[dramatic music]
- Tonight on "Forged in Fire,"
two teams enter The Forge together to compete
in an epic, never-before-seen showdown.
[intense music]
But after competing as allies,
the victorious pair will be divided
and forced to face each other for the title.
- It's a little nerve-racking.
♪ ♪
- This intense competition begins now.
♪ ♪
- I'm Josh Hardman,
and I'm 18 years old
from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- I'm Max Harter, I'm 18 years old,
and I'm from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- Copycat.
- 'Cause I'm from Colorado. [laughs]
- We know each other from working together.
- Josh and I are both full-time blacksmiths,
bladesmiths, and welders.
- Max and I are real close friends.
We see each other all day pretty much every day.
- You ready? - Ready.
- All right.
♪ ♪
- I'm Dan Lewis. - Name's Tony Lewis.
And we're brothers.
We are definitely competitive.
I mean, we're gonna take this challenge,
we're gonna give it everything we've got,
and we want to win.
- We say Lewises never lose. We win, or we learn.
- [chuckles] We learn.
- Well, bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.
Gentlemen, the four of you are here
to compete in a very unique spin
in our bladesmithing competition
that's gonna test every aspect of your skills.
Now, you need to impress these judges
because they're the ones who will be deciding
which one of you is coming out on top
and getting that check for 10 grand.
Now, bladesmiths, you probably noticed that things
are a little bit different today.
We didn't have four strangers walk into The Forge
to compete against each other.
Today we've got two pairs.
Max and Josh, you guys are friends.
Tony, Dan, you guys are brothers.
Not only that; you guys aren't standing behind our anvils,
and we didn't ask you to bring any tools with you.
Well, in fact, you're not gonna be
swinging a hammer at all today,
and you won't be competing in this forge.
♪ ♪
When we get done here,
the four of you are gonna turn around
and head directly back to your home forges,
where each pair of smiths will be working together
at your home forge to build an iconic weapon from history.
♪ ♪
You guys will have four days,
and next time you enter this forge,
your blades will immediately be put through
a series of tests.
And our judges will decide
which pair has impressed them the most
and who will move forward
in the final round of competition.
Now, this is where things get interesting.
Although you came here with a teammate,
only one of you will leave here with a victory.
The two smiths who impress the judges the most
in the first round of competition
will go into the final round, but you will not be competing
alongside your partner.
You'll be competing against them.
♪ ♪
It'll either be bud versus bud
or blood versus blood.
♪ ♪
- We win the first round,
that's gonna be a win for both of us.
And then it'll be fun
to compete against each other too.
We'll see who comes out on top.
- All right, guys. Let's get into it.
Under this tarp here, there is an iconic weapon from history
that you will be building with your partner
at your home forges.
Gentlemen, we want you to build this.
[dramatic bagpipe music]
The Scottish broadsword.
♪ ♪
- The Scottish broadsword rose to prominence
during the late 17th century.
This intricate weapon features a long double-edged blade
with a dual-purpose basket hilt
designed to protect the hand and to be used
to punch an opponent in close-quarter combat.
This weapon's profile and hilt
are similar to the Scottish backsword
featured in season seven on "Forged in Fire,"
which proved to be a difficult build,
and ultimately a basket hilt that hurt the user...
- Ah!
- Cost one of the smiths the competition.
♪ ♪
- Now, the blades you bring back
need to fall within these parameters.
Your blade length, measured from tip to guard,
needs to be between 29 and 31 inches.
You need to have a fuller on both sides of that blade.
It also needs to feature an intricate hilt
that fully encompasses its wielder's hand.
- We haven't built a sword this big or this intricate,
so this will absolutely be a big challenge for us.
- But we are very organized, and we will come up
with a good plan to use the time wisely.
- There's a lot going on,
and you only have four days to do it.
Gentlemen, without further ado, good luck.
We will see you in four days.
all: Good luck.
♪ ♪
- Day one, our game plan is,
we're gonna split up the work evenly between us.
He's gonna work on mostly the blade,
and I'm gonna work mostly on the hilt.
That way, we both have enough time to do both.
♪ ♪
- I'm going to be doing a multibar twist Damascus
with a solid 1085 wrap on the edge.
It'll give a little bit of a pop
and be a real nice solid steel in the core.
First thing I'm gonna get started on
is forging two billets of steel.
And then I will twist one one direction,
and the other billet the opposite direction
and then forge both those together.
It's a little time-consuming, but it's fun.
♪ ♪
- For the hilt, I'm going with a mild steel.
That way, it's easy to move,
and I don't have to worry about it splitting
or potentially cracking.
- That's looking really good. I like it.
- Cool.
- I got my weld set, drawn out,
and so should have it twisted within an hour.
- Perfect.
♪ ♪
- Twisting the Damascus steel that large
is really difficult.
[grunts]
But it went fine, and it's ready to go.
After I've twisted the two billets and re-squared it,
it's looking great and ready to be cut up
and forge welded to the other pieces.
- That thing's huge.
- It's a little larger than I was expecting,
but that'll be okay.
I'll have more than enough material to work with,
and I feel like we're both on schedule,
so we're all ready for tomorrow.
All right.
♪ ♪
- It's the morning of day one.
We're back in our home forge,
and we're excited to get started.
- Fire up the forge.
Today we're gonna try to get the steel drawn out,
get our shape,
and actually get the steel into the quench.
♪ ♪
- First challenge is getting our blade just right.
We want to make sure this is a blade
that's gonna stand up to the test.
The blade is made out of 5160 spring steel.
We're not doing any Damascus in the blade.
- Yeah, whenever you do Damascus, you can mess it up.
- Tip's getting hot.
- Yup.
♪ ♪
Tony and I are always working together.
We're always learning from each other.
And so it's been a family thing.
We argue now and then, but mostly we get along.
And we're pretty good at working things out.
- We don't fight each other a lot. [laughs]
- We're gonna work on the tang and shaping it.
- We've got a guillotine press that we're gonna use
to pinch both sides.
- And then from there, we use the press
to continue to draw the tang out.
- Like butter.
We haven't really quenched anything that long before.
- The blade is extremely heavy,
and there's a lot of potential for it to bend,
and so we're just constantly watching
to make sure the blade's straight.
♪ ♪
- You got a straight blade.
Looking good.
- End of day one, and we did exactly
what we set out to do,
to get a hard, straight blade.
Ready to move on to some of the next steps,
but it's a huge relief to get that behind us.
Whoo!
♪ ♪
- Here we go.
- First thing today is, I'm gonna
keep on working on that hilt,
see how much progress I can make.
I'm working on getting this side to match that first one.
I really have to pay attention to the symmetry
because if it's not symmetrical,
your eye will be immediately drawn to that,
and it might cost us when it comes to judging.
♪ ♪
- I've got a tiny bit left to do on the blade,
so I'm gonna have Josh double strike with me
to get that set.
- Max and I have both double striked for each other
quite a bit before,
so we both have that rhythm going.
Double striking makes it super quick and super fun.
♪ ♪
- I've gone through
my normalizing and thermal cycles,
so the next thing to do is quench.
If this goes well, we'll have a blade that's very flexible
but also have a really strong edge.
♪ ♪
All right.
One of the really nice things about working with a partner,
especially on a sword,
is, when I pull it out of the oil,
I can have Josh set it in the straightening jig for me,
and that'll make it go a lot smoother.
♪ ♪
- Cool.
That felt good.
- That's it. - That's it.
Awesome.
♪ ♪
- Day two.
- We're feeling pretty good this morning.
We feel like we're on schedule,
maybe a little bit ahead of schedule,
but we're anxious to get going today
and make some more progress.
- I'm gonna focus on taking as much weight off
of that blade as possible.
A sword that's too heavy will get us eliminated,
so we've got to get some of those basics just right.
When it comes time to the basket,
I've been taking the lead on that
and planning a little bit.
We've never made a hilt like this before.
Definitely a challenge.
I was able to mock up a form, basically a model,
that we can use to just form our pieces
and get the shape right for that basket.
- I definitely think a little bit bigger
is better in this case.
We just don't want anyone to get hurt swinging that sword
or be too tight or uncomfortable for the judge.
- We chose to do Damascus to build the basket
just to give it a little more character
to get those nice color contrasts.
- Completed the fuller, did all the bevels.
You get in a groove and--
literally in a groove with the fuller.
But once you get started, you feel like, "I just can't stop.
I got to keep on going till I get this right."
- We're tired, been working all day,
but feeling pretty good about where we're at.
- Certainly to be able to have a blade
that looks like a sword,
pretty excited about getting
through a few of those milestones.
♪ ♪
- It's the morning of day three.
This morning, I'm gonna finish up the hilt.
- And then I'm gonna do finish grind
and hand-sanding on the blade.
- I feel like we're making really good progress,
so we just have to continue that
through the next couple days.
♪ ♪
- I completed the finish grind,
and it's looking real great,
so now it's on to hand-sanding.
Hand-sanding is one of my least favorite parts
of making blades.
♪ ♪
But I'm real happy with how it's going.
♪ ♪
- I'm about to go sandblast the hilt real quick
just to see if my grind lines are still there
or if I need to polish it a little bit more.
It's looking really good, so I'll just move on.
♪ ♪
- It's the end of day three.
Plan for tomorrow is,
we'll get the handle and pommel polished up,
do the finish on the guard, and etch the blade.
And then it's on to final assembly.
- I feel like we're, like, just right on schedule.
- We're right on schedule.
Cool.
♪ ♪
- So it's day three.
The big thing today is getting the basket finished.
- And we're starting to assemble the pieces together.
- Well, the leather is gonna come up too.
- Yeah.
- Eventually, we're gonna put on
some leather over that handle and some wire
and make it look like a real authentic sword.
- We have the guard and the loop.
And now we need to attach side pieces to it
and connect it together to just start building
the structure of our basket.
The brown leather that we use to wrap the handle
is from an elk that I harvested in Arizona.
- And then I also braided the wiring.
Historically, the wire was what actually held on
to the leather piece.
Also, it just creates a great feel to the handle.
All right.
- Going into the last day tomorrow,
the goal is to continue to put
the rest of the basket together,
and then it's gonna be a lot of fit and finish.
And in my mind, I wanted to be further ahead.
I wanted to have that basket all put together.
We still need to put a good edge on the blade,
so definitely feeling the pressure.
♪ ♪
- It's the morning of day four.
We've got the blade finish ground,
and the guard is almost finished,
so it's just a lot of polish work today.
- One of the biggest things I have to do today
is blacken the hilt, so I'm gonna do that
by heating it up with the oxyacetylene torch
and then beeswaxing it.
- We are naming this the Raven.
Ravens are a big part of Scottish culture,
so we're going with that since it's a Scottish broadsword.
- And it just really helps seal it up and give it
a nice finished look to it.
Now it's time to etch.
- Whoa.
Look at that.
- The etch is done, so it's time to move on
to final assembly.
We just have to make sure
we've got everything laid out right
so we don't put anything on backwards.
And we got to make sure we keep epoxy off of the liner
or any stuff like that that we don't want glued.
- But it's probably one of the smoothest glue-ups
we've ever done before.
Nice.
- Blade turned out really, really good,
so now we got to test it.
Wow.
- We're feeling great.
- Yeah, I think we did awesome on this sword.
Super easy to slice through those water bottles.
I think it'll do well.
♪ ♪
- All right, it's the final day today,
so we're gonna use every bit of time we have today
to get it as good as we can.
- Focus for the first few hours is just getting
a final appleseed edge to that blade.
So it's sharp, but it also can take a hit.
So if it's hit against a shield or something like that,
I know that that edge is gonna hold up.
- So I start off this morning
with a lot of tedious bending and molding the little pieces
that needed to be incorporated into the basket.
All right. Getting there.
We want a sword that's gonna have good balance to it.
It's gonna feel good in the hand
so that it tests well and the judges like it.
So I think we've got to start to incorporate
some drill holes into the basket.
It's gonna take away some of the weight on the hilt.
♪ ♪
- Did the final glue-up,
put some final touches on the blade, and we're done.
- Take the tape off and do some testing.
♪ ♪
- Didn't have a moment to sit down and rest,
but feels amazing to be done with it.
And we feel like we got a pretty awesome sword.
♪ ♪
- Well, bladesmiths, welcome back to The Forge.
So for the past four days,
you were back at your home forges
working on your Scottish broadswords.
I got to say, these things look absolutely epic.
But at the end of this testing,
only one pair will move forward
in the final round of competition
to go head-to-head with your partner.
But before we get into testing, want to hear about them.
So, Max, Josh, how'd it go for you?
- It went really smooth.
♪ ♪
I did a multibar twist Damascus core
with a solid 1085 wrap.
- Forged-blackened hilt
with a fluted African Blackwood handle
and then a highly polished pommel.
- Absolutely stunning, guys.
All right, Dan, Tony, how about you guys?
How'd it go? - No lie, it was a challenge.
It was definitely a challenge.
♪ ♪
We have a 5160 spring steel blade
incorporated with some Damascus that we drew out
to build the basket and the hilt.
- The Scottish broadsword traditionally used
a white piece of deer pelt-- that's in there as well--
and then a leather piece that Tony harvested as well.
- Both these blades look absolutely phenomenal,
but the best way we know how to find out
which of our pairs of smiths
is gonna move forward into the final round
is by putting them through a few tests.
Starting off, we got dynamic strength test with Dave.
♪ ♪
- I feel like I should be wearing a kilt.
[laughter]
All right, gentlemen, this is our dynamic strength test,
the shield chop and foam tube slice.
All right, Max, Josh, you're up first.
Are you ready for this?
- We're ready. - Oh, yeah.
- Okay.
- I'm just super excited.
I'm really proud of what we made.
- I know. I'm really proud of it.
Josh did an incredible job on the hilt.
I love the way the blade turned out, so we're ready for it.
Obviously, they're trying to break it,
so anything can happen,
but we've done our best to make it hold up to their test.
♪ ♪
- So all right, Max, Josh, first off,
what I really love is that pattern on the blade.
That's just beautiful work.
That's nicely, nicely done.
You really didn't lose any edge.
I mean, this test wasn't about
what the sword did to the shield,
but I certainly wouldn't want to be behind that thing.
Your guard, I like this.
It's kind of like that Mary Rose hilt,
an early basket hilt.
And I do like this hilt style
'cause it's really nice and smooth inside there.
And your handle is a good shape.
It's got a really nice fluted grip.
And controlling this,
I mean, I can cut all day with this thing.
So nicely done.
both: Thank you.
- All right, Tony, Dan, you guys ready?
- Ready. - Absolutely.
- Okay.
- The home forge was a lot of hard work,
but we feel good about the blade that we produced.
- We came together, worked together well,
put a lot of heart and soul into it.
We're a little nervous, of course,
but we feel like we've built a good blade
and it's gonna hold up well and do well.
♪ ♪
- All right, so right off,
scale-wise, it's a little on the wide side.
You don't quite need that much room.
You could have been probably
a half inch tighter on either side,
and it would have brought the scale down just a little bit.
I like the design you put in there. It's great.
Your edge right here in the sweet spot,
I can literally push my fingertip against that edge.
It's just not very sharp right there.
And I don't think it dulled because of the wooden shield.
I don't think it took any damage there.
So I'm just not sure that that one section
was as sharp as it could have been,
and I felt it in the cuts.
But all in all, fine-looking blade.
It's got a good feel to it, so nicely done.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the dynamic sharpness test.
I'll be taking your Scottish broadswords,
bashing them into this sword,
then cut this pig carcass.
Max, Josh, you're up first. Ready?
- We're ready. - Oh, yeah.
- Let's do this.
- The swords are kind of scary
'cause that's a really tough test on any blade.
- There's always a chance that something could happen.
♪ ♪
- The swords are kind of scary
'cause that's a really tough test on any blade.
- There's always a chance that something could happen.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Josh, Max, your basket hilt
fits my hand snugly, almost perfectly.
Now, your edge, you got some chips on your blade here,
but it didn't affect the cutting.
Overall, the wieldability feels good,
and your weapon, it will cut.
- Thank you.
- Tony, Dan, your turn. You ready?
both: Ready. - Let's do this.
♪ ♪
Tony, Dan, let's talk about your Scottish broadsword here.
When I picked it up, it's got a very nice balance to it.
It's wieldable.
It's slightly lighter than the other blade.
Your handle construction is comfortable.
Now, your edge.
You have a stouter edge here.
And when I was hitting on those swords,
you have one roll on your blade.
But your edge is sharp enough to cut the pig carcass,
even on the stabbing.
Overall, your weapon...
it will cut.
- Wow.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen, right from the beginning
of this competition, we've kind of been
in uncharted waters.
For the first time ever, we've sent four smiths back
to their home forges to build a blade
in tandem with a partner.
Now, all four of you should be extremely proud of your work.
You've brought back two beautiful swords
that did perform well,
and it made for a very difficult decision
for our judges.
But they did make a final decision.
The bladesmiths leaving The Forge are...
♪ ♪
Tony and Dan.
Unfortunately, your blade did not make the cut,
and Dave's gonna tell you why.
- Tony, Dan, both blades are fantastic-looking,
and both blades took some damage.
But basically, this came down to performance,
and in the end, your blade was just outcut,
and that's why you're going home.
- Understand.
- Well, gentlemen, unfortunately,
your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please
step off The Forge floor. - Thank you.
- Good job, guys.
- Good job.
- We're a little disappointed we didn't make it,
but we're proud of what we did.
This has been an incredible time, absolute blast.
And to be able to do this together,
to experience this together as brothers
has been pretty amazing.
Obviously, knowing what we know now,
we certainly would have changed
that edge geometry a little bit.
Max and Josh are excellent bladesmiths.
I mean, one of them is gonna be
the "Forged in Fire" champion, and we're excited for them.
♪ ♪
- Max, Josh, gentlemen, congratulations.
Your hard teamwork has paid off
and vaulted you into this final round of competition.
Now, we know you're both talented smiths
when you work together.
But in this round, the gloves are off.
We're gonna find out which one of you
has what it takes to become the "Forged in Fire" champion
and receive a check for $10,000
going head-to-head against your friend.
- I'm just gonna try to make the best blade I can,
and Josh is gonna do the same.
And this is gonna be a really close competition.
It's real exciting.
- Now, gentlemen, this final round
consists of five straight hours
where you'll be building a blade from start to finish.
You have free range of all of our tools
and all the materials in our pantry.
Most importantly, we've got a ton of great steel.
We got 1095, 15N20, 80CrV2,
as well as fillings for canisters.
You guys can choose to use any of those materials
in a pick-your-own-Damascus challenge.
♪ ♪
Now, guys, with those materials, we have chosen
what blade we want you to build.
♪ ♪
congratulations.
Your hard teamwork has paid off
and vaulted you into this final round of competition.
But in this round, the gloves are off.
Now, we're gonna find out which one of you
has what it takes to become the "Forged in Fire" champion,
going five straight hours
in a choose-your-own-Damascus competition,
head-to-head against your friend.
Now, gentlemen, we have chosen
what blade we want you to build.
You're gonna be building this...
[intense music]
The Kindjal sword.
♪ ♪
- Tracing its roots back to the third century B.C.,
the Kindjal sword remains popular in Georgia
to this day.
Featuring a double-edged blade and distinctive hilt,
this weapon was ideal for stabbing and slashing enemies
in close-quarter combat.
The Kindjal was such a lethal weapon,
the Russian army continued to carry
this fierce blade in battle well into the 20th century.
♪ ♪
- Now, guys, the blades you turn in
need to fall within these parameters.
You need to have a slightly curved double-edged blade
that measures between 17 and 19 inches of cutting edge,
needs to have a fuller running up both sides of the blade,
and it needs to have a full tang handle construction
that includes the profile of a guard and a pommel.
- In the first build,
I had four days to work on the blade,
and I got to work with Josh on a lot.
And now I've got five hours to make a short sword myself,
so this is gonna be tougher.
- Now, by the end of the five hours,
those blades need to be quenched, hardened,
and acid etched and ready for testing,
'cause that's exactly what our judges are gonna do
and decide which one of you
has impressed them the most and earns the title
of "Forged in Fire" champion and gets a check for $10,000.
So without further ado,
gentlemen, we have five hours on the clock.
So good luck. Stay sharp.
Your time starts now.
[rock music]
This is a cool competition
because these are friends out here on The Forge floor
competing against each other.
But at the end of the day, this is for $10,000
and the title of "Forged in Fire" champion.
- Well, at the end of the day, you really are
competing against yourself, but it's nice
to be able to have a buddy over there who says,
"Hey, let's both make our best blades
and see which wins."
- Which color was which?
- Blue's the 80CrV2.
I'm gonna do stack.
Max is a super talented smith,
so it's gonna be pretty tough to beat him.
I'm getting my steel all ready to weld up.
I'm making Damascus stack out of 80CrV2, 15N20, and 1095.
I really hope it makes an interesting pattern.
I'm pretty used to working with Damascus.
I can normally forge weld it pretty quickly.
- Now, we've seen what kind of Damascus that Max can do.
He put together the steel for the first round of competition.
We haven't yet seen any of Josh's Damascus,
but he does come from quite the pedigree.
- I got into bladesmithing
because my dad started doing it too, Ron Hardman,
and then he was also "Forged in Fire" champion.
He went on with my sister, Jessie.
- I'm getting married this summer.
Josh is actually one of my groomsmen in my wedding,
so it's really exciting to be here with him.
I know Josh is a really good bladesmith
and really good blacksmith as well.
So I think this competition
is gonna come down really close.
First thing I'm gonna do
is get my billet of Damascus stacked up.
I definitely don't have time to do mosaic
or really high layer in this build,
so going for about 20 layers or so.
- It looks like both of the smiths
are gonna go for some kind of layered Damascus,
both using all the different steels we've got.
- These are gonna be two blades
with a low layer count random pattern on either side,
which I really like to see.
- I'm definitely gonna use all five hours.
So I've got to really get moving on it
and go as fast as I can.
- Max is rolling the paper so carefully.
- You want paper for design?
- Oh, what a guy.
- Look at that. - Look at those boys.
You boys.
- There's not a lot of time.
So while my steel's heating up,
I'm gonna make a design for my blade.
It helps get a more finished product in the end.
- Nice and toasty.
- I really want to make sure
that it's at a good temperature.
If I'm impatient and try to press it before,
I'm not gonna get a good weld on it.
- Having that steel at an even temperature
throughout the entire billet before that first weld
is pretty crucial.
- Once my steel is good and hot,
I take it over to the press and try to set the weld.
- Looks like he's running out a little bit of heat.
- Yeah.
- Oh, Josh is opening up.
- I really don't want to chase delaminations
through my blade.
I really need to make sure that I'm able to fix that quickly.
- Oh!
♪ ♪
in the final challengeus d
of our home forge battle.
And Josh is fighting hard to get back on track
after part of his Damascus billet failed to weld
on his first pass through the press.
What does he need to do right now
to make sure he gets this redone?
- He needs to clean it, flux it,
and then set that weld at the end.
- When you're setting welds on a Damascus billet,
you've just really got to make sure
that you get all those cracks sealed up.
- Here we go. - Here we go.
- I'm gonna let my steel heat up and then flux it
and then put it back in and get it up
to forge welding temperatures.
I did it.
Everything is looking solid right now,
so I just try to work it down as fast as possible.
[rock music]
- Max's billet, you can see how hot that billet is.
You can see the smoke coming off of it,
which I really like to see.
- Everything's looking real solid.
It all feels like it's moving in one solid piece,
so I'm gonna move on to drawing it out.
I forget.
- Ah, okay.
- Making a sword of this length
isn't gonna be a problem at all.
Just did a 30-inch broadsword,
so this is only 18 inches long.
And my blade's looking really good.
I like how the tip's coming out, so keep moving on.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, one hour has elapsed.
- Now that I have a good Damascus billet drawn out,
time to start shaping it.
It's a pretty simple blade shape.
Got just a pointy end and then a slight curve to it.
- Hey.
- Parameters, if you need them. 18.
- 18? - That's 2 inches.
- Thank you.
- Feel free to check.
- It's got two cutting edges.
Which one's the forward-facing edge
when you're holding it most of the time?
- It curves up
away from the hand, so-- - Yeah, like a saber.
- Yeah, but you can use the back edge
and do a wrapping kind of tuck.
These are not weapons for puncturing armor.
They're for slashing skin.
- For the curve of the blade,
I'm just gonna kind of tap it over the horn
and then also whack it on the horn.
So it's pretty quick,
and it makes it pretty gradual too.
- The curvature looks nice to me.
It's subtle.
♪ ♪
- Best way for me to do
one of these integral guard and pommels
is just to put the material where I need it
and then grind it the rest of the way.
I'm looking for a tool that I can kind of fit
into the shoulders and push down material.
- The example we have, the Kindjal here, may look like
a straightforward blade,
but that integral guard together with that pommel
and Damascus in five hours,
that's a big task.
- I've done a lot of blacksmithing,
so I think that skill is gonna help a lot for this blade.
So I just take some mild round bar
and weld it together in the configuration I need.
- I love seeing what Max is doing,
creating tools and moving steel.
♪ ♪
- That'll work. - Yeah.
- It's looking really good.
I've got all the material where I want on the guard.
I'm gonna do a bit more work on the pommel,
and then that'll be it for forging.
♪ ♪
- One of the requirements is that there's
a fuller on both sides running at least 2/3 of the length.
- That's a big fuller.
What sometimes happens when people make a wider fuller
is, their edge geometry changes and the bevels become steeper,
which makes for a thicker center of the blade.
Doesn't cut as well.
- And it's a little nerve-racking.
It's pretty easy to see all the uneven grind marks
and wavering in the blade.
But I know that time is gonna disappear quickly.
- Bladesmiths, you are down
to the final two hours in this contest.
- Dude, that looks really good.
- Looks like Max is doing his final heat-up.
We're gonna see a quench here.
- I'm making sure that this blade
is as even of a heat as I can get
so I don't have any cold or hot spots.
If I have a cold spot, that'll probably end up being
a soft spot in the blade.
If I have a hot spot,
that can cause the grain to grow,
which could then end up being a weak spot.
♪ ♪
- All right. Max is in the oil.
- It's perfectly straight.
Gotten a good hard blade.
I'm really happy with how my blade's turning out.
I haven't had any issues come up yet,
but we'll see how things go down the road.
♪ ♪
- These guys are literally neck and neck.
This is gonna be a tight race
all the way to the finish, guaranteed.
- A lot can happen in a quench,
especially for a blade this long.
Could have tendency to warp.
- Boom. In the oil.
- Everything looks pretty good.
There isn't a ton of time in this round,
so I got to use my time wisely.
So while I let my blade cool down from quench,
I'm gonna quickly take a little bit of material
off of my handle scales.
That way, makes grinding it easier later.
- All right, bladesmiths, you have one hour remaining
on the clock.
- I've already got my scales and pins cut out,
so I just need to drill the pin holes in the wood,
and then I will move on to shaping the handle scales.
- I did a really complicated Damascus pattern
in Josh and I's broadsword.
So I've shown what I can do with Damascus.
Right now, I'm just gonna try to show
what I can do with finish work.
- I want to make sure that I've got a good
oval-shaped handle that'll be able to index well.
Not too large, not too small.
Should fit the judges' hands well.
I've got my handle kind of rough shaped.
I'm just gonna leave it at that for now,
and I'm gonna do a bit more finish grinding on the blade.
♪ ♪
- So next thing I'm doing is start working on my handle.
I decided to make a mosaic pin.
It'll be pretty quick and just take a couple extra minutes.
Little details, especially when going up against Max,
is gonna be really important.
- It's a little bit of extra flair.
I mean, in a competition this close,
it could be the difference
between taking home the title and the cash
and going home empty-handed.
- My glue-up goes super smoothly.
Get it all clamped together,
so that way, I can work on the blade still.
- Max, Josh, you guys have 15 minutes.
♪ ♪
Max is in the acid, guys.
He's shaped his handle up.
Now he's gonna get an etch going on.
This should be a good-looking blade when it comes out.
- It's really important that I acid etch this blade.
If I don't, the judges
aren't gonna be able to see the pattern,
and that's the whole point of doing this process.
After the acid etch,
I'm just gonna do some final shaping on the handle
and then put an edge on my blade.
- Now, they don't even know
what kind of tests we're gonna be doing.
They've got to be preparing for everything.
- I'm using the slack belt
so I get a nice strong appleseed edge on the blade
where it has a convex edge
so it'll have a real fine edge
but, at the same time, be real strong.
- 60 seconds.
- Everything's looking good.
Turned out real nice, and we were done ahead of schedule.
I don't have anything to do. - Fruit snacks.
- Okay. - What is this?
- We've got nothing left to do,
so we're gonna eat some fruit snacks.
- [laughs]
We give the smiths the option to bring tools in,
and these guys bring candy.
- We snuck them in in Max's bag.
I don't know if anybody's ever eaten fruit snacks
on "Forged in Fire" before,
but if not, we're the first.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Bladesmiths, put down your candy.
This round is over!
- Josh and I both made really good blades.
Either one of us can win.
We both feel real confident,
so we'll just see what happens.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the dynamic KEAL test.
To find out how lethal your weapons are,
how sharp they are,
and how wieldable they are in my hands,
I will take your Kindjal swords
and deliver some lethal blows to the ballistics dummy
and try to cut through these watermelons.
Max, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Yup.
♪ ♪
In this test, I got to have just a real sharp edge,
or it won't cut all the way through the watermelon.
It won't really cut through the dummy,
so just hoping that I got everything sharp enough.
♪ ♪
- In this test, I got to have just a real sharp edge,
or it won't cut all the way through the watermelon.
It won't really cut through the dummy,
so just hoping that I got everything sharp enough.
♪ ♪
- All right, Max, about your Kindjal sword here.
First up, nice job of bringing out the pattern.
Now, your handle construction is smooth.
Your edge is sharp
and took no damage.
It's got a nice balance to it.
It's pointy. It's sharp.
And it will KEAL.
- Thank you.
- Josh, your turn. You ready?
- Yes, sir.
♪ ♪
Max's test went really good.
It's gonna be pretty hard to top this performance,
so I just got to see how mine goes now.
And I got to hear him say, "It will KEAL."
♪ ♪
- All right, Josh,
let's talk about your Kindjal sword here.
It's nice to see that profile
that has a slight curve that the Kindjal swords have.
But when you look up close, you can see
that there are uneven grinds on your blade.
But your edge is sharp,
and it took no damage on this test.
It's got a nice balance, and, more importantly,
your Kindjal sword will KEAL.
♪ ♪
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, bladesmiths,
welcome to the dynamic strength test.
♪ ♪
Max, you're up first. You ready for this?
- Ready.
♪ ♪
- All right, Max. It is comfortable.
It fits my hand really well.
It's nice and rounded.
There's no hot spots or any problems there.
Cutting into the banner, you have a keen edge,
but it's not a wicked sharp edge.
I can run my finger along here without any worry
of getting cut.
And you can see it a little bit in the banner.
There's some more tearing than clean slicing.
But in general, this is a strong blade.
Held up great on the ice,
and it cut the banner, so nice job.
- Thank you.
- All right, Josh, you're up. You ready?
- Yes, sir.
♪ ♪
- All right, Josh.
The grinds you have on here are a little bit rough.
The rough grinds make it a little difficult
to see your pattern so starkly.
And the shape of it kind of meanders a little bit
as you move along.
But it is sharp.
There are some spots on here that took some dulling,
and you can see on that horizontal strike,
it really just stopped.
But all in all, I think you did a good job.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- All right, gentlemen, well,
in the beginning of this competition,
you guys showed us you're both very talented smiths,
especially when working together as a pair.
But at the end of the day, only one of you
can leave here as a "Forged in Fire" champion
and get that check for $10,000.
Today's "Forged in Fire" champion is...
♪ ♪
Max. Congratulations.
Now, Josh, you fought hard.
You're a talented smith, but unfortunately,
your blade did not make the cut,
and Doug's gonna tell you why.
- Josh, both your blades passed our tests with flying colors.
But at the end of the day, Max's had cleaner grinds,
and it was overall a refined blade.
For that reason, you're going home.
- Yes, sir.
- Well, Josh, it's been a pleasure watching you work.
We want to say thank you for coming out
and fighting so hard, but unfortunately,
your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you to please step off
The Forge floor.
♪ ♪
- I'm really happy for Max.
The competition hasn't come between us as friends.
He'll always be my best bud.
I completely agree with the judge's choice.
If I were to do it again, I would probably try
to even out my grind a little bit more.
Good job, Max. You did good.
So see you at home.
♪ ♪
- Max, congratulations.
That makes you a "Forged in Fire" champ,
and you'll be receiving a check for $10,000.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
This is really exciting.
I had an awesome week competing with Josh.
I'm walking away with the title
of "Forged in Fire" champion,
but it took my work with Josh to get me here.
- So what's your plan with the money?
- I'm getting married in June,
so I'll probably save the money for that.
- Wise, wise man. [laughter]
- If it had been a competition against strangers,
I would have been here to win.
But competing with Josh definitely turned it
into just a good time to hang out
with one of my best friends.
♪ ♪