[rock music]
- Here in The Forge, Damascus is one of the most
difficult forging techniques.
- [groans]
- Oh, crap.
- Mother[bleep]!
- But it also has a potential
to be the most impressive.
Tonight four smiths must bring their A-game,
because it's time for us to see
who is the best in Damascus.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
- I'm Ryan Searls.
I'm a 20-year-old artist and bladesmith
from Thornton, Colorado.
I've always loved to craft and build things with my hands.
And when I found out I could play with fire
and hammer steel, I mean,
come on, what's not cooler than that?
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
- My name is Jason Dingledine.
I am 44 years old.
I'm from Tacoma, Washington.
I've been bladesmithing for about the last 25 years.
I served in the U.S. Army
with 2nd Ranger Battalion Alpha Company
for just over six years.
I've wanted to do this for several years,
and now I'm here.
♪ ♪
- My name is Matt Roberts.
I'm 41 years old, and I've been making knivs
for about 20 years now.
I've been practicing law now for about 14 years.
My goal is to win the competition
so I can have the bragging rights
and frankly be insufferable to my friends
more so than I am already.
[chuckles]
- My name is Abram Perry.
I'm 20 years old.
I've been bladesmithing for four years,
and I'm from Salt Lake City, Utah.
In high school, I had a little more free time
than I probably should have, and I was always looking for
the next thing that I could do to impress my friends
and impress girls.
And the more I hit steel, the more I learned.
And it's something I love and something I'm passionate about.
♪ ♪
- Well, bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
Gentlemen, the four of you have been chosen
to take part in a very unique bladesmithing competition,
which would test your skills against each other
and against our clock.
Now, you will all have your weapons critiqued
by our panel of expert judges,
and they will ultimately decide which one of you be taking home
the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
and receiving a check for $10,000.
All right, bladesmiths, let's talk steel.
To make your blades you're going to be using this.
♪ ♪
What we have here are bars of pristine high-carbon steel
to make layered Damascus.
We've got 1095, 15N20, 80CrV2,
even throw in a little nickel and copper in there.
And with that we want you to make
a layered Damascus signature blade in whatever technique
that you choose.
But make sure that you are aiming high
and you pick something that will impress the judges
with not only your Damascus pattern
but the overall construction and completion of your blade.
This is a competition we are calling The Best in Damascus.
♪ ♪
Now, this is where it gets interesting, guys.
We won't have a three-hour forging round
and a two-hour handle round.
We are lumping them together in a five-straight-hour
bladesmithing competition.
Whichever one of you impresses our judges
the most with your five-hour build,
you will get to skip testing and go
straight into the final round.
But not only that; you will also have the opportunity
to choose what weapon from the "Forged in Fire" vault
you and your competitor will both be
building in the final round.
- This ups the game for sure.
One person goes straight to the finale,
and the other three get to watch J. Neilson
beat their blades on something terrible.
Personally, I'd rather skip it, you know?
- Now, for the remaining three,
you will immediately go into the testing arena
and have your blades checked for strength and sharpnes.
To check functionality and strength
they will be used to chop through a wooden 4x4
and then check edge retention with a playing card slice.
All right, gentlemen, this is your chance
to impress our judges.
You have five hours on the clock to complete this.
And good luck, because that time starts now.
♪ ♪
About to find out who impresses you guys the most.
As fans of Damascus, what would you be hoping to see?
- Feather pattern. - Feather.
- I'd love to see a feather. - Ooh.
- I'd probably do a pattern on pattern Go Mai.
- I just want to see some patterns, obviously.
I mean, this is about
the best Damascus that they can present.
- I grabbed my steel and head over to the grinder.
I'm just trying to get this done as fast as possible.
My goal for this competition is to do a five-bar restack.
The middle bar is going to be
ladder pattern Damascus, 40 layers.
And then on each side of that will be
two alternating twisted bars
forged together Turkish-twist style.
- There's a lot of different ways they can use
this material to make their blades pop.
But the key is having a Damascus pattern
that is, one, difficult, and two, beautifully executed.
- At the end of the day if I can knock it out of the park,
I think it's something the judges will really like.
♪ ♪
- I do not want to take the easy way out.
I'm going to swing for the fences.
I am alternating layers with 1095, 80CrV2, and 15N20
in a repeating pattern.
And do a higher layer count
ladder pattern along the edge.
- What is the minimum layer count
to see something, minimum?
- To see a pattern,
you've got to be above 150 layers.
I mean, if you're below 150 layers,
it's always going to be, "Oh, that's kind of a ladder.
Oh, that's kind of raindrops."
♪ ♪
- Knowing that one person will go straight to the final
if they can impress the judges with the best Damascus,
man, I got to make something crazy.
My thought is to try to make a shark tooth Damascus pattern.
So I run over to the welder.
I stack 20 layers on the first billet.
What I want to do is try to make shark tooth Damascus
by grinding grooves in the steel.
This will create patterns that really kind of pop out.
♪ ♪
Whoo! - What is Ryan doing?
- Ryan's having fun.
He's doing a little happy dance.
- I don't feel confident that I can make
a very elaborate pattern in the five hours given to us.
So I'm going to play it a little on the safe side.
But what I'm going to be doing is a ladder pattern.
I'm starting with ten pieces, because
I don't want to be fighting extra material.
I'll also be adding material in
as I cut and stack the pieces.
And it'll make a very bold ladder pattern.
- Ten layers seems like a big risk.
- Yeah.
- I'm looking at all that steel leftover on Matt's table.
If I have the option, I'll start out with as tall
a billet as I can get in my forge.
♪ ♪
- After a couple passes through the press,
I'm feeling very confident that these welds are ready to go
and move on to my next step.
- Ryan's got that angle grinder
cutting diamonds into his billet.
So when he draws that out,
what's that pattern going to look like?
- Kind of like a ladder pattern,
where you got that chatoyancy.
But they'll be like this, as opposed.
Just like if you were doing chevrons...
- Yeah, yeah. - All the way up or somethig
similar to that.
[sawblade whirring]
♪ ♪
- Looks like Abram's going for the twist.
- Nice.
- I really need this twisting to go well.
If I create cold shuts or shear the billets in half,
I really don't have the time to restart.
- That has been the smoothest we've seen so far
in all our competitions of somebody twisting their billet.
- My first billet's twisted up.
Grab the second one, and this one I'm twisting
in the opposite direction.
That's what's going to give me my Turkish twist.
- By having those counter twists on either side,
he'll have a star pattern.
- If he accomplishes it, that's an impressive buil.
- Yeah, it is, because you're manipulating
the layers in different ways.
And that's what stands out.
- I'm already impressed.
- This is very ambitious from such a young smith.
- This is a bladesmith that has a plan.
This is great.
- Now that I got all four billets twisted up,
everything looks really solid.
Whoo!
Take them to the anvil and re-square them.
♪ ♪
- Now that I have the billet welded, I moved to the press
and aggressively move that material
to make sure I get the billet drawn out twice its lengh
so I can fold it back on itself.
Then I'll have a 20-layer count billet.
♪ ♪
- I'm not seeing a lot of high-layer counts,
and dramatic patterns come from high layers.
- So now I'm up to 20 layers.
Then I'm going to cut that billet into four equal pieces
and then forge weld that back together,
which will give me 80 layers.
- What kills me with what Matt's doing is
he could have had those layers from the start.
- Yeah. - Quite a few more.
- We gave them probably 40 layers of steel each.
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
- Once I'm complete with the initial weld run,
I am trying to draw out the billet and lengthen it
so that I can prep for my next cut and fol.
♪ ♪
- Uh-oh.
It looks like he might have a split
at the front of his billet.
- Oh, yeah. - Ooh, yeah, that's a big
split right down the guts.
- [bleep].
- It doesn't surprise me.
He's working that billet really aggressively
and not at a very high temperature.
- I've eaten up an hour and 15 minutes of my tim.
My billet ended up delaminating
right down the center, which is
the absolute last thing that I want to happen.
And it would be devastating to get sent home
without even getting my blade tested.
♪ ♪
- My options at this point are
to abandon this billet
or trying to repair it.
Oh, it's still not welding.
♪ ♪
- Uh, guys, Jason has put his billet
down on the ground over here.
- I hope he's restarting.
- At this point, my best option is to start over
with a new billet.
With my original plan going sideways,
I do not have time to do the ladder pattern
that I had intended.
I am just moving forward with a lower layer
raindrop pattern.
- With such a low layer count,
he's got to make a 12- to 14-inch knife,
and there's just not a lot of metal there to work with.
- I had intended to swing for the fences,
and now I am just in recovery mode
trying to move forward and turn in a finished piece.
♪ ♪
- Guys, Abram is setting that weld.
- Ooh, all right, this is critical.
He's got a very complex billet going on,
and he's got a really difficult weld to set.
- This weld is absolute make or break.
I don't have enough time left
in this competition to start over,
so this has to work.
If the billet folds over on itself,
it could end up shearing the layers completely apart,
or I could create cold shuts.
And I really can't have that this far into the competition.
- Those welds look like they're holding beautifully.
Nice.
- I think it's solid.
I'm very happy with it.
It's time to really turn this into a blade.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths,
you guys are impressing us so far,
but you only have three hours remaining!
- So once I got this shark tooth Damascus billet
drawn out how I like,
I'm just so excited.
I know I'm going to be able to forge a knife.
Making something in our signature style,
I know exactly what I'm going to go with.
I'm going to do a recurve Bowie.
I mean, this thing will impress the judges.
- It really looks like Ryan is making great progress
forging out a blade.
- Forging goes really smoothly.
It's taking shape,
and I feel really good at where I am.
♪ ♪
- Now that I have the final billet welded and drawn out,
I can move on.
I'm going to be making
a spear point Bowie knife.
It's probably going to be what the judges want,
and it's something that I'm confident I can make
in the time allotted.
♪ ♪
The Bowie knife I'm making is going to have
a modified ladder pattern.
- Matt has gotten his blade to shape.
It's still very thick, so he's cutting in his ladder pattern.
- Well, it's not really
going to be a ladder pattern.
When you think about it,
you might have ladder on the very top,
but everything else will probably be
ground away and hammered out.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, you have two hours remainin!
Matt and Jason need to speed themselves up.
- At this point, I have 20 layers, which is enough
to have some of the pattern show through.
So I'm moving over to the drill press
to create the dimples needed for this pattern.
- Realizing that his competition is doing
some pretty intense billets, Jason decided
to throw some raindrop in there and a 20-layer billet.
- Yeah, not enough.
- That's not going to be very impressive.
♪ ♪
- For this blade, I'm going with a dagger-style
with an upswept guard and pommel.
I think the bevels on the dagger grind
will show the pattern off really well,
and I think it'll impress the judges
that I went for the extra grinding
and the extra time there.
- It looks like a dagger.
- That's a small blade.
So hopefully, if he's thinking about
impressing us and going through without being tested,
he's really got to bring out that pattern
and put a good handle. - Oh, yeah.
- The steel is finally starting to look like a blad.
I'm getting it where I need to be.
But I'm not feeling great.
♪ ♪
- Abram's starting to show signs of fatigue.
His wrists are cramping up on him.
- I've known that feeling.
♪ ♪
- I'm sweating like crazy,
and I can feel myself getting dehydrated.
So I'm trying to drink as much as possible,
but it's not treating me too well.
[groans]
[gagging]
- No way.
- I've seen competitions before where guys
had to get pulled out,
because they got too dehydrated,
and I just hope that doesn't happen to me.
I really want to stay in this,
and I want to get something finished.
- Okay, we have some dehydration going on here.
- Well, I don't think it's dehydration.
He's just chugging; he might be overhydrating...
- Oh, okay. - And filled himself up
so much, and then running in circles.
- How are you feeling? - I'm feeling good.
I was a little dehydrated; I've been pounding the water,
and I just pounded it a little too much, so...
I definitely feel better having that over with.
- You got to take little sips or else it's
going to come right back up. - Yeah, that's on me, man.
- Thankfully, a medic came in,
cleared him, and he's good to go.
- All right, let's get back in there.
I'm still not feeling fantastic,
but I don't have time to focus on that.
I've got a lot to get done in a very short amount of time.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Getting a good quench is everything.
It's a make or break for the blade.
♪ ♪
- And we got a quenched blade from Ryan.
- All right, quenched blade number one.
♪ ♪
- I see it's straight.
And oh, my gosh, that is such a relief.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- There's two blades that are quenched.
- It's straight.
Everything looks good.
I'm confident things went well.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jason got quenched.
Hey, he was pretty far behind.
For him to have the quenched blade is pretty good.
- It has a slight warp in it,
but it looks like I have enough material left on the blade
to grind everything straight.
♪ ♪
- Abram's in the oil.
Last man standing.
- I'm ecstatic to have a straight blade.
So it's really time to start focusing on the handle.
- Bladesmiths, you have 1 hour and 30 minutes remaining!
♪ ♪
- Ryan's in the acid etch already.
- All righty.
- It's not exactly what I expected.
It does kind of have some cool aspects.
There are a lot of wavy lines and whatnot.
But knowing that the judges are going to e
looking at everything, if I can just
add another component to make it
look more aesthetically pleasing,
that's what I can do.
I decide to put a fuller in the blade
hoping that it's going to pull some of that deeper material
and create some crazy contrast in between the layers.
- That might be a good idea
to get some of those patterns to pop.
- As much as I like that idea,
time is running out quickly.
♪ ♪
- The pressure is definitely on.
I need to drill into the handle slabs.
I think if I scramble fast enough
I have just enough time to get this accomplished.
I chose red due to my military background.
RED Fridays are Remember Everyone Deployed.
So I chose a red handle for the troops.
♪ ♪
Now that the pins in the scales are set in place
that gives me just enough time to get
a comfortable grip ground.
[grinder whirring]
- I was originally going to go for an upswept guard
on both sides, symmetrical,
but I just don't have time to do that.
This S-guard will be
everything that I need it to be
without adding a bunch of extra work.
- Abram's got some kind of weird S-guard.
- It's very thick, and those Ss look small enough
that once you put a handle in it
I don't think you can get a finger between
that curvature and the handle.
And remember, it's not only the Damascus pattern
that's going to impress us.
Impress us with the entire blade.
Impresses with the blade style for the challenge.
Impress us with a guard and a butt cap
that are also Damascus.
A lot of aspects.
- I've got to get the handle shaped up and comfortable,
so if I do go into testing; it's at least somewhat usable.
[sander whirring]
♪ ♪
- Matt's blade looks pretty nice.
- Yeah, I'm just worried about the handle connection.
- The handle's giving me a hard time,
and now I'm stuck trying to cram a tang
into a slot that's much smaller than the tang.
So I'm going back and forth between the drill press
trying to rout out as much material as I need,
going back to grinding the tang
trying to make sure I get a tight fit.
But now I'm back in business,
but I'm worried that I've made a number of small mistakes
that have consumed a large quantity of my time.
♪ ♪
- The clock is ticking down.
I've got to get this all glued up,
and I have to get this thing sharpened.
It's going to be tight, but I think I can do this.
- He came out of the gate running,
and he has not stopped.
- I glue up this thing, run straight to the grinder.
It's a little bit of a hassle moving around
with all those clamps on there,
but I managed to make it work.
Being able to skip testing would be really cool,
but getting to pick the finale weapon
would be a huge advantage and be awesome.
But I'm not necessarily expecting
to make it straight to the final,
so I got to make sure this thing is test-ready.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one!
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines!
Put down your tools!
This round is over!
- This competition was really
all about impressing the judges.
I chose the Damascus pattern that I did
and that Turkish twist,
because I thought I could really show off
what I'm capable of.
And I'm hoping it takes me right past testing.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, so the smiths are off the floor.
Now it's time for you to decide which one
of these blades impresses you the most.
Remember, whoever impresses you the most
gets a ticket straight to the final round of competition
bypassing all the testing.
So, Doug, why don't you start with Ryan's blade?
♪ ♪
- First up, it's got a nice shape.
The pattern he's got, you can see the layers.
You can even see it also on the spine.
The handle construction is a little bit on the small sid,
but it is comfortable.
No sharp edges in that, and overall,
it has a good feel to it, and I think
that it would perform nicely.
- All right, so next we're moving on to Jason.
Jason may have had bigger plans for his blade,
but that restart kind of shifted gears
and turned into a survival blade.
- Whatever this ended up turning out to be,
I appreciate all the work.
But if you come into a competition
and we tell you to impress us,
20 layers is not going to do it.
♪ ♪
- All right, let's move on.
Now we've got Matt's blade.
♪ ♪
- Of the blades we've looked at so far,
that is a really nice blade shape.
So everything from right here forward I really lik.
- All right. - Man,
there is a gap at the shoulders,
and there's one pin here.
This is a recipe for disaster.
- All right.
Moving on to the final blade.
♪ ♪
- Abram did a heck of a job with all that Damascus,
but this is--this is light.
Oh, and yeah.
If you move your hand just a little bit
your knuckle's really rubbing on there.
The guard still has very, very sharp corners.
And I think he realized, "Oh.
"I don't have enough time for this.
Let me shift gears."
Not a problem with that.
It just didn't end up where he wanted to go.
And that's a shame.
- All right, guys.
Tough decision, but one has to be made.
J., you made your decision? - Yes.
- Dave, how about you? - Yeah.
- Doug? - Yes, I have.
- All right, gentlemen, we'll call them in.
All right, bladesmiths.
Well, in the last five hours
of this Best in Damascus competition,
we asked you to build your very best blade
and impress our judges with not only your Damascus pattern
but the overall construction and completion of your blade.
And the bladesmith with the most impressive blade is...
♪ ♪
Ryan, congratulations.
You turned in the most impressive blade,
and Doug is going to tell you why.
- Ryan, your blade has the overall best construction,
design, and execution.
Your Damascus pattern shows up well, and it looks goo.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
- Well, Ryan, congratulations.
That means you are bypassing testing
going straight into the final round of this competition.
So head on out.
We will see you in the final round.
♪ ♪
- It feels so good just to go straight to the final roud
and not have to deal with my blade
potentially snapping in half.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test,
our 4x4 post chop.
♪ ♪
Now, what I'm going to do is take your
signature Damascus blades and deliver
strikes on these heavy-duty posts.
♪ ♪
Jason, you ready? - Full send.
- Let's go.
- I didn't have time to make it quite as elaborate
and as pretty as I'd intended,
but I do think that my blade and my workmanship
will survive through the testing
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
All right, Jason, nice job.
I do have to say your lines are a little funky.
But everything held together just fine.
No rolling, no chipping, nothing at all.
The biggest problem I have is the handle.
♪ ♪
It's not uncomfortable,
but some more flare on the back
would have helped with retention.
But overall, nice job.
- Thank you.
- Matt, you ready to go? - I'm ready.
- All right, let's do it.
- I put the handle together in about 20 minutes.
I'm confident that the blade will hold up.
I am not confident the handle will hold up.
Let's see what shakes out.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
♪ ♪
[grunting]
Good job, Matt. It survived.
- Thanks. - Beautiful blade.
The steel is good.
You've still got a razor edge on here.
No damage at all.
Overall, nice job.
- Thank you.
- All right, Abram, you ready to go?
- I'm not, but let's do it anyways.
All I'm hoping for going into testing
is that my blade stays in one piece,
but I'm definitely nervous.
Two smiths are going to get eliminated, one's moving on,
and we'll see what happens.
♪ ♪
- [grunting]
Ow.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
[exhales sharply]
♪ ♪
Augh.
♪ ♪
[exhales sharply] It's starting to tear skin.
♪ ♪
All right, Abram.
First of all, I want to commend you on all the work
you did with this Damascus pattern.
It came out beautiful.
But the biggest problem I have is the guard and handle.
When I'm swinging away,
my knuckle's banging right into that guard,
because there's not a space right here.
And you can see it's tearing my knuckle open.
♪ ♪
So that's why I had to stop.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Well, Abram, at the beginning of all this,
I asked you guys to aim high with your Damascus patterns,
and boy, did you ever.
But because of the unfinished nature of your handle,
J. was unable to finish the testing safely.
So unfortunately, at this point in time,
I'm going to have to ask you to please
step off The Forge floor.
- Thank you.
The guard was bent in a little too much,
and it was uncomfortable.
J. wasn't able to finish the test,
and I completely agree with the judges.
Anybody who's thinking of competing,
drink a lot of water before,
and don't drink water too fast while you're here.
♪ ♪
- Well, Jason, Matt, guys, congratulations.
You made it through a brutal strike test,
and your blades are in one piece.
But we still have to figure out which one of yu
is joining Ryan in the final round of this competition.
In order to do that, we're going to put them
through a sharpness test.
For that, I'm going to give you to Doug.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths.
This is the sharpness test,
the playing card slice.
♪ ♪
Matt, you're going first.
- I'm ready. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- That's sharp. - Yeah.
- Wicked sharp. - [chuckles]
- All right, Matt.
It cut very well.
You have a nice, sharp edge.
Your handle construction, it's got a nice flare.
There's good retention when I hold on to it.
Overall, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you very much.
- Jason, your turn, sir. You ready?
- Rock and roll.
♪ ♪
- All right, Jason, let's talk about your weapon here.
Your edge, it does meander a little bi.
Where here's a little wave in there
when you're looking at that.
But during the test it cut all the way through.
Overall, your weapon, sir, it will cut.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen, you both ran through
the tests with flying colors.
But as you know, only one of you can
join us in the final round of this competition
and go up against Ryan.
The bladesmith leaving The Forge is..
♪ ♪
Jason.
Unfortunately, your blade didn't make the cut,
and Dave Baker is going to tell you why.
- Jason, both you and your competitors' blades
did great in our tests, so it came back to design.
And your unfinished lines on your blade,
that low-layer count pattern that just doesn't pop out,
and your handle construction,
those things added up to send you home.
- Well, Jason, honestly, you have a ton to be proud of.
But unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- Thank you, everyone. I had a blast.
- Thank you, Jason. - Thank you.
- I was not surprised at all when I heard Grady
call my name for being eliminated.
The best piece actually won, and I'm very happy for Matt.
The adventure of being in this competition
has been everything I expected it to be.
Good luck, Ryan.
Good luck, Matt.
Knock 'em dead.
♪ ♪
- Well, Ryan, Matt, gentlemen, congratulations.
The two of you have made it past the first forging round
in our Best in Damascus competition.
Which means that the two of you are going back
to battle it out from your home forges
for four days.
Now, Ryan, because you impressed the judges most
in the first round with your blade,
you get the choice of one of these three blades
to build against your competitor here.
Now, we've got the hook sword...
♪ ♪
The kilij...
♪ ♪
And finally, the panabas.
What are you thinking?
- [exhales]
I for sure do not want to put a crazy hook
into my blade whatsoever.
But I also don't want to go basic.
Let's go with the kilij.
-The kilij, all right.
♪ ♪
- The kilij traces its origins
back to the 15th-century Ottoman Empire.
This lightweight, sharp, curved blade was specifically
designed to be wielded single-handedly
making it ideal for warriors on horseback
to deliver deadly slashes upon enemy attackers.
This formidable weapon was previously
featured on season five of "Forged in Fire,"
where both smiths overcame complications
with the length of the blade
and the ornate langet.
But ultimately an extreme bend
taken during the strength test
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 28 and 30 inches.
Now, down to the hilt.
You need to have at least seven inches of cross guard
and a forward-facing and rear-facing langet
on both sides of that guard.
Now, one more parameter, gentlemen.
Because this is the Best in Damascus competition,
you both have to turn in blades
that are made from Damascus billets.
So impress the judges again with your final builds.
- It is absolutely going to be a pain
making that much Damascus.
Bragging rights are now overrated.
Everything I said earlier can go out the window.
- Good luck.
We will see you in four days.
- Good luck. - Hey, good luck, man.
♪ ♪
- We're back home in Thornton, Colorado.
I'm ready to get started.
♪ ♪
I want to shoot for a braided mosaic Damascus.
[flames hissing]
Whoo!
I'm going to stack up a billet of about 28 layers,
forge it out, chop it into tiles, and I'm able to create
a braided mosaic.
It's going to be a lot of welding, a lot of cleanu.
But in the end it should be worth it, I hope.
And it'd be something really cool.
♪ ♪
- It's great to be back home in Blacksburg
in the mountains of Southwest Virginia.
♪ ♪
Today I'm shooting for a 200-layer billet.
My goal is to have that billet finished by this evening.
I'm forging a coarse ladder pattern in this blade.
The hardest part of this build is going to be
forging the Damascus and making sure
I have a very solid billet.
I know this piece is
going to be subjected to some pretty extreme testing.
All right, well, I'm pretty happy with that.
♪ ♪
- It's the beginning of day two.
I got this sword forged out to where I want it to be,
and I'm ready to go for the heat treat.
All righty.
I got to nail this heat treat.
Otherwise, if I don't get this blade hard,
it's not going to perform well, and I could be out on this.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah, we got warp. [bleep].
There's was a slight warp to the right,
so I know I've got to put it
between two 2x4s and clamp it up.
Otherwise, if I can't get that warp out now,
it's going to bite me in the butt later.
Whoo, that's pretty straight.
♪ ♪
- So it's the morning of day three.
Goal for today is to get the sword blade hardened.
This far into the process, if the blade fails,
making another blade in the time remaining
is frankly impossible.
♪ ♪
Yeah.
We're good.
♪ ♪
- Day four, I want to fit the langets
and handle together.
It has to be inlaid
just so I can get a very tight and nice fit up.
With only four days to build a kilij,
I threw a lot into this build, like trying to attempt to do
a cool mosaic.
So it's time to get the blade into the acid
and see this pattern pop.
All right, moment of truth.
Whoo, look at that!
Whoo-hoo, yeah!
Man, that pattern pops.
I'm so happy.
It looks so cool.
So now all I need to do
is glue this entire thing together.
We've got a kilij.
I brought my A-game.
Can't wait to see what Matt does.
And can't wait to hopefully get that 10K.
There we go.
♪ ♪
- Day four. I need to fit the guard
and finalize shaping the handle.
I want to have more mass in the handle.
I also want to be able to have a bigger,
more contoured handle that will be
more comfortable to the user.
I have the handle rough-shaped.
There's probably only about 30 minutes left
to have a completed handle.
Oh.
There's some gapping between
the handle and the guard.
Try to fill these the best I can.
I don't think any of the flaws are going
to affect its functionality.
They're just cosmetic, and they're ugly.
I've got the handle done.
And that doesn't look half bad.
I think overall it came out okay.
I'll be looking forward to seeing the sword used.
I think that'll be fun.
♪ ♪
- Well, Ryan, Matt, gentlemen,
welcome back to The Forge, guys.
So we gave you four days at your home forges
to put together your very best versions of a kilij.
Before we go into testing,
I want to hear about these blades.
So, Ryan, how'd it go for you?
- It went really well.
I did a braided mosaic of 1095 15N20
cladded onto a core of 80CrV2 Damascus cross guard
with bronze langets,
a framed handle with box elder burl wood.
- It looks absolutely stunning.
Matt, tell us about yours.
♪ ♪
- I forged to the blade from 235 layers
of 80CrV2 and 15N20.
The handle is vintage Canvas Micarta.
- All right, gentlemen.
Well, both of your blades look absolutely astounding.
But we've got to find out if they're strong,
if they're sharp, and if they're deadly.
To start things off, we've got a dynamic KEAL test with Doug.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our dynamic KEAL test.
♪ ♪
Ryan, you're up first; you ready for this?
- [exhales] Let's--let's do it.
- All right, let's do it.
♪ ♪
- I built it to look good.
Hopefully it can--
it can test good. [chuckles]
There is a pig sitting right there.
Like, I'm hoping to chop that thing right in half.
♪ ♪
- All right, Ryan, let's talk about your kilij sword here.
First up, I appreciate the beauty of
the Damascus pattern you have there.
Also, what I like about this
is that it's got that classic kilij look,
where you got parallel lines, and it slowly curve up.
That's what we like with a historical piece like this.
Now, your handle construction.
Everything is smooth.
No sharp corners on that.
Your edge is sharp.
It almost cut through all the way
on the pig carcass and the tatami mats.
Overall, your weapon, it will KEAL.
- Awesome.
Matt, your turn; you ready?
- I'm ready. - All right, let's do this.
♪ ♪
- The first thing that I see is a big pig.
I mean, there's a lot of impact when Doug is taking
a full swing at the target.
It's very possible that there will be a bend.
♪ ♪
- All right, Matt, let's talk about your kilij.
It's not quite the historic accurate kilij,
because you don't have those parallel lines.
It immediately goes down into a curve.
Your handle construction
is also not the typical kilij look,
but your edge is razor-sharp.
You've got a very nice balance to wield this weapon,
and overall your kilij will KEAL.
- Thank you very much.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to our dynamic
strength and cutting test.
♪ ♪
I'm going to attempt to cut through these vines
and smash these skulls.
I'm not going to go easy.
I'm going to have fun with these.
And, Ryan, you're up first; you ready to go?
- Let's break some skulls. - Let's do it.
♪ ♪
- That's tough bone.
I just don't want my blade to snap in half.
Knowing J. has a reputation of doing that, here we go.
♪ ♪
[bleep].
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
♪ ♪
[grunts]
♪ ♪
- Nice job, Ryan. - [exhales]
- Your edge is still very, very sharp.
- Sweet. - No glinting or anything.
Cut beautifully and overall tested very well.
Good job. - Awesome, thank you.
- All right, Matt.
It's always more fun for the second guy, right?
- I'm ready. - Well, I'm ready too.
Let's go.
♪ ♪
[grunting]
[bones clattering]
♪ ♪
[grunts]
♪ ♪
All right, Matt, nice job.
- Thank you. - I like the blade.
I like the weight.
The Damascus came out beautifully.
You have the slightest bits of glinting.
I mean, it's very minimal.
Your handle, a little unorthodox.
And right in this area,
I wish it had rounded off a little bit more...
- Right. - Because it's a little bit
sharp right where my thumb sits on this part.
But nothing is loose.
Nice job.
- Thank you very much.
♪ ♪
- This is close, huh?
♪ ♪
All right, gentlemen, outstanding work.
But the time has come for the judges to decide
which one of you has earned the title
of "Forged in Fire" champion and is going to be
getting that check for $10,000.
So while they discuss, I'm going to ask that you both
please step off The Forge floor.
♪ ♪
All right, guys, we got two great blades
but only one winner.
You have a decision to make.
J., what are you thinking?
- Overall fit and finish,
I think I'd have to give that to Ryan.
Everything flows smoothly; it looks traditional.
It's got the correct kick in the blade
as opposed to a symmetrical arc in it.
When we go over to Matt's blade,
it did get a little bit of glinting on the edge.
And that handle and guard setup are really on the rougher side.
- All right.
Doug, what are you thinking?
- When it comes to Ryan, all the way through, I mean,
it's just very well done.
- Mm-hmm. - When I look at Matt's blade,
that guard and handle
isn't the classic kilij that I would be expecting.
- Good. Fair enough.
All right, gentlemen, well, it sounds like
we got pros and cons to both these blades,
but you guys do have a decision to make.
Dave, you've made yours? - I have.
- And Doug? - Yes, I have.
- How about you, J.? - Oh, yeah.
- All right, guys, I'll call them in.
♪ ♪
Well, gentlemen, you gave us two swords
that performed outstanding in our tests.
But at the end of the day only one of you
can leave here as a "Forged in Fire" champion
getting a check for $10,000.
After a discussion our judges did make a final decision.
Today's "Forged in Fire" champion is...
♪ ♪
Ryan, congratulations.
Matt, you missed out by just a little bit,
and J. is going to tell you why.
- Matt, you brought us a great sword and a great performer.
You should be very proud of what you did.
But you did have a little bit of glinting on the skulls
during the strength test.
And the handle, it's got some hot spots,
and I could feel them when I'm swinging it.
Big thing, though, is the historical accuracy.
What you brought us is a little bit off
from the traditional kilij,
and that's why we're sending you home.
- I understand.
- Well, Matt, you brought us a beautiful blade
that did perform extremely well.
But unfortunately your time in this competition has ended.
I'm going have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- Congratulations, man.
Great job. - Thanks, man.
- I agree with the judges completely.
Ryan knocked it out of the park.
One thing I didn't consider that the judges did bring up
was that it was more of a modern
interpretation of the kilij.
And yeah, I agree with that too.
And the whole thing, it was fun.
It was exciting; it was challenging.
It was everything I was looking for.
♪ ♪
- Well, Ryan, congratulations.
That makes you a "Forged in Fire" champion.
You'll be receiving a check for $10,000, man.
Congratulations.
- Thank you.
[applause]
"Forged in Fire" champion?
What?
Oh, man, it feels good.
I mean, Matt was a insane competitor.
It feels good to make it through all the tests.
And 10 grand, hey, that's just a plus to me.
♪ ♪
[metal clangs]