[dramatic music]
- Here in The Forge, we have seen hundreds of smiths
create some of the most feared edge weapons in history.
♪ ♪
Now, in honor of History's miniseries event, "Colosseum,"
we have decided to transform our forge
into a Roman gladiator's arena.
♪ ♪
This is "Gladiators of the Forge."
♪ ♪
With only two battles to go,
our current Gladiator of the Forge
has won six in a row
and is looking to complete this competition undefeate.
- I'm not ready to give up this seat anytime soon.
- If Jesse has what it takes
to win both these battles tonight,
he will match the most amount of money ever earned
in "Forged in Fire" history--
$50,000.
But our judges are taking back control
and bringing back competitors from earlier battles.
The competition concludes now.
[epic choir hymn]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- My name is Jesse Hu. I'm 19 years old.
I go to the University of Michigan.
And I'm the six-time Gladiator of the Forge.
Having the title Gladiator of the Forge
definitely feels kinda nice.
It's kind of fun to picture myself as,
like, a battle-hardened gladiator
that's been fighting for ages.
Which is kinda true,
but I'm not bloody, and I don't have scars
from each battle.
All I have is just fatigue.
- He's almost like part of the crew now.
- Oh, yeah, now.
♪ ♪
- My name is Eric Pearl.
So last time I was here,
Jesse was facing me as Vitul,
the Viking blacksmith.
Jesse did beat me last time.
I forgot to sharpen the insie
of that sica sword, and shot myself in the foot.
It is a little bit more personal
coming back to find the same guy here.
But his path ends now.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
Eric, it's good to see you. - Good to see you.
- Now, Eric, we picked you because of
your calm demeanor and how well you worked
under the pressure of the clock in competition.
And we thought you deserved a second chance at the titl,
so here you are.
Well, Jesse, you've tallied up
a total of $40,000.
And if you win out,
you stand a chance at taking home
$50,000.
But Eric, if you came out on top,
that's your first Gladiator of the Forge win,
and you'll get a $5,000 check, and we'll ask if you want
to come join us in the final battle
of this competition series.
Now, gentlemen, as per usual, this will be
an eight straight hour forge-welding competition,
where you'll build a blade from start to finish.
At the end of that time, you'll present your work
to our panel of expert judges,
and they will put your blades through a series of tests
to decide which one of you is coming out on top today.
Now, typically in this competition you guys would
be choosing the weapon and the forge-welding technique.
But today, we're turning the tables a little bit,
and we are taking control back.
There are only four blades left on the wall
of gladiator weapons,
each of which were featured on
History's miniseries event "Colosseum."
You're gonna be building this:
- As long as they stay away from that spiked mace,
I'm a happy man.
♪ ♪
- The acinaces.
- [exhales deeply]
- The acinaces traces its origin
back to the first millennium BC,
all across the Mediterranean region.
This deadly double-edged dagger
was used by Roman gladiators in pairs,
allowing them to deliver quick slashes
and deadly strikes upon opponents
inside the walls of the Colosseum.
This weapon was so fierce, it was even believed to have
been wielded by Mithras, the Persian god of the sun.
- Now, gentlemen, when you turn your blades in,
make sure they fall within these following parameter:
Your blade length, measured from tip
to where the cutting edge ends,
needs to be between 20 and 22 inches.
It needs to have a medial ridge and be double-edge.
It also needs to feature an anthropomorphic hilt,
which means it needs to resemble a human bein.
Now, along with the weapon, we have also chosen
the forge-welding technique that we want you both
to use to build your blades.
Now, if you look at the pantry, you'll see we have stacks
of 1095 and 15N20 high carbon steel bars.
We want you to take that steel
and turn it into at least 100-layer
twisted Damascus billet
from which you will make your blades.
- Oh, my God.
- By the end of the eight hours, one of you
will be standing victorious,
earning the title of Gladiator of the Forge
and getting a check for $5,000.
So work hard, stay sharp.
Your time starts now.
[tense music]
Twisted Damascus and 100 layers.
Guys, this could be an interesting one.
- All right, good luck. - You, too, brother. You too.
- One of those mild downsides to Jesse's situation,
because he has done so well in six challenges,
all we're expecting is more.
We don't expect him to skate by.
- Eric is great competition.
This is like anime protagonist versus main antagonist.
I beat him once, and he's back for blood.
- In timed competition, 100 layers is not typical.
- No. - But you gotta stay
on your game. - I always have the tendency
to pick too much material at the beginning.
So I set four layers off to the side.
That leaves me with 20 layers,
which means I have to cut and restack five pieces
to get 100 layers.
- In ten minutes flat,
Jesse has gotten a billet together,
stacked up, welded, and in the fire.
- Jesse's being Jesse.
Fast, furious, going all the way through.
Eric's being Eric.
Slow and smooth, but he does get it done.
- I'm actually a little bit happy to see Jesse
still in this competition, because this becomes truly
a shot at redemption now.
Last time, when I was sharpening
that sica sword,
I said to myself, "Don't forget to go back
and sharpen the inside of that corner."
And I never did.
Welding!
This time, that mental mistake
is not gonna happen again.
I'm going to use 22 pieces, draw it out,
split it into five pieces, restack it and draw it again.
That'll put me at 110 layers.
We'll see what happens.
- As expected, Eric is not running,
but he's moving along just fine.
I came here to prove that I could do this.
I just need to keep it together.
[energetic music]
♪ ♪
- So now that my billet is drawn out--
Come on.
I need to get this thing cut into five pieces.
- Look at Jesse. He's running from the bandsaw
to the chop saw.
This is a young man who's not wasting
any of his time out on this forge floor.
- Wow, perfect.
I now have to do 100 layers,
but still a lot of work to do.
♪ ♪
- Eric has drawn out his first billet,
cut it up, so they'll fit together nicely
for a second stack. - Great.
- So they're both set up.
- He got the job done.
- I restacked twice last tim.
It did eat up a great deal of time.
So this time, getting it all in one pass
is very crucial.
I'll take it.
At this point, I'm feeling pretty good.
[energetic rock music]
- Both the smiths are doing a great job
building this acinaces sword,
but they're both coming up on that twist.
- Okay, let's see how well this works.
- Jesse's not a big guy.
So I wonder how difficult it's gonna be for him
to actually twist this hot steel.
- Okay, let's see how well this works.
- Big problem is either under-twisting,
which we saw one competitor
twist it, like, one turn...
- You guys happy with what Alex did?
- And it turned out almost looking like straight lines.
And then you had the chance of over-twisting
and shearing this billet.
- Mother[bleep]!
And it starts to pull my billet apart.
I need to start this billet over!
- Oh, wow. Okay.
Apparently, my billet is too big for me to twist.
[grunts]
Everything could go wrong during the twist.
If I'm not able to twist my billet,
I could actually get sent home for missing a parameter.
I've won six Gladiator of the Forges.
I would be devastated to hear
I'd missed parameters and lost.
- Step on a plate, stand on those.
You're helping to anchor it, and you get better leverage.
- Or just go to the press.
- Is that enough?
[bleep] it, good enough for me.
- Bladesmiths, you guys have four and 1/2 hours left!
♪ ♪
- So, I get to the point
where I feel I've got good, solid welds set
on my 110-layer billet.
It would hurt a little bit more
to lose twice to the same person.
So I get this wild hankering to go big or go home.
He's not gonna get through me twice.
♪ ♪
- What is Eric doing? I can't see.
If he's going for a Turkish twist, that's impressive,
but scary at the same time.
- I'm gonna cut my billet in half,
and I'm gonna twist one half clockwise
and twist the other half counterclockwise,
and then cut those two in half to get four pieces,
and then stack 'em back together.
- Eric is going further than I would have
in a timed competition like this.
- It's a big risk, but if it comes through,
that's pretty awesome. - Yeah, but it's a big risk.
- I'm scared that once I start twisting,
I'm just gonna see layers start pulling apart.
We're about halfway through the challenge at this point,
and if this fails, there's no way I'm going to come back
to win this challenge.
This just needs to work.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah!
Everything on my steel looks good,
so I now have to cut and restack.
There's a chance that doing all of this
could backfire on me, and I run out of time
at the end of the round.
But there's also a chance that doing all of this
could be what wins this competition for me.
This thing's gonna be a sword here soon.
- Good enough for me.
I already have my blade mostly forged to shape,
and I get ready for the quench.
Everything can go wrong during the quench.
If this quench fails, it could send me home
and end my win streak.
- Here we go. Jesse is now in the oil.
- That's great. - It went perfectly.
The blade looks great. There's no cracks,
I heard no pings.
Things have been going great in this round so far,
but I need to keep working on my blade.
[tense music]
- Oh, there you go. - All right, we've got
two quenched blades. - The colors on that blade
looked pretty good when he put it in the oil.
- I got a good, solid blade here.
Some days I even amaze myself.
I got a lot of metal to remove from this blade,
'cause she's still pretty heavy.
I'm a little worried about the time,
and it all just depends on how quickly I can get
these vein bevels in here.
- Bladesmiths, you are down to the final two hours
of this battle!
♪ ♪
- Now that my blade is quenched,
I could begin finalizing these grinds.
I've heard that the contact wheel
is the fastest way to remove material.
This is great.
But I've never used it in this competition so far.
Because I'm using the contact wheel,
I'm gonna get a hollow-ground blade.
That means it'll be a lot lighter in the end
than it would be with flat grinds.
And the example blade is 100% hollow-ground.
- The neat thing about hollow-ground is it lays
the pattern out really nicely.
- My sword has gotten a lot lighter,
and I want to make sure I leave that tang
a little on the heavy side and bring that balance back
a little closer to the handle.
It's gonna be close on time.
I still gotta get this handle on the blade.
So I'm using brass in my guard,
pommel, and pommel cap
to help counterbalance the weight.
♪ ♪
- Those handle parts look really well done.
- I'm concerned about how thick it is, though.
- Right, counterbalancing a heavy blade
with more weight just makes it heavy.
- I've got a lot of my handle work completed.
Now it's time to get this handle glued up.
This little man. [chuckles]
- Bladesmiths, you guys have
60 minutes remaining [laughing]
- So now I need to make an anthropomorphic handle.
- The whole idea of the anthropomorphic
is replicating human shape, not making it exact.
- So I grab the mild steel.
It'll be a lot lighter in the end, rather than brass.
Okay.
♪ ♪
After I get these shaped up pretty well
and symmetrical as can be--
All right. Which way did it go again?
I decided to also carve a little bit of a face
into both sides of my pommel.
This face is not necessary at all.
It's just for fun.
My blade looks menacing. It looks terrifyingly sharp.
The grind lines are pretty much perfect.
And then my handle is just a person.
[chuckles]
[laughs] It's kind of great.
- Bladesmiths, you have 15 minutes remaining!
♪ ♪
- Now the rest of the time I have left
is devoted to sharpening this blade.
I'll take anything else, as long as this blade will cu.
- Better than last time.
- It's good to see that Eric,
in these last few minutes, is still focused on that edge.
Because that is how he lost to Jesse.
- He's doing a great job.
- I couldn't be happier
with the way this blade's turning out.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, put down your tools, this round is over!
- I really don't wanna lose twice to the same guy.
I'd still like to be the one
to take him out and end his winning streak,
and I think this blade will do it.
[tense music]
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test.
Today, we have the Roman throne chop.
And since you didn't get a chance to pick
the technique or the weapon,
you get to choose who goes first.
- What?
[laughter]
- I'll take it.
- All right, Eric, you wanna go first?
Let's do it, bud.
♪ ♪
- Last time I was here, Jesse ended up
going first in the testing.
And I just figured it was only fair
I would go first this time, so I stepped up.
My biggest concern about that stone chair
is blunting my edge.
There's a real good chance
that I could end up with a dull spot again.
I really don't want that to be the reason I go home twice.
[grunting]
[intense rock music]
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
- [exhales]
[dramatic music]
- All right, Eric. I gotta say, good job, man.
All right, first of all,
there's no deflection, deformation.
It came out nice. You did a good job.
But if we could etch this thing for like another two hours,
this thing would be amazing looking.
But the one complaint I have
is there is a ton of weight on here.
Controlling that during chops,
it rolled over on me a couple of times.
Other than that, good job.
- Thank you.
- All right, Jesse, you're up. You ready to go?
- Heh, no. [laughter]
- Well, we're gonna do it anyway.
♪ ♪
- I can tell that the purpose of this chair
is to destroy blades,
especially since I know J. is gonna be swinging the blade.
- [laughs]
- This throne may be the most difficult
strength tests I've had to encounter.
It's been such a long road,
but this could be the beginning of the end.
I may not be here for the next battle.
♪ ♪
-[grunting]
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
-All right, Jesse, nice job.
It's nice and light.
It did a good job on the throne.
The edge is fine.
Everything is still tight and true.
Good job. - Thank you.
- Gladiators of the Forge, this is it.
This is the sharpness test.
I'm gonna take your weapons
and try to cut through these ropes.
Eric, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Let's do it, Doug. - Yeah, let's do it.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- Damn. - Better.
- All right, Eric, let's talk about your sword here.
You have a sharp edge,
but there is a weight to your weapon
that makes it hard to hold on to.
It did cut most of the ropes.
But overall, it will cut.
Jesse, your turn. You ready?
- Sure. - All right, let's do it.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- [exhales]
♪ ♪
[bleep]
♪ ♪
- All right, Jesse, let's talk about your weapon here.
First up, your edge cut most of the rope
except for the last one,
but I cut at a different angle, so I'll call that on me.
But it is sharp. What I love about this
is the balance and weight you have on your weapon.
Overall, it will cut.
- Now, guys, both of your blades
performed extremely well during our test,
which makes for a very difficult decision
for our judges.
'Cause now they have to decide which one of you
is taking home that $5,000 check
and the title of Gladiator of the Forge.
So while they discuss, I'm gonna ask you both
please step off The Forge floor.
♪ ♪
All right, guys, it's the old
tortoise and the hare story here.
But somebody's gonna cross the finish line first.
J., what do you think about these blades?
- I'm really torn, 'cause they're both beautiful blades.
The issue that I have with Eric's is,
even though it looks closer to our example,
there's so much brass on that,
and it makes that handle so heavy,
and it throws the balance off.
I felt it roll when I was doing the strength test
a couple of times.
I didn't have that issue with Jesse's.
- In my tests, I feel they both cut,
so they're both sharp, except when you pick up Jesse's blade,
it's just got a different feel to it,
because it's much lighter
compared to Eric's heavier sword.
- Okay, but we have to make a decision.
David, you've made yours? - I have, yeah.
- Doug? - Yes, I have.
- J.? - Oh, yeah.
All right, guys, we'll call 'em in.
♪ ♪
Gentlemen, in eight hours,
you guys both built some of the most beautiful blades
I've seen here in a very long time.
But only one of you can leave here today
as a Gladiator of the Forge,
getting that check for $5,000.
Jesse, if you win, that's seven total wins
and $45,000 in your pocket.
Eric, if you came out on top,
that's your first Gladiator of the Forge win,
in a redemption round, and you'll get a $5,000 check,
and we'll ask if you want to come join us
in the final battle of this competition serie.
Our judges did make a final decision.
Gentlemen, the Gladiator of the Forge today is...
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Jesse, congratulations,
you did it again, man.
Eric, it's been an honor to watch you work.
But unfortunately, your blade did not make the cut
by the smallest of margins.
And J. is gonna tell you why.
- Eric, you gave Jesse a run for his money
the first time you were here.
And you made it even closer this time.
It basically just came down to weight.
There was so much weight in that handle
that made it harder to control,
and that's the reason we're sending you home.
- I get it. I get it.
At least I made you guys work for it this time.
[laughter]
- Well, Eric, you took a lot of risk.
You gave us an unbelievably beautiful blade.
But unfortunately, at this point,
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
step off The Forge.
- Thank you, guys.
- Great job, Eric.
[applause] - Well done.
- You got a ways to go, man.
I really wanted to take him down this time,
and I gave it my best shot, and just came up
a couple of ounces short. [chuckles]
Being the Viking and Jesse's the gladiator,
it's an epic showdown.
But the gladiator won this time.
- Jesse, that is seven battles
and seven victories.
You just won another check for $5,000.
Well done. [applause]
You now have $45,000 in your pocket,
and you are seven titles in,
with a chance for one more,
if you have enough in you to go back
in The Forge and battle again.
What do you say? - Yeah.
- [laughing] Fantastic.
- I can see the finish line. Why not keep going?
What just happened? I'm somehow
the seven-time Gladiator of the Forge.
- Awesome, man. Well, congratulations again.
We can't wait to see you battle it out in the final battle.
Well done, man. - Thank you.
I keep on saying that this battle is closer
than my previous battle.
I can't imagine a scenario
in which it'll be closer for the next battle.
I never expected to be fighting for
the last five grand to 50 grand,
but I'm going to keep my plae on the throne.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, Jesse, in the past seven battles,
you have been faced with fierce competitors,
and you've knocked them all out of this competition.
And if you win today, you will match the most amount
of money ever earned in "Forged in Fire" history--
$50,000.
But Jesse, we're not gonna make it easy on you.
- [bleep].
- Because today, we have decided
to bring back yet another smith
who you've met in this forge.
But this time, your competitor has
two Gladiator of the Forge titles of his own.
- Oh. - Jesse, in order to win today,
you're gonna have to beat this guy:
♪ ♪
Kurt.
- My name is Kurt. I'm a two-time
Gladiator of the Forge.
And in the competition that I lost against Jesse,
I ran out of time
with my handle fit and finish.
- Well, Kurt, this decision came down
to the handle, and your handle was less refined
than your opponent.
- Now I get another chance at beating Jesse,
and then he can feel what it's like
to have a loss under his belt.
- Now, Kurt, welcome back to The Forge, bud.
It is great to see you.
Now, last time you were here, you started off
the Gladiator of the Forge competition series
with two victories of your own.
You now have $10,000 in your pocket from those wins,
and you stand a chance at totaling $15,000
if you take home the win today.
- This is my last competition, so I knew that they weren't
gonna go easy on me just because of that.
- This battle will consist of eight hours
of forging competition, where you will build one
of these three blades from our wall of gladiator weapons.
- These weapons have been sitting on the wall
for all seven competitions.
They're definitely the three hardest weapons.
Today, you're gonna need to build this.
♪ ♪
- There's a small pool of weapons
that can be chosen from.
I hope it's not a dolabra
or the spiked mace.
♪ ♪
- The dolabra.
♪ ♪
- The dolabra was a versatile weapon,
used by the Roman Empire army
in the first century and beyond.
Featuring a massive ax head on one side
and a sharp pick on the other,
the versatile battle-ax doubled as a tool
for soldiers who would need to fell trees
and clear brush.
In the Colosseum, the dolabra's ability
to deliver deadly chops and lethal blows against an enemy
made it a favorite weapon of the gladiators.
- Now guys, the head of your battle-ax
will need to measure between seven and eight inche.
And on the reverse side, you need to have a sharpened,
recurved pick.
Your handle will need to feature
a leather wrap, and the overall height
of this weapon needs to be between 30 and 32 inches.
Now, bladesmiths, as far as technique,
we're gonna to leave that up to you.
In the pantry, we have a massive assortment of steel.
You can do any method you want.
- That's surprising. I'll gladly take it.
I can use this to do something
more complicated than Kurt does,
which gives me the opportunity to earn more points
in front of the judges.
- Bladesmiths, this is it. This is the last battle
in our Colosseum-themed competition,
Gladiator of the Forge.
So good luck. Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
This will be a doozy to end
the Gladiator of the Forge competitions.
- It's amazing watching these two smiths.
This is basically a redemption for Kurt.
- And for Jesse, it's "How do I stay on top?"
- If he wins this one,
he has eight victories under his belt,
he has 50 grand in his pocket.
- And both competitors have home field advantage.
They know where everything is.
This is their arena.
- Yeah, except the fact that Jesse's got a cot
set up in the back, 'cause he hadn't left in a week.
[laughter]
♪ ♪
- This is my last competition, whether I win or lose,
so I'm going big.
- Jesse's got 1095,
15N20 bar stock, as well as a canister.
- He's doing a canister. - Dude, this is
gonna be awesome. He's biting off a lot.
♪ ♪
- I decided to go with
fishhook canister Damascus San Mai
with random pattern Damascus.
That's a lot of things. [laughs]
- Fishhooks are great. I love fishhook Damascus.
- My game plan is to forge out this caniste,
cut the canister billet in half
for the outer jacket, and then forge out
a 20-layer random pattern billet
and have that as a sandwich.
I'm hoping it looks impressive.
- I'm really expecting to see something amazing
coming out of Jesse's forge.
- Go big or go home.
♪ ♪
- Jesse's still here, so he's won all of his battles.
So I know that I need to bring my A-game
to beat Jesse.
I'm gonna make 100 layer Damascus San Mai.
I wanna do 20 layers of the 1095 and the 15N2,
draw out the billet,
and then I'll cut it up in to five pieces,
and I'll stack that again.
That'll give me 100 layers.
And then I'll draw that out
and I'll cut it up into two pieces,
and put a 1095 core in the middle.
And that'll be the edge of the dolabra.
I really want this.
I want this more than the first time,
'cause now it's redemption.
♪ ♪
- So right now, Jesse's got two billets going.
He's got the fishhook canister Damascus and layered stack.
- Having done Damascus during the past seven rounds,
I'm confident enough in my abilities
to make sure these forge welds are good.
- Is that Jesse's can already?
- Yeah. - Jesse's so fast.
- I'd hire him.
- And now he's setting that laminate stack.
- I'm a little bit more tired than usual,
especially after seven rounds.
But I'm definitely not gonna let
being tired throw me off.
Because if I lose this one,
my win record won't be perfect.
- Jesse looks like he's got a good, solid piece of steel.
- After setting these welds, it's time to draw them both out
for my San Mai blade.
♪ ♪
- I've spent over an hour prepping and cleaning.
So I need to catch up and get these forge welds set.
- Oh, man, you need to get that billet hotter.
- Oh, [bleep].
- Oh, broken wide open.
- [groans] My other three competitions,
I never had that problem.
And now that I'm trying to take Jesse down,
out of nowhere, I'm having all these things go wrong.
- Kurt is not being patient with the heat.
- I'm already behind on time,
and I don't know how I'm gonna fix that.
I'm pretty nervous.
♪ ♪
This is frustrating.
I can put some more flux on it
and try to get this weld to stick.
But if that fails, I'll have to start over
with a mono steel plate, and I know that's not gona
be enough to beat Jesse.
So I'm just gonna start over right now.
- Smart move.
- Good idea. - Plenty of time.
- Welding.
This time, I go with 16 layers,
because that's four less chances
of a forge weld not taking.
If I cut it up four times,
I'll still have 64 layers total,
with that 1095 core for the San Mai.
I definitely feel like I can catch up,
as long as I don't make any mistakes.
- Bladesmiths, we are two hours into this battle!
You have six hours remaining!
- Once these billets are drawn out to the length
that I want 'em, it's time to set my San Mai.
I'm expecting to drift a hole in this piece.
So I'm setting up my San Mai so that there's already a gap.
It'll give me a lot less probability of punching it
and cracking the seal.
- There are some drawbacks to that process.
As you hammer that eye open,
where that comes together with that centerpiece
it starts to tear. - Okay.
- So if you're going to set it up that way,
a MIG weld all the way around
where the contact's gonna be.
- After I get this entire thing welded,
I'm prepared to begin drawing out my blade.
- Jesse's got his final billet stacked up, and Kurt still has
to get his final working billet.
- All the forge welds took.
So once I get the length that I need,
I can cut it up into four pieces, stack it,
and draw it out to get the 64 layers.
Welding!
- Kurt needs to let that heat up
until it is screaming hot. - Yeah.
- If these forge welds don't take,
now I'm really behind.
- Look at the difference in color
from the first forge welds.
That's great!
- Good.
Now that I'm confident that the welds are good,
I can draw it out and then forge weld the San Mai.
- I can see that Jesse's still ahead of me,
but I think I'm slowly catching up.
- Bladesmiths, we are officially
at the halfway mark!
You have four hours left!
♪ ♪
- Jesse's been doing great. He's got that hole drifting.
And now he's got a lot of material there.
- A pickaxe is not gonna have the same mass as the ax head.
So I'm going to be offsetting my eye, putting more material
to one side, as compared to the other.
Okay.
After I get the ax head shaped out,
it's time to go on to the pick.
- This is one of the few ax heads you see
where the tail end is actually further out than the head.
So it's gonna be very crucial to see where Jesse pulls
this out, and if he pulls it out properly.
- This is not your traditional pickaxe.
It's a recurved pickaxe.
So I do that with my good old
trusty hand hammer and the anvil horn.
- Jesse's blade is looking badass,
while his competitor is still messing around with that eye.
- This is a fairly thin weapon,
so there's not a whole lot of room for error.
- You don't want that socket to have thin walls.
Think of stretching metal.
Now you built in a weak spot.
- [bleep] hell!
- I'm just wondering if we've got an issue here
with some torn seams or something like that.
- I see that some of the wels around the eye
are splitting, about a quarter of an inc.
I drifted the eye walls too thin,
and there's a crack going right down it.
[sighs]
During testing, it could blow apart completely.
But this is the point where I probably wouldn't
be able to fix it.
So I'm hoping that it's okay.
♪ ♪
- Now with the blade pretty much forged and shape,
it's time for the quench.
♪ ♪
- There we go, all right.
Jesse has his ax head quenched.
Still has to get that pick done.
♪ ♪
Boom, Jesse has a fully quenched blade.
- It's great. It's a little bit heavy,
so I can definitely spend a lot of time on the grinder
and make sure it's as light as it needs to be.
♪ ♪
- Guys, I gotta say, I was a little concerned
about Kurt there for a while,
but he is making some crazy progress.
- I just wanna do an edge quench
on the ax head because if there is too much stress
on that cracked weld around the eye,
it could blow the entire weld apart.
I'm hoping that this heat treat goes well.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, we got two bladesmiths
with two fully quenched weapons.
These guys are seriously neck-and-neck.
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
- One of the parameters is a leather wrap.
So it's time to give it some flair.
I want it to look like a bloody mess.
- What is Jesse doing?
- He's trying to make it look like it's bloodied up.
- How long does that stuff take to dry?
- Long enough that I'm gonna have red hands.
[laughter]
- This thing looks so menacing, even my hands look bloody.
Last thing I wanna do is put an edge on this thing.
- The last time I lost against Jesse,
it was because of the handle.
So I'm going a little extra on this one.
- Kurt's been spending a lot of time with that handle.
Last challenge, make it beautiful.
- I finally have everything put together,
and I am extremely happy now.
Hopefully my weapon's good enough to beat Jesse.
- Five, four, three, two, one!
Bladesmiths, put down your tools.
This round is over!
- Good job. - [indistinct]
- After eight competitions and 64 hours of forging,
I feel great.
It was me doing what I love on the greatest stage.
♪ ♪
- Gladiators of the Forge,
your dolabras look evenly matched.
But it's time to find out what kind of lethal damage
they will do.
This is the KEAL test.
Kurt, you're up first.
You ready for this? - I'm ready.
- All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
- In the last challenge,
I lost with my handle fit and finish.
But I'm confident in the handle,
and I can't wait to see what carnage they draw.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
- Damn. [laughs quietly]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Kurt, let's talk about your dolabra here.
First up, it is razor-sharp.
That dummy's gonna have a headache for a long tim.
Now, using this on that ballistics dummy,
it is amazing.
Every thrust with your pick here
penetrated this,
because of the balance you have here allows
for a nice thrust and delivery on that.
But during the test, you lost a section right here.
One of the layers from your blade right here
didn't weld all the way through.
But looking at this,
your core is still solid.
So it's still gonna be a functional and testable blade.
And overall, sir, your dolabra,
it will KEAL.
- Thank you, Doug.
- Jesse, you ready?
All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
- I've never encountered a ballistics dummy
during this competition.
I hope my blade suffers no structural damage,
because it's my last battle,
and it's the last one I have to prove myself in.
I worked so hard for this,
so this win is for all the marbles.
[suspenseful music builds]
[intense music]
♪ ♪
- [laughs]
- All right, Jesse, let's talk about your dolabra here.
First up, you have a heavier blade here,
but it serves it very well when you're doing damage like that.
The feel of the weapon really allows it to go deep
into this ballistics dummy.
Overall, sir, your dolabra,
it will KEAL.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen. You know what time it is.
It's time for our strength test--
the Roman armor and shield chop.
And Kurt, you are up first.
- Oh, destroy it.
- [laughs] I can't wait to.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
- That was pretty cool.
♪ ♪
- So Kurt, this is a good-looking weapon.
The leather wrap you did and the texturing up
on the handle actually make it quite comfortable to swing.
The issue I have is this delamination.
[clinking] It's come further open.
It didn't affect using it at all, but I do worry that
that that's going to continue to be a problem.
All right, Jesse, you're up. You ready?
- Sure. - [laughs]
- There's always that chance that it breaks.
This is the last test standing between me
and an eight-time Gladiator of the Forge title.
I need to do well on this.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
[exhales]
- All right, Jesse. Right off the bat,
great look, it's a good shape.
The pattern came out really nice.
And where it really stands out is right there on the socket,
which is kinda cool.
You still got an edge.
Everything's right and tight. Everything's solid.
All in all, it held up beautifully.
Great job. - Thank you.
- You had fun, didn't you?
Well, Jesse, Kurt, I couldn't have asked
for a better final matchup.
But at the end of the day, only one of you can take hoe
that final title and the last check for $5,000.
But Kurt, that would mean three victories
and $15,000 in your pocket.
Jesse, that could mean $50,000 and eight victories
in a row for you.
You both have impressed us
with your work, but our judges did make
a final decision that they agreed upon.
The Gladiator of the Forge is...
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Jesse, you are unstoppable.
Well, Kurt, you should be proud of your work,
but unfortunately, your dolabra did not make the cut,
and Doug's gonna tell you why.
- Kurt, once again, you impressed us.
You gave us a beautiful weapon that was lethal and effective.
But it had some craftsmanship issues.
One of the layers of the Damascus
broke off during our KEAL test,
and that's the reason you're not winning today.
- I understand.
- Well, Kurt, you're not leaving here empty-handed.
You are still a two-time Gladiator of the Forge.
You have $10,000 in your pocket.
But unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I gonna have to ask you to please
step off The Forge floor.
- Thank you, gentlemen. - Thank you, Kurt.
- Jesse, congrats, man.
You deserve it. - Thank you.
- So Jesse took another title, and I don't disagree at all.
He once again turned in an awesome weapon.
- Kurt, you did a good job, man.
- Thank you. - Chin high.
This has been an absolute blast.
From the first time I stepped out
on The Forge floor,
I knew it was going to be physically exhausting,
but I loved every second of it.
And I ended up winning two challenges, so I'm happy.
- Well, Jesse, I've got one word to describe you,
and that is "impressive."
You just won your eighth Gladiator of the Forge title,
and you have $50,000 to take home with you.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
This experience was definitely once-in-a-lifetime.
I just won 50 grand.
I'm planning on putting so much of it
into bladesmithing.
I already made a spreadsheet
of all the tools I'm gonna buy.
I'll finally live the dream,
as opposed to just dreaming the dream.
♪ ♪
[epic choir hymn]