the rest of it held up great.
Nice job. - Thank you.
- All right, josh, you're up. You ready for this?
- Whether I am or not, let's do it.
- All right, let's do.
- My biggest concern going into testing
Is really that the handle holds up,
It doesn't wiggle apart, doesn't rotate in their hands.
♪ ♪
- Well, josh, it held up great, so nice job on that.
The crack you had in your steel is still present,
Which is now kind of full of sawdust.
But it's not opening up; I didn't see it move anywhere.
Your blade kind of meanders,
It's sort of starts off going left
And then kind of curves riding in and then rights itself.
When coupled with a handle that's pretty round,
I did have to adjust once or twice to get it back on line,
But in general, you held up well on the strength test,
And nice job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Welcome to the sharpness test,
The gaucho blanket slice.
♪ ♪
Now to find out how sharp your weapons are,
I'm gonna cut through these gaucho blankets.
Gary, you're up first, ready for this?
- I'm ready. - Lets do this.
♪ ♪
All right, gary, let's talk about your gaucho knife here.
Your edge is sharp.
Now it may look like rips;
Those are actually very clean cuts.
Overall, sir, your weapon, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, eduardo, your turn, so are you ready?
- Yes, sir. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- All right, eduardo, let's talk about
Your gaucho knife here.
Even though you have an obtuse grind,
It cut easily through this gaucho blanket.
Overall, sir, your weapon, it will cut.
- Thank you so much.
- Josh, your turn, so you ready?
- Yee-haw. - Yee-haw.
♪ ♪
All right, josh, let's talk about your gaucho knife here.
Now your edge also has an obtuse grind.
But it is sharp enough to cut cleanly into this blanket.
Overall, sir, your weapon, it will cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- All right bladesmiths, well, the gaucho knife challenge
Was definitely a difficult one.
But you all gave us blades that made easy work of our testing.
But in this competition, only two of you can join us
In the third round and our judges,
They made a decision.
The bladesmith leaving the forge is...
♪ ♪
Josh.
You fought hard, and you gave us a blade,
But unfortunately it didn't make the cut today.
And ben abbott's gonna tell you why.
- Well, josh, you came out of round one
With a pretty severe crack in your blade.
And you did a great job in minimizing that crack,
But you didn't remove it completely.
And in doing that, you really made your blade
Take quite a bit of warping and wobbling,
And it's for those reasons we're gonna let you go.
- I totally understand that. Thank you so much.
- Well, josh, we all wanna say you're a talented smith
And you have what it takes to be in this forge,
But unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
Step off the forge floor.
♪ ♪
- I've got that little disappointment
That I'm not able to move on and really do something
Spectacular with a historic blade.
But at the same time, it surprised me
All to pieces how well my blade performed.
♪ ♪
- All right, gary, eduardo, congratulations, guys.
Your hard work has paid off,
And it is now down to the two of you battling it out
For the title of "forged in fire" champion
And that check for 10 grand.
Now because this competition is all about iconic weapons
From south america, we're sticking with that theme.
We're giving you four days to build this...
♪ ♪
The argentinian saber.
- The argentinian saber was a fierce 19th century weapon
Used by the cavalry soldiers
Known as the argentinian grenadiers.
These mounted warriors used the lightweight
Single edged blade to deliver swift
And lethal slashes against enemies
While the large hilt protected their hands.
After their crucial service
In the argentinian war of independence,
The grenadiers were given the honor
Of becoming the presidential escort guard.
Today, these elite soldiers still protect the president
With this powerful saber at their sides.
- Your blades need to have a slightly curved pipeback blade
That measures between 35 and 37 inches.
Now down to the hilt,
You guys need to have an asymmetrical
Bell-shaped guard with multiple piercings.
And to finish it off, you need to have a pistol grip handle.
- I've never forged anything this long,
But I'm gonna make the best argentinian saber
Because I wanna win so bad I can taste it.
- All right, guys, we will see you in four days.
- Good luck. - Well, stay safe, dude.
♪ ♪
- I'm here in my home forge,
Ready to make an argentinian saber.
Alrighty. Here we go.
My goal for today is to have a hardened blade
Ready to start grinding on it tomorrow
And starting to make it pretty.
My concern is the pipeback spine.
There we go.
I never knew that existed until today.
The biggest challenge is putting in the curve
That's a requirement
While still keeping the pipeback spine intact.
Forging has gone really well. That's good enough.
It's close enough, and I am ready for the quench.
♪ ♪
Whew.
The blade is hard.
The blade is straight. And I'm exhausted.
♪ ♪
- I'm here in my home shop in elkmont, alabama.
I'm getting ready to get started
On the argentinian saber.
Mississippi 5160.
By the end of day one, I wanna have my blade forged out.
Then stretch the rod out a little bit.
You see the pipe coming out.
So far, so good.
A forged blade out that the length I want out of it,
You gotta force the shape.
Drawing it out with my dies
And verify that everything's nice and even.
It's looking good.
- Day three, yesterday was fantastic.
I got the blade completely done.
All I need to do now is get started on my hilt,
And one of the parameters
Is drilling the piercings in the hilt.
There's that disk.
These rotary discs are literally exploding
As soon as I put them on.
The guard is too hard
For the rotary discs to cut through.
[groans]
This one line right there took 2 1/2 cutting discs.
I am extremely aggravated by this.
This is supposed to be quick and easy.
I am burning through my day.
♪ ♪
I'm falling behind.
I hope I'm gonna have enough time.
Alrighty, now to make that pretty.
I finally finish the piercings on my guard.
I am down to a single rotary disc left,
But I'm running out of time.
I need to fly through my handle.
Hopefully, everything's gonna marry up perfectly.
That's it.
Overall, I'm still on schedule somehow.
♪ ♪
- Starting day three.
Yesterday, I got my blade finished and quenched.
It's time to go and sharpen the blade.
So I'm at the point now I can go out
And do some testing with my blade.
♪ ♪
Whoops. Missed part of it. I bent my blade.
I come out with a blade looking like a boomerang.
I can't salvage this blade
Because I don't wanna risk any grain growth in the blade.
And now I got to start over.
I only got one more day to get it done.
Hopefully, that's enough time to forge a new blade.
- We should have the process down pat now.
♪ ♪
We're good on parameters.
It's been a hell of a day,
But at the end, I've got a quenched blade.
This blade looks a lot better than the blade
That didn't work out so great.
All right.
- Morning of day four and it's time for some fit and finish.
♪ ♪
After I peen this on and close it,
I'm gonna grind this extra steel off
So it's a much tighter fit to the handle.
It's time to peen the guard and then sharpen my blade.
That should be it.
It's really coming out great.
That is sharp.
- Day four, I feel I'm in pretty good shape.
It's time for me to work on my handle and my hilt.
I grab a piece of sheet metal, cut out the shape that I want,
Then I start shaping it in the swage block.
Now I'm gonna cut these piercings into my hilt.
My plan to put this handle together
And secure it properly is,
Is I wanna notch out my tang,
Weld in a machine bolt with a spacer
So I can tighten it all up.
And the last thing I need to do
Is sharpen it and assemble the sword.
That's it for round three. It's in the judges hands now.
♪ ♪
- Welcome back to the forge.
You just stepped in here after four days at your home forges
Working on your very best argentinian sabers.
But before we get into testing, I wanna hear about the blades.
Gary, how'd it go for you?
- I started hitting some bumps,
And I made the decision to forge another blade.
I used 5160 for the blade, sheet metal for the guard,
And some mystery wood for the handle.
- Eduardo, how about you, how'd it go?
- Very stressful. Lots of unknowns but good.
♪ ♪
I used 80crv2 for my blade,
14 gauge steel for my bell guard,
And padauk for my handle.
I can't wait for you guys to mutilate it.
- [chuckles] - awesome.
Gentlemen, your blades look lethal.
There's only one way we know how to find out
Which one of you is gonna be leaving here
With the title of "forged in fire" champion,
And that's by putting your blades through some tests.
First, the keal with doug.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the keal test.
Well, it's time to find out
Just how lethal your weapons are.
I'm gonna take your weapons and deliver some thrusts
And slashes on this pig carcass.
Gary, you're up first. Are you ready for this?
- I'm ready. - Let's do this.
- Since I've already warped one blade during testing at home,
During testing at home,
I'm nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof.
A pig's a tough animal,
And I don't want my blade to crack.
I don't want it to warp, and I don't want it to break.
♪ ♪
- All right, gary, let's talk about your weapon here.
First up, most of the weight
Is right in the very tip of this blade.
But the saving grace for that is that you have a nice handle
Right there where I can grab on to it.
I can marry my hand, it's all void,
And I've got full control with this weapon.
As you can see, those were very deep cuts.
Overall, sir, your weapon...
♪ ♪
It will keal.
- Thank you.
- All right, eduardo, your turn, so are you ready?
- I'm excited. Let's go.
- Let's do this.
- I know my edge is fantastic.
It can take a beating. It's a killer blade.
I can't wait to see what it can do.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, I think we have a problem here.
That's a very small handle. My hand barely fits in there.
And when I'm swinging,
There was just no retention or stop right here.
Especially in the slashes.
If you're thrusting it with a forward width,
All that is on my wrist.
What do you think?
- I see what you're saying.
I can swing it out, but I can't pull it back up
'cause I don't have the leverage.
- Yeah, I'm looking at my fingers doubled up.
The problem is, is there's no space in there.
If it does cut loose, that's breaking my hand.
- Is there any way to adjust and make it fair?
- The problem with that is, I can hold back
To make it work, but now I'm holding back,
And that's not an even test anymore.
- Okay, you guys all agree the blade is not safe to wield?
- Yes. - Definitely.
- Okay.
- [bleep].
♪ ♪
- Eduardo, we absolutely hate
To see a competition end like this.
When wielding an edged weapon,
Safety is always of the utmost importance.
Due to the small handle you've presented
And the lack of retention that it offers,
The judges have issued a vote of no confidence.
They can't safely test your weapon.
So unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
Step off the forge floor.
♪ ♪
- Congratulations, buddy. - Thanks.
- Thank you, though, eduardo.
♪ ♪
- I'm crushed. I'm disappointed.
I worked really hard for it for it to not to get tested.
It fit my hand perfectly.
Every step of this competition was a learning experience,
And I really think I'm leaving a better smith.
♪ ♪
- Gary, you are today's "forged in fire" champion.
You got yourself a check for $10,000.
Congratulations.
- Thank you. I really appreciate it.
It feels great to be a "forged in fire" champion.
- What are you gonna do with the 10 grand?
Do you have plans? - No, I'm sure my wife does.
[laughter]
I just want to savor this for a while.
It was a lot of work to get here.
It's been fun, I've met a lot of great people,
And I've enjoyed it.
♪ ♪