[dramatic music]
- Here in the forge
We've seen smiths create some amazing blades
In the most difficult challenges.
♪ ♪
But tonight, they'll be put through tests
Like never before.
We have four smiths entering the forge
With their very best work in hand.
Those blades will immediately be put to the test.
- [grunts]
- And one of them will be eliminated
Before we ever light a single forge.
♪ ♪
And after two rounds of the most
Grueling challenges yet.
- Oh! - Damn!
- Could be what sends me home.
- Only one smith will remain standing.
♪ ♪
- This is the knife fight.
♪ ♪
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
- I'm bill pyles. I'm from oxford, ohio.
Been bladesmithing for about four years now.
My wife supports this hobby
But does refer to herself as a forge widow.
It's because I've been spending a lot of time
In the forge practicing for this competition.
As long as I get to hear doug marcaida say,
"it will keal," I'm totally good.
I made something that I call the "scrim-oowie."
It's 160 layers of damascus steel
With a brass holster on it.
I think it's gonna perform excellent.
- My name is rhys.
I'm 18 years old.
When I was 15, I saw a video on forging.
Started forging the next day so I feel like
I have a little bit of bragging rights
Because everything I've learned I've learned on my own.
I just honestly can't believe I'm on "forged in fire" .
Hi, mom!
I made a kind of machete, I guess.
It's made out of leaf spring.
Not sure if it's 5160, I hope it is.
But if it's not, shouldn't be a big deal.
It's hard, it's tough.
- My name's thomas franklin. I'm 34 years old.
I've been smithing for three years.
I really enjoy cooking so I always had
Kind of a thing for chef's knives.
And then my wife was like, "hey, why don't you try
To make a few," and here we are.
[chuckles]
I made my knife with 1070 high-carbon steel.
It's an integral design
With nickel silver pins and butt cap
And features a nice hamon.
♪ ♪
- My name is karri rahkonen and I'm 45 years old.
I'm a full-time martial arts instructor.
I've been making knives for about four years.
This is a high stress situation.
So a lifetime of martial arts training
Is definitely applicable.
I made a georgian kinjal out of 52100 steel,
Stabilized bloodwood burl, brut de forge finish.
I definitely think that my blade
Is ready for a knife fight.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.
Gentlemen, the four of you have been chosen to take part
In a very unique competition we are calling the knife fight.
As you know, only one can win in a knife fight.
And that's exactly how it's gonna happen today.
One of you will leave here with the title
Of "forged in fire" champion,
And receive a check for $10,000.
And those decisions will be made
By the esteemed judges standing behind me.
First off, we have historic weapons
Re-creation specialist, dave baker.
Next, we have abs master smith, j. Neilson.
Finally, edged weapons specialist
And kali martial artist, doug marcaida.
You guys ready to go?
- Oh, yeah. - Fantastic.
Here's how it's gonna work.
Each of the four of you brought us a blade
That you built at your home forges,
And we're gonna go directly into testing.
Now after that testing, there will be an eliminatio.
And only three of you will be joining us
In the second round of the knife fight.
- This is the time when you find out
What kind of bladesmith you are.
What your preparation and your training comes down to.
Time to put up or shut up. [chuckles]
- Now to decide which three of you are moving forward,
We're gonna put your knives in the hands
Of one of our most prolific knife testers.
So good luck, bladesmiths.
J.
[grunting]
[dramatic music]
- [chuckles]
Bladesmiths, welcome to our first ever knife fight test.
One of my personal favorites, the ice block chop.
I'm gonna take each of the blades that you
Brought with you from your home forge,
And I'm going to carve a little ice.
And then we might cut something else
That might come swinging by, too.
Never know what happens around here.
And, bill, you're up first.
- Beat it like a rented mule, j.
- I've done that.
♪ ♪
- When I first see those ice blocks,
I dread my knife getting pounded into it.
My biggest concerns are the knife may
Take a bend, the blade could take a roll.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, bill, nice job.
First of all, like the damascus.
Your edge is good, went through the ice
Without any rolling or chipping.
The only thing I would suggest is more swell back here.
I'd like a little more retention on the back end
So it doesn't slide, but overall, good job.
- Thank you. - Rhys, what happened?
You were smiling a minute ago.
- That was a lot more violent
Than I thought it was gonna be.
- I agree.
- You ready to go, rhys?
- I should've worn my brown pants.
- [grunts]
- Oh, [bleep]. They're doing the ice test.
Only thing I'm worried about is, like,
The handle breaking or something.
A little bit worried about that.
Ice block is not a forgiving test,
But if they were doing forgiving tests,
This wouldn't be "forged in fire."
[dramatic music]
[grunting]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Nice job, rhys.
Very simplistic design,
But it did a nice job on the block.
Everything's still straight and true.
You've got a good edge.
The biggest thing I would say is the handle
Being so small.
It almost makes the guard feel uncomfortable,
Even though everything's rounded off,
Where you're just choking up on enough
Just try to get enough handle to hold on to.
But other than that, you did a great job.
All right, thomas. Ready to rock and roll?
- Might as well be. - We're gonna do it anywa.
[dramatic music]
- I'm a little intimidated
Looking at all these ice blocks.
And just what starts racing through my head is,
"will my blade break?"
I hope I still have an edge left
After j beats it to hell.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Nice job, thomas.
Not too much handle, just enough to hold on to.
Doing the integral especially too, nice symmetry.
Your edge is sharp.
No damage to the edge. No bend.
Good job. - Thank you.
- Karri. - Let's do it!
- Ready to go? - Oh, yeah!
- Try to act excited, okay?
- [laughs]
[dramatic music]
I am excited.
I want to see either my knife
Walk away without a fingerprint,
Or explode.
As long as one of those two things happens,
I'm thrilled.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, karri.
Bold move bringing a double-edged weapon,
But nicely done.
I made sure I flipped it halfway through the ice cho,
Test both edges, performed well.
Nice and light.
Your edges are good on both sides.
But you could have done a little more with this handle.
It's pretty simple.
A little flare at the base
Would have really helped, but nice job.
- Thank you.
- Nice.
All right, bladesmiths.
We asked the four of you guys
To bring your very best to the forge,
Going into a test completely blind.
And I gotta say you all knocked it out of the park.
But in this knife fight competition,
Only three of you can join us in the second round.
Our judges have made a final decision that they agree upon.
Thomas, bill.
Gentlemen, congratulations.
You are joining us in round two.
Now karri, rhys.
It's down to the two of you guys.
The bladesmith leaving the forge is...
Rhys.
Unfortunately, your blade did not make the cu,
And j is gonna tell you why.
- Rhys, your blade performed great.
But compared to your competitors,
It's a very simplistic design,
And that handle being so small.
For those reasons we're sending you home.
- Well, rhys, for myself and the judges,
We want to say thank you for coming to the forge
And presenting us with your work.
But unfortunately, at this time,
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
Step off the forge floor.
- All right, thanks for the opportunity to come on.
- Thank you, rhys.
- I think the results speak for themselves.
I'm definitely gonna make my handles
A little bit bigger from now on.
I just can't wait to get back to my forge
And keep on forging, keep on hammering.
[dramatic music]
- Bladesmiths, congratulations.
The three of you have moved forward
Into the second round of our knife fight.
Now, guys, we've already seen what
You can do on your own time in your own forges.
But now it's time to find out
How well you can work under pressure of time
In the shortest bladesmithing round we've ever had.
In this second round, gentlemen,
You will have two hours to make a push dagger.
Just make sure they fall within these parameters.
Your daggers need to measure between four and five inches.
That is measured from tip to where the cutting edge ens
In a straight line.
They need to be double-edged, forward-facing tip,
And be quenched and hardened by the end of the two hours.
- Two hours? That's just not enough time.
It's just not.
- You're probably wondering what are you
Gonna be building your blades with.
Gentlemen, you all have a cloth on your anvil.
Go ahead and remove that for us.
♪ ♪
What you have there are bars of 1095
And 15n20 high-carbon steel.
We want you to take those, forge weld them together
Into a damascus billet, and make your push daggers.
Now, gentlemen, when the two hours expires,
You will turn your blades over to our judges,
And they will take a closer look at how far you've gotten,
Make some critiques, and an elimination.
Now, for those of you who do move forward
Into the third round of the competition,
You will have a chance to finish the blades,
But we want to see how far you can get
In such a short amount of time as two hours.
So bring your very best.
So good luck, 'cause that time starts now.
♪ ♪
This is not a lot of time to make a damascus billet
And turn it into a push dagger.
- There is time to do it, though.
So 'cause I'm always carrying something,
This dagger was made in two and a half hours complete.
- I have never made a push dagger before,
And I've got two hours to do it in.
I'm thinking it's impossible,
But I've come to be a champion,
So I'm gonna give it 100%.
I started grinding off any kind of scale or oxides
From my 15n20 and 1095,
Making sure that I got a nice clean weld.
Any oxides or scale on the outsides
Of your material will prevent a good weld.
- If anything goes wrong in this forge weld,
They don't really have time to start over.
You only got two hours.
You don't have a lot of time to mess around.
- I think I'm gonna do just fine
With the pressure of the competition.
I worked in kitchens, I've worked under deadlines.
I just compartmentalize.
- All right, karri's the first smith in the forg.
- I can just go into, like, high gear.
How do I accomplish what I've planned three hous
In two hours?
- I've made two punch knives.
[laughs] so at least I've made som.
But they did not get finished in two hours.
I have a great plan in my head.
I only need to use about a third of this steel.
- Well, all of these smiths have enough steel
To start out with.
They've got enough to make about four of these daggers.
- I clean all the steel up, leave one end of it colored
So I can do appropriate stacks.
I go to the welder...
[bleep]
And have a total brain fart
And weld every piece of that steel together,
And throw it in the forge.
- Bill is finally in the forge.
- It's about three times the amount of material
I really needed.
I thought this was gonna be a piece of cake.
I may have jinxed myself.
Could be what sends me home.
- How am I supposed to do this?
Making a dagger in a two-hour timeline is freaking me out.
As soon as I get done cleaning the steel,
I'm running over to the mig welder to tack up my billet.
And then next is rushing to the forge.
♪ ♪
- Thomas, he's now in the fire.
- You can't rush it.
I'm telling myself, "don't touch that steel
Until there's an hour and 30 minutes on the clock."
So I'm standing there for 10 minutes doing nothing.
If you don't get everything to the correct temp,
You risk bad welds and delaminations.
- The nice thing about these stacks,
They're not gonna to take that long to heat up.
- I notice the temperature is correc.
- Thomas, going to big blu to set his weld.
- I'm down with that.
- Everything looks great.
I'm off to the races, smashing it hard as I can go.
- Bladesmiths, you have 90 minutes left!
Finally, when I'm at the temperature,
When everything's a nice color,
Go over to the press.
I tried to go very light
Because if I put too much pressure on it,
They can slide, and they can split apart.
- It looks like bill was a little aggressive
With that press.
- Agh!
It splits apart.
- It looks like he's got a big wedge now.
- I'm falling very far behind.
[bleep]
After a few bleeped words,
Heading back from the press to the forge.
Load that sucker up with flux and started heating again.
- Well, bill is trying to salvage
That stack he put together.
But he's in some hot water right now.
- Bill hasn't drawn that billet out very much,
And half his time is almost gone already.
- Third time to the press. I got him to stick.
There is always something that can go wrong
With a damascus billet.
Damascus is a pain in the butt.
♪ ♪
- Once I got it all welded together,
I started drawing out my billet into a bar.
I'm gonna take the collar
And the blade of my push dagger
And incorporate a twist so that it stands out
In the judge's opinion.
- Karri's gonna go for a twist damascus in that blade.
That's the kind of thing I love seeing.
- He's got an hour and 20 minutes.
- So what?
- Twist is one of the quickest patterns
You could do.
- Come on.
When you're doing twist, there's a risk of getting
Inclusions or delaminations in the threads of the twist.
If something goes wrong, I'm out of the fight.
But I came here to measure what kind of bladesmith I am.
Now that I got my bar twisted,
It's time to start forging the blade to shape.
♪ ♪
- The push dagger, I've never made one.
So all I'm thinking is how do I attach a handle
Because I've never even drawn one.
I'm just really freaking out.
- This is the tricky part is making this t-section.
So here's a trick,
Instead of doing a full tang construction,
Do a hidden tang construction.
All you need to do is make the dagger,
This neck, and then a peg.
Slide that into some of the micarta,
Shape the micarta into the handle
And you've got a perfectly functional push dagger.
- Interesting.
- I'm gonna go with what I know
So I'm thinking hidden tang.
My goal is to draw the bar stock out
So I have plenty of material to form a bolster.
I think that would be pretty cool.
- Yeah, perfect.
That bolster will stop that through tang
From going through the handle material.
- But with a really short time constraint,
I'm already having doubt that I can make it happen.
[bleep] crazy.
- You have one hour remaining!
- I got a little too much length
Because I put every piece of steel in my billet.
- Bill has taken off a sizable portion.
- I like that.
- It feels like I am spending an eternity
At the chop saw trying to shrink this thing down.
If I just started with a third of the steel,
I would have been so far ahead of the game.
I'm ready to throw in the towel.
But then I look at my gloves,
Because I've got notes on my gloves
From every one of my kids, my wife.
And it was like, "no, no, can't stop."
♪ ♪
- Karri's blade,
It's not the most comfortable looking handle.
- Right now he's got a palm killer.
Those two corners on that t would do nothing
But dig into your palm every time you hit.
- The key to push daggers is comfort between the fingers.
The fingers are very sensitive right here.
You have a thing where you're putting pressure
In between them.
- Once I get my blade roughly shaped and flat and straigh,
I start rough grinding it with the angle grinder.
I'm trying to profile the blade.
[bleep]
And the backside of the disc just burns me
- Oh, boo-boo.
Karri just decided to angle grind his fingerti.
- I don't have time to stand around getting bandaged.
♪ ♪
[bleep] - no way.
- He did it again. - You did not.
- I think I could hear david baker being like,
"are you serious?" or something.
I'm like, "oh, no."
My one goal is to not have the judges all stand up
And be like "ah!"
And I'm pretty sure that was my moment.
My bad.
- Instantly I'm uncomfortable with what I'm doing
'cause I know what I'm used to making
Are just two bevels, a straight flat grind.
My dagger has got four of 'e.
So you're not only worried about
Keeping your grinds even,
They have to be perfectly down the center of the blade
To look right.
It's twice the bevels, twice the stuff to worry about.
- But, dave, how exactly do you make
The blade on a push dagger?
- Well, beyond forming that handle,
They've got four bevels to do.
Basically, it's a dagger, so you've got four bevel,
Or a quad-hollow, on a small frame.
That's a lot of work.
- I'm not happy with where my bevels are.
But I look at the clock, and I know I have
To harden the blade and touch up the edge.
It's gonna be challenging.
- Bladesmiths, you are down to the final 30 minutes.
- My dagger is a christmas tree.
I need to put an edge on it.
But then bevel grinds, it takes forever.
- All right, bill has now decided to go straight
To the grinders with a big old flattened triangle shape.
Trying to turn that into a push dagger now.
- He's got a metal pizza slice.
- I need to put an edge on it, but I'm screwed.
I don't have time to do that here.
I have totally lost my [bleep].
♪ ♪
I need to quench it.
Everything can go wrong when you're going for the quench.
There's not a whole lot of time to fix anything that goes bad.
♪ ♪
- Bill just quenched at a screaming hot temperature.
- Yeah.
- No tings, it's fairly straight, looks good.
- The whole contest is at stake at this point.
If this cracks or turns into a banana, I'm done.
♪ ♪
- All right, karri's got a quenched blade.
- I file check it, and it skates.
I still have time for a few minutes
Of finishing, and then a good etch.
That's wild.
I literally cannot believe
How well this twist bar turns out.
The risk of making a twist bar totally pans ou.
- Karri's handle looks like a sailboat without a sail.
♪ ♪
- Come on, baby.
Thomas is cutting it close,
Still hasn't quenched his blade.
- Trying to get a nice even orange glow to the steel.
♪ ♪
- There we go. - There we go.
- I don't hear any tings or pops.
Everything looks great.
I'm thinking to myself,
"you got to move. The clock's ticking."
Let's run over the grinder and touch up the edge.
I'm not gonna stop until the clock quits.
- Five, four, three, two, one!
Bladesmiths, turn off your tools.
This round is officially over.
- Two-hour time is up.
I'm totally not happy with it.
I don't have an edge yet.
And I don't have a dagger that's done.
I don't know if I can make it to the next round
With the dagger I produced.
- Well, bladesmiths, very well done.
In a matter of two hours, all three of you
Were able to take damascus billets
And turn them into push daggers.
That's impressive.
But now the time has come for our second critique
In the knife fight, which will be followed by an elimination.
Karri, you're up first. Are you ready?
- Born ready! - Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, so, karri, right off,
Really nice aggressive point shape to that.
A low layer lazy twist is one
Of my favorite patterns on the planet.
But having your fingers spread that hard
When you hit something, having done that before,
It's a good way to really mess up your fingers.
Now, that big straight line across my palm,
As opposed to having the curvature
That your hand normally has,
It's forcing my hand into that big triangle that you got her.
So if you move forward into that final round,
You got some work to do on this.
- Thomas, how you feeling? - Good.
- Please present your knife.
♪ ♪
- All right, thomas, first off, nice work.
Steel looks good.
I like the integral bolster idea.
And if you move to the next round,
I'd be curious to see how you finish the rest of this off.
But overall, very nice job on this.
I'd be half tempted to swipe this back to my shop.
- Last but not least, bill, are you ready?
- Yes, I am. - Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- All right, bill, not bad for a two-hour job.
Your damascus billet is soli.
But I wish you ground in some kind of bevels.
Right now it's a push dagger...Blank.
If you move forward,
There's just a lot of work to do to get those bevels in.
Right now you got the scale, just needs some refinement.
- Thank you.
- All right, gentlemen, yet again,
You have all impressed our judges,
And you turned in beautiful work.
But at this time, they have to decide
Which one of you will be leaving the forge
And who will be stepping forward
Into the final round of our knife fight.
So while they deliberate, I'm gonna ask you
To please step off the forge floor.
♪ ♪
All right, guys, to me it looks
Like a really, really tight race.
But what do you guys think?
- Thomas, assuming he's got a plan in there,
Taking care of that tang, shorten it up,
Round it off, cleaning up that bolster.
He can drill a hole straight through a piece
Of strong handle material,
Run one pin, and just shape it out really quickly.
- Dave, what do you think?
- When I go over to karri's blade,
There's a lot going on here.
If he shapes this tang,
He's gonna have a neck
That's about an inch and a half long.
You want that dagger to be right above your hand.
You don't want a bunch of space
And then the dagger.
- What's the reason for that?
- Well, when you hit something, it rolls over in your hand
And winds up smashing your knuckles on either side.
- Okay, doug, where do you stand with I?
- I have two blades right here that have bevels
That I know can thrust
And possibly lacerate a little bit.
With bill's, I see a knife blank
With all the sides the same width.
I love the fact that it's already
Really comfortable among the three.
But it's not a blade.
It's a knife blank.
- But bill in my opinion's got the easiest route
To go right now by just putting bevels in.
And karri's actually got the most things
He needs to fix in round two.
- All right, guys, well, it sounds like we have
Three potentially great blades,
A lot of questions on each of them.
But somebody does need to go home.
So are you guys all confident in your decisions?
J? - Yeah.
- Dave, how about you? - Yeah.
- Doug? - Yep.
- Okay, call them in.
Well, gentlemen, for our first ever knife fight,
This has been exactly what we wanted to see.
We've got three extremely talented smiths here,
And I gotta say that was probably
The longest deliberation I've seen in quite some time
Because every one of you has reasons to be here.
It was not an easy decision.
In fact, we had a split decision.
But with two votes to one,
The bladesmith leaving the forge is...
♪ ♪
Karri, unfortunately, your blade did not make the cu,
And dave baker is gonna tell you why.
- First off, I really like the fact that you
Put that twist in there, and I love your blade shape.
But that handle, the mass is so far away from the blad.
It's just more work than the other competitors have to do.
That's why we're letting you go.
- Thanks for an amazing opportunity.
This has been the experience of lifetime.
- Well, karri, myself and the judges woud
Like to say thank you so much for coming
And spending time in the forge, showing us your work.
But unfortunately, your time in the knife fight has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please surrender your work
And step off the forge floor.
- All right, thank you.
- I thought the twist pattern and the refinement
On my edge would have pushed me through
To the next round, but I was wrong.
But there's nothing I would have done differently.
I gave it 100%.
This is a bucket list item for me.
I wanted to be on the competition
Since season one, episode one.
And it's been, overall, an unbelievable experience.
♪ ♪
- Thomas, bill, gentlemen, congratulations.
You have made it forward into the third
And final round of our first knife fight.
Now it's down to the two of you.
You guys are gonna battle it out in this forge
For six hours.
This is gonna ultimately end with one of you
Leaving here with the title of "forged in fire" champion
Carrying a check for $10,000.
In this final six-hour round,
We want you to fix any issues you have
With your push daggers, add handles to them,
Turning them into fully functioning weapons.
But that's far from it.
Gentlemen, we also want you to complete a blade
From start to finish.
We want you to build this...
♪ ♪
This very wicked fighter was made by none other
Than "forged in fire" super champion, collin sage.
♪ ♪
- Whoo!
- We want you to recreate collin's blade
As closely as possible.
Your blades must measure between 17 and 19 inches.
Needs to have a peaked clip point
And swell at the belly to no less than three inches.
You will also have to include fullers
On both sides of the blade, a guard, and a pommel.
If you look behind you on your workstations,
You see some steel.
What you have there are bars of 1095 and 15n20.
There's also a bar of 80crv2.
What we want you guys to do is take the 1095,
Take that 15n20, turn it into a damascus billet.
Once that is complete, you'll stretch it out,
Cut it, clad it alongside that 80crv2
For a damascus san mai construction.
- [exhales]
I got your heart going, don't I?
- No, six hours is not a lot of time
To get a knife like that don.
- Well, gentlemen, when this round is complete,
And you guys both have your fighters
And your push daggers ready to go,
You're going to turn them over to our judges,
And they're gonna put your blades
Through a series of tests.
Unfortunately, I can't tell you what
Those tests are gonna be right now.
You'll find out when we get there.
So good luck, stay sharp.
Your time starts now.
- Here we go.
- This is a lot of work for six hours, guys.
- A lot of work.
- The key to this is going to be time management.
- You don't have enough time if you focus on one at a time.
♪ ♪
- What's gonna be the hardest part
Is the fact that we're doing damascus.
So first plan of action is to weld up
Two separate billets of the damascus steel.
Working with two billets is almost zero downtime.
- Bill is gonna have to be working on one stac,
Then pull the other stack out, work on that,
And that's gonna take away the time for his push dagger.
♪ ♪
- These forge welds on these damascus billets
Go perfect, piece of cake.
♪ ♪
- It's hard enough on its own to make damascus and san mai,
But we're also trying to finish our push daggers.
So first thing, I clean the steel up for damascus.
And then turn on the welder, tack the billet up,
Put a handle on it, into the heat.
Every second is precious in this round,
So it's time to work on the dagger
While the billet heats up.
I can already tell during the challenge,
There's gonna be a whole lot of me running back and forth
Between the dagger and the san mai billet.
- You're making a big damascus chopper here,
And then a push dagger on the side.
They're about as far away
From each other as you can get in style.
So that's really gonna throw a curveball at 'em.
♪ ♪
- I'm getting the damascus drawn out.
I think really I'm ahead of the clock.
Bingo!
With the two billets, they've got to be drawn out
To the same length and the same width as your 80crv.
If they're not the same size,
They roll around each other kind of like a doughnut,
And then you get a cold shut.
And I could end up with a failure of the blade
During testing.
♪ ♪
- Bill has now got a damascus san mai billet
In the fire.
- Any free time I have, I'm constantly switching bak
To catch up on my turd of a dagger.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- I see my steel's hot, so I gotta go set my welds.
- That is a large stack of damascus.
- Setting these welds is so critical to this billet
'cause if the metal peels apart,
Then I don't have time to make another billet.
Starting over in this challenge
Would be the worst catastrophic event to happe.
Luckily, my welds look good,
And I'm moving forward with the san mai construction.
Now he's at the chop saw, gonna cut that thing in half.
Then he's gonna have two damascus billets
That he can then clad onto that 80crv2.
- All right, good.
- Bladesmiths, you have 4 hours and 30 minutes left!
♪ ♪
Bill setting the welds on his damascus san mai billet now.
- I'm very happy with the welds.
They seem to be sticking together very well.
Coming through.
Now I have to turn it into a knife.
Not just any knife, a 19-inch long blade.
Freaking beast.
- One thing I don't know if these smiths have noticed
On collin's example is that's a pretty thin blade.
- Plus, you got to put two fullers
On both sides that will help lighten the blade.
♪ ♪
- I'm kind of getting the shape I want,
Not the perfect shape that I need to recreate.
Freaking ugly.
But it's drawing out well,
I'm getting the proper length I need,
I've got the proper width I need.
I start really feeling comfortable with it.
♪ ♪
- Now my san mai billet is welded together,
I can start profiling the shape.
It's a real difficult billet because you got to leave
Enough mass to spread the tip out.
Come on, you big-bellied bastard.
- Thomas needs to get a minimum of 3 inches
At the widest part of the blade.
But he's not making any progress.
- I start to feel my arms get tense.
My fingers are starting to cramp.
I've never worked so hard on a blade before in my life.
- But he's gotta get more aggressive on big blu.
You got to let that hammer do the work.
- Just go pedal to the metal, bud.
- I may be exhausted, but I have to keep telling myself,
"don't give up. Just keep going."
That's good.
I have width.
Gotta move on.
I don't need anything to go wrong.
I need every second that I have.
♪ ♪
- I look at the clock,
And I swear I stepped into a time warp,
And now it's an hour later than what it was before.
- Bladesmiths, you have three hours left in the knife fight.
- I need to quench this thing.
- Guys, I think it's safe to say
That it is officially crunch time.
They still have to do their guards,
They got to do their pommels,
They got to get their handles finished.
And they have to completely finish
Their punch daggers.
- Both of these smiths need to quench now.
♪ ♪
- Into the oil, feels fine.
If it's a perfect world...
[chuckles]
You quench your blade,
Comes out beautifully straight.
In my world,
Mine comes out looking like some type of pasta.
Exactly what I didn't want to happen.
- Yeah, bill's got a pretty substantial warp in there.
- Yep, wow.
- I have to get the warp out of it.
If I break it, I break it.
[grunting]
- Man, look at the torque that bill's putting on his blade.
- [groans]
I do not get all the warp out.
But I don't have time to even try to grind it out.
I'm not aiming for pretty at this point.
I'm just aiming for done.
♪ ♪
- I gotta get it quenched no,
And I gotta move on to other things.
The quench is the critical step
In the blade making process.
It can make or break you.
- There you go.
- Quench it out. - Go for it.
- Especially san mai.
San mai can delaminate and pop apart.
So I've got all these bad thoughts in my head
About what's gonna happen in the quench.
♪ ♪
I pulled it out of the oil, and everything looks straight.
I don't see anything critical going wron.
Just a great feeling of relief
That I can move on to the next step.
♪ ♪
- It's make or break time.
My next step is to get the handle fit on.
Now we're good.
Next, I decided to go with a piece
Of brass for the pommel.
- He's getting pretty close to having
A fully formed collin blade.
- The pommel's the easiest part,
So bill should be on the home stretch here.
- I weld the all thread onto the tang.
- Bill went right in the water after that weld.
- Oh, man.
- All that heat and then quenching it in water
Is a big shock.
And we've seen it time and time again
Where the pommels end up breaking off.
- Get everything all epoxied up.
Start cranking the nut down.
♪ ♪
- Oh, and it snapped off. - Oh, no!
- Damn it.
This is the mechanical connection for the knife.
Without a handle, they can't test it.
- That was a $10,000 water quench we just saw.
- It could be.
- I just keep thinking,
"I don't have a snowball's chance in hell
Of getting this thing done."
I am in absolute panic mode.
I've just totally lost it.
♪ ♪
How am I gonna do this in time?
- What are the fixes right now? - Put another piece on.
Just don't quench it in water.
- Everything for the handles, totally reusable.
Go back over, weld a new piece of all thread.
♪ ♪
Let it cool this time.
- Bill got the weld done
And bypassed the water bucket this time.
- Nice, nice, nice.
- Start putting that nut on.
Oh, my god, I think that'll work.
I've got the base of a handle together.
I just have to shape it now.
But I need to wait for the epoxy to dry.
So now back to the dagger.
- Bladesmiths, you have 90 minutes remaining!
- I run over to the pantry
To pick some handle material for my dagger.
Found it.
So I grab a short piece of wood and get started.
The first step is to trim my tang to length
So it doesn't go through the handle material.
I could see that I need to trim off about a half an inch.
♪ ♪
And then start boring a hole into the wood.
- Thomas is drilling a hole now in that handle material.
- I don't know exactly what he chose.
But there's plenty of woods that will hold up
To almost anything you can throw at 'em with a handle.
- All right, good.
I'm at the point now that I have to fit up.
I have to put a pin through the handle
Into the tang inside the wood.
I'm at a good stopping point now with the dagger.
So it's time to go work on my blade again.
♪ ♪
I'm looking at the clock.
How can I possibly get all this work done
Before the time ends?
♪ ♪
- I don't like it, but I'm gonna live with it.
I'm running around like a chicken
With my head cut off, and in the back of my mind,
I've still got this dagger that needs to be done.
Nobody says it's gotta be pretty.
- Now he's moved on to the handle
Of his push dagger, and it is about time.
- The handle on the dagger really just needs
To be very basic and feels comfortable in the hand.
- Bill's is looking pretty good.
- Yeah, bill's getting it together.
- I'm at the point now
Where I think the handle is good enough.
I have to start trying to get some type of edge on it.
It's gotta cut.
- Bladesmiths, you have 30 minutes before testing!
- The clock's ticking.
I don't have a sharpened edge on this blade,
And I still don't even have the handle on.
♪ ♪
I chose a block of micarta because it's durable.
You can't crack it.
You gotta be kidding me.
But now it's taking me forever to broach this hole out.
Things just aren't going my way.
- With 15 minutes left on the clock,
Thomas still has to fully assemble his blade,
Get his pommel attached,
And then get an edge on his blade
And shape the handle.
- This is panic time.
- Finally get it fit close enough to put the pommel on.
- Five minutes left, gentlemen.
- Ugh. - Run, run, run, run, run.
- Holy cow, this is not looking good for thomas.
- I run into the grinder
And start putting on a cutting edge.
Everything's going crazy, time's flying by.
I know I've got to sharpen my dagger, to.
I'm worried I'm not gonna finish in time.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
- Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
This round of the knife fight is ove!
- At the end of the day, it's done.
It's not pretty, but it's done.
♪ ♪
- Well, bladesmiths,
It's time to take your weapons and pick a fight.
This is the dynamic keal test.
♪ ♪
To find out how lethal and how well constructed
Your weapons are, I'm gonna take your weapos
And deliver some slashes and thrusts
On this ballistics dummy and kendo sticks.
Bill, you're up first. You ready?
- I guess I have to be. - All right, let's do thi.
- Scale of one to ten, my confidence level is five.
I'm right in the middle.
With the problems that I had,
I'm really nervous about how things are gonna test out.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- All right, bill, let's talk about your weapons.
First up, let's talk about your push dagger right here.
I really like it.
The handle you have, it's just the right size
So that I can wrap my hand around it.
And when I'm thrusting and slashing,
It is a sharp blade 'cause it thrust nicely
And easily onto this ballistics dummy.
There's no nicks.
No rolls on your edges.
Good job.
Now let's talk about your beast here.
This is a heavy weapon.
Having your handle have no contours over here,
It was really hard to control this piece
When I'm swinging with it.
It's a great chopper.
But every time I'm pulling back,
This thing just wants to leave my hand.
But overall, sir, both your weapons,
It will keal.
- Thank you.
- Thomas, your turn. You ready?
- Might as well be. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- I'm relieved that it's over.
But I really just wish I'd had more time
Or made some changes along the way.
I'm hoping that it holds.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
So many hot spots, it's really digging into my hand.
Especially here, look...
♪ ♪
Right, thomas.
Your handle is so unfinished, it's very hard to hold on t.
And the minute I grab on to it, there are sharp edges all over.
The guard, especially the spacers
That you have here, the minute I grab onto that,
It's already digging into my hand.
If I start swinging this, I'm gonna tear my hand apart.
And because of that, I cannot test your blade
Fairly against your opponent's.
- I understand.
♪ ♪
- Well, thomas, unfortunately,
Due the unfinished nature of your handle
And the inability to test it fairly against bill's,
Our judges have issued a vote of no confidence.
For that reason, your time in this forge has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please step
Off the forge floor.
- Congratulations. - Thank you, thomas.
- Thanks, man.
- My handle was unfit to wield.
I think if I had another few minutes,
We could have seen the test.
I'm proud of what I accomplished.
I just wish I could have finished.
♪ ♪
- Well, bill, you just won the first ever
"forged in fire" knife fight, man.
You got a check for $10,000.
Congratulations. - Yes!
- Holy crap, I just won "forged in fire."
I can't believe it.
- How you feeling?
- Hate to win this way, but it's great.
Dream come true.
I had a blast even though it was one
Of the most stressful things I've ever done.
[chuckles] would I do it again?
[sighs] maybe.
♪ ♪