[dramatic music]
[hammer clanging]
♪ ♪
- My name is jonathan howe.
I'm 33 years old.
I'm from groton, new york.
I have been bladesmithing for about four years.
I got into it because I am also a martial artist,
And I make my own practice weapons.
I'm looking around, and it's just gorgeous.
I couldn't think of a better place to forge.
But I have no idea what to expect.
- My name is emilio carbajal.
I'm from weiser, idaho.
I'm 39, and I'm a correctional officer.
It is chilly out here,
But that doesn't bother me too much.
I forge outside all the time
In the winter and in the summer.
I'm just ready to go start working some steel.
♪ ♪
- My name is felicia howard.
I am 18 years old.
I'm from catoosa, oklahoma.
And I am a full-time bladesmith.
I'm not sure what we're doing.
And I don't know how we're going to do it.
And I'm a little bit worried.
If I won $10,000, I would repay my mom and dad
For that brand-new anvil.
I took out a "business loan" from them,
And it would be great to be able to pay that back.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to beautiful
Mystic seaport museum.
The three of you are here for a very special competition.
Because for the first time in "forged in fire" history,
This entire competition will take place
Outside of our forge walls.
In this competition, we are paying homage to the seafaring
Villages that have played a huge part
In forging this country into what it is today.
Now, if you can put yourselves back 200 years,
These streets and this water would be completely
Full of shipbuilders putting together
Fishing vessels, whalers, and even wartime
Vessels for the civil war.
Now, if you know anything about putting these ships together,
You know that blacksmiths played a huge part
In their construction.
Now, there are three of you here today
That are going to go head to head to head
In only two rounds of bladesmithing competition.
But in order to come out on top,
You're going to have to impress these guys behind me.
Because they are the ones who will decide which one of you
Will leave here with the title of "forged in fire" champion,
Getting that check for $10,000,
And who's going home home empty-handed.
Now, bladesmiths, let's talk about what
You're going to be building.
Today we're going to be paying tribute
To those blacksmiths of old.
You're going to be making this.
♪ ♪
Bladesmiths, this is a blacksmith's knife.
And what makes it so unique is its integral handle.
It is fully hand-forged and requires
No additional material other than the steel
That the blade is made from.
This is a five-hour round.
You're going to be making this blade from start to finish.
But make sure that your blades fall within these parameters.
Your blade length measured from tip to where the cutting
Edge ends in a straight line needs to be
Between 11 and 13 inches.
It needs to have a fully integral
And skeletonized handle.
By the end of the five-hour round,
Your blades need to be quenched,
Hardened, and wieldable.
And today you're going to be using
Coal forges and hand hammers just like they did
Centuries ago.
♪ ♪
- Doing all this work by hand is a lot.
It is a very large knife.
And coal forging, it's really hard.
Because you've got to, like, keep the blower going
And then do the hammer.
There's a lot going on.
But I'll make it work.
- Now, we still have the topic to talk about,
What steel are you going to use to make
Your blacksmith's knives?
And today you're going to need this.
♪ ♪
Now, bladesmiths, what you're looking at here
Is a metal crate full of steel.
Now, some of it's good high-carbon steel.
Some of it is not.
But I can tell you that all of it
Has been sitting here in the ocean for quite some time.
So you can expect to see a little bit of rust.
- I'm not overly thrilled that the metal is starting
To rust, because there could be cracks or flaws
In these pieces of metal.
So making a blade out of metal that's already rusted,
Not ideal circumstances.
- Now, at the end of the five-hour round,
Your blades will immediately go into the hands of our judges.
And they will be checked for strength and durability
In a wooden wheelbarrow chop,
Then checked for edge retention in a burlap bag slice.
So good luck, stay sharp.
Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
So the mystic seaport museum, unbelievable place.
- Oh, yeah.
- When you look at these tall ships,
All those metal parts were made by a blacksmith.
- Lower, more.
- This is the beauty of this whole challenge is,
It really pays homage to the blacksmithing community.
- Yeah, oh, yeah.
- First thing to do is go run over to the crate
And open her up and see what kind of steel we have.
♪ ♪
- Now, what's a good way for them
To go and find out what the best
Steel is out of this basket?
- You could try to spark test it.
- I grab a bar of 7 or 8-inch steel.
I don't want to move too much mass,
Because I have to hammer it by hand.
- You can see those sparks.
They're complex sparks.
- It's got a big explosion at the end of the spark.
It tells me it has carbon in it.
I'm happy.
♪ ♪
- The problem with salvaging metal
Is that you never really know what you're getting.
So I grab a couple pieces,
And I take them over to my angle grinder,
And I spark test both of them.
- Well, look at those sparks coming off of this.
- The square stock seems to spark a little bit brighter.
So that's the one I end up going with.
♪ ♪
- Yeah.
- Oh, there you go.
- Looks like felicia went with a big old hook.
That's potentially going to put her in a really good position.
- Yeah.
- Because now she doesn't have to work
That steel down to a tip.
♪ ♪
- I'm going with this nice, large hook.
Because I kind of figure it would work just like
A railroad spike knife.
Definitely a high-carbon steel, so I got that going for me.
♪ ♪
- Guys, this is a beautiful, unbelievable place.
- Oh, yeah.
- This competition is going back to blacksmithing of old.
- Yeah, I mean, we're sitting right in front
Of the blacksmith shop.
- This is the james d. Driggs shipsmith shop.
My name is noah thomas,
And I am a blacksmith and a boatwright.
We keep history alive by demonstrating, practicing,
And teaching the crafts and trades that fueled
The maritime industry.
You are standing in a legitimate shipsmith shop.
It wasn't primarily used to service the whaling industry.
And we still demonstrate those crafts today.
We still make the tools that they would
Have made in this shop here.
♪ ♪
- All three of our smiths basically
At the same exact time have come to their coal forges
And are getting them lit.
♪ ♪
- I'm comfortable coal forging.
That's how I started.
[inaudible]. I have a hand-cranked blower.
I'm used to a blow dryer, so I don't have
To sit there and crank on it.
- Now, how much attention does the coal forge need
To continue to be hot enough to heat up the steel?
- If you leave it without doing anything,
The whole coal forge can just go out.
You've got to restart it again.
- This is going to be fun for five hours
Cranking on this blower.
Yeah, it's going to suck.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- I got the coal forge started.
So I can get my blade drawn out.
♪ ♪
When I started bladesmithing I actually inherited
An old siren crank coal forge from my grandfather
Using "found metal."
So this competition with a coal forge is like being at home.
- It looks like jonathan's kind of making a volcano.
Well, he's got a mound, and he's digging a hole
In the center. Is that good technique?
- You can do it that way.
But if you don't let everything come out the top,
You kind of make a cave with burning coal on the inside.
And it kind of reflects all the heat back into itself.
And that's when things really start to burn.
So you've got to be careful.
- The dangers if coal forge are that the temperatures
Are never the same.
I can crank it higher and create
A lot more heat than you can in a propane forge.
Or if I let it die down, I can lose a lot of heat
And take longer to heat up the metal.
I want the cave to stay as a structure
So that I can just put the metal in,
Take it out, and not lose any heat.
- All right, bladesmiths, one hour has elapsed.
You've got four hours remaining.
♪ ♪
- These smiths have a lot of steel to move with hand tools.
This five-hour coal forge challenge is really endurance.
- It is difficult to do by hand.
It's frustratingly slow.
Trucking right along like a truck with no gas in it.
But I don't want to rush, because I could overheat
My knife and get cracks.
So I'm going to have to take my time.
♪ ♪
Oh, no!
There's a crack in it.
[bleep].
It's got a crack in it.
Both: Ohh!
- Crack.
How do you guys think that felicia
Ended up with that crack?
- Overheating it in the forge? - Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
She pulled that piece out of steel out of the forge,
And there was a section that just was still burning.
- And these coal forges have the ability
To superheat the steel, to actually burn the steel.
So you really have to pay attention to maintaining
Just the correct amount of heat.
- This crack is way far up into the blade.
And I just cannot move forward with that,
Because it could break.
I really don't want to start over at this point.
I've made a lot of progress.
So I have to take off, like, 2 1/2,
3 inches of material.
It's a lot of material, okay?
- The upper hand she had was in the selection of the steel
That she got that had the tip kind of already
Worked into it. That's gone.
- Yep. - Yeah.
- That's heartbreaking.
- That means I'm going to have to essentially
Start drawing out a whole new chunk of the blade.
But I'll make it work.
♪ ♪
- Emilio is killing it.
He's really moving metal.
- When I work steel, I want it pretty hot.
But it's hard to gauge the colors because of the sunlight
Right now.
But I'm just kind of going off what colors I can see.
I need it hot enough that it's easy to move
But not too hot to where it burns it up.
Oh, look at that.
- Do you see the pieces fall off right there?
It just burned off. - That's scary.
- It got so hot it just fell apart.
- Yeah. - Yep.
- I pull out the steel from the forge,
And part of the steel is missing.
[bleep].
I just spent an hour and a half
Working with the steel to get to this point,
And I burned it up.
I'm in a bad spot right now.
I don't know what to do.
♪ ♪
- We are here at mystic seaport museum.
[suspenseful music]
All three of our smiths are really moving some steel now.
- Oh, look at that.
- Did you see that piece just fall off right there?
- I pull out the steel from the forge,
And part of the steel is missing.
[bleep]. - Ooh.
- I don't think emilio has enough material.
I don't think that there's enough material there
For an 11- to 13-inch blade plus handle.
- I don't want to give up on it quite yet.
I want to see if I can make it work.
So I want to draw it out and keep forging.
♪ ♪
- So I'm moving this metal and trying to get it to length.
Drawing this piece of steel out is taking me a lot longer
Than I had hoped it would.
♪ ♪
My arm's getting tired.
And all that's running through my head is, oh, my gosh,
I might not finish this.
♪ ♪
But I keep at it, and I keep heating it up
And hammering it out.
And slowly but surely it does move out to length.
But--and I still have a lot of work and not a lot of time.
- Bladesmiths, you have 2 1/2 hours left.
We are halfway through.
♪ ♪
- Oh, man, felicia is looking tired.
- Oh, yeah.
This has got to be the most exhausting competition
We've put smiths through.
- As I'm working the shape of the steel,
This is moving a lot slower than I was hoping it would.
My shoulder feels dead.
I'm currently worried about not making it in time.
But I don't have the energy to be concerned about it.
[laughs]
Oh, dear.
We may have a new problem.
There's not one but two cracks here in the edge.
Oh, yeah, that's a problem.
- Guys, felicia, she is identifying some more
Issues with her steel.
So she's not out of the woods.
- This is fine.
I'm going to go ahead and chop it off.
♪ ♪
What's actually causing these cracks is my shoulder
Feels a little, like, dead.
So what I'm working on right here is hot.
But where my impact is ending up is actually not.
So I'm going to stop doing that.
I'm happy to get rid of those cracks.
If it does it again, that'll be a pretty serious problem.
But at the moment, I just need to get back to work.
♪ ♪
- Emilio's starting to get more length.
But I think at some point here real soon
He's going to realize that he doesn't have...
- There is nothing... - Enough steel.
- There for a handle.
- I keep hitting the tongs instead of the metal.
I'm wasting tons of time on this little piece of steel.
I don't want to go home for missing parameters.
But I don't want to give up on it quite yet,
Because I don't think I can complete
A brand-new blade in the time limit.
[humming]
But I think I have an idea to fix the situation.
So I'm going to try to forge weld
Some more steel to my tang.
So I'm going to try to do a scarf weld.
A scarf weld is where you forge down
One area of one piece of metal and do
The opposite to the other side and stack them
On top of each other.
- Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?
- Yes, that's exactly it.
Emilio is going to be adding some steel to that handle.
- Excellent.
I mean, if this goes well for him,
He'll have enough material to draw that out and do whatever
He wants with the handle.
- Come on.
It's hard to do a scarf weld in the coal forge,
Because I've got to get both pieces of steel
The same temperature at the same time.
- Oh, damn.
- It cools down so fast that it's just very, very difficult
To get that weld to go.
- It has to be immediate.
- Yeah.
- As I'm trying to line up these two scarves...
Damn it it's not working.
It's taking me too long, and I'm losing temperature
♪ ♪
I try one more time.
It's not working.
Augh!
I'm getting frustrated with this little piece.
The longer that I try to do this forge weld
The more time I'm losing.
I'm going to start over.
- Oh, man.
- Oh, no.
- Oh, that hurts.
- I'll go with this again.
- That's a tiny, tiny little piece of bar stock.
He's starting over halfway through in a coal forge round
Where you're hand-hammering everything.
That's going to be a factor in this next half
Of the competition for emilio, especially.
- I have no time to waste.
I've got to kick it into another gear.
Otherwise, I won't get a blade done.
♪ ♪
- Jonathan has moved on to the tang of his blade.
And he's going to start working that tail end
And getting that handle all worked in.
- I think one of the big issues is getting
A handle that's comfortable.
A lot of people that don't make these kind of knives
End up with something that's just a thin rod
That's been bent around.
- As I'm looking I don't know that I have enough time
To thin this thing out to a handle
That I can fold over on itself,
Which is the right way.
So I make the decision that I'm going to
Cut down the middle and just spread out the metal
And make a gap in between 'em.
- Jonathan's idea to take that drift
And--and cut the skeletonized section of the tang
Is kind of biting him.
It's looking pretty mangled.
Not exactly what he's eyeballing, I don't think.
- The handle's a little bit bumpy.
But I think I'll be okay smoothing those out
So it's at least not painful to the judges.
♪ ♪
- Not super impressed with my work.
But one of the parameters is having an
Integral skeletonized handle.
For a moment I did question whether or not I should
Actually forge a handle.
But I heard jonathan down there with his angle grinder,
And I feel like that's actually a great idea.
So I'm just going to split it, then kind of spread it open.
But it's so freaking thick.
I'm not sure how much time that's going to take,
But it's the best I got.
♪ ♪
- So I'm just going to pound on the steel,
Just trying to get this done as quick as possible.
I choose a round hammer face to move the metal
In all directions quicker.
♪ ♪
- Watch when he cranks this.
A jet of flame will start coming off the top of that.
- Now, does that superheat the outside of the steel
And not evenly heat the inside?
- Yeah, you can be burning the outside by the time
The inside has gotten hot.
- I need my steel hot enough that it's easy to move.
So I'm cranking away at it.
♪ ♪
I just got to get this bar moving right now.
♪ ♪
- Almost.
Emilio, he's doing great.
He is super-efficient.
Time is dwindling.
It's a little scary.
♪ ♪
There we go.
So I finally transferred all this material.
And so that I can actually start to
Get this quenched and tempered so that I can move on.
I feel a little crunched for time.
But it's "forged in fire," so that's the whole point,
I guess.
- All right, bladesmiths, you have one hour remaining.
Finish up.
♪ ♪
Guys, take a look at emilio steel here.
He's almost got the length that he needs.
- Yeah.
- Emilio is a freaking monster.
That guy-- there's no stopping that man.
- At this point, I'm really, really tired.
But this second blade shape's coming together pretty quick.
Now I've got to focus on this tang.
I've seen a couple blacksmith knives.
The ones I've seen have the rat tail handle.
So I'm going to forge it out and use the horn to shape
The curve on the handle.
- Emilio now is on the horn.
And look how much he's moved just
By hammering on that horn.
- It's just crawling out.
He's getting length with every strike.
- There it is. [laughs]
- I got my handle figured out.
I'm going to prepare the blade for a quench now.
♪ ♪
- I got to say, emilio's just cruising this go-round.
- It's phenomenal to see what he's got going on.
- He's well on his way to getting done.
- I need this quench to go really good.
There's no more time to make another knife.
It's do-or-die and now or never.
- Emilio restarted halfway through the competition,
The first one to have a quenched blade.
- Wow. - Outstanding.
♪ ♪
- I don't hear any pings, cracks, anything.
And I'm happy with it.
♪ ♪
- Time limit on this is--it's a crunch.
And I'm feeling pretty nervous.
♪ ♪
Quenching a blade coal-forging is less than ideal.
With the sunlight, the temperature is not going to be
Easily indicated by color.
So that's why I have my magnet.
I'm checking the magnetism to make sure that it
Loses the magnetic ability.
Then I know that I've got a good enough temperature
To quench.
- All right, jonathan's quenched too.
We've got two quenched blades. - All right.
- That's awesome.
- Beautiful.
- There were several moments where I had my doubts
That I'd make it as far.
But I reached this point, and I'm feeling pretty good.
♪ ♪
- If felicia has any hope of getting this done,
She's got to quench real soon so she has time
To grind it down, get it into a functional blade.
- At this point, I need to get quenched and move on.
♪ ♪
- Guys, felicia just quenched, guys.
- That's great. - Wow, that's awesome.
- Wow.
All righty.
I have a hardened blade.
- Now all of our smiths have quenched and hardened blades.
What do they have to do to get them finished
And ready for testing?
- Grab those angle grinders and put an edge on it.
♪ ♪
- So after the quench, I'm grinding off the forge scale,
Kind of clean it up.
It looks really good.
[bleep].
I got two big cracks.
Oh, yeah, it's bad.
With these cracks, there's a very good chance
That when this knife hits something
It will crack or break.
- Emilio's just noticed a couple
Cracks in his blade... - Oh, wow.
- Straight up from the edge.
- Oh, and we don't have any welders here.
- Nope. - Just the angle grinders.
- I don't know if I can fix this situation.
- We are here in mystic seaport museum.
All three of the smiths back at their work tables now
Grinding away trying to finish these blades up
In the final 30 minutes.
♪ ♪
- [bleep]. I got two big cracks.
- Emilio's just noticed a couple
Cracks in his blade... - Oh, wow.
- Straight up from the edge.
- Wow.
Emilio has really overheated that.
- Right.
- Oh, yeah, it's bad.
- With these cracks, there's a very good chance
That when this knife hits something
It will crack or break.
I'm going to try to grind them out.
As I grind, they're just getting deeper.
The more material I take off this blade, the more likely
It's going to break in testing.
I'm going to leave it thick.
I really hope it will survive an impact
Against the wheelbarrow.
There's not much I can do, so I'm done.
- Is emilio done? - Yep.
♪ ♪
- This blade does look good, but we'll see
How it does in testing.
♪ ♪
- We've got 10 minutes left, bladesmiths.
♪ ♪
- I have a lot of grinding to do,
Because my edge is still very fat.
Ideally, as I'm grinding, I'd like to put
A hollow grind in the edge so that it can
Resist the chopping while still maintaining a sharp edge.
I have so much metal here that my hollow grind isn't
As hollow as I want it to be.
I'm still able to remove a lot of metal
With the angle grinder.
It's just a slow process.
♪ ♪
- My time is dwindling.
I could obviously stay on this grinder
For another hour and a half or so,
Because my blade is a piece of crap.
But I have, like, five minutes left.
So I'm going to try and grind as much as I can.
- All right, bladesmiths, finish up.
♪ ♪
Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your tools.
This round is over.
Great fight, everybody.
- Talk about working to the last second.
- Yeah, right? - Yeah, I love it.
Felicia just had to get that little grind in.
♪ ♪
- I love how my blade looks.
It came out way better than I thought it would.
But with the cracks I'm hoping I can survive testing.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, in the past five-hour challenge
You were asked to make blacksmithing knives
That were made from steel fished out of the ocean.
It was clearly a very difficult challenge.
But all three of you presented blades
That are suitable for testing.
Now, we are going to change things up quite a bit here.
Instead of two separate tests to check for strength,
Durability, and sharpness,
We've got a dynamic test that's going to check it
All in one go.
Now, after this testing is complete
Only two of you will move forward in this competition
To the final round, which means one of you is heading home.
For the testing I'm going to hand you guys off to ben.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the dynamic strength
And sharpness test.
I'll be chopping into this wheelbarrow
And cutting through these burlap sacks.
Jonathan, you're up first. You ready?
- Yes, sir. - All right.
♪ ♪
- My biggest concern is, I don't want to lose my edge.
I certainly don't want my blade to break.
If I can maintain the edge and cut at the same time,
I'll be happy.
♪ ♪
Whew.
♪ ♪
- Well, jonathan, you did what we asked you to do.
You got a skeletonized handle.
Biggest thing I have about this is, the shape of the handle,
It's kind of bumpy where it should be flat
And flat where it should be bumpy.
So it's kind of--
Rides really hard into my hand here.
But the edge is sharp enough.
I don't see any indication of any damage,
Breaking, or chipping.
Nice job. - Thank you, sir.
- All right, emilio, you're up next.
You ready for this? - Yeah.
- Cool.
♪ ♪
- I see cracks in my steel.
It's a sign of somewhere there's
Damage inside the blade.
I'm pretty nervous about the wheelbarrow.
But I'm hopeful that the knife makes it through the test.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
♪ ♪
- Well, emilio, the obvious thing,
Your blade broke in two.
There's a dark spot you can see at the top
On both halves here.
And that's where there was a crack that existed
Before I started testing.
The grain is pretty big, likely from overheating it
In the forge, but before it broke,
That was a really good-looking blade.
I think you did a phenomenal job.
But as it stands, it just didn't take the impact.
- Yep.
♪ ♪
- All right, emilio, unfortunately,
It did come apart.
But, emilio, you're not out of the fight yet.
Felicia, in order to move forward in the final round
Of this competition, your blade will
Have to survive seven strikes.
Are you ready?
- Sure.
- All right. Ben, take it away.
♪ ♪
- I just saw emilio's blade break.
And I'm still not 100% sure that my knife will survive.
It can break gloriously, and I could lose.
It's just terrifying.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- I just saw emilio's blade break.
So all I have to do is survive seven strikes.
Don't break. Don't break. Don't break.
Don't break. Don't break.
It's just terrifying.
♪ ♪
- Well, felicia, congratulations.
Your blade made it through all seven strikes.
Now, emilio, you are an absolute monster out there.
At 2 1/2 hours into the competition
You completely restarted, and you turned this blade in.
It's a beautiful piece, but unfortunately
It did suffer a catastrophic failure.
For that reason, we cannot continue testing your blade.
We want to say thank you for coming out.
But your time in this competition has ended.
- Thank you.
Thank you, man. Thank you.
- Thank you, emilio.
- See you, guys.
It was a very tough competition.
I felt a little disappointed.
But it is what it is.
Being here at the mystic seaport museum was great.
There's just a ton of history here.
I may not be the "forged in fire" champion,
But I will next time.
♪ ♪
- Well, jonathan, felicia, congratulations.
Both of you have made it through the first round
Of this competition, which means you're going
Into the final round back at your home forges,
Where you'll be building an iconic blade from history.
Now, bladesmiths, do me a favor and take a look
Over your right shoulder.
That ship right there is the "charles w. Morgan."
And is the last wooden whaling ship in existence.
Now, on that ship, whalers would be out at sea
Using a variety of tools.
For this final round of competition,
We want you to build a specific one of them.
Bladesmiths, you will be building this.
♪ ♪
This is the flensing knife.
♪ ♪
- Dating back to the 18th century the flensing knife,
Also called the mincing knife,
Was a vital tool for the american whaling industry.
This blade featured a long, curved,
Very sharp edge design
To remove blubber from large whales.
The flensing knife was used routinely
On board massive whaling ships,
Which acted as floating factories
Harvesting blubber and boiling it down
In their onboard furnaces to create high-quality oil
That helped turn america into an industrial powerhouse.
One of the last remaining wooden whaling ships
In existence is docked right here
At the mystic seaport museum.
- The length of your blade needs to be between
17 and 19 inches measured from tip
To where the cutting edge ends in a straight line.
It needs to be curved.
It needs to have an integral socket and a pole.
Now, the overall length of this needs to be
Between 60 and 62 inches.
- At home, I don't have presses, no power hammers.
It's all done by hand.
So moving the metal, shaping it is going to be
A lot of work, but I'm up for a challenge.
- Well, good luck, bladesmiths.
We will see you right back here at mystic
Seaport museum in four days.
♪ ♪
- It is day one, and I'm in catoosa, oklahoma,
At my home forge.
♪ ♪
I'm going to be doing a monosteel.
I'm using o1 tool steel,
Because I use it almost exclusively.
I think we're going to try and start our socket.
I've decided that I want the socket
On the outside of my shaft.
And so I just want to draw that out to width
And get it wrapped.
All righty.
So the parameters are 3-inch minimum for the width.
So as I'm drawing it out the width,
It makes the tip of the blade arch up
Giving me the bend required by the parameters.
It's the end of day one, and I have finished the forging part
Of my flensing knife.
♪ ♪
- I'm back in my home forge to make the flensing whale knife.
I'm making the socket first.
The difficult parts of making this knife
Are going to be incorporating the integral socket...
♪ ♪
Because it's forged from a single piece of steel.
There is no seam,
No connection point between the socket
And the knife.
And that junction is a crucial part.
Because one, they test it.
There's a strong chance that it could break there.
So as I am hammering it, I have to make sure
That the temperature is still good.
Because if I hit on cold metal
It could cause stress fractures
That can show up later.
So I finished the socket, and I still have more time.
So I'm going to start working on the blade,
Getting it inline with the socket,
Starting to put the curve into it.
Got the socket forged in.
Got the curve started.
Overall, it's in pretty good shape.
♪ ♪
[goat bleating] - it the morning of day two.
And I am ready for quench.
I am a little nervous going into quench,
Because being such a long blade
It is going to be difficult to keep it straight.
I'm going to try moving it through the fire
In an attempt to evenly heat it up to prevent warpage.
It's taking a fat minute to actually warm up,
A lot longer than I anticipated.
♪ ♪
Almost.
♪ ♪
Eh, that's pretty significant.
It is pretty warped.
And so I think I'm going to have to requench it.
I just love redoing work, you know?
It's so much fun.
Since I already quenched it,
There is a risk of overstressing your steel,
Which can cause fracturing.
But that warp could prevent it from performing well.
We're going to go for it and see what happens.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- The blade is greatly warped.
So I'm going to have to requench it.
There is a risk of fracturing.
But I've got to fix that warp.
♪ ♪
It's straight.
[laughs]
It worked out pretty great.
So tomorrow I'd like to work on the handle.
♪ ♪
- Day three, I've got the blade hardened,
Quenched, tempered all yesterday.
So today is all about starting the handle.
So I've got this 6-foot piece of hickory.
I need to remove a bunch of material
So that I can actually slide into the integral socket
On the blade.
And then I can start removing material on the handle
To make it comfortable.
I need to make sure everything's tight.
Because if it's too loose, when they go to test it,
It could just fall apart.
♪ ♪
I'm pretty happy with how it's fitting.
But I want to get it all the way up to this collar
Here before I call it good.
The socket is smaller than I had originally intended.
So I need to remove a bunch of material
So that I can actually slide into the integral socket
On the blade.
I'm calling that good.
♪ ♪
- It is the morning of day four.
And I got the handle finished yesterday.
And today is fit and finish.
Next, we're going to work on our cutting edge.
There have been a lot of challenges.
But I'm pretty happy with the build.
♪ ♪
Yeah, it's pretty sharp.
I am super excited to see some testing
On something really soft and gentle, like cake.
That would be great.
♪ ♪
- Day four.
I have an entire final day
Just to do the fit and finish work.
I'm feeling really good about things.
It's ready for the handle.
Nice, tight mechanical fit.
I'm pretty confident with the construction of my weapon.
There is a bit of epoxy in there
To keep the wood from moving around.
And I have two brass pins for the mechanical
Combination advantage.
Being a martial artist, I have to test it.
I want to know how it feels.
Overall, I just want to play with it.
♪ ♪
Ooh, that is sharp.
♪ ♪
- John and felicia, welcome back
To the mystic seaport museum.
Now, you both spent four days at your home forges
Putting together your flensing knives.
They look great.
But after today only one of you
Will hold the title of "forged in fire" champion
And get a check for $10,000.
In order to do so, we need to put your blades
Through a series of tests.
But before we do that, I want to hear about them.
So, jonathan, tell us about your blade.
- It went well.
♪ ♪
My blade is made out of 5160 steel with brass pins,
Integral handle, and a stabilized hickory handle.
- Awesome. Felicia, how about you?
- It was an adventure.
♪ ♪
My blade support's out of o1 tool steel
And also on an oak staff.
♪ ♪
- Well, both your blades look strong.
They look sharp.
But we have to find out which one of you
Is taking home the win today.
And to do so we're going to put your blades
Through a series of tests.
And first up, I'm going to give you to doug.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the dynamic keal test.
♪ ♪
Jonathan, you're up first.
You ready for this?
- Yes, sir.
- Let's do this.
- Going first is awful.
It's so nerve-racking.
And bones are not easy on blades, so I'm nervous.
♪ ♪
- All right, jonathan, let's talk about
Your flensing knife here.
First up, the handle here.
It's nice and ovoid.
And it really fits my hand for a grip and good retention.
Your edge held up nicely.
No issues.
Nice balance.
Wieldability and lethality is good.
And overall, it'll keal.
- Thank you.
- All right, felicia, your turn.
Are you ready? - Sure.
- Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- Going into this, it's a little scary.
Since I had to requench my blade a couple of times,
The edge might break off or roll.
I could win, or it could break gloriously, and I could lose.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Going into this, it's a little scary.
Since I had to requench my blade a couple times,
It could break gloriously, and I could lose.
♪ ♪
- Okay, then.
- All right, felicia, let's talk about
Your flensing knife here.
First up, it's a very light weapon
That you have designed over here.
I like the way it feels with the handle here.
Your edge cuts very deep into this ballistics dummy.
But during the test, you have two points right here where it
Took a little bit of a chip.
But I like the way it feels.
And overall, your flensing knife, it will keal.
- Thanks.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths, welcome to our
Dynamic strength test, the fish and dock pole chop.
Jonathan, you're up first. Are you ready for this?
- Yes, sir. - Okay.
♪ ♪
Both: Ooh.
- Dude.
- [sighs]
♪ ♪
- All right, jonathan, your blade was cutting beautifully.
It was holding up nicely.
But I started to feel it loosen a little bit.
What really caused that break was the pin.
The pin is very close to the edge of your shaft here.
All that stress goes right into the pin
And-or right around the shoulder.
And you can see this is where it broke.
♪ ♪
- Well, jonathan, the test was going so well.
We thought you were going to make it all the way through.
But unfortunately, your blade did
Take a catastrophic failure on the seventh strike
On the dock pole here.
You're not out of the fight yet.
You know how this goes.
Felicia, in order to take home the title of "forged in fire"
Champion and get a check for $10,000,
Your blade will have to survive all of these fish and seven
Strikes on the poles.
Are you ready? - Sure.
- All right.
Dave, take it away.
♪ ♪
- Here we go again.
Having already taken edge damage,
I don't know if my blade can handle seven strikes.
Can totally see my blade just shattering
Around the post, flying off into the water.
I am not optimistic that my blade will survive.
♪ ♪
- Everything held up.
♪ ♪
- Felicia, congratulations.
Your blade made it through all of the strikes in our tests.
Now, jonathan, you're clearly a talented smith.
You fought so hard through this mystic seaport challenge.
But unfortunately, because your blade
Did suffer a catastrophic failure during a test,
Your time in this competition has ended.
We want to say thank you for coming out and trying so hard.
Thank you, sir. - Thank you, jonathan.
- Thank you, guys. - Thank you, jonathan.
- I'm very disappointed my handle broke.
But I had a wonderful time.
I mean, it's just beautiful here at mystic seaport museum.
I learned a lot, met a lot of great people,
And got to see my work put through the wringer.
- Well, felicia, that means you are the new
"forged in fire" champion.
You are the youngest female champion.
You'll be receiving a check for $10,000.
Well done.
♪ ♪
- I'm pretty stoked.
Yeah, it's a little more clout than I expected.
So that's nice.
[laughs]
I get some exposure
Being a woman in a very man-saturated market.
I'm so excited. It's so cool.
Like, I won.
[laughs]
Now I can actually repay my mom and dad
For that brand-new anvil.
♪ ♪
[boat horn toots]