[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Tonight on an epic "Forged in Fire"...
is a Marvel's "Midnight Suns" takeover.
♪ ♪
- [roars]
♪ ♪
Everything from the blades
to the challenges and the tests
will be influenced by the darker side of Marvel.
Will heroes prevail? - [laughs]
- Or will evil take over?
- Oh, no.
- There, there, my sweet child.
- It all starts now.
[low dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- My name is Jessie Whipperman.
I'm 37 years old and I'm from Des Moines, Iowa,
and I've been smithing for about five years.
All of my kids have tried forging,
but they realize how hot it is, how dirty it is,
and they decided that playing video games is more fun.
If I had a Marvel superhero name,
it would be the Foundry.
The Foundry's powers melt the competition.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- My name is Paul Leal Jr.
I'm from La Vernia, Texas.
I'm 49 years old.
I served 22 years in the Army.
I run a program for vets and first responders,
helping teach them how to make knives.
If I were to be a superhero,
I would be Captain Damascus.
I take all their blades and make them cooler.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- My name is Luke Terry.
I'm 18 years old from Steubenville, Ohio,
and I've been blacksmithing for eight years.
I'm a pretty big Marvel fan.
As a little kid watching "Iron Man 1,"
him forging his Iron Man suit--
such a hands-on, science-y, engineering thing,
that is one of the things that kind of launched me
into studying mechanical engineering and technology.
I would have to say my superhero name
would probably be the Metal Bender.
I feel like it encompasses so much of what I do,
so much of my personality, so much of what I enjoy,
there's no way I wouldn't be able to include that in.
- Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge!
You are about to take part
in a one-of-a-kind bladesmithing competition
that has been specifically designed to test
all of your skills from tip to tang.
Now you're probably wonderin', "What is going on?"
Things are looking quite a bit different
today in The Forge,
and that's because today's competition
has been taken over by Marvel's "Midnight Suns."
Now this video game features Marvel's darker side
as a team of supernatural warriors
fight off ancient demonic forces.
Now we've brought that virtual world to life
here in The Forge for a competition
where we're gonna ask you to build some iconic weapons
carried by the heroes of this game.
And then we're gonna put them through our own very evil
and demonic test.
Now you may have noticed that there's only three of you.
That's because this competition will only consist of two rounds
of bladesmithing, and after each one of those rounds,
you will present your work to our panel of expert judges,
who will critique and test your blades,
ultimately making the decision
as to which one of you is leaving here
as a "Forged in Fire" champion,
receiving a check for $10,000.
Now guys, let's get into it.
Now to start things off,
we're gonna ask you three smiths
to be the first to forge out
a very unique weapon that before now
has only existed in the digital world
and carried by a hero of the "Midnight Suns."
- 'Bout time.
- Gentlemen, today, you will be building this.
♪ ♪
This weapon here is Blade's glaive.
Now as one of the Midnight Suns,
Blade wields his weapon to fight off
the underworld's army of demons.
Gentlemen, you'll be building your own unique version
of his blade in the next five-hour round.
- [laughing] Oh.
This blade has some kind of pointy
double-bladed, crazy fantasy-looking weapon.
With all the curves and weird spikes on this blade,
it definitely looks like it's gonna be a difficult build,
especially in only five hours.
- You can use any steel here in the pantry
and you can use any method you choose
to build your blades.
Just make sure that your glaives
fall within these parameters:
this weapon features two blades
that have the same dimensions,
both blades need to have a width
between 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 inches,
a length between 5 and 6 inches,
they both need to be skeletonized,
and connected by a handle
that is between 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 inches.
Now at the end of the five-hour round,
the judges will fix your blades
into a mechanical device that has been designed
to replicate Fallen Hulk's rage.
Then to check for sharpest,
they'll be swung through multiple fabric bags.
Now guys, there is one thing I forgot to mention.
Back behind me here at the pantry
there are six "Midnight Suns" cards,
and throughout the first 30 minutes of this competition,
I will call each one of you up individually
to grab one of those cards and flip it over.
Now on the reverse side of those cards
there's either a villain or a hero from the game.
If you flip over and you have a hero,
everybody benefits.
And the opposite of that,
if you flip your card over and you've got a villain,
things are getting quite a bit more difficult for everybody.
But gentlemen, good luck because your time starts now.
♪ ♪
So guys, here we are
in our Marvel's "Midnight Suns" competition.
These guys are about to build
one of the most wicked fantasy blades
I've seen done in The Forge here.
- It's definitely not your everyday builds
for a lot of bladesmiths.
- That's one of the things of fantasy weapons in general:
they always have this sort of fanciful thing to 'em,
which make them more challenging
'cause it's outside the wheelhouse
of what most smiths are gonna do.
♪ ♪
- I go with W1 round bar.
As Captain Damascus,
using mono steel would be frowned upon,
but it's a weird-shaped blade with curves in it
so I'm going to do it.
- All right.
I think all the smiths are gonna end up using
a 6-inch piece of W1.
- Yeah. - One of the important points
of this blade is to make sure that metal is screamin' hot.
- Oh, yeah, yeah. - 'Cause you're gonna put
a heck of a lot of stress on that joint.
Working that metal cold,
that's where you're gonna wind up with fractures
and cracks and things falling apart.
- That was no bueno.
I go check the metal.
It's not even close,
so I go start checking and rechecking the parameters.
If I start working this steel before it is ready,
it could easily develop cracks.
Wow, that takes a long time.
So I'm waiting and waiting for this steel to heat up.
♪ ♪
- [laughs]
How am I going to do this?
This is the first time I have built anything
with this many curves.
It's an interesting weapon because of its symmetry
on both sides, so how do you go about making this happen?
- Cut your shape out of two flat pieces,
then swing one over and weld the middle.
- Oh, sneaky.
- That way you got perfectly symmetrical pieces,
as opposed to trying to forge perfectly symmetrical pieces.
- The most difficult part
is going to be trying to make sure all of the curves match.
This is going to take all of my skill set
to get this together in five hours.
Close.
♪ ♪
- My initial thoughts? I don't have a damn idea
how I'm gonna make this thing. [laughs]
I am not familiar with W1, but I know for sure
that big ol' bar has enough steel in it.
- This is the first time I've seen all three bladesmiths
actually write out their plan on the table.
- They have a drawing of the object to scale,
so it's gonna help them with the whole design process.
- Making this blade in five hours
is definitely gonna be a challenge,
but I think as long as I keep my head,
have a plan, I don't think I'll have too many problems.
♪ ♪
- It's time. - [laughs]
- Oh, this is my favorite part about this competition.
I'm about to call up one of these smiths
to either be the hero or the villain
on The Forge floor.
Hey, Luke!
Come on up, buddy. Your turn to pick a card.
- Awesome.
Definitely a little nervous going up there.
Nothing they throw out there could be too, too hard, right?
- What do we got?
Oh.
- [roars]
- All right, guys, listen up!
Luke drew the Lilith card,
meaning each and every one of you have to turn in your blades
under three pounds or you will be eliminated.
- So add that parameter to the list.
I really hope the other guys aren't too mad
that I drew the first villain card.
Time to put it on a diet.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- This new parameter may be a little tricky,
but there's no knife should weigh three pounds
that's that small.
Finally, this metal is hot enough to start moving,
so I just start working it down into my cone shape
and that way I can move on to Big Blu
and gettin' that overall link to where I want it to be.
We got this, man.
- Paul, you're up! Time to pick a card.
- [laughs]
I feel lucky today.
♪ ♪
- [laughing] Oh, no, we got another villain.
- [roars]
- You have picked the Fallen Hulk card,
meaning he has smashed Big Blu and it's down for 30 minutes.
- No.
- [bleep]. - Wow.
- Oh! - That's a rough one.
- This smashes all my plans.
Sorry, fellas.
I was about to use Big Blu to draw out this blade wide,
so I don't know what I'm gonna do for the next 30 minutes.
Weld, weld, weld, weld.
- So guys, here we are
in the Marvel's "Midnight Suns" competition,
where Paul has picked the Fallen Hulk card.
- [roars]
- Meaning he has smashed Big Blu
and it's down for 30 minutes.
- Oh!
- That's a rough one. - No.
This smashes all my plans.
I was about to use Big Blu next.
- Sorry, fellas.
- Now I'm stuck with a hammer to draw out this blade wide.
- Paul's got his hammer out,
but he's widening out the base of that blade at the handle
before he puts any bend in it.
Bending it over's gonna be hard
without having it crumple on him.
- [groans]
It's not easy to hold.
My fingers are starting to cramp to a point where
I gotta stretch 'em in between heats.
Come on.
But Captain Damascus wouldn't give up,
so I just whack at it and whack at it
as hard as I can, waiting for Big Blu to come back into play.
- Blade would be proud.
- Now that I've got the handle pressed out,
I can start putting the grooves into it.
- Jessie is starting to try to bend his blade
right on the horn.
- That's a good idea.
- I'm just going back and forth
between the anvil and my drawing.
Everything is looking good,
but I'm a little worried about my time.
I'm gonna have to move quickly.
- He'll have to be careful,
because when you bend something quite aggressively,
you often get microcracking right in that corner.
♪ ♪
- All right, last but not least, Jessie!
Your turn to pull a card, boss!
- We've already pulled two villain cards.
I don't wanna be the guy that throws in another parameter.
[groans]
♪ ♪
- All right, guys,
you should all be thanking Jessie right now.
He's got the Wolverine card,
adding 20 minutes to the clock.
- Thank you.
- We got the bad cards out of the way for you.
- [laughs]
That softens the blow of losing Big Blu for half an hour.
- What were you for Halloween this past year?
- I was Wolverine, actually.
I made big ol' claws and the whole nine yards.
It was a lot of fun.
- My son and I used to have superhero ideas.
I think the worst I ever had was Frozen-Solid Man.
He could freeze himself solid.
- [laughs] - I know. It's...
[both laugh]
- I finally get this forged out to shape
so now I'm starting to feel really good about this blade.
- So now 30 minutes have elapsed
since Hulk came in and destroyed Big Blu,
which means it's back up and runnin'.
- Big Blu, it's go time.
Bam. Big Blu is online.
I start spreading that metal and it moves fast.
Paul is getting the width compared to the other two.
- Yeah, now that he's got that width,
see how it's rolling over?
- Holy smokes.
- Trying to make this curve is challenging.
It keeps wanting to warp on me, so I hit it and hit it...
and then have to re-flatten it out.
[sighs] Even curves.
- One trick really is to not heat that handle section
because if you heat the section you're gonna try to curve
and the handle, as you start hitting,
it just bends right at the interface,
at that thin spot on the handle.
- Finally getting this metal
to where I think I've met parameters.
It looks good, but I'm still feeling the cramps.
They're getting worse.
- The smiths seem to be tiring rapidly.
- Big Blu was down early on,
so they gassed themselves out with the hand hammers.
- I still have quite a bit to do in this round
and I don't know how much is actually gonna prevent me
from holding this blade and finishing it.
♪ ♪
- It's taking me a bit longer to meet parameters
than I'd previously hoped.
Time to work on my skeletonization.
My plan for skeletonization is to drill two holes
roughly centered on each blade,
hog out the material in the middle
with an angle grinder,
and that'll be that.
- Since we're not telling them how to skeletonize,
they could make multiple holes and then use a rotary tool
to connect those holes, removing that section,
burn it out with a torch.
Lots of ways.
- I'm feeling pretty good so far.
Everything's going according to plan.
Oh, yeah.
[sander grinding]
- I have the blade skeletonized
and now I gotta hog off as much material as possible
before I quench.
- Now he's only got one of the blades
in the forge right now.
This should tell you guys he's gonna quench one at a time.
- You don't need to have that center piece harden.
There's no reason for it.
♪ ♪
There you go. - All right.
- You got one quenched blade.
- There's no warps or cracks so I quench the second one.
♪ ♪
Everything looks good.
I haven't weighed my blade yet.
[bleep].
And I am slightly under four pounds.
I don't have a handle on this blade yet
and it needs to be under three pounds,
otherwise I'm going to be eliminated immediately.
So I am feeling the clock.
- Bladesmiths, you are now officially halfway through
this "Midnight Suns" competition.
You've got 2 hours and 30 minutes left.
♪ ♪
- Ooh. - Uh-oh.
- Whoa.
Luke just quenched screamin' hot.
- Yeah, one side was screamin' hot
and the other side was right about where you want it to be.
- And the file bites.
Only one of my blades is hardened.
[bleep].
Okay.
- Luke is back in the forge, guys.
- Luke may be file checking while it's still hot
and thinking it didn't get hard.
The second quench can be detrimental.
You're just growing grain at that point.
♪ ♪
- Luke just quenched again. - Yep.
- Damn it.
And it bites again.
I'm starting to feel the panic set in a little bit.
- Luke's back in the fire.
- What? - What are you doin'?
- The grain side in there has to be like asphalt.
That's gonna, in turn, make it a very brittle blade.
- Look at the color.
- Oh. - Whoo.
- Holy crap. - One quench was hot.
Two quenches, very hot.
This one was the surface of the sun.
- Something's clearly not right.
After three quenches,
this blade is still not completely hard.
[bleep]. - Oh, no, no.
He's done file checks, he's quenched three times.
What's going on?
Why is he going for number four?
- Decarburization on the edge of that blade probably
is making the file bite in.
He should take that blade to the grinder,
grind all that black off of there.
He was probably just filing forge scale off.
- There's times you gotta trust science.
- Yeah. - If you get that blade hot
and drop it in oil, it's gonna be hard.
- Yeah.
- If I don't get this thing quenched now, I'm screwed.
- Here we go.
- Everybody, cross your fingers.
All of our smiths have been tasked
to recreate Blade's glaive
in a five-straight-hour forging round,
where they gotta build the blade from start to finish.
We're coming really close to the two-hour mark
and Luke is back in the fire,
going for number four, guys.
- [bleep]. Quenching over and over
just opens you up to warps, cracks.
It is a huge risk to do a fourth quench.
- Here we go.
- Everybody, cross your fingers.
- Oy, four hot quenches.
- It's hard enough.
All it needs to do is survive the testing and beyond that,
there's not a whole lot I can do.
- Bladesmiths, you have two hours remaining!
♪ ♪
- I decided to focus on shaping this blade
before I go the oil
because it will make it way more difficult
to shape when it's hard.
I think my blade is looking good,
but because it's a weird-shaped blade,
I decide to torch quench
and that will give me the edge I want.
- What's a main difference between doing a torch quench
and doing the forge quench?
- You're heating such a small area.
I mean, it would be like trying to cook a steak
with a book of matches.
- [laughs] And he's still-- - You can do it,
but it's gonna take a long time.
- Well, we're just looking at extra steps added in
in an already short time period.
- Yeah, and not knowing how to set your tools up properly
can cost you a lot of time.
[dramatic music]
So you want that flame-- it's a very, very blue flame--
not white like that.
- Oh, no.
♪ ♪
- And see, that's way too much gas.
- If I can't get this torch
to stay at the perfect setting,
I'm not gonna get enough heat
to quench this blade.
♪ ♪
- There, that's the flame you want.
♪ ♪
- Whoo. Come on, come on, come on.
- That looks red enough to quench.
- Here we go. All right, so Paul now has
one of his edges torch quenched.
- Now I just have to do it one more time.
All right, all right, all right.
Finally, I got my hard edge, and this is a big relief.
I feel like I'm caught up.
That should do it.
♪ ♪
- I've met the weight parameter now
and I'm checking my knife against my sketch and...
[bleep].
I am under parameters for the height.
I gotta heat the tip of these blades up
so I can hammer out the curve to widen them out.
- Oh, he's moving it.
He doesn't have the width.
He's gotta bend it open. - Oh, no.
- I am going to bend the tip up into the position it needs
to be to have enough blade height.
- Oh, this could be tragic.
You could really shear that blade right off.
- It's always difficult to watch smiths
take a couple steps back and then have to run forward
to get to the end.
- I have to hit parameters.
A quarter of an inch will send me home.
[bleep].
- Gentlemen, you're down to the final 60 minutes!
- I've done enough grinding at this point.
It looks good enough.
I'm worried about how much time is left
to make a handle.
I see this Micarta.
It's the perfect size, so I'm gonna go with it.
- It's a pretty bloody simple handle,
but until you impact something,
you never really fully understand
what that handle feels like and how it's gonna react.
- Because the handle is basically a rectangle,
there's not a whole lot of contouring I can do
at this point.
But I make sure to add some grips
into the Micarta,
just to give it a little extra something.
Having a comfortable handle on a blade
is almost as important as making sure it's sharp.
I like that.
- [roars]
- I don't wanna go with just the colorful handle.
I need something that's strong, so I head for the Micarta.
It'll be easy to work with, easy to grind on.
- You just get an idea of how strange of a weapon this is,
watching Paul grind and turn his whole body around.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, you've got 30 minutes left!
- Now that I'm in parameters,
I put so much heat on the tip of these blades
that I have to quench again.
- Jessie just quenched that blade in a temperature
that it was way too low, so I mean,
he's not hardening that blade.
He's just sort of de-tempering it at this point.
- It's not even close.
- This entire competition might come down
to the way these smiths have heat treated these blades.
- I get the second tip quenched and I am very frustrated
with how much time it took me to fix that mistake.
- Jessie needs the Midnight Suns to come in and save him
from all the evil forces that have been seeping in
to this forge. - [laughs]
- Come on.
Once I have everything epoxied,
I start shaping the handle.
It is very awkward grinding this while it is clamped up.
But I don't have much time left.
I gotta work fast.
- We've done some really basic challenges,
where we said, "Copy this knife,"
and had it go so far off the rails
that we didn't know what we were looking at,
and these smiths have each made
a really nice representation of that glaive.
- I had my doubts, but these are good-looking blades.
- Absolutely.
- I don't believe that I finished in time.
- Five, four, three, two, one!
Bladesmiths, turn off your machines, put down your tools!
This "Midnight Suns" competition is over!
- Whoo-ee.
♪ ♪
- I'm pretty proud of my blade.
It's not the prettiest,
but I've never made something like this before
and I'm pretty confident it will hold up.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test,
the Fallen Hulk smash.
♪ ♪
In the "Midnight Sun" video game,
Hulk falls into the demonic forces
and is actually a villain.
- [roars]
- To recreate his destructive power,
I'm gonna fix your Blade's glaive
onto this mechanical apparatus and fire it out
to these three different targets:
steel chain, bones, and a steel shield.
Jessie, are you ready?
- Absolutely. - All right. Let's do this.
♪ ♪
- My heart is somewhere in my stomach.
None of these things look like they would be good on a blade.
♪ ♪
- [roars]
[low tense music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Jessie, first up, it's got a hefty weight to it,
but you did come under three pounds with this.
Your blade didn't take any damage during this test.
Overall, no jiggling, nothing came loose.
Good job.
- Thank you.
- All right, Paul, your turn. Are you ready?
- I'm ready. - All right. Let's do this.
[dramatic music]
I'm imagining the worst at this point,
knowing that they throwing Hulk in the mix
just terrifies me
and it looks like it's about to do some serious damage.
♪ ♪
- [roars]
♪ ♪
[roars]
[low tense music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Paul. First up, it's wieldable.
It's got a nice weight to it,
but your edge took a little bit of a chip on the impact.
But the other blade is clear.
Nothing going on with this side of your edge.
So overall, your Blade's glaive survived Fallen Hulk's smash.
Good job.
- Thank you.
- Luke, it's your turn, sir. Are you ready?
- I'm ready. - All right. Let's do this.
- I'm definitely feeling a little nervous
going into testing.
Because of how many times I quenched my blade,
I'm at higher risk of cracks, chips.
Fingers crossed mine will hopefully survive.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [roars]
[low tense music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Luke, first up, it is a very light weapon.
It's wieldable.
Now, you did four quenches on this.
On the inside of your blade here,
you have a crack that's on that area
on both ends of your blade.
But in this particular test, it survived.
Good job. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, welcome to our sharpness test,
the bag slice.
Now, in the game "Midnight Suns,"
when a demon is killed, he turns to black ash.
So to test the sharpness of your blade,
I'll be cutting these bags full of black ash,
and Jessie, you're up first.
Are you ready? - Absolutely.
- Okay.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [screams]
♪ ♪
- [snarls]
[low tense music]
♪ ♪
- All right, Jessie, your Blade's glaive,
it's got some heft to it,
but killed some demons pretty good.
[laughs]
It's very sharp. Very nicely done.
- Thank you.
- All right, Paul. You ready?
- I'm ready. - Okay.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [screams]
♪ ♪
[low tense music]
- All right, Paul.
First off, what I like is the depth
of these curves, because it really allows me
to slash and not worry about hanging up on things.
Honestly, it's a great shape.
Looks good, feels good, and it cuts great.
Good job. - Thank you.
- All right, Luke. You're up next.
You ready? - Let's do it.
- Okay.
[dramatic rock music]
♪ ♪
- [screams]
♪ ♪
- All right, so Luke, right off the bat,
your edge definitely does the job,
but there's a couple things going on
with the design of your glaive here
in that the handle's all the way to one side,
which makes it fine for holding this way
'cause that keeps me off of that,
but if I hold it the other way and I'm on this handle,
that is right in the meat of my hand.
If I were continuously using this blade,
I think this being right in the meat of my palm
would eventually create a hot spot.
But for this test, it is sharp.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
- Well, gentlemen, right off that bat,
you all should be extremely proud of yourselves.
You took Blade's glaive, a weapon that only exists
in the virtual world, and you brought them to life
in this forge, but guys, as you know,
only two of you can join us in the final round
of this "Midnight Suns" competition.
And after discussion,
the judges did make a final decision.
The bladesmith leaving The Forge is...
[suspenseful music]
Luke.
Unfortunately, your blade did not make the cut
and Doug's gonna tell you why.
- Luke, you should be very proud of your work.
This was not an easy build, but at the end of the day,
it came down to your handle.
It's a little bit blocky.
You didn't round the edges, and it creates some hot spots.
Also, the inside curves of your blade
have visible cracks,
and that's the reason you're not moving forward.
- Thank you.
- Well, Luke, I hope you had as much fun buildin'
this fantasy weapon as we had watching you make it.
Unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- Good job, man. - Thank you, guys.
The handle heavily affects the usability of my blade,
so that is definitely enough to send someone home.
I've had a great time working under the guise
of the Marvel-themed episode.
I'm definitely looking forward to checking out
the game "Midnight Suns."
It seems really cool.
- Jessie, Paul, gentlemen, congratulations.
You are now vaulting into the final round
of this Marvel's "Midnight Suns" competition.
Now it's down to the two of you, battling it out
for the title of "Forged in Fire" champion
and a check for $10,000.
In this final round, we're sending you back
to your home forges to bring yet another iconic weapon
from the "Midnight Suns" to life.
To tell you more about that, I wanna introduce you
to the game's creative director,
Jake Solomon.
- Bladesmiths, we are so excited
for this next build, a weapon that has never existed
in the Marvel Universe before now.
Bladesmiths, you need to go home and build this.
♪ ♪
The Hunter's iconic blades.
♪ ♪
Bladesmiths, this pair of lethal swords
belongs to the Hunter, an original superhero
that we created in close partnership with Marvel.
The Hunter is the first customizable hero
in the Marvel Universe.
Bladesmiths, we are really excited
to see you bring these virtual blades to life.
Good luck to you both.
- Well, thanks, Jake. I agree, man.
I cannot wait to see these blades be brought to life.
When you bring your blades back,
make sure they fall within these parameters:
the larger of the two blades needs to have a blade length
between 32 and 34 inches,
the smaller needs to be between 20 and 22 inches.
Now they also need to feature the iconic Hunter's sword's
both pommel and guard and have a white handle.
- It feels pretty cool to be making another weapon
from a video game, but when I hear
that it's two blades, I am screaming internally.
- Gentlemen, this is a very difficult pair
of blades to build.
Good luck.
We will see you here in four days.
[upbeat rock music]
- We're here at the home forge
and I'm ready to rock and roll again.
So I think the most challenging part
about this is going to be having
to make two identical blades,
but one shorter than the other.
I wanna put my touchmark on it as Captain Damascus,
so we're gonna make Damascus billets
with 80CrV2 and 15N20.
Girl, that's a monster billet right there.
I wanted to make both blades
out of one billet instead of two billets.
I thought that would take more time.
Little kisses.
At least three times.
[metallic clinking]
So far my progress is coming a little slower
than I thought.
I've got two billets cut out.
Tomorrow I will take turns getting them stretched out
and profile 'em.
♪ ♪
- And I'm back here
in my hometown of Des Moines, Iowa,
and I'm ready to start this build
of Hunter's iconic blades.
♪ ♪
I decided to go with mono steel 8670
because I feel like spending more time making sure
that the handle is the best handle
the judges have ever seen.
♪ ♪
It's the end of day one.
I got both of my blades forged out
and I got some grinding done.
I feel like I am ahead of schedule right now.
- Yesterday I got both swords profiled,
so today I need to start on my handle material.
To tackle these brass guards,
I plan on using the mill.
All right, if I get this milled,
I can get this handle material to sit in.
They're a little difficult
because they're a matching set,
one of 'em being smaller than the other.
With only one day left, the time is ticking.
I still have to quench my blades,
but if things go smoothly, I think I can make it up.
Havin' a pool at the forge is sometimes
is just what you need to cool off and regenerate.
- It's the morning of day three.
Yesterday, I worked on a lot of grinding
and then I got to the quench.
Today, I'm going to start cutting the faux ivory
for my handles and the brass.
Margin for error will be very thin.
I really want my handles to shine
since I am not bringing Damascus blades.
♪ ♪
Now I'm just making sure
that everything pieces together properly.
The biggest handle I've ever done by far.
It's the end of day three.
I have finished cutting all of my brass
and ivory to shape--
that everything fits up properly tomorrow.
I am ready to finish this build.
- So it's the morning of day four.
Today is going to be finishing the handle
on the second sword.
Once I get those pinholes drilled,
I'll be able to quench my blades.
♪ ♪
That looks good.
All right, I'm ready to start heat treating.
Going into that quench is always scary.
You could always come out with a crack, a warp.
I need to make sure I get this right
because this could be a major problem for me
at this state in the game.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah, good and straight.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
All right, two hard blades. Looking good.
I still have to glue the handles up and put my edge on.
♪ ♪
So as the clock comes to an end,
I need to hurry and get the paint rays
put on the blades.
'Bout the best I can do with what I got.
That's it for now from Captain Damascus.
We'll see you back at The Forge.
- It is day four, the last day.
I am feeling pretty good,
just putting on the finishing touches.
I'm going to be using the Dremel
to add some embellishments on the brass guard and pommel.
I want the handles to be the star of the show.
♪ ♪
I'm excited to have the judges test out my blades
and I'm sure that it'll cut through anything
that they put in front of it.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, bladesmiths, welcome back
to the final round of testing
in our Marvel's "Midnight Suns" takeover competition.
You both brought back a pair of Hunter's iconic swords,
and guys, I gotta say, they both look great.
But before we test these blades
to find out which one of you is going out with the victory,
I wanna hear about 'em.
So, Jessie, tell us about yours.
- Both my blades are made out of 8670.
They both have brass guards and pommels
with faux ivory for the main handle.
- They look absolutely great. - Thank you.
- Paul, how 'bout you? How'd yours go?
- Mine came down to the wire.
I used 80CrV2 and 15N20 to make Damascus blades,
a lot of brass and some faux ivory material
for the handle.
- Very, very impressive, but gentlemen, as you know,
only one of you can leave this competition
as a "Forged in Fire" champion.
In order to find out which one of you that is,
we're gonna put your blades through a series of tests.
To start things off, we got the KEAL test.
I'm gonna hand you off to Doug.
♪ ♪
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the KEAL test.
Unfortunately, healing powers is not my greatest suit,
but delegation of work is.
Wielding your weapons today is my brother, RJ Marcaida.
♪ ♪
Jessie, you're up first.
- I am very proud of the blades that I made
going into testing.
I'm feeling pretty confident right now.
♪ ♪
- [sighs]
[suspenseful music]
- All right, Jessie, both your long and short sword
are very comfortable to wield.
They've got a very nice balance.
Now, your edges are very sharp.
They cut deeply into the pig carcass.
Your weapons, sir,
they will KEAL.
- Thank you.
- Paul, your turn. So you ready?
- I'll fire up the grill.
- All right, we'll see you there.
- One of my favorite tests to watch
is the slicing of the pig.
Of course one of my favorite things
is also cooking of the pig.
But I just hope this thing holds up.
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
- All right, Paul. First off, for the long sword,
despite having the brass here and what I would think
is a counterbalance, it is forward-heavy.
Now, where my hand is,
right above here on the handle
it digs into your palm.
The shorter sword is much easier to wield
because the handle matches nicely.
But these are deep cuts on the pig carcass
and overall, both your weapons will KEAL.
- Thank you.
[suspenseful music]
- Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test.
[monster snarls]
To test the strength and durability of your blades,
I'm going to be bashing them into that big thing
and also check for edge retention
by cutting through these bags and jugs.
But I'm not gonna do this alone.
The Midnight Suns work best as a team
so I'm gonna enlist the help of my teammate, Dave Baker.
Jessie, you're up first. You ready?
- Give it hell. - All right.
- [growls]
♪ ♪
- [growls]
♪ ♪
- All right, Jessie, man.
This is a beautiful set.
For the smaller sword,
it took some dinging on the edge,
but the weight is really nice
and Dave really enjoyed swinging this one.
On the longer one,
it took some serious bending in the test.
It's kicked off from the handle
and then it kicks back over at the tip there.
It was obviously sharp.
I mean, both of these swords cut like they're supposed to,
but there's no getting around this significant bend
in the longer one here.
All right, Paul, you're up next.
You ready? - Do it to it.
- All right.
♪ ♪
- [growls]
♪ ♪
[growls]
♪ ♪
- All right, Paul,
so in "Midnight Suns" the video game,
Hunter carries these, one in each hand,
and uses them in battle and I don't know how long
I could swing this thing, to be honest with you.
It's just got so much mass to it
and it's difficult to control.
Also, your edge on the small one
took quite a bit of packing.
It's quite dull here,
which changed the way that they cut.
They're just not the cleanest cuts,
but they do smash.
Nice job.
- Thank you.
- Well, bladesmiths, you started off
by making Blade's glaive and ended
with two Hunter's iconic swords.
But in this competition, only one of you
can come out on top as a "Forged in Fire" champion
of our Marvel's "Midnight Suns" takeover
and getting a check for $10,000.
Today's "Forged in Fire" champion is...
[suspenseful music]
Jessie. Congratulations.
Paul, you impressed the judges,
but unfortunately your blades did not make the cut
and Ben's gonna tell you why.
- Paul, the fit and finish on your handles
is a little less refined than your competitor.
That, coupled with the fact that your long sword
is extremely heavy and difficult to wield
and your short sword took some damage
in the strength test,
are the reason we're letting you go.
- Well, Paul, it's been a pleasure watching you work
in this Forge, but unfortunately
at this point in time I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off The Forge floor.
- Thank you for having me.
Good job.
- Unfortunately, being Captain Damascus,
I took a gamble,
deciding to make the blades out of Damascus steel.
Had I had those hours back, I could've used that
to shave some weight from that long blade,
but I'm extremely proud
of what my blades were able to do.
- Jessie, congratulations.
That makes you the "Forged in Fire" champion
of our "Midnight Suns" competition takeover
and you'll be receiving a check for $10,000.
[applause]
- This whole experience has been a blast
and I would definitely do it again.
Marvel theme, giant demon thing,
the judges are testing at the same time,
this is amazing.
- How do you feel?
- Speechless. - [laughing] Yeah?
- I'm Jessie Whipperman,
and I'm a "Forged in Fire" champion
and it feels amazing.
♪ ♪
[metallic clink]