[rock 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 miniseries event, "colosseum,"
We have decided to transform our forge
Into a roman gladiators aren.
♪ ♪
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.
♪ ♪
So far, we've had four battles,
One gladiator dethroned,
And a new champion with two wins under his belt.
You are now at a total of $10,000. Congratulations.
- 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.
- Tonight, with two wins under his belt,
Let's see if jesse has what it takes to be our
Longest running gladiator of the forge.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- My name is jesse hu.
I'm 19 years old coming from gilbert, arizona.
And I'm the reigning gladiator of the forge.
I have two wins under my belt,
And I plan to keep winning.
Coming into my third battle,
I'm not starting from scratch anymore.
I know where everything is in the shop.
I'm not intimidated by the judges' glares.
I feel pretty confident.
♪ ♪
- My name is eric perrault.
I am 41 years old.
I've been forging for two and a half years.
I am a viking reenactor, hence the look.
We do full steel combat.
The vikings actually took a lot of things
From the history of the roman empire.
Having a knowledge of the techniques of combat is
Definitely going to help when it comes
To the techniques of making the weapons.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.
Gentlemen, you're here to compete in the fifth battle
Of our gladiator of the forge competition.
♪ ♪
Here in our roman colosseum-themed forge,
You guys are about to go head-to-head
In a sudden death battle
Where you'll be building a blade from start to finish
In only eight hours.
Now, gentlemen, when the time runs out,
You'll be asked to present your finished work
To our panel of expert judges
Who will put your blades through a series of tests.
Gentlemen, they are the ones
Who are making all the decisions today,
Deciding which one of you is coming out
Gladiator of the forge, and who's heading home.
♪ ♪
Now, jesse, you have two notches on your victory bel.
This could potentially be your third win totaling $15,00.
If you win five or more times,
You will also be receiving that bonus check of $10,000.
Now, eric, this is your first battle.
You're here to dethrone our current champion,
Take your first title and a check for $5,000.
- My competitor, he's been here,
He knows what's going on.
So he has an idea of what's coming.
And that's a little nerve-wracking
Knowing that I don't know, but he does.
- In order to find out which weapon from the ever-changing
Wall of gladiator weapons we have here you will be building,
As well as the forge welding technique that you'll both use,
We're gonna flip a coin.
Here I have an authentic roman empire coin.
Eric, since you're the challenger, you get to choose.
Heads or tails? - Tails.
- All right, if it lands on tails,
You'll get first choice.
You ready?
♪ ♪
It landed on heads.
That means, jesse, weapon or forge welding technique?
- I want the weapon.
- You know how this works. What are you thinking?
- This time around I'm a little bit more confident.
I've proven to myself that I can actually win,
And I want to scare my opponent.
I'm thinking the sica sword.
♪ ♪
- The sica traces its origins back to the first century
Where it was widely used by thracian gladiators
In the roman colosseum.
Featuring a large hooked, double-edged blade,
This deadly weapon was specifically designed to reach
Around shields to deliver cuts and slashes on an enemy.
While its unique curve
Made the sica a formidable opponent in battle,
It proved extremely challenging for bladesmiths
To replicate back in a season four competition
On "forged in fire."
- All right, gentlemen,
You will both be building the sica today.
When you turn them in, make sure they meet
These following parameters.
Your blade length measured from tip
To where the cutting edge ends in a straight line
Needs to be between 19 and 21 inches.
Your blade needs to be double-edged
And have a medial ridge.
There needs to be an angular bend in your blade.
Need to have a wooden guard with a metal plate
And a globe pommel.
Now, eric, because jesse got to pick the weapon,
That leaves you with the forge welding technique.
What are you thinking?
- Ladder pattern damascus. - Ladder pattern damascus.
All right, now do you want to have
Any minimum layer count?
- 120.
- There we go. I love it. - [blows raspberry]
- I'm going with the 120-layer ladder pattern damascus
Because I'm comfortable with damascus,
And I'm hoping that the high layer count
Might trip up my younger opponent.
- Good luck, gentlemen. Stay sharp.
Your time starts now.
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
We got an interesting matchup today, guys.
We've got a modern engineer against a viking
In a colosseum themed competition.
Our smiths are starting with 12 layers of 1095,
12 layers of 15n20, totaling 24 layers.
- That's more than enough steel to make this blade.
- Ladder pattern I'm not too concerned about,
It is what he said after that scared me.
[chuckles] 120 layers, man, why?
That is a big billet.
♪ ♪
My first billet is 24 layers.
And my plan is to get it drawn out
And then cut it up into five.
That would bring me to a total of exactly 120 layers.
Back in high school, I played a bunch of sports.
I ran track and field.
I played basketball, volleyball, varsity swimming.
All right.
Although these sports don't really have anything
To do with smithing, helping keep me in shape
Has made sure that I hit harder and hit for longer
To deal with anything this competition throws me.
♪ ♪
- Eight hours is not a lot of time to do this at all.
This is a one-handed sword we're making,
It can't be heavy.
So I'm starting with 14 layers of 15n20 and 1095.
Welding!
I'm going to have to cut it into three,
Restack it-- that will give me 42 layers.
And then I'm going to have to cut it
Into three and restack it again
In order to get to my 126 layers.
- Eric's only got 14 layers in his initial stack,
Where jesse's using every single one
Of the 24 layers we gave him.
- Well, that's just causing more work for eric
Because he's gonna have to stretch out that steel further,
Stack it more, and he's also going to lose
More material when he's grinding all those pieces flat.
- If I fall short on the amount of steel,
I may have to just start from scratch again.
Hopefully I have enough.
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
- Jesse going for his first press.
Massive stack.
- Jesse's doing a good job
Keeping everything nice and even.
- Once I'm certain that my welds are set,
I get ready to draw out my billet.
♪ ♪
- Look at the color that jesse works his billet at.
- Nice.
- Now I've got my billet drawn out to approximately
18, 19 inches, I bring it over to the chop saw
And begin chopping it into five pieces.
♪ ♪
Let's go.
Now that the pieces are chopped, I want to make sure
That all of the welding surfaces are clean.
♪ ♪
Restacking is definitely very nerve-wracking in ths
Competition because it just leaves more room for erro,
And I don't want my piece to break.
♪ ♪
- Eric's hand-setting his weld,
Making sure everything's nice and tight.
- I've got my welds set,
And now it's time to draw this billet out.
♪ ♪
I get my three pieces,
And then it's back to the welder.
And I'm back to the forge again.
I realize that I may have been taking a little
More steel off of the billet than I really
Needed to take off of the billet.
- Looking at eric's billet,
It just doesn't look like it's got enough steel.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, we got two hours down, six hours to go.
- I'm pressing my billet down on the press,
And it seems my welds were perfect.
And then it dawns on me...
- In the raindrop pattern damascus challenge,
Jesse drilled more holes than I've ever seen in a billet.
♪ ♪
I'm curious to see how he goes about this ladder.
- I can definitely use an angle grinder to do this,
But I hate angle grinders.
I decided to just use the flat platen instead.
- Only thing that worries me about jesse is,
He's putting these in very aggressively,
But he doesn't have a blade shape yet.
He's still got a thick bar of damascus.
- Yeah.
- So I get my ladder pattern ground in,
And then I flatten it out.
I get ready to forge out my blade.
- There we go. - There we go!
Jesse putting the bend in on the anvil.
Both of our smiths have drawn their first billets out,
Cut 'em and restack.
The difference is, jesse's making a blade no,
Eric's still making a billet.
♪ ♪
- The welds feel great.
I'm back drawing out, looking for that 12-inch billet again
So I can get my second restack to get me to 126 layers.
I'm becoming a little bit more concerned
With the amount of steel that I started with,
So I decide on my second restack to grind
Only the faces that need to be ground,
In order to save that little bit of extra steel
On the outsides of my restack billet.
- If he doesn't do everything perfectly from this point o,
He's not gonna have enough steel to finish this blade out.
- I've saved as much steel as I could.
I'm hoping I have enough.
♪ ♪
- Now that I've got my blade forged completely to shape,
I get ready to heat treat my blade.
I've never quenched a blade with a bend
This big in it before.
And I don't know how bends in blades react to the quenc,
And I don't know if I'm gonna have a crack there later on.
If the blade cracks in the quench, I am toast.
♪ ♪
- Jesse has quenched. - Nice.
♪ ♪
- I think we're good.
It looks great.
I am feeling very solid.
That's good.
- Bladesmiths, you have 4 hours and 30 minutes left.
- I get my second restack done.
I've hit my 120-layer parameter.
Now it's just time to draw this billet back out,
And this time we get to draw it out into a sword.
I get my ladder pattern ground in.
I get the whole piece of steel down to my final dimensio.
Oh, [bleep].
And I'm still about 2 inches short
Of what I need to be with the blade length.
- Oh, boy, eric.
- He can't make that much longer,
Not without winding up with a paper-thin edge on this thing.
- So I decide to add a little bit of a taper
To gain a little bit of extra length.
- Now this is something that I do like seeing.
He's gaining probably an inch, inch and a quarter
Of length in that blade.
- It works, and I am ecstatic
With the fact that I managed to make this
Small amount of steel work.
♪ ♪
- I still have to get my blade sharpened,
And the sica is very awkwardly shaped.
Essentially, you have eight different spots
To grind on the blade,
So you need to allocate a lot more time on the grinder,
And it's proving to be a lot more difficult than I thought.
- Grinding that blade
Ain't a walk in the park. - No.
- That inside bend
Is what keeps kind of baffling my head.
How do you go about having an edge
That goes at 135-degree angle up?
- Start at the elbow and work your way out.
- Exact-- yes.
- I sharpen it as best I can,
And it's time to move on to the handle.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, you have 2 hours and 30 minutes remaining.
I know we were all pretty worried about eric.
I personally am very impressed.
He was able to work it out, get the shape we need.
- Eric did a great job with what he had to work with,
And he turned it around in like a half an hour.
- It's time to throw it into the oil.
- There it is. - All right.
- All right, eric has quenched his blade.
- I check it, and I've got myself
A pretty darn straight blade.
♪ ♪
[chuckles]
I'm ecstatic.
And then I realize I've still got to do
All of my handle work.
I can't afford any mistakes,
And I have got to be on my game.
♪ ♪
- Oh, [bleep].
- Guys, eric's handle material just broke in half.
- Son of a [bleep].
I don't know exactly what I should do right now.
I don't have time left to start a whole new handle.
- Oh, this is not looking good.
♪ ♪
I am lucky in that the split is perfectly centered.
So I figure it's gonna be quicker and easier to just
Stick it back together and put a pin through it.
♪ ♪
- Oh, my god. He's gonna do a mortise handle.
- That seems like a very risky move.
He knows he's got brittle handle material,
And you guys are gonna put it through the wringer.
♪ ♪
- Ain't pretty, but it'll work.
It goes through no problem, and I am so relieved.
♪ ♪
- You guys have 60 minutes remaining.
- Now that I have the handle blocks glued onto my tang,
It's time to put that mechanical connection in.
My plan for the mechanical connection is to put two pins,
One through the actual handle block,
And one through the pommel.
I put the pin hole through the handle block
And it goes very smoothly.
Then I move on to my pommel...
♪ ♪
Oh, [bleep].
And it is not simple at all.
What?
I can't drill through it.
I need to have a mechanical connection
Between the pommel and the actual handle.
If the pommel flies off when they test it,
It could be the thing to send me home.
- I hope he doesn't rely on just glue.
- I have to think of another way
To put a mechanical connection on the pommel.
I'm starting to panic,
And I need to think of something fast.
[groans]
- In the last competition, I think it's safe to say ths
Is the first time we've seen the pressure really hit jesse.
- I shape the pommel as best I can,
And I bring it over to the welder.
I'm gonna make a weld bead so big it acts as a nut
So that the pommel can't physically slide off.
- Well, the only thing I worry about is that I didn't see
Jesse get any kind of a washer to put around that tang.
- And the danger there is it'll loosen up during our testing.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, you have 15 minutes before testing begins.
- I'm stressed at this point.
I need to make this handle usable.
- They both spent so much time on the blades themselves,
I feel like the handle isn't given enough
Time to really shine.
- This handle is ugly, but it's not moving around.
And that's all that really matters to me at this point.
I still have to put an edge on this blade,
But there's not a lot of time left.
I get that curve as sharp as I can get it.
Hopefully it's sharp enough to cut something,
But I suppose we're gonna find out.
- Five, four, three, two,
One. - Oh, my god.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines, put down your tools.
This battle is officially over.
- At the end of the round, I don't feel great about it,
But it's the best that I can do in the time given.
I'm definitely going into testing
With confidence in the strength,
But I'm nervous about sharpness issues and its looks.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test:
Our chariot wheel chop.
♪ ♪
Jesse, you're up first. You ready to go?
- I'm ready to go. - All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
- I see this massive thick chariot wheel.
It makes me a little bit nervous.
I didn't expect to have to chop through something so thick.
♪ ♪
- All right, jesse, nice job. - Thank you.
- No edge damage.
Everything's still straight.
Your handle, couple of little issues.
Obviously, you know, having the wire of the mig sticking out.
And I wish you'd had time to etch a little bit more
So I could see the pattern,
But I could see it, and it is there.
So all in all, nice job. - Thank you.
- All right, eric. You're ready to go?
- [groans] yeah.
- Oh, good. Good to know.
♪ ♪
- I managed to make this small amount of steel work,
But I am not 100% confident whether or not
The blade is gonna hold up in the strength test.
I'm hoping it holds together.
♪ ♪
- All right, breather.
You survived, man. Nice job on the blade.
There's a little bit of glinting,
But you still got an edge on most of this blade.
My biggest issue is the handle that split on you,
There's a lot of hot spots on there.
But it didn't hurt me,
It's still straight, and still got an edge.
Good job. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Gladiators of the forge,
Welcome to the sharpness test:
The tube slice.
♪ ♪
Jesse, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yep. - All right, let's do this.
[exhales]
♪ ♪
- All right, jesse,
Let's talking about your sica sword here.
First up, nice profile with your blade.
You have a nice balance with the sica.
And overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- Eric, your turn, sir. You ready?
- Cut 'em clean, doug. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- All right, eric, let's talk about your sica sword here.
It's a nice balance you have with your weapon here.
Now, let's talk about your edge.
In this area, it's just not sharp.
It probably took some dulling during the strength test
Because I can really run my hand on this.
But it did cut a little bit.
And overall, well, it'll cut a little bit.
♪ ♪
- Well, gentlemen, in eight hours,
You both took stacks of steel
Turned them into 120-layer ladder damascus sicas.
Guys, you impressed us the entire way through.
But only one of you can come out on top of this battle
Today earning a check for $5,000,
And the title of gladiator of the forge.
And the champion of today's forging competition is...
♪ ♪
Jesse, you've done it again.
Congratulations.
Eric, man, you fought hard.
You impressed us all along the way.
But unfortunately, your sica did not make the cut toda.
And doug's gonna tell you why.
- Eric, first I have to commend you
Because we've never seen a smith with as cool,
Calm demeanor that you had for eight hours,
And turned in a beautiful blade.
But during the sharpness test, it showed that your blade
Just wasn't as sharp as your competitor's.
For those reasons, we're sending you home.
- I get it.
- Well, eric, you're a talented smith, you proved it today.
But unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
Step off the forge floor.
- Way to go, man. Go get 'em. - Thank you.
- Thanks, guys.
I proved everything to myself that I came here to prove.
This experience does make me want to learn a bit
More about some of the roman weapons.
There are multiple weapons on that wall
That I will be making in my future.
♪ ♪
- Jesse, that's three up and three down.
Now you have $15,000.
And you are two wins away from that bonus of $10,000.
The big question we have is,
Are you up for going back into battle
And fighting it out trying to get that ten grand?
- Yes.
- [laughs] that was a little bit more tentative yes
Than your previous competitions.
- I am still the reigning gladiator of the forge.
That's my third win in a row. And that's $15,000.
- We're excited to see you fight it out again, man.
We'll see you on the colosseum floor.
- I'm gonna do my best to try to win as many more as I can.
I want to go all the way to the end.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I'm jason moscolick, I'm 49.
I've been bladesmithing for about seven years,
And I live in oconomowoc, wisconsin.
My knowledge about the roman empire came from school.
I want to do this tournament
Because I like the one-on-one competition.
Mano a mano.
Best man wins.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.
Gentlemen, you are here to kick off
The second half of a series of competitions we are calling
The gladiators of the forge competition.
Now, jesse, if you win today, that's four total wins.
You'll have $20,000 in your pocket, and you'll
Have a chance to continue on in this competition.
Jason, you could potentially knock jesse off his pedesta,
Get your first gladiator of the forge title
And five grand in your pocket.
- I am not taking him lightly in any way.
I will do everything I can to put myself
In the position to beat him.
- Your task today is to build one of these weapons here
That is featured in history's miniseries event, "colosseum."
The choices are yours today.
And to make those decisions, we'll leave it up to a coin.
Jason, the choice is yours. Do you want heads or tails?
- Tails. - You want tails.
All right, here we go.
♪ ♪
It is tails.
Jason, you get the first choice.
You want to pick the weapon,
Or you want to pick the forge welding technique?
I'll take the weapon.
- All right, we've got quite a few options here.
What are you thinking?
♪ ♪
Rhomphaia.
- That is a good choice. - Ooh.
♪ ♪
- The rhomphaia dates all the way back to 350 b.C.
And was a popular gladiator weapon due to its lethal
Effectiveness in close quarters combat.
Featuring a long single-edge, slightly-curved blade
And a two-handed handle,
This lethal weapon was designed to deliver
Deadly slashes and overhead cuts upon an enemy
Both on the battlefield and in the colosseum.
The rhomphaia was previously crafted by "forged in fire"
Bladesmiths back in season four, where they struggld
With the massive length of the blade and the handle.
- I choose the biggest blade on the wal.
- [laughs]
- But, the rhomphaia, that curve is nasty.
♪ ♪
- When you turn in your blades, make sure they fall
Within these parameters.
Your blade length measured from tip
To where the cutting edge ends in a straight line
Needs to be between 27 and 29 inches.
Needs to be single-edged and curved.
The depth of curve on your blade needs to be between
1 3/4 inches and 2 1/4 inches.
And finally, the handle length
Needs to be between 16 and 18 inches.
Now jesse, you lost the coin toss,
But you still get the choice as to what
Forge welding technique you want to use.
- I've made enough damascus in the past three battles.
I think it's time for something a little bit simpler.
I want go mai.
- All right, go mai. Good choice, jesse.
We have eight hours and eight hours only
For you to complete your rhomphaias in go mai fashio.
Gentlemen, good luck, because that time starts now.
♪ ♪
So what would you guys be doing if you were building this?
- I'd be figuring out how many pieces of each
I want to make that giant sword.
I mean, aside from being a big blade.
That's one of the biggest handles I've ever seen
In one of these competitions.
- I feel as though jesse has the home field advantage
Because he's been through this,
But I feel that I'm fresher coming in;
He's done it three times, he's probably pretty tired.
I have to put together my metal.
I want to use soft metal on the outside to hopefuly
Give it a little bit more shock absorption.
But I don't want a lot of soft metal on there
'cause I don't want it mixing with the edge.
My billet is going to be 1095 center, 15n20 outside,
And then mild steel outside of that.
- This challenge is all about that first stack up.
For this sword, you can put multiple layers
Of the same steel.
Once it's forge welded, it counts as one layer.
So you can stack it up as much as you want,
As long as you have those layers alternating.
- They gave us 12-inch pieces.
I've never forge welded anything that long.
- All right, so jason went ahead and cut
His metal in half, making it a more manageable size,
But he's got quite a bit of steel.
- Now it's time to wait.
Because there's not a whole lot you can do.
It'll all come together.
- I'm pretty much at the max confidence level.
I'm not gonna let it go any higher
Or else I'm gonna start making stupid mistakes.
I decided to go for an 80crv2 core, 15n20 outside of that.
And then mild steel cladding.
I have the tendency to get
Too much steel at the beginning
And then ending up having a blade that's like double
What I needed to be in terms of weight.
So I decided I'ma learn from my mistakes
And choose less steel at the start.
So I decided to go with five pieces.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
Waiting on steel to heat, it's terrible.
It's helpless is what it is.
And there's nothing I can do to make this heat up faster.
If I pull the billet out too early,
My forge welds won't stick.
So I wait and I wait and I wait.
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
- While he's there waiting for his billet to heat up,
It would behoove jason to keep an eye on what jesse--
'cause he's a three-time champion.
You see this guy running all over the place
Doing so many things, like, should I keep pace with tha?
- Or can I keep pace with that?
- Once I get the correct temperature,
Then I go over to the press.
♪ ♪
- That's what you want to do with a billet that long.
Do it short bites and quick.
Move it right along.
- Once I see that good solid weld,
I start drawing out the billet.
I should be on good pace.
That's beautiful.
- Now that I have my billet welded together,
It's time to draw it out.
- Jesse, going to the press.
- This time around, I don't have to worry
About cutting and restacking
So I can just instantly forge it to shape.
This is great.
- He's setting halfway.
Do a section while it's hot, reheat, do the other section.
That's smart work.
- Bladesmiths, you have seven hours on the clock.
♪ ♪
- I'm really worried about the arc of the blade.
It's a small window; a 1/2 inch is tough
On an arc like that.
I don't want to go home 'cause I miss a parameter.
♪ ♪
- Jason's angle of curve is a little bit more acute
Than the one we have from the sample,
Which is nice and smooth.
- I don't like that.
I wish the curve was a little closer to the tip.
But time restraints aren't gonna allow that
So I'm just gonna go with what I got.
[groans]
- It's time to prepare for the quench.
In all my battles so far,
My quenches have gone perfectly.
♪ ♪
Think we're good.
But there's always that small chance
That something goes awry.
- When you have a long, thin blade like this,
Then you're more likely to get a warp.
- [grunts]
- Jesse's having a hard time getting this long blade
Into the tank straight.
- There you go. Nice color.
- [bleep].
There's a little bit of a warp.
So what am I gonna do to fix this?
The first thing that comes to mind
Is to brute force it out.
- Eyes on jesse, he's got a bit of a warp
On his blade he's trying to get out.
- Oh, my goodness. - That's dangerous.
- This is a super risky thing to do
Because that's when the steel's at its most brutal.
That is when it's most liable to crack.
That plan didn't work, so I have to resort to plan b:
Getting it out on the grinder.
♪ ♪
- Quenching a blade of this length,
It's difficult to get a even heat.
I know that if I don't do this process right,
Then my blade's gonna get smashed.
Like, j. Neilson's gonna wreck it.
- You see the tip is starting to fall back
And fall down and cause more bends.
- Chances are we're gonna see a major warp happen
In this quench.
- All right, jason just went for a quench.
- Whoa.
- I pull the blade out of the oil,
I find a couple of warps.
I'm gonna see if I can just grind them out,
But they may not be in grinder range.
♪ ♪
- Oh, man, we've got both smiths
Battling warps right now.
- I'm trying to get the warp out of my blade.
[groans]
And then I look at the spine, and my heart drops.
Oh.
- Jesse's got a crack running almost
All the way down his spine.
- I am devastated.
This is probably the worst thing
That can happen right now.
Great.
- This is the first real big problem we see jesse having.
It could honestly be the end of his run.
- If I had just left it there, it would probably fall apart
On the first hit on anything.
There is definitely not enough time for me to restart.
I need to find a way to fix this now.
That's so bad.
♪ ♪
I go over 14,000,605 possibilities,
And I decided my only course of action is to weld the spine.
- He ran that mig down the back of that blade.
That's smart.
- I hope this works.
- Bladesmiths, you have three hours remaining.
- Oh, my god.
The quench gave me a couple of warps,
And a warp could cause a break.
A lot of smiths have been sent home because of a warp.
So I want to do everything I can to get this out of here.
- This is a lot more difficult than it looks
Just at first glance.
If you change the curve depth, you change the length.
If you grind in the wrong spot, you change the curve depth.
- It's adjusting a table height by cutting one leg at a time.
- [laughs] - good luck.
- And it's not coming out.
I'm gonna have to put some heat on this blade
And try really hard not to break it.
- He needs to be careful.
- Jason's blade is getting there.
- Back to grinding.
It's not perfect, but it is acceptable for the competition.
♪ ♪
- I've welded along my entire spine,
And I can't help but notice how ugly it looks now.
[groans] I have this franken-blade.
[woman screaming]
But I'm very confident that I can get this
Mangled heap of a mess to still perform.
- The biggest question is what's going on
Inside that blade. - Yep.
- It's time to tend to that warp that came up earlier.
To deal with this bend,
All I have to do is heat up the spine of my blade,
And crank and pray.
- This could be a bad thing. - Oh, come on.
- Jesse could snap this.
- If it breaks there, I'm pretty much screwed.
My win streak could be over.
Ah, that's as good as I'm gonna get it.
There's about one or two degrees of bend
Left in the blade, but that's good enough.
I need to move on to something else.
- Bladesmiths, you have 60 minutes remaining on the clock.
- The next step is handle construction.
I don't want to try to get too fancy
And lose the time that I have.
So I'm going with cedar, which isn't my favorite choice.
Cedar is a softer wood, but yet was the only
Piece of wood in the pantry that fits
Without having to do multi-piece construction.
- I love cedar, but is it good handle material?
- Not at all. - No.
When cedar cracks, it cracks along the grain and opens up.
♪ ♪
- The handle goes together well,
And it's time to get the handle shaped.
And then I sharpen the edge on it.
♪ ♪
- With all the flaws in my blade,
I want to make sure that my handle is perfect.
I refuse to half-ass this handle.
I'm gonna full-ass this handle.
- That is some really nice shaping to that handle.
- It looks great.
- With this being my fourth battle,
My siblings are very happy for me
And want to see me win more.
Then there's my parents, who are also happy,
But that comes with the side effect of
"don't fall behind on your studies."
[laughs]
I'm gonna do my best to try to win as many more as I can.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines.
This battle is over.
- I'm feeling surprisingly calm going into testing.
Don't get me wrong, doug marcaida picks up
My sword and my stomach's gonna do somersaults.
But right now, I'm feeling pretty good.
♪ ♪
- Gladiators of the forge, welcome to the keal test.
I'm gonna take your rhomphaias and deliver some
Choice cuts on this pig carcass.
Jason, you're up first.
You ready for this? - Doug, I'm excited for thi.
- So am I, let's do this.
♪ ♪
- The blade I made, I'm very happy.
I had a warp that I straightened out,
So that concerns me a little bit.
But it's not up to me at this point,
It's all about just enjoying the ride.
♪ ♪
[groans]
- All right, jason, let's talk about your rhomphaia here.
First up, let's talk about your handle.
No issues whatsoever.
It is nice and smooth.
I appreciate the go mai pattern that you have
Going on in your blade, and your edge is razor sharp.
But during that test,
Your blade took a little bend right here.
But overall, sir, your rhomphaia, it will keal.
- Excellent. - Jesse, are you ready, sir?
- I'm ready. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- I'm definitely anxious going into these tests.
My blade had a massive crack on the spine.
My worst fear is that my blade shatters and splits in half.
I hope that my welds hold.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Nice. - Nice.
- Jesse, let's talk about your rhomphaia here.
Once again, very clean lines.
Now your handle, it really feels good in the hand.
I can really control it and feel the edge
When I'm moving your weapon.
You had a lot of issues earlier with your spine.
But guess what, you survived, no issues with that.
Now your edge is sharp.
Overall, sir, your rhomphaia, it will keal.
- Nice.
♪ ♪
- My turn to play.
[both laugh]
- All right, gladiators, it is that time,
The time for our dynamic strength test:
The skull chop and foam tube slice.
Jason, you're up first.
Are you ready? - Yes, sir.
- Okay.
♪ ♪
- [whistles] - damn.
- [laughs]
- All right, jason, so, it's got a lot going for it.
There's some things that draw my eye.
One is the--the curvature.
It has this bend as opposed to being this sweep to a claw.
And the other being the handle.
It's good feeling, but your eye kind of goes
To the swoop here and the dip here and the--
There's a lot of movement here that's not necessary,
But it certainly performed well and cut beautifully.
So nicely done. - Thanks, dave.
- All right, jesse, you're up. Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
- I always--you know, we ask you if you're ready,
And I don't know why we are.
It's like, jesse, you're up next, and that's how it is.
[laughs]
- [exhales]
♪ ♪
Oh, [bleep].
♪ ♪
- All right, jesse, so.
Love the lines that you came up with thi.
Your grinds are beautiful.
And your workaround was smart.
This held this blade together.
That one foam pillar that didn't cut,
That's kind of on me.
I didn't really hit that at the right angle.
But it cut beautifully.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, it's all coming down to thi:
A simple pull of the cloth.
Now, jesse, if you win, that's four titles,
$20,000, the chance to continue on.
Now, jason, if you win today,
That's your first title, $5,000.
You'll be asked if you want to move forward in the next round.
You both did a great job in our test,
But only one of you can leave here today with the title
Of gladiator of the forge and receive a check for $5,000.
Gladiator of the forge is...
♪ ♪
Jesse.
Sir, you've done it again.
Now, jason, you battled hard, you gave us great blade.
But unfortunately, it didn't make the cut.
And doug's gonna tell you why.
- Jason, you performed very well in this competition.
But the design you have is a little bit off
Than the sample that we had.
And the bend you took is significant.
And these are the reasons why.
- Thank you.
- Well, jason, you're a talented smith,
But unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
Step off the forge floor.
- Congratulations, man.
Keep it up. - Thank you.
- Good job, jason. - Thank you.
Jesse built a beautiful blade.
He is very talented.
I came here for validation.
I came here for the excitement and the experience of it.
I think it was a close competition.
It started and ended with a coin flip.
♪ ♪
- Well, jesse, that makes you a four-time
Gladiator of the forge, and you have $20,000 in your pocket.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
- Now, jesse, as you know, this will be your fifth competition.
And if you win this battle,
You'll be receiving that bonus check for $10,000
On top of the five grand and the title.
So the question is, do you have anything left in the tank
And do you want to go back into the forge?
♪ ♪
- That's what I came here to do.
- [laughs] awesome, man.
- Definitely going on.
- Well, we can't wait to see your work again
In the forge floor, man. We'll see you there.
- I don't know how I came out on top but I did.
I'm feeling so good.
I've won four battles in a row now.
I have so much adrenaline coursing through my veins.
I want to go all the way to the end.
I've come to prove something.
I won't let myself sleep well
If I don't make it all the way to the end.
♪ ♪
[choir vocalizing]