[fire whooshes]
[dramatic music]
- Here in The Forge, we have seen hundreds of smiths
create some of the most feared edged weapons in history.
♪ ♪
Now in honor of History's mini series event
"Colosseum," we have decided to transform
our forge into a Roman gladiators arena.
♪ ♪
Over the next few weeks, we are doing a competition
series unlike anything you've ever seen.
♪ ♪
This is Gladiators of The Forge.
♪ ♪
Over the course of five episodes
and ten battles, we will see bladesmiths
go head to head in sudden death competitions.
♪ ♪
The winner will become the Gladiator of The Forge
and earn a check for $5,000.
♪ ♪
Then they'll have the opportunity
to go back into the arena and fight again.
♪ ♪
Now if they keep winning, they will earn
more and more money with bonuses along the way.
♪ ♪
After two battles,
one gladiator has reigned supreme.
- Congratulations, you are a two-time
Gladiator of The Forge.
You now have $10,000.
- Right now nothing's for sure.
It's daunting.
There's a lot going on,
both physically and mentally.
It's tough.
- Tonight, we will find out if Kurt has what it takes
to earn his third Gladiator of The Forge title,
bringing him one step closer to that prize of $75,000.
Or will a new competitor come in
and knock him out of the arena?
- I'm here to win.
- The Gladiators of The Forge competition continues now.
[angelic chorus]
♪ ♪
- My name is Kurt,
and I'm a two-time
Gladiator of The Forge.
Being Gladiator of The Forge
is cool.
And if I can be the only ever
Gladiator of The Forge, that would be even coole.
I absolutely want another win.
If I didn't want another win,
I wouldn't be here doing another eight hours.
I'm exhausted.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- My name is Jesse Hu,
I'm from Phoenix, Arizona,
and I've been making knives
for three years.
From the outside,
I look really unintimidating.
I'm 160 pounds, fairly scrawny.
I feel like I might be very easy to underestimate.
But with all this money on the line,
I'm not gonna go down without a fight.
♪ ♪
- Kurt, Jesse, gentlemen, welcome to The Forge.
♪ ♪
The two of you are about to take part in the third batte
in our Gladiators of The Forge competition series.
Now, Kurt, you know how this goes.
But, Jesse, this round is going to consist
of eight hours of bladesmithing competition
where you're going to build a blade from start to finish.
Now once that time is up, you're going to be asked
to turn your blades over to our panel of expert judges,
who will put your blades through a series of tests.
At the end of that testing, they will decide which one
of you has earned a title
of Gladiator of The Forge.
And that win will come with a check for $5,000.
Now Kurt, you are currently standing with two
Gladiator of The Forge titles.
You've racked up $10,000.
If you win every single one of our ten competitions,
you will also get a bonus check for 25 grand.
That's a total of $75,000.
Jesse, you're the challenger here.
You're here to dethrone our current
winner and take your first
Gladiator of The Forge title,
and hopefully win $5,000.
Now if you do, you will have the chance
to move forward in the competition
and potentially earn some more cash.
- I'm here to win this competition as many times
as I can, because that's what I came here to do.
- Now first things first gentlemen, we need to find out
what blade from our ever-changing wall
of Roman gladiator weapons
you guys will both be building today.
And what technique you're both going
to be using to build that blade.
In order to find that out, we're going back
with an old-fashioned coin flip.
I have an authentic Roman coin here.
And if you win, you will have the opportunity to pick first.
Now Jesse, do you want heads or tail?
- I want heads.
- You want heads, all right, ready?
♪ ♪
We have landed on heads.
Do you want to pick the weapon you're both building?
Or do you want to pick the forge welding technique?
- The weapon.
- You want to pick the weapon, all right.
What are you thinking?
♪ ♪
- I'm thinking the kopis.
♪ ♪
- The kopis traces its origins back
to seventh century BC Greece.
But proved such a powerful fighting weapon,
it stood the test of time and remained popular
throughout the Roman Empire.
Featuring a wide recurve blade that
was designed to deliver deadly slashes,
and then an enclosed guard that protected the hand,
this one-handed weapon proved popular
with cavalry soldiers and gladiators alike.
The kopis previously made an appearance
in the "Forged in Fire" arena back in season five,
when the competition came down to the finest details.
♪ ♪
- The reason I chose this blade was because
I didn't want to make anything else up there.
I've never made any axes or hammers,
but the kopis I feel like I can do really well.
- All right gentlemen, your blades
must meet these parameters.
The blade length needs to be between 16 and 18 inches
and your belly needs to be at least 2 and 1/4 inches.
Now as far as the hilt goes, you guys both need to have
a functional guard and an animal head pommel.
All right, Kurt, since you lost the coin toss,
that means you must choose the forge-welding technique.
What have you got?
- So, with a belly that big, I think some
raindrop Damascus will look really good on that blade.
- Ooh.
- I think it's a really cool pattern and maybe it'll
give Jesse kind of a run for his money.
- All right, gentlemen, you will have
eight hours to build your kopis
with raindrop Damascus pattern.
Bladesmiths, good luck, your time starts now.
♪ ♪
That was a pretty risky pick with the kopis.
I think that's the most intricate blade
we have on the wall right now.
- I think this is the most detailed
of any of the blades up there.
- And this is coming from a competitor
who hasn't been here.
So, it's going to be interesting.
- Going into this competitio,
exhaustion is definitely a concern of mine.
So I'm making sure that I'm not getting lazy
and skipping steps.
I don't want to get complacent with what I'm doing.
I'm hanging in there but it's tough.
- This being Kurt's third battle,
we get to know a little bit of the bladesmith,
and we do know that when it comes
to patterned Damascus he can do the job.
- I end up starting with 18 layers,
because I don't think I'm going to need all 20 pieces
for this blade.
And last battle, Brian was eliminated
because his blade was too heavy.
- I cannot, no.
- So I want to make sure that I do anything
that I can to avoid these problems.
♪ ♪
- Currently, I'm a sophomore
at the University of Michigan and I'm double majoring
in electrical and mechanical engineering.
Oh, my god, that's so nerdy.
Coming in this competition, I'm a little bit nervous.
I'm up against Kurt, who's already won twice,
which means he'll be thinking more calmly than me.
But otherwise, I think I've prepared well
for the competition.
- Jesse is moving faster than Kurt
has at all in this competition.
- Jesse might be giving Kurt a run for his money.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, one hour has elapsed.
Kurt is taking some time to make everything
right and even.
I think very soon we're gonna see
a cleanup, a cut, a restack, and a weld.
- Oh, good, get up to at least 50 layers,
'cause then that raindrop starts to become
multiple rings, as opposed to what
we tend to see as "puddle Damascus,"
where we have a round mark,
but not really a lot of definition.
- So right now I stretched my billet out,
I'm going to cut it up into five pieces,
which will overall give me 90 layers,
and will make that raindrop Damascus stand out a lot more.
♪ ♪
- Jesse's out of the forge,
doing a hammer set first before heading to the press.
- I got started smithing by watching videos
and being really bored,
and also trying to avoid doing Chinese school homework.
[chuckles]
- Jesse looking for the press.
Just evening everything out to a nice long rectangle,
hopefully he'll cut and stack too.
- 20 layers is too little for an intricate raindrop.
So I decided that I have to stack it up
at least three times, which will give me 60 layers.
- What I like about this is that both competitors
are not going with the minimal standards
to make that raindrop Damascus.
They're trying to add more layers, I love that.
♪ ♪
- I want to get close
to the final length of the blade.
That's when I want to start
putting in the raindrop pattern.
- So how exactly do you get to a proper
raindrop Damascus pattern?
Well, if you think of the different layers
of steel having different colors,
then you cut a round V-shaped hole,
not all the way through, just partly through,
then you flatten those layers out.
Now you see these concentric rings.
And if you do that all over the place,
it looks like raindrops on a puddle.
- I want to cut deep enough that when I forge it back out,
it will show up, but not so deep
that I could have all these voids
in my blade that could develop weak points.
So there's that happy medium that I'm hoping I can nail.
Too good.
♪ ♪
- Whoa, Jesse also got all of his drops drilled in.
- So after I have all these holes drilled,
it's time to flatten out the billet
and get the actual raindrop pattern.
And then once I have that, it's time to start
forging out the blade.
The kopis is a really unusually-shaped blade,
and the belly height is actually
one of the parameters that I have to follow.
The belly of the kopis has to be the thinnest part,
so I do my best to make the belly as thin as possibl.
Ah, okay.
I've got my blade forged out pretty close.
So I go over to the grinder and I begin
roughing out the profile.
- Gentlemen, you have four hours left on the clock!
♪ ♪
- Once I'm comfortable with the shape of the blade
and the bevels, I'm getting ready to quench.
This is the most important step,
because without the quench
and hardening your blade, you have something that
looks like a blade but it's not a blade.
- Kurt's quenched.
- Hotter than heck.
- I immediately hear some sounds that I'm not happy with.
It sounded like there was a crack.
- Uh-oh.
- I'm really hoping that it's not a crack,
but I might have to start over.
- Things are looking a little questionable
for Kurt right now.
- If I had to start over right now,
I don't know if I'd be able to finish a blade.
[angelic chorus]
[suspenseful music]
- The heat is on in the third battle
of our Gladiator of The Forge competition.
- Every step of the way so far, guys,
our smiths have been neck and neck.
So basically what we're running into is our curret
gladiator has met a worthy opponent.
♪ ♪
- Kurt's quenched.
- Hotter than heck.
♪ ♪
- It sounded like there was a crack.
- Uh-oh.
- If I had to start over right now.
I don't know if I'd be able to finish a blade.
- Things are looking a little questionable
for Kurt right now.
- I'm not seeing anything, which is very relieving.
I think what I was feeling
was some of the oil splashing
up on the tang
and just popping,
but it's strong all the way through.
And it kind of settled my nerves a little bit.
♪ ♪
- Now that I've got this blade rough ground,
it's time for the heat treat.
$5,000 is riding on this quench.
♪ ♪
- All right, we've got two quenched blades.
That was an immaculate color.
♪ ♪
- The quench could not have gone better.
I test it with a file, skates like nobody's business.
- He seems happy with it.
- Jesse's proven he's a force to be reckoned with.
♪ ♪
- Kurt, Jesse, guys, you have two hours left!
- So I start working on this animal head pommel.
I draw what looks like it might be a horse.
I don't know what it's gonna look like when I'm finished,
but right now I'm kind of going for a hors.
- Well, they need to do some fine grinding
on that pommel to make it into an animal head.
They need to have it identifiable as the anima.
- It's gonna be a fun game of What's That Animal?
- Kind of resembles a wolf face.
♪ ♪
- That's an animal.
- You know what? I'm gonna call it Cody.
'Cause my dog's name is Cody.
Honestly, the pommel looks like her head,
and she's always on her back wanting belly rubs.
So it's the old belly rub kopis.
Totally intentional, planned that from the beginning.
♪ ♪
- Now that I've got a quenched blade,
it's time to start working on the handle.
I have all my pieces, but they're just blocks
at this point and I need to start shaping them.
So I begin working on the wooden part of the handle.
This part's super tricky, because I have to get the wod
to fit basically exactly to the pommel and the guard.
♪ ♪
Ahh.
- Uh-oh.
- Ah, nope.
- Jesse was working on his handle,
ground too small and had to completely restart
with those scales.
- I'm staying unusually calm.
But I know in the back of my head,
there's this demon trying to break free
from its cage and send me into panic mode.
And I could not let that happen.
And so after the first one fails,
I decide to make a template out of this new wood
that I have now cut into scales.
And then I draw another outline on to those scales
so that I know roughly where I need to take material off.
- It's one of the things I think
maybe comes from being an engineer.
- That's a problem-solving craft.
This is a room full of problems.
- Three of the biggest ones are sitting right here.
- Yep. - [laughs]
- Ugly, but it'll do.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, you are down to the final 20 minute.
- All three competitions now,
I've come down to the wire every time so far.
So I'm still struggling with that handle fit up.
- This handle is a lot more detailed
than any of the other handles he's already done.
- There's a much bigger gap between the handle
and the guard than what I wanted.
- If you do have gaps, fill them.
Mix some sawdust with some epoxy.
Because any one of those small areas
can really bite a piece of skin.
- I'm running out of time, my handle's not pretty.
It doesn't look nearly as good as I wante.
So I'm now back to--I'm going to be spending every minute
and I'm going to have a gap in my handle now.
♪ ♪
- There's so much to do and really
not that much time to do it.
I'm trying not to make an unfixable mistake.
A bad-looking handle could be the difference
between me winning and me losing.
- This particular sword needs a lot of effort on the handle,
a lot of time needs to be spent on this handle.
- I also need to get this animal head
to look like an animal head,
because at this point it's just a block.
And as far as I know,
no animal has block as it's head.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three,
two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines,
put down your tools.
This competition is over.
- Good job dude. - Nice job.
♪ ♪
- I do have some pressure to hold on to the title.
It's almost a pride thing at this point.
But I know that there's issues.
The blade itself is very strong.
But it's whether it's comfortable to the judges.
♪ ♪
- All right bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test.
♪ ♪
To test the strength and durability of your blades,
as well as their overall construction.
I'm going to be chopping onto these Roman busts.
All right Jesse, you're up first, are you ready for this?
- Yes.
- Cool.
♪ ♪
- I've seen Ben test blades before,
and he definitely doesn't hold back.
I'm worried that my blade would either break
in half, crack, or just spontaneously combus.
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ ♪
- All right Jesse, your edge is perfect,
like it never saw that bust.
The overall shape is really good.
My main concern is with the handle area,
this distance top and bottom is just a little bit
too small, so it's rubbing on my knuckle
as I'm holding it but it's not overwhelming.
All in all, nice job.
All right, Kurt.
You know what's up, you ready for this?
- Does it matter? [laughs]
- Not really.
♪ ♪
- I'm concerned about the weight of my handle.
I'm also concerned about the finish.
Jesse's blade looks like it's got a much finer finish to i.
So hopefully I can outperform him in this test,
because I do want to hold the title.
[angelic chorus]
[suspenseful music]
- I'm concerned about the weight of my handle.
I'm also concerned about the finish.
I do want to hold the title.
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ ♪
- All right Kurt,
first off your edge held up great.
The pattern you have on here is beautiful.
It's a really nice raindrop pattern, well done.
Moving back to the handle.
The handle is blocky, which kind of isn't
a very comfortable handle to hold and swing.
Also it's got a gap in the middle
and the inside edges of that gap are sharp.
They're sharp enough that they're rubbing
pretty hard on my knuckle,
but all in all,
your blade held up great in this strength test, nice job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right gladiators, this is the sharpness tes,
the animal hide slice.
♪ ♪
Jesse, you're up first, are you ready for this?
- Of course.
- Let's do this.
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ ♪
All right Jesse, let's talk about your kopis here,
your edge is razor sharp, it cuts so cleanly
on this animal hide.
Overall sir, your weapon...
it will cut.
Kurt, your turn sir, are you ready?
- Slice it up.
- Will do.
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ ♪
All right Kurt, let's talk about your Kopis here.
Now your handle construction, if I do put my hand in there
my knuckle can get in there and there's some sharp edges
in there that can cut some skin,
but your edges cut very well on this animal hide,
and overall sir, your weapon...
It will cut.
- Thank you Doug.
♪ ♪
- Well, gentlemen, I would say that both of your
kopises performed extremely well during that test,
which means that our judges have
a very difficult decision to make.
So while they discuss, I'm gonna ask the both of you
give us a minute, please step off The Forge floor.
♪ ♪
All right gentlemen, we got two high performers here.
Doug, what are you thinking?
- Now when it comes to the blade itself,
I really have to give it to Jesse,
it's very clean in its construction.
I like the way he designed that, the scale of it.
- Ben, what are you thinking?
- Well, they both had issues with their handles.
But for me the blade shape on Jesse's
is much more elegant than the blade shape on Kurt's.
- Okay, Dave, what are you thinking?
- One to me feels like a finished weapon.
And the other one feels like it's close
to being finished, but it's not there yet.
- Gentlemen, you have a decision to make.
Dave, you made yours? - Oh, yeah.
- Doug. - Yes I have.
- Ben, how about you? - Yes sir.
- All right guys, we'll call them in.
♪ ♪
Gentlemen, right off the bat, I want to say
thank you so much for working so hard in this competition.
Now Kurt, this could be number three for you.
Jesse, this could be your first Gladiator of The Forge title,
$5,000,
and a chance to move forward and continue winnin.
But after a closer look at your blades,
our judges did make a final decision.
And the winner of this battle
in the Gladiator of The Forge competition is...
♪ ♪
Jesse. Very, very well done.
Now Kurt, you did a phenomenal job.
You're a pleasure to watch.
But unfortunately, this blade didn't make the cut.
And Ben's gonna tell you why.
- Well Kurt, this decision came down
to the handle and your handle was sharp corners
on the inside, was less refined than your opponent.
And that's what we based our decision on.
♪ ♪
- Well Kurt, we all want to say congratulations
on your two wins, you have $10,000
in your pocket for only 16 hours of work.
That's--that's a lot of money, man.
And you've got a ton to be proud of.
But unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'ma have to ask you to please step off The Forge floor.
- Thank you gentlemen.
I might not have won this challenge.
But I am proud of everything that I've done.
So now I'm passing on the title to Jesse
and I really hope he runs with it.
He seems like a very talented smith,
and I have high expectations for him.
♪ ♪
- Now Jesse, you knocked the leader off his pedestal.
You are now the Gladiator of The Forge
and you're getting a check for $5,000.
Now Jesse, you've got a big decision to make.
You just spent eight hours fighting it ot
in The Forge and you came out on top.
But do you have what it takes to get back
in the coliseum and get back in the battl?
- Of course. - [laughs]
That's fantastic.
- It's unbelievable.
I don't know how I got here.
- Well, congratulations again on your winning the 5 grand.
We will see you in The Forge for the next battle.
- I just won 5 grand, I'm going to be doing
my absolute hardest to keep winning,
because that's what I came here to do.
♪ ♪
- My name is Ben Banister.
I am 23 years old
and I got into blade smithing
because a buddy of mine
offered me a job at a forge
in Colorado Springs.
Looking at Jesse, knowing that he has already won
one competition, that tells me this guy knows
how to make something that's able to compete.
I'm gonna give it my all and we'll see what happen.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
Jesse, you currently have one
Gladiator of The Forge title and the chance to move
forward and earn a substantial amount of money.
If you win five or more times, you will also be
receiving that bonus check of $10,000.
Now Ben, you're the challenger here.
If you win today, you will get the title
of Gladiator of The Forge and along with that
the opportunity to continue on into the next battle
racking up more titles, and more cash.
Now gentlemen, here's how it's gonna go.
In the next eight hours you will build a blade
from our wall of gladiator weapons from start to finish.
All right Ben, how we're going to find out
what weapon and what forge welding technique
you guys are both going to use in this competition,
I'm going to flip our Roman coin here.
Now Ben, since you're the challenger here,
I'm going to give you the option,
do you want heads or tails?
- Let's go with tails.
- All right, if this coin lands on tails,
you get first choice.
♪ ♪
We got tails.
- Right on.
- Now again, you have the choice
of the weapon or the forge-welding technique.
- The weapon.
- All right, we've got quite the assortment here,
all of which look pretty daunting.
What are you thinking?
- I see some blades up there on the wall,
like this crazy sleeve with a blade coming out of it.
I don't want to make that.
♪ ♪
My mind is pinging back and forth.
Which one do I want to choose? Which one do I want to choose?
[angelic chorus]
[suspenseful music]
- I see some blades up there on the wall,
like this crazy sleeve with a blade coming out of it.
I don't want to make that.
Let's go with the xiphos.
- The xiphos, all right.
- The xiphos is a leaf blade double edged sword
and just super cool and very iconic for the gladiators.
- The xiphos first saw battle
back in seventh century BC Greece.
But was so effective, it also saw action
in the hands of gladiators in the Colosseum.
Featuring a short double edge leaf-shaped blade
with a sharp tip.
This weapon was designed to inflict brutal thrusts
and slashes against an enemy in close quarter combat.
The xiphos was previously featured
in season three of "Forged in Fire,"
where a loose pommel
ultimately cost one smith the competition.
- Your blade length measured from tip to where
the cutting edge ends in a straight line
needs to be between 19 and 21 inches.
The base width of your blade needs
to be no less than 2 and 1/4 inches.
It needs to be double edged and leaf shaped,
and finally, your hilt needs to feature
a guard and a pommel.
Now Jesse, we got the weapon out of the way,
that means you get to choose the forge-welding technique.
What do you want to do?
- I want Damascus San Mai.
- Damascus San Mai, ooh, that's a tall order.
That means you will have layered Damascus
clad on a high carbon steel center.
Gentlemen, that's gonna be quite the task.
- I chose this technique because
Damascus San Mai sounds very intimidating.
I'm just banking on like, the shock factor.
- We have eight hours on the clock for this battle.
Good luck, stay sharp, your time starts now.
♪ ♪
- We have a new Gladiator of The Forge champion.
- Yeah, we do, and a new challenger.
Now I'm excited to see Jesse continue on.
There's a chance that he could go a very long way,
knowing that he already beat a battle champ.
- Now it remains to be seen, will Ben follow suit?
♪ ♪
- San Mai is difficult.
Damascus San Mai--
now you're adding multiple forge welds.
So what that tells me is, Jesse is not scared
of a challenge and I respect that.
- All right guys, a vote of the thumbs.
How do you guys feel about the xiphos as a decision?
- It's probably the least difficult one to do.
But it's also the least flashy one to do.
- Now, they chose to do the xiphos in a Damascus San Ma.
How do you feel about that pattern choice?
- I like it.
The trick is, Damascus San Mai, is a process.
- I'm choosing to do two separate stacks of ten layers
because I need two outside billets
that I can then put onto my 80CrV2.
I'm going to do those both at the same time so that once
I'm done with one I'm done with the other
and I can start my San Mai as fast as possible.
♪ ♪
- I'm a little bit less nervous
than coming into the first battle, because I know
where everything in the shop is,
and I have $5,000 worth of confidence.
♪ ♪
For my Damascus, I'm using ten layers of 1095
and ten layers of 5920.
- So we've got the same amount of layers from both
of our smiths but Jesse has all 20 in one stack,
whereas Ben has two stacks of 10.
- Now with Jesse we know he works fast, and we know he can
definitely make Damascus and form a blade.
- I'm feeling good.
The only thing that I'm unsure of,
is how good Ben is in the forge.
♪ ♪
- All right, Ben's going to set his welds on the press.
- I don't see any problems,
and I'm ready to start drawing them out.
I'll line up my billets next to my 80CrV2,
and I can check the length and also the width,
because with San Mai, if they're too wide,
they'll squeeze in on each other
and I can cause a big crack along the blade.
- I like that he's really cleaning up the edges
and making everything symmetrical.
It's going to help with that second weld.
- I want to be quenched in about three hours.
I'll see if I can hit that goal.
Right now I'm just trying to get
my billets welded together.
- Bladesmiths, you have hit the
two hour mark, you have six hours left!
♪ ♪
You know what I love right now is,
we started off with Kurt who won
two of these battles, an extremely talented smith,
he got beat by Jesse, who just matched him
the moment he stepped into the battle.
And now we got Ben who stepped in,
neck and neck with the new champion.
- It's really cool.
- Everybody just keeps stepping up to the challenge here.
- Yeah, we keep raising the bar.
♪ ♪
- Jesse setting his weld by hand again.
- Again, what you're comfortable with.
♪ ♪
- The billet is really solid.
So I go over to the press and start
drawing the billet out.
My plan is to draw this 20 layer Damascus billet
out to a length of 2 feet,
cut it in half, and then sandwich my 80CrV2.
- Looks like Jesse's done with drawing out his
billet and he's got a chop saw cutting it off.
- I'm just really fascinated to see,
are these guys going to reduce the width of their billet
back to one and a half to match the core?
Or are they going to get that core, stick it on,
and kind of be a little nervous?
- Ugh.
My Damascus pieces are a lot wider than my 80CrV2 pieces.
♪ ♪
So it's crucial that I get these centered correctly.
- He's got a lot of overhang on either side
of that center material.
If he presses that down until it welds up,
chances are there's going to be a cold shut right in there.
- Yeah, I'd grind it down.
- Yeah, exactly, get a clean billet.
- Yeah.
- There's a lot of risk in not making
these billets the exact same size,
but I'm starting to feel the clock now.
♪ ♪
- I'm feeling pretty good about this forge weld,
and now it's just drawing it out to that 19 inches.
- Ben's at the point with that billet of his,
that he should fuller that thing.
- The leaf blade is difficult in and of itself.
Having it wide at the base, then coming down
into that skinnier neck, and then widening
back out into that leaf.
You've got to move metal and you really have
to understand how metal moves to get shapes like that.
With the power hammer die, I'm able to stretch that steel
out pretty nice, getting it closer
to that final shape that I want.
- All right guys, you have four hours remaining!
- As I'm drawing the billet out on the forging press,
I think the welds have set really well,
but I can't tell because of the overhanging layers.
[bleep].
Ugh.
There's a cold shut around my entire billet.
But I don't know how far this cold shut goes,
until I go to the grinder and start peeling it.
- He's got to knock those flanges off.
That overhang has got to go.
- If I keep grinding and the cold shut
never disappears, I have to start over
and that's time I don't have.
It's time for the moment of truth.
[angelic chorus]
[suspenseful music]
- Well guys, we're now in the fourth battle
in our Gladiator of The Forge competition,
we have a new reigning champion with Jesse.
So he may have come into this one
feeling extremely confident.
Things changed.
- There's a cold shut around my entire billet.
If I keep grinding and the cold shut never disappears,
I have to start over, and that's time I don't have.
♪ ♪
I'm beyond relieved.
The cold shut only goes along the edge.
It does not go through and I am still in this.
It's time to start forging this blade to shape.
♪ ♪
- Well, both of our smiths now have their second billet.
They've done their weld sets.
It's a tight race.
- Ours basically look the same right now.
- I know, I guess we're making the same blade.
- [laughs]
- So once I get my billet drawn out and to shape,
I start cleaning it, and all of a sudden...
♪ ♪
Judges: Ooh.
- It smacked me right in my face.
[laughs] Whew.
- What kind of gladiator battle would it be if nobody
got smacked in the face a time or two?
- [laughs]
- I was fine.
Put the belt back onto the sander and just kept going.
♪ ♪
Everything looks pretty symmetrical.
So now I'm ready to start getting
this thing prepped for quench.
Quench is a really big deal, especially with San Mai,
a lot of things can go wrong.
Those three billets can just want to pop
away from each other, so it's really
important that I nail this quench.
♪ ♪
- Ben's in the oil.
- You didn't see any yellow on that blade,
it was all an orange color that I would guess
it's a couple hundred degrees above ideal.
- Looks straight.
I feel good.
So now it's just letting it cool down,
and ultimately starting to put my bevels in once it cool.
♪ ♪
- Jesse's opened up the back of his forge.
We're looking at a quench here pretty soon.
- I'm more than halfway through the eight hours.
If this quench fails, I'm screwed.
- Here we go.
♪ ♪
That's two blades quenched almost simultaneously.
These guys are neck and neck.
- I heard no pings or pops during the quench,
and I take it out.
File test it, and it skates like ice.
Perfect.
Now that I'm quenched, I take the blade over
to the grinder and begin hogging off material.
♪ ♪
Why is it called hogging off?
Why can't it be like cowing off?
♪ ♪
- Now I'm ready to get my bevels ground in.
Leaf blades are double edged, and so it's not
only two bevels, but four bevels.
So it's just time consuming making sure
that everything's nice and symmetrical.
I'm looking at Ben's profile from here, something feels off.
Is it because the belly is right close to the tip?
- Yeah, there's not as much taper to the point,
so that swell is a little bit further forward.
- Well, how's that gonna affect testing?
- It'll make it more forward heavy for sure.
- It is a little heavier than I want it to be.
But the clock is always on my mind.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, you have 90 minutes left!
♪ ♪
Looks like Jesse is adding a rod
of mild steel to the end of his tang.
Now what does that tell you guys?
- It tells me I'm a happy man, I've been waiting
to see somebody do that forever.
That's what he's going to peen over and it's just
so much easier to peen mild steel
than it is hardenable steel.
♪ ♪
- How important is that weld if you're putting
mild steel on the back of your tang?
- It's crucial. - [laughs]
- As I'm grinding off the welds,
I see that I do not have clean material.
Ugh.
If this weld is weak, my pommel is going to fly off
when they test it, and I cannot have that.
- Ah.
- Yeah, not good.
So I decide to just start over and put a new piece on.
This time, I spent a little bit more time
trying to get these welds perfect.
- You know what I like about Jesse,
is though he's very precise in his work,
he focuses on the right things as far as I'm concerned.
- I grind off the welds and it is perfect.
It looks like one homogenous piece of steel.
Thank God that worked.
If that didn't work, I was completely screwed.
But I'm starting to panic.
I have so much to do in so little time.
♪ ♪
- Looking at my handle, I realize it's a little
too long so I gotta shorten up the handle so that
the whole piece is the right size for a handle.
Eventually I get it, it slides all the way up.
So that means it's time to work on my pommel.
♪ ♪
- Wait a minute.
Look how small it is.
- Ooh.
- This is potentially going to be a really spindly handle.
- My handle's feeling good.
Now I'm ready to go put an edge on this thing.
♪ ♪
- To peen the pommel on, I put my blade
into the vise with everything in place.
I heat up that little piece sticking out
of the pommel and begin hammering it on.
- Jesse's peening it over
and there's sparks going everywhere.
- If I use too much force to peen it on,
I could misalign my handle pieces.
I could break off the rod that goes through the pommel.
A lot of things can go wrong.
- Doesn't take much.
♪ ♪
- I finish peening my piece and now it's time
to start finally grinding my handle to shape.
This is the least time I've ever had to shape a handle.
I have to make sure that there's no sharp edges
on my pommel or guard that could cut a judge's hand.
With just seconds left on the clock,
I sharpen the blade as best I can.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three,
two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines,
put down your tools, this battle is officially over!
- Good job, man. - Heck of a matchup.
- [sighs]
- Eight hours to make a sword is exhausting.
It was a lot harder than I was anticipating.
The fact that Jesse and I both finished
is super fun and I can't wait for testing.
♪ ♪
- All right gentlemen, it's time for our
strength test, the Roman pot chop.
♪ ♪
And Jesse, you are up first, are you ready?
- Yes. - Yes.
♪ ♪
- This test is a little bit concerning to me,
because it's ceramic, ceramic hates steel.
You usually use ceramic to dull your blades.
So I don't know what's going to happen.
♪ ♪
[angelic chorus]
[tense music]
- This test is a little bit concerning to me,
because it's ceramic, ceramic hates steel.
So I don't know what's going to happen.
[exhales]
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ ♪
- Okay Jesse, right off when I grab thi,
that handle's a good, good size for me.
As far as your edge holding up, I mean, I can feel
some loss of sharpness, but man,
where I didn't hit a pot, it's definitely a sharp blade.
But I think you did a great job on the balance,
the look of this is sweet, and the scale is right on.
Nicely done.
- Thank you.
- Ben, you ready?
- Yes sir. - Okay, cool.
♪ ♪
- After Jesse's weapon performs
really well against those pots,
now I'm just praying that my blade can hold its own.
Definitely nerve racking.
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ ♪
- All right, Ben, right off,
could use a little bit more handle,
but I like the transitions you've got
from handle to pommel and from handle to guard.
As far as the edge of your blade goes,
you got a lot of rolling.
There's a couple of spots that there are actually little
sharp burrs, but everything's right and tight.
Felt good. Held up well.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Gladiators of The Forge.
Looks like it's coming down to this.
This is the sharpness test,
the flying sandbag slice.
♪ ♪
Jesse, you're up first, are you ready for this?
- Yeah. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ ♪
All right Jesse, let's talk about your
xiphos sword right here.
It's got a great, nice feel to it.
The balance of this is really good
and talking about your edge,
it slices, and I can move around with your weapon.
Overall, sir, your xiphos...
It will cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, Ben, your turn, so are you ready?
- Let's do it. - Let's have some fun.
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ ♪
All right Ben, let's talk about your
xiphos sword here.
Your handle, it's smooth.
It's just a little bit small for my hands.
I'd rather have something girthier in there
so that when I'm wielding this
I really have good control of it.
But the areas where you suffered a little bit
of rolling were not an issue.
It cut nicely on these bags.
Overall, sir, your xiphos...
It will cut.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, from the moment you stepped
into this coliseum, it was clear
that you came here ready to fight.
But in this competition, only one of you
can come out of this battle
as the Gladiator of The Forge and receive a check for $5,000.
Now, Jesse, if you win, that is your second win
in this competition, putting you at a total of $10,000
and keeping you in the running for the most
amount of money ever given out
in "Forged in Fire" history.
Now Ben, if you win, you knock out our reigning champion,
you get a check for $5,000, a Gladiator of The Forge title,
and you have the chance to move forward into the next battle.
The winner of this Gladiator of The Forge battle is...
♪ ♪
Jesse, you did it again, congratulations.
Now, Ben, you are clearly a force to be reckoned with.
But unfortunately your blade did not make the cut,
and Dave Baker's gonna tell you why.
- Ben, you're a heck of a gladiator and the design
you were headed towards was great.
But those rough grinds on the handle,
the handle being small, and the damage you took,
all added up to sending you home.
- I understand.
All of us want to say thank you so much for coming
to this battle and fighting so hard,
but unfortunately at this time, I'm going to have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- Thank you gentlemen, for the opportunity.
Jesse, congrats.
- Good work man. - Great job man.
♪ ♪
- I absolutely agree with the judge's decision.
Jesse turned in an incredible blade.
I'm happy that I was able to complete the challeng.
But ultimately, Jesse did end up on top.
Jesse, you're an incredible smith, a great guy.
Go on and win the entire thing, brother.
♪ ♪
- Jesse, that makes you a two-time
Gladiator of The Forge, you are now
at a total of $10,000, congratulations.
- Thank you. [applause]
I just won two battles in a row.
I am so happy, and I have $10,000 in my wallet now,
and I still have the opportunity to win more.
I'm gonna have to email my professors and tell them
I can't come to class because who knew I would be here?
I'm here to win.
My plan is to go as far as I can,
hopefully to the end of all of the gladiator battles.
♪ ♪
[angelic chorus]