Forged in Fire (2015–…): Season 2, Episode 10 - The Tabar - full transcript
Four bladesmiths must take an ordinary garden lawnmower and using its metal to bend and shape to their will, create one of their signature blades. When the other contestants are mowed down in the competition, two will make it to t...
- Last year,
a competition was created
to test the nation's
best bladesmiths.
Thousands responded,
and this year,
craftsmen
from all over the country
and all walks of life
have come forward
for their chance
to claim the title.
- I'm gonna be the next
"Forged in Fire" champion.
- I want to win!
- It would be
a life-changing moment.
- Welcome to the Forge.
Now the Forge returns
with challenges
unlike anything
ever seen before.
You'll be using this.
Skill and ingenuity
will be pushed to the limit.
Some will rise to the challenge.
Some will fall,
but only the best
will be crowned
"Forged in Fire" champions
and take home $10,000.
[dramatic music]
♪
- I'm Ed Kim.
I was a martial artist starting
from a very young age.
And I couldn't really afford
the really high-end knives
that I wanted,
so I just started banging away
on pieces of metal
in the garage.
- My name is Ted Thompson.
I split my time between
knife making and tattooing.
Been a knife fanatic
my whole life
and just started blacksmithing
to see if I could.
- I'm Deker.
I work as a computer
security consultant.
Blacksmithing and knife making
is sort of a sideline
that I do
as a little bit of therapy.
- My name's Robert Burns.
My love of knives started
when I was two or three.
And I taught myself
knife making.
♪
- Bladesmiths,
welcome to the Forge.
You are here to participate
in three rounds
of blade-making competition
designed to test every aspect
of your edged-weapons-making
capabilities.
After each round,
you will hand your work over
to our panel of expert judges:
internationally known
ABS Mastersmith J. Neilson,
historic weapons re-creation
specialist David Baker,
edged weapons specialist
Doug Marcaida.
They will decide which of you
is the "Forged in Fire" champion
and the recipient
of a $10,000 check.
All right, gentlemen,
we're coming out swinging.
In your first round
of competition,
you'll be using these.
♪
Lawnmowers.
Your first-round challenge
is to salvage the steel you need
from these lawnmowers
to forge a signature blade
of your own design.
- I hate lawnmowers.
You never know
what's in a lawnmower blade.
I've seen blades
that wouldn't harden.
I've seen blades that would
crack if you look at them funny.
They're just so inconsistent.
- The blades themselves
must fall within
the following parameters:
the length of the blade,
not including the tang,
must be between
11 and 13 inches.
The overall length
of your weapon
must not exceed 22 inches.
Just to keep things interesting,
you must also include
a hidden tang into your design.
At the end of round two,
your finished weapons
will be tested and judged
based on how they perform
in an ice chop
and slicing through a hedge.
You will have ten minutes
to work on your designs.
You will have three hours
to forge your blades.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
Your ten-minute design window
starts now.
♪
- The weapon I'm making is
more of a chopper-type knife
just meant for straight cutting.
I'm very competitive.
I've been a fighter
since my teens.
I fought in college
and professional MMA,
so it's all about competition.
- I'm going to make a camp knife
where it's a deep,
sweeping recurve.
It's got a pronounced point
and deep, sculpted handle.
It's perfect for chopping.
♪
- I try and bring
some of my design ideas
from tattooing
into blade making.
I'm looking to make, like,
a recurve
with a modified tanto tip on it.
I'm going with the recurve
because it's used
for chopping through brush.
- What I'm making is
sort of a recurve chopper.
It's got a little bit more mass
out front,
recurves a little bit back.
Ice is an awful thing
to have to cut.
It's just mean to a blade.
It's got to be a strong enough
blade that will hold up to that.
- Bladesmiths, your ten-minute
design window is closed.
Grab a lawnmower.
Your three-hour forge time
starts now.
- "Grab a lawnmower."
[all laughing]
"Your forge time starts now."
♪
Lawnmower blades
have holes in them.
So just taking a blade
and making a knife out of it
is not gonna cut it.
- [whistling]
You know, this challenge...
It looks easy,
but to get the type of knife
that they're after...
Something that looks good,
functions properly...
You know,
it's a lot more complicated
than just making it flat
and grinding it out.
♪
- My strategy is to take
whatever piece
and to make it
as flat as possible
as quickly as possible.
I could've forged the piece,
but I decided to go
stock removal to save time
and to play it safe.
- Ed's pre-forming a tip.
- I've got basic, real rough
shape of what I want,
and I go straight
to the belt grinder.
And I know I'm gonna spend 90%
of my time at the belt grinder.
♪
- Deker just grabbed a can.
- An unprompted
canister Damascus?
- Nice.
- Nice!
- I need more material, so
I take a piece of the blade,
put it in a canister,
and fill it with powdered steel
so that I can weld the billet
together
and have the mass that I need.
- He's using a lawnmower blade.
- It'll either work or it won't.
[crackling]
- It looks like Ted's got steel
in a forge.
- I need to thicken the steel.
Make the blade
a little more substantial
and hold up to a beating.
Instead of being
as wide as it is,
I'm gonna take it
and narrow it down,
and when I narrow it,
it'll make it thicker.
- Well, Ted is by far our most
fashionable smith this season,
having arrived
in a utility kilt.
Don't get on the kilt.
- I just... I like kilts.
I am Scottish.
- I'd forge in a kilt.
- When you're forging,
you got an 1,800-degree forge,
it makes life a lot cooler.
- It takes a mighty man
to pull off a kilt.
♪
- Is it soup yet?
I've got this great big canister
that I know is gonna take time.
- I think it's
driving Deker crazy
that he's got to wait
for that can to heat up.
[laughs]
- Bladesmiths,
30 minutes has already elapsed!
- No guts, no glory.
- Deker's on the move.
- All right,
this should be good.
- One more minute.
One more minute.
I'm watching the clock.
- You take your time, man.
[laughs]
- I'm just trying to make sure
that I do this right
the first time,
because there's
no second chances.
- There it goes.
- There we go.
- Look at the glow
on that metal.
♪
- What is going on with Robert?
He's making a hot metal bowtie
over there.
- That might be his tang.
- I'm getting my tang drawn out.
I'm getting my guard forged in.
And everything seems
to be going well.
- Did anybody realize
that Robert's got
radio earphones on?
- I'm sure I look
like a crazy person
to everyone else in the Forge.
♪
To help me get in the zone,
I just turned on
the Latin music station.
[upbeat Latin sic]
You know, sometimes you got
to break into a little dance,
relieve the stress,
and shake it off.
- [laughing] Oh, God, no.
[dramatic music]
- [laughs] Fun times.
- Ed pretty much has ground out
the whole shape of his blade,
and he's yet to go
into the Forge.
- Well, he went into the Forge
to flatten that blade out, but...
- Now it's
just pure stock removal.
- Yeah, that...
That ain't flying with me.
This is a forged blade
competition.
The show's not called
"Ground in Fire."
- We've seen smiths
make odd decisions to save time
when they're up against
the clock.
- About halfway into it,
I realized that I grabbed the
piece with three holes in it.
So, essentially,
for the blade, it means
that the structural integrity
is greatly compromised.
The whole time, I'm feeling
regret for playing it safe.
♪
- Nice.
The core of the billet
has welded, and it feels solid.
Now I've got to get the can off.
♪
[clanking]
Damn it.
- Round 15.
♪
- Tucker versus the billet.
- It's like a bad scene
from "Groundhog Day."
This is taking
an incredible amount of time.
- Bladesmiths,
you have 90 minutes remaining!
- Cut that in half.
He doesn't need that much steel.
- Son of a bitch.
I'm not sure
I'm gonna get it done.
- When the fatigue sets in,
the steel starts hitting
the floor.
- Deker's in big trouble
right now.
♪
- Canister welds are never easy,
and no matter how many times
I do these,
it's always more work
than I feel like it should be.
- Deker's still fighting.
Still fighting with his steel.
♪
- Deker's looking
a little frustrated.
- Yeah.
- No, no. You got your own
[bleep] to do, man.
I know that I'm gonna get
the results that I want
if I just stick with it.
- Here we go.
Here we go.
- Get off there.
- Yeah!
[applause]
- Finally.
- I know.
I make it look so easy.
[both laughing]
I might actually start
to make a blade now.
- It's what we're here for.
- Those two guys have a pretty
tight camaraderie.
[all laughing]
- Bladesmiths,
you have one hour remaining!
- It's an ugly bastard,
ain't it?
[grinding]
I'm grinding the knife,
and it just looks
a little too plain.
Think it'll take a hamon?
- Could try.
- That's what I'm gonna try.
- With the spring steel, it's
very unpredictable for a hamon.
- It's just a good way
to give you a hard edge
and a soft back,
but also being decorative
at the same time.
- See what you get.
You never know.
You might get surprised.
- Robert's blade looks great.
Both: There we go.
- In.
- In the quench.
- Hold it still.
♪
It's not a birthday candle,
though.
- I see if the edge is hard,
and it hasn't hardened at all.
It's a big kick in the gut.
- He's got his blade back in.
- So Robert must not be happy
about something with his steel.
- Must not.
- I'm gonna try and water quench
just to get it as tough
as possible.
♪
- Uh-oh!
What the...
♪
- Did you... did you judges
just see what happened?
- I'm not believing this.
Oh, my goodness.
- Okay...
- I can feel the eyes
of the judges on me thinking,
"What is this guy doing?"
- My skin's crawling right now.
- You quench in water,
and you're almost guaranteed
to crack.
If I don't move on
because of a crappy
heat treatment,
I'm gonna be mad at myself.
- Bladesmiths, you have
just ten minutes remaining
to finish your work!
- Screw it.
In the oil.
♪
Whoa.
Put it back. Put it back.
- Fire!
The hamon looks like
it came out really, really well.
Looks like a knife.
♪
- Time, which had started
pretty decent,
all the sudden caught up with me
really [bleep] quick.
Throw the knife in the forge,
get it up to temperature.
♪
- Ed's in the quench.
- Ed's quenched.
- Any question, concerns, or
kudos for Ed at this point, J.?
- Well, it's good
that Ed heated up the blade
and got it hot
and put it in oil.
- [laughing]
- Bladesmiths,
you have 30 seconds remaining!
♪
- If I duck down and talk nice
to the blade,
it heat-treats better.
- He's got to go now.
Got to go now.
- Making atoms bend to my will
to harden steel.
- Check it quick.
Back in the oil...
Uh-oh, that's not a good sign.
- Oh!
- The entire blade is
just hooked off to the left.
It looks like a freaking banana.
- Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two,
one.
Bladesmiths, stop your work.
Stop your work.
- I'm feeling pretty nervous.
I know there's certain aspects
that I should have done
that I didn't,
so I kind of have a gut feeling
that that's gonna come back
to bite me in the ass.
- Is it beer o'clock yet?
- I think it's beer o'clock.
- Good job.
♪
- Bladesmiths, we asked you
to salvage the steel you needed
to forge a signature blade
of your own design
in three hours.
You've all done
a pretty good job.
Robert, please present
your blade to the judges.
- I appreciate the fact
that you forge-welded
this back section.
That's smart work and gave
a nice distal taper to the blade.
The biggest concern for me
is there... there's a crack.
♪
I see this traveling
on both sides of this blade
right at the ricasso.
It's a concern.
- It is.
- But nice design.
- Thank you.
- Looks like it would be
a really nice chopper.
♪
- Deker, you're up.
Please present your blade
to the judges.
- Deker, I really like
what you did with the steel.
You went for that canister,
which I feel is a very
unappreciated technique,
especially for some
of the stuff we throw around.
So you came out
with some beautiful steel.
But I would've liked to have
seen you cut that can in half.
- I'd rather have more
to work with than not enough.
♪
- I like your design
because you've got
a nice, thick spine here
to back up the edge.
And we're gonna be doing
the ice chop.
But a little concern on the bend
because when we're gonna be
shearing,
it's not gonna be an even cut.
Aside from that,
it's a beautiful blade.
Nice design.
- Thank you.
- Ted, you're up next.
♪
- This is a very dramatic,
nice design.
I like the sweeping edge
you have there.
Almost as dramatic as your dress
over there in your kilt.
Awesome.
Beautiful work.
I didn't meant dress.
I meant the way he's dressed.
- It's a skirt.
- It's got a great feel to it,
Ted.
And then we can see the hamon,
and that's one of the things
that we're looking for is
that you went above and beyond.
You went the extra mile,
and that's nice to see.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Ed, you're up. Please present
your blade to the judges.
♪
- Ed, I've got to get this
out there and ask,
do you know the definition
of forging?
- Yes, I do.
- Forging, by definition,
is using heat and a hammer
to manipulate steel to a shape.
From what I saw out there,
this is not a forged blade.
And this is
a forging competition.
♪
- All I was focused about
was on the clock
when I should've been
more focused on skill.
- I don't know what else
to say from there.
♪
- Ed, your blade
did not make the cut.
- Ed, one of the requirements
for our challenge
was a forged blade,
and you ground it all out.
So it's not a forged blade.
For that reason,
we have to cut you loose.
♪
- Ed, please surrender
your weapon.
- It's pretty clear why I lost.
I'm disappointed in myself,
mostly because I chose
a safe way.
We don't get into this
business to play it safe.
We're not knife makers
because we're timid people.
We're knife makers 'cause
we're bad mother[bleep].
♪
- Bladesmiths,
you made it out of round one.
Good job.
Your second challenge
is to turn your blades
into fully functional weapons
by attaching handles using
the range of materials
provided to you.
You will have three hours
for this round.
You can use that time to address
any flaws or issues
that were identified
with your blades.
♪
Your finished weapons
will then be tested
for strength and durability
in an ice chop,
and for sharpness
cutting through a hedge.
When the time runs out
and your weapons
have been tested,
one of you must surrender
his weapon and leave the Forge.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
Your time starts now.
♪
- Round one is almost like
your power round.
Round two is the finesse part...
The fit and finish.
- And we have seen
so many smiths
hit this finesse round thinking,
"I've got it made,"
and go up in flames.
♪
- And away we go.
♪
- We rarely see a successful
burn-in.
We've seen one burn-through
that worked,
but rarely a burn-in
on a hidden tang.
- Robert might have done a
nice burn-through in his handle,
but I'd like to see him work
on that blade.
I really don't want that knife
blowing apart on me
during the chopping test.
♪
- I hit the grinder
because I got things to fix
on my blade first.
[grinding]
- Deker's got on heck of a warp
in his blade.
- That curve isn't
just on the spine.
It goes all the way through
that blade.
So there's really no way
to do that grind
where you're taking some
off here, some off here,
and some off here.
- I've straightened the blade up
as good as it's gonna get.
Now I've got to get to fitting
a guard.
♪
I love the dance
of the little tiny file.
It may not be the best
guard-fit I've ever done.
Eh, whatever.
It certainly isn't the best
guard-fit I've ever done.
It ain't pretty, but it'll do.
But it will protect the user's
finger, which is what it's for.
- Bladesmiths, you have
just two hours remaining
to finish your work.
- What do we got
for handle material?
With a hidden-tang knife,
you usually need to work
with a large block.
- What is that?
- Whoops.
That'll do.
Oh, where did my Sharpie go?
There were some pieces
of red Micarta.
And a piece of red and black
Kirinite.
- Looks like he's putting
a brass guard on that tang.
- Oh, nice.
♪
- Ted has got his pieces
all milled out.
He's ready to go.
- I decided to use epoxy
and some red dye.
[whistling]
The red dye
will help the epoxy blend
with the red stripes
in the Kirinite.
I might have [bleep] that up
a little bit.
Damn it.
- Ted's having some issues.
- I neglected to check
if the brass ferrules would fit
into the holes that I drilled,
and they ended up being
too small.
- Not sure what he's doing,
but as long as he gets it done
before all that glue dries.
- That's what I'm worried about.
Yeah.
- Time is flying by.
- Ted's got quite
the red mess going over there.
- It's not looking good.
Piece of [bleep].
♪
- Ted's just having some issues.
- Damn it.
I neglected to check
if the brass ferrules would fit
into the holes that I drilled,
and they ended up being
too small.
- Not sure what he's doing,
but as long as he gets it done
before all that glue dries.
- That's what I'm worried about.
Yeah.
- Now I got to scrape
all of the epoxy off of it
before it cures
and get everything re-drilled.
♪
I just went up two sizes
on the drill
and got the ferrules to fit.
They fit perfect now.
Nice.
I just got to reapply
all my epoxy again.
- Bladesmiths,
you have one hour remaining.
[scraping]
- Robert's sitting down
on a box.
He's hand-sanding his handle.
Hasn't epoxied anything.
Hasn't drilled any holes.
The back end of his blade
still has cracks.
- Does that make any sense
to you?
- Not to me.
No.
♪
- At this point, the time is
really starting to get to me.
I couldn't find
a decent block of wood,
so I had to build one
out of three slabs of Micarta.
♪
- Bladesmiths, you have
just 30 minutes remaining!
- [bleep]!
♪
Is the highest grit belt here
400?
This is not a [bleep] way
I want to go out.
Ah, [bleep]!
- Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two,
one.
Bladesmiths,
shut down your machines.
Drop your tools.
♪
- Nice job, man.
- You know, it's anybody's game.
I hope my blade holds up.
But there's no point in stress,
because it's already done.
♪
- Bladesmiths,
welcome to the strength test:
the ice chop.
I'm gonna take
each of your blades
and do downward strikes
on these blocks of ice.
This is really gonna test
your edge
and the overall strength
of your weapon.
Ted, you're up.
Are you ready?
- Oh, yeah.
I'd like to see my knife
do well in a test.
If it does fail, I'd like
to see a good, flashy fail
from a flashy knife.
[laughs]
♪
- [laughing]
- Hm.
Made a mess out of that.
- Yeah, it did.
- Your edge held up very well.
The handle feels
very comfortable too.
You've got the guard
and the drop there
so my hand kind of locks
into place,
which is nice... makes it feel
a lot more comfortable
swinging it.
Nice job, Ted.
- Thank you.
- Deker, you're up.
Are you ready?
- Let's make a snow cone.
I feel that my blade's got
some meat to it,
and it's got
a relatively thick edge.
But I'm a little concerned
I didn't have enough time
to put the edge I wanted on it.
♪
♪
- You better have
a big whiskey glass
for those pieces of ice.
- May need one.
♪
- Deker, the bend on the blade
apparently didn't make
any difference on ice.
You've also got a thicker edge
that's actually backing up
your cutting edge here.
Good job.
- Thank you.
- Robert, you're up next.
- I don't know if I got
the heat treatment spot on.
I see these blocks of ice,
and they're just massive,
and I can only hope
at this point
that everything goes well,
that I put my best into it.
♪
♪
- Well, Robert, it works on ice.
We do have a few issues though.
Your handle and your blade
are offset from each other.
So where my hand thinks
the edge is going
is a little to the side.
And we've got a seam
that's opened up
right here by the handle
as well.
It did hold its edge, though.
Good job.
♪
Good job, bladesmiths.
Now I'm gonna pass you off
to Doug
for the sharpness test.
♪
- Bladesmiths,
this is the sharpness test.
To see if your weapon
held its edge
and maintained its sharpness,
I will slash
through these hedges.
If it stayed sharp,
it should cut cleanly.
If not, it will
probably break the branches
or just push it aside.
Ted, you're up.
You ready?
- I'm ready.
- Let's do this.
♪
♪
Ted, your blade feels good
in the hand.
I love the feel
of your handle here...
The swell and the guard.
On the passes here,
it cut some of the branches,
but not all the way through.
But remember, these are
freestanding branches,
so after the impact,
it tends to bend.
The balance of your blade
feels very good.
This, sir, will cut.
- Thank you.
- Good job.
Deker, you're up.
Ready?
- Let's do some yard work.
♪
I'm not happy with the edge
that I got on that blade,
and I'm concerned that the top
of the hedge
is just gonna flop over
and spring right back up.
♪
♪
- Deker, you have
a sharp blade over here.
You know, what really helped
is that curve.
On the backhand slice,
it actually grabbed more.
It's got a good balance to it.
Good recovery.
It is a light blade.
Very light blade.
Overall, a sharp blade.
And this, sir, will cut.
Good job.
Robert, it's your turn.
You ready?
- Ready.
- Let's do this.
♪
♪
Well, Robert, you also have
a sharp blade here.
It caught from the belly
to the inward curve,
allowed me to slash,
and the same thing
on the backhand slash.
♪
The handle, though...
it's not that comfortable
in the hand.
But the balance of the blade
is light.
It does feel good.
And as you can see
with the motion here, it cuts.
- Thank you.
- I'm not super confident
that I'll be going on
to round three.
It's definitely anybody's game
at this point.
♪
What did you guys think
of that test?
- It was pretty tough.
- I thought that was cool.
- Let's start
with Robert's blade.
- What I like about the blade
is the belly actually pushed
the rest of the branches
into it to allow
for a very good, clean cut.
- I like the shape
of your handle.
- I was checking it
in my bare hand,
and I should've been checking it
with a gloved hand.
- I kind of like a big swell
on a handle.
What I don't like
is the fact that,
you know, it's out of alignment.
Robert spent
almost two hours sanding
as opposed to using that time
to align this blade
and deal with the problems.
- Moving on.
Let's talk about Deker's blade.
- A curve in the blade
is obviously an issue.
He tried grinding it out,
so he thinned out
a lot of blade.
Fortunately he had
a thick spine.
- It makes it ideal
for cutting hedges.
Now you're probably gonna get
requests for making
a purposely warped knife.
- Purposely warped blade.
- If he had a straight blade,
we could really see
how sharp his blade was.
On the initial pass,
the parts where that's curved up
didn't catch much,
but I still can't help
but appreciate
the canister weld.
So we know we have
a good blade over here.
- All right.
Let's talk about Ted's blade.
- Is it the prettiest blade
we've ever seen? No.
But it's not too heavy.
It held up beautifully.
He managed to get that hamon
in there,
which is really nice.
It's well built.
It feels really good
in the hand.
- His edge held up very well,
but on the lower part,
it's just not as sharp,
so I think that caused him
a little bit of an issue.
♪
- Judges, which of our smiths
are we sending home?
Have you made up your minds?
- Oh, yeah.
- Let's go tell our smiths.
♪
Bladesmiths, over the last
two rounds of competition,
each of you has designed,
forged, and fit and finished
a blade that performed
in our weapons tests.
Only two of you can move forward
into the final round
of competition.
♪
The judges have made
a final decision.
It's time for one of you
to leave the Forge.
♪
The bladesmith leaving the Forge
is...
♪
- Bladesmiths, each of you
has designed, forged,
and fit and finished
a blade that performed
in our weapons tests.
Only two of you can move forward
into the final round
of competition.
The judges have made
a final decision.
♪
Robert,
your blade did not make the cut.
- My fellow judges and I
all agree that your blade design
was the most appropriate
for our tests.
But the problems
in the construction:
the delaminations, that weld
that just isn't holding.
A couple of those cracks
opened up even further,
and because of that, we
just can't let you go through.
- Thank you.
- Robert,
please surrender your weapon.
♪
- I came here to prove
that I was a good smith
even though I'm young.
I know I did the best
that I could,
and it was
a difficult competition.
This just helps reinforce
that it's a life lesson
of knife making that there
are always places to improve.
You're never too good.
You're never too old or young
to learn.
♪
- Ted, Deker, congratulations.
Your work has secured your place
in the "Forged in Fire" final.
When you arrived here,
you forged a signature blade
of your own design.
Now we're sending you home
to forge an iconic weapon
from history.
♪
The tabar.
- It's not a sword.
♪
- The tabar is a battle-ax
originating from Persia,
Armenia, India,
and surrounding cultures.
Usually made entirely of metal,
it has a strongly curved blade
and a hammerheaded pole
that was often decorated
with inscriptions.
The light, metallic handle
is what makes the ax unique
and durable in battle.
During the 17th and 18th
centuries,
the tabar was a standard
weapon of the mounted warriors
of India, Afghanistan,
and what is now Pakistan.
With its double-edged blade
and piercing spike,
it was an unrelenting weapon
of war.
This fierce weapon is featured
in the iconic film series,
"The Lord of the Rings."
♪
It must be an effective,
working version
of that deadly weapon.
- I have never made
a tabar before.
I have never seen
a tabar before.
I read a book about an
elephant called Babar once.
♪
- You will have five days
at your home forge
to complete your work.
At the end of five days,
you will return
and present your tabars
to our panel of judges.
Only after they've submitted
those weapons
to a series of brutal
and dynamic tests
will they declare one of you
the "Forged in Fire" champion
and the recipient
of a $10,000 check.
♪
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in five days.
♪
[dog barking]
- Feels good to be home.
Today being the first day
of the challenge,
I'm gonna figure out the design.
With the size of the tabar
being, you know, 40 inches long,
I'm gonna do
a modular construction.
I'm gonna do the handle
in a piece.
The head's gonna be
a separate piece.
The spike's gonna be
a separate piece.
And then I will assemble
everything.
Today I'm gonna work
on the handle.
There's a lot to think about
in getting everything
put together the right way.
[grinding]
[clears throat]
♪
Right now, just a really,
really long eye-poker.
♪
- I'm happy to be back
in my own forge
where I've got my own stuff.
I feel I can be
a lot more effective here.
Juicy and delicious.
Planning on doing some pattern
welding for this project.
If it's worth making,
it's worth making a Damascus.
This piece here is gonna turn
into a long bar of steel,
similar to this, that'll then
get cut up into sections
so I can stack multiple layers
together
in a billet to weld.
[crackling]
The interesting part of it
is that the weapon's
entirely steel.
There's no wooden haft.
So that is gonna present
some interesting construction
challenges, I think,
but it's gonna be fun.
♪
- Day three... it's all about
getting this ax-head done.
That's the most important part
of the tabar.
I mean, you can't really have
a double-headed ax
without the double-headed ax
part.
♪
I decided to make an ax-head
out of an eight-pound
sledgehammer head.
It's a very good
high-impact steel.
I want to be able to chop a car
in half with this thing, so...
[whirring]
♪
I'm gonna do
an asymmetrical double-headed.
One blade's gonna be a little
bit heavier than the other.
♪
I'm fullering the metal
so it spreads wide
so I can start building
the beards of the blade.
♪
♪
Awesome.
Cool profile too.
♪
- So, it's day three here
in the shop.
Time to get the steel
starting to look
less like a lump of stuff
and more like an ax.
Inside the mind of a madman.
I'm going into the press
to do the very first
fullering operation.
Defining moment.
I start to squish,
and I see something
I never like to see.
[bleep]!
The very end of the billet
has started to just open up.
I can't afford
to lose this billet.
If I can flux this before any
scale has a chance to form,
I've got a chance
to save this weld.
But I only have seconds.
[whirring]
It must be doing all right,
'cause I can't even tell
which side it's on.
This is my second shot.
And then...
[bleep]!
♪
The hammer's not working
exactly the way it should.
I pretty rapidly discovered
that it's just not gonna be safe
to run it.
It could break
and throw parts flying.
[bleep]! [bleep]! [bleep]!
There's just no way
I'm gonna be able
to get this forging done
by hand.
This is bad.
[sighs]
♪
♪
- We're down at my
blacksmith guild's shop.
The guild has generously allowed
me to use their power hammer
because mine just wasn't
gonna be able to do it.
♪
And just that right there
probably saved me 45 minutes.
Definitely a little more sexy
than what I left with yesterday.
♪
Now I've got the spike
in the forge
and I've got to get that
drawn out.
♪
Good gravy.
The spike is gonna make
this thing heavier than hell.
I'm behind what I had set
myself for a schedule.
I've got a lot to figure out,
and I've still got a lot
to do tomorrow.
Certainly hope
nothing goes wrong.
But failure's not an option.
♪
- It's day four,
and I'm gonna harden the ax.
♪
The different parts of the ax
need to be heat treated.
The head's gonna have to have
a differential heat treat.
The edge has to be hard enough
to stay sharp,
you know, depending on what
they decide to hit with it.
I don't have a forge big enough
to fit the ax fully assembled.
So I used the front of the forge
and my cutting torch
and got it up to critical,
and then I quenched one side,
and then the other.
♪
Sweet.
Yep, she's hard.
I'm behind where I want to be,
but I'm not worried.
It'll be ready to go.
Huh.
♪
Let's go kill something.
♪
Sweet.
♪
- That's done.
♪
Come hell or high water,
that's it.
♪
- Ted, Deker, welcome back,
and welcome to the sand pit.
Because we're gonna be swinging
giant axes around,
we thought we should come
somewhere
with a little bit more
elbow room.
You've had five days
to work on your tabars.
Ted, how did it go?
- Um, it went well.
I was going for
kind of a ancient look.
Look like something you dug
out of the dirt.
I did a lot of etching
on the blades.
One side, it has lotus flowers,
and the other side,
I have Persian writing,
and it says "Forged in Fire."
- Nice.
Deker, how did it go?
- It went pretty well.
Long five days.
I wish I'd had a little more
time for some finish work,
but I tried to throw
a little bit
of the Indo-Persian influence
in with the twist Damascus
that's on the spike,
and a little something new
with the geometry of the spike,
which is based on a trocar point
for penetrating better.
- Nice.
Well, gentlemen,
your weapons look great,
but this round
is all about performance.
We are now gonna put
your weapons
through a series of tests.
First up is the kill test.
Doug.
- Bladesmiths,
this is the kill test.
The tabar's three sharp sides
allows for three times the
chances of killing an opponent
in the heat of battle.
To test the lethality
and function of your weapon,
I will test all three sides
by chopping
at this animal carcass.
Ted, you're up.
Are you ready?
- Heck yeah.
- Let's do this.
♪
♪
Well, Ted,
the design of your blade
really digs in to the carcass.
The hooks grabs everything
that's in there
and rips it right out.
Balance is a little bit heavy,
but it will do a lot
of destruction.
This weapon, sir, will kill.
- Awesome.
- Good job, sir.
- Thank you.
- Deker, it's your turn.
You ready?
- Let's cut some bacon, Doug.
- Let's do this.
♪
♪
- Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Well, Deker, your edges
are very sharp,
as you can see what it did.
It pretty much wanted
to cut all the way through.
The feel, though,
is a little bit rounded
for the handle.
But, nonetheless, it's light,
so I can generate more power
to control it.
This is a weapon that will kill.
Good job, sir.
- Thank you.
- I'm gonna pass things off
to Dave for the next test.
- We're on a pretty even
playing field.
We both did well
in the first two tests.
You know,
it's anybody's game, man.
It's anybody's game.
♪
- All right, gentlemen.
It's time for the strength test.
Now, the tabar was a brutal
weapon on the battlefield,
and it was used by warriors
from India to Pakistan
all the way into Afghanistan.
Its all-metal construction
made it
an incredibly strong weapon
on the battlefield.
So to test your weapon's edge
and its shaft,
we're gonna hook it
into our device over here.
It's gonna take a single blow
against the shield,
and then a single blow
against the barrel.
Ted, you're up.
Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
- All right.
- I don't know
what kind of pressures
they're putting on those,
but this is the test
that's gonna show whether my ax
is gonna break
or if it's just gonna, you
know, bounce off of things.
- Three, two, one.
Engaging.
T, gentlemenit's time
for the strength test.
Ted, you're up.
Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
- All right.
♪
Three, two, one.
Engaging.
♪
You put a really good crease
in the shield.
And that's a heck of a chop
you just chopped in that
hardened oak of this barrel.
Little bit of a roll
right up here on this edge
that hit the shield.
And the shaft of the ax looks
perfectly straight.
Didn't flex at all.
Well done.
- Thank you.
- All right, Deker, you're up.
- Let's tap a keg.
♪
- All right.
Three, two, one.
Engage.
♪
[clanks]
- Son of a bitch.
♪
- Well, Deker,
your spike sheared off
right at that rivet point.
- Yep.
- Well, you put a good crease
in the shield.
♪
See you put a good cut
in the barrel.
♪
The edge of the ax here
that hit the barrel,
you'll see a little coloration,
some slight shiny spots.
The side that hit the shield...
doesn't look
like any damage at all.
But that spike coming off...
well, that's a problem.
♪
- At the moment
when that spike fell,
my heart just sank.
♪
- Gentlemen, you both put in
a lot of work on your tabars.
But in this arena,
there can only be one
"Forged in Fire" champion.
♪
Ted, you are
the "Forged in Fire" champion.
Deker, your weapon
did not make the cut.
- Congratulations.
- Good job.
- Deker,
you made a great weapon.
The only thing
that really killed you
was the structure of that spike.
The rivet didn't have
enough meat on either side
to hold it together...
Bit of a flex in the shaft.
That was the reason
we had to let you go.
- Understood.
- Deker, please surrender
your weapon.
- I came here to prove to myself
that I could stand and deliver
on an even playing field
with full-time bladesmiths,
and I'm just gonna use this
as a learning experience
and get better.
What I learned is they're
the best people in the world,
and you just can't lose
when you hang out with them.
- Ted, congratulations, you are
the "Forged in Fire" champion
and will be receiving a check
for $10,000.
Good job.
- Awesome. Thank you.
[applause]
I joined this competition
to see if I had what it took
to make a better weapon
than three other guys.
And I did it.
And that makes me happy.
- Props for putting
"Forged in Fire" on your blade.
- Yeah!
- In Persian around here,
it says,
"Caution: sharp edge."
- Nice touch.
- When I'm working
with a bunch of guys
I really respect,
they're gonna push the quality
that I do.
It pushed me a lot.
That's what I enjoyed about it.
♪
a competition was created
to test the nation's
best bladesmiths.
Thousands responded,
and this year,
craftsmen
from all over the country
and all walks of life
have come forward
for their chance
to claim the title.
- I'm gonna be the next
"Forged in Fire" champion.
- I want to win!
- It would be
a life-changing moment.
- Welcome to the Forge.
Now the Forge returns
with challenges
unlike anything
ever seen before.
You'll be using this.
Skill and ingenuity
will be pushed to the limit.
Some will rise to the challenge.
Some will fall,
but only the best
will be crowned
"Forged in Fire" champions
and take home $10,000.
[dramatic music]
♪
- I'm Ed Kim.
I was a martial artist starting
from a very young age.
And I couldn't really afford
the really high-end knives
that I wanted,
so I just started banging away
on pieces of metal
in the garage.
- My name is Ted Thompson.
I split my time between
knife making and tattooing.
Been a knife fanatic
my whole life
and just started blacksmithing
to see if I could.
- I'm Deker.
I work as a computer
security consultant.
Blacksmithing and knife making
is sort of a sideline
that I do
as a little bit of therapy.
- My name's Robert Burns.
My love of knives started
when I was two or three.
And I taught myself
knife making.
♪
- Bladesmiths,
welcome to the Forge.
You are here to participate
in three rounds
of blade-making competition
designed to test every aspect
of your edged-weapons-making
capabilities.
After each round,
you will hand your work over
to our panel of expert judges:
internationally known
ABS Mastersmith J. Neilson,
historic weapons re-creation
specialist David Baker,
edged weapons specialist
Doug Marcaida.
They will decide which of you
is the "Forged in Fire" champion
and the recipient
of a $10,000 check.
All right, gentlemen,
we're coming out swinging.
In your first round
of competition,
you'll be using these.
♪
Lawnmowers.
Your first-round challenge
is to salvage the steel you need
from these lawnmowers
to forge a signature blade
of your own design.
- I hate lawnmowers.
You never know
what's in a lawnmower blade.
I've seen blades
that wouldn't harden.
I've seen blades that would
crack if you look at them funny.
They're just so inconsistent.
- The blades themselves
must fall within
the following parameters:
the length of the blade,
not including the tang,
must be between
11 and 13 inches.
The overall length
of your weapon
must not exceed 22 inches.
Just to keep things interesting,
you must also include
a hidden tang into your design.
At the end of round two,
your finished weapons
will be tested and judged
based on how they perform
in an ice chop
and slicing through a hedge.
You will have ten minutes
to work on your designs.
You will have three hours
to forge your blades.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
Your ten-minute design window
starts now.
♪
- The weapon I'm making is
more of a chopper-type knife
just meant for straight cutting.
I'm very competitive.
I've been a fighter
since my teens.
I fought in college
and professional MMA,
so it's all about competition.
- I'm going to make a camp knife
where it's a deep,
sweeping recurve.
It's got a pronounced point
and deep, sculpted handle.
It's perfect for chopping.
♪
- I try and bring
some of my design ideas
from tattooing
into blade making.
I'm looking to make, like,
a recurve
with a modified tanto tip on it.
I'm going with the recurve
because it's used
for chopping through brush.
- What I'm making is
sort of a recurve chopper.
It's got a little bit more mass
out front,
recurves a little bit back.
Ice is an awful thing
to have to cut.
It's just mean to a blade.
It's got to be a strong enough
blade that will hold up to that.
- Bladesmiths, your ten-minute
design window is closed.
Grab a lawnmower.
Your three-hour forge time
starts now.
- "Grab a lawnmower."
[all laughing]
"Your forge time starts now."
♪
Lawnmower blades
have holes in them.
So just taking a blade
and making a knife out of it
is not gonna cut it.
- [whistling]
You know, this challenge...
It looks easy,
but to get the type of knife
that they're after...
Something that looks good,
functions properly...
You know,
it's a lot more complicated
than just making it flat
and grinding it out.
♪
- My strategy is to take
whatever piece
and to make it
as flat as possible
as quickly as possible.
I could've forged the piece,
but I decided to go
stock removal to save time
and to play it safe.
- Ed's pre-forming a tip.
- I've got basic, real rough
shape of what I want,
and I go straight
to the belt grinder.
And I know I'm gonna spend 90%
of my time at the belt grinder.
♪
- Deker just grabbed a can.
- An unprompted
canister Damascus?
- Nice.
- Nice!
- I need more material, so
I take a piece of the blade,
put it in a canister,
and fill it with powdered steel
so that I can weld the billet
together
and have the mass that I need.
- He's using a lawnmower blade.
- It'll either work or it won't.
[crackling]
- It looks like Ted's got steel
in a forge.
- I need to thicken the steel.
Make the blade
a little more substantial
and hold up to a beating.
Instead of being
as wide as it is,
I'm gonna take it
and narrow it down,
and when I narrow it,
it'll make it thicker.
- Well, Ted is by far our most
fashionable smith this season,
having arrived
in a utility kilt.
Don't get on the kilt.
- I just... I like kilts.
I am Scottish.
- I'd forge in a kilt.
- When you're forging,
you got an 1,800-degree forge,
it makes life a lot cooler.
- It takes a mighty man
to pull off a kilt.
♪
- Is it soup yet?
I've got this great big canister
that I know is gonna take time.
- I think it's
driving Deker crazy
that he's got to wait
for that can to heat up.
[laughs]
- Bladesmiths,
30 minutes has already elapsed!
- No guts, no glory.
- Deker's on the move.
- All right,
this should be good.
- One more minute.
One more minute.
I'm watching the clock.
- You take your time, man.
[laughs]
- I'm just trying to make sure
that I do this right
the first time,
because there's
no second chances.
- There it goes.
- There we go.
- Look at the glow
on that metal.
♪
- What is going on with Robert?
He's making a hot metal bowtie
over there.
- That might be his tang.
- I'm getting my tang drawn out.
I'm getting my guard forged in.
And everything seems
to be going well.
- Did anybody realize
that Robert's got
radio earphones on?
- I'm sure I look
like a crazy person
to everyone else in the Forge.
♪
To help me get in the zone,
I just turned on
the Latin music station.
[upbeat Latin sic]
You know, sometimes you got
to break into a little dance,
relieve the stress,
and shake it off.
- [laughing] Oh, God, no.
[dramatic music]
- [laughs] Fun times.
- Ed pretty much has ground out
the whole shape of his blade,
and he's yet to go
into the Forge.
- Well, he went into the Forge
to flatten that blade out, but...
- Now it's
just pure stock removal.
- Yeah, that...
That ain't flying with me.
This is a forged blade
competition.
The show's not called
"Ground in Fire."
- We've seen smiths
make odd decisions to save time
when they're up against
the clock.
- About halfway into it,
I realized that I grabbed the
piece with three holes in it.
So, essentially,
for the blade, it means
that the structural integrity
is greatly compromised.
The whole time, I'm feeling
regret for playing it safe.
♪
- Nice.
The core of the billet
has welded, and it feels solid.
Now I've got to get the can off.
♪
[clanking]
Damn it.
- Round 15.
♪
- Tucker versus the billet.
- It's like a bad scene
from "Groundhog Day."
This is taking
an incredible amount of time.
- Bladesmiths,
you have 90 minutes remaining!
- Cut that in half.
He doesn't need that much steel.
- Son of a bitch.
I'm not sure
I'm gonna get it done.
- When the fatigue sets in,
the steel starts hitting
the floor.
- Deker's in big trouble
right now.
♪
- Canister welds are never easy,
and no matter how many times
I do these,
it's always more work
than I feel like it should be.
- Deker's still fighting.
Still fighting with his steel.
♪
- Deker's looking
a little frustrated.
- Yeah.
- No, no. You got your own
[bleep] to do, man.
I know that I'm gonna get
the results that I want
if I just stick with it.
- Here we go.
Here we go.
- Get off there.
- Yeah!
[applause]
- Finally.
- I know.
I make it look so easy.
[both laughing]
I might actually start
to make a blade now.
- It's what we're here for.
- Those two guys have a pretty
tight camaraderie.
[all laughing]
- Bladesmiths,
you have one hour remaining!
- It's an ugly bastard,
ain't it?
[grinding]
I'm grinding the knife,
and it just looks
a little too plain.
Think it'll take a hamon?
- Could try.
- That's what I'm gonna try.
- With the spring steel, it's
very unpredictable for a hamon.
- It's just a good way
to give you a hard edge
and a soft back,
but also being decorative
at the same time.
- See what you get.
You never know.
You might get surprised.
- Robert's blade looks great.
Both: There we go.
- In.
- In the quench.
- Hold it still.
♪
It's not a birthday candle,
though.
- I see if the edge is hard,
and it hasn't hardened at all.
It's a big kick in the gut.
- He's got his blade back in.
- So Robert must not be happy
about something with his steel.
- Must not.
- I'm gonna try and water quench
just to get it as tough
as possible.
♪
- Uh-oh!
What the...
♪
- Did you... did you judges
just see what happened?
- I'm not believing this.
Oh, my goodness.
- Okay...
- I can feel the eyes
of the judges on me thinking,
"What is this guy doing?"
- My skin's crawling right now.
- You quench in water,
and you're almost guaranteed
to crack.
If I don't move on
because of a crappy
heat treatment,
I'm gonna be mad at myself.
- Bladesmiths, you have
just ten minutes remaining
to finish your work!
- Screw it.
In the oil.
♪
Whoa.
Put it back. Put it back.
- Fire!
The hamon looks like
it came out really, really well.
Looks like a knife.
♪
- Time, which had started
pretty decent,
all the sudden caught up with me
really [bleep] quick.
Throw the knife in the forge,
get it up to temperature.
♪
- Ed's in the quench.
- Ed's quenched.
- Any question, concerns, or
kudos for Ed at this point, J.?
- Well, it's good
that Ed heated up the blade
and got it hot
and put it in oil.
- [laughing]
- Bladesmiths,
you have 30 seconds remaining!
♪
- If I duck down and talk nice
to the blade,
it heat-treats better.
- He's got to go now.
Got to go now.
- Making atoms bend to my will
to harden steel.
- Check it quick.
Back in the oil...
Uh-oh, that's not a good sign.
- Oh!
- The entire blade is
just hooked off to the left.
It looks like a freaking banana.
- Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two,
one.
Bladesmiths, stop your work.
Stop your work.
- I'm feeling pretty nervous.
I know there's certain aspects
that I should have done
that I didn't,
so I kind of have a gut feeling
that that's gonna come back
to bite me in the ass.
- Is it beer o'clock yet?
- I think it's beer o'clock.
- Good job.
♪
- Bladesmiths, we asked you
to salvage the steel you needed
to forge a signature blade
of your own design
in three hours.
You've all done
a pretty good job.
Robert, please present
your blade to the judges.
- I appreciate the fact
that you forge-welded
this back section.
That's smart work and gave
a nice distal taper to the blade.
The biggest concern for me
is there... there's a crack.
♪
I see this traveling
on both sides of this blade
right at the ricasso.
It's a concern.
- It is.
- But nice design.
- Thank you.
- Looks like it would be
a really nice chopper.
♪
- Deker, you're up.
Please present your blade
to the judges.
- Deker, I really like
what you did with the steel.
You went for that canister,
which I feel is a very
unappreciated technique,
especially for some
of the stuff we throw around.
So you came out
with some beautiful steel.
But I would've liked to have
seen you cut that can in half.
- I'd rather have more
to work with than not enough.
♪
- I like your design
because you've got
a nice, thick spine here
to back up the edge.
And we're gonna be doing
the ice chop.
But a little concern on the bend
because when we're gonna be
shearing,
it's not gonna be an even cut.
Aside from that,
it's a beautiful blade.
Nice design.
- Thank you.
- Ted, you're up next.
♪
- This is a very dramatic,
nice design.
I like the sweeping edge
you have there.
Almost as dramatic as your dress
over there in your kilt.
Awesome.
Beautiful work.
I didn't meant dress.
I meant the way he's dressed.
- It's a skirt.
- It's got a great feel to it,
Ted.
And then we can see the hamon,
and that's one of the things
that we're looking for is
that you went above and beyond.
You went the extra mile,
and that's nice to see.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Ed, you're up. Please present
your blade to the judges.
♪
- Ed, I've got to get this
out there and ask,
do you know the definition
of forging?
- Yes, I do.
- Forging, by definition,
is using heat and a hammer
to manipulate steel to a shape.
From what I saw out there,
this is not a forged blade.
And this is
a forging competition.
♪
- All I was focused about
was on the clock
when I should've been
more focused on skill.
- I don't know what else
to say from there.
♪
- Ed, your blade
did not make the cut.
- Ed, one of the requirements
for our challenge
was a forged blade,
and you ground it all out.
So it's not a forged blade.
For that reason,
we have to cut you loose.
♪
- Ed, please surrender
your weapon.
- It's pretty clear why I lost.
I'm disappointed in myself,
mostly because I chose
a safe way.
We don't get into this
business to play it safe.
We're not knife makers
because we're timid people.
We're knife makers 'cause
we're bad mother[bleep].
♪
- Bladesmiths,
you made it out of round one.
Good job.
Your second challenge
is to turn your blades
into fully functional weapons
by attaching handles using
the range of materials
provided to you.
You will have three hours
for this round.
You can use that time to address
any flaws or issues
that were identified
with your blades.
♪
Your finished weapons
will then be tested
for strength and durability
in an ice chop,
and for sharpness
cutting through a hedge.
When the time runs out
and your weapons
have been tested,
one of you must surrender
his weapon and leave the Forge.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
Your time starts now.
♪
- Round one is almost like
your power round.
Round two is the finesse part...
The fit and finish.
- And we have seen
so many smiths
hit this finesse round thinking,
"I've got it made,"
and go up in flames.
♪
- And away we go.
♪
- We rarely see a successful
burn-in.
We've seen one burn-through
that worked,
but rarely a burn-in
on a hidden tang.
- Robert might have done a
nice burn-through in his handle,
but I'd like to see him work
on that blade.
I really don't want that knife
blowing apart on me
during the chopping test.
♪
- I hit the grinder
because I got things to fix
on my blade first.
[grinding]
- Deker's got on heck of a warp
in his blade.
- That curve isn't
just on the spine.
It goes all the way through
that blade.
So there's really no way
to do that grind
where you're taking some
off here, some off here,
and some off here.
- I've straightened the blade up
as good as it's gonna get.
Now I've got to get to fitting
a guard.
♪
I love the dance
of the little tiny file.
It may not be the best
guard-fit I've ever done.
Eh, whatever.
It certainly isn't the best
guard-fit I've ever done.
It ain't pretty, but it'll do.
But it will protect the user's
finger, which is what it's for.
- Bladesmiths, you have
just two hours remaining
to finish your work.
- What do we got
for handle material?
With a hidden-tang knife,
you usually need to work
with a large block.
- What is that?
- Whoops.
That'll do.
Oh, where did my Sharpie go?
There were some pieces
of red Micarta.
And a piece of red and black
Kirinite.
- Looks like he's putting
a brass guard on that tang.
- Oh, nice.
♪
- Ted has got his pieces
all milled out.
He's ready to go.
- I decided to use epoxy
and some red dye.
[whistling]
The red dye
will help the epoxy blend
with the red stripes
in the Kirinite.
I might have [bleep] that up
a little bit.
Damn it.
- Ted's having some issues.
- I neglected to check
if the brass ferrules would fit
into the holes that I drilled,
and they ended up being
too small.
- Not sure what he's doing,
but as long as he gets it done
before all that glue dries.
- That's what I'm worried about.
Yeah.
- Time is flying by.
- Ted's got quite
the red mess going over there.
- It's not looking good.
Piece of [bleep].
♪
- Ted's just having some issues.
- Damn it.
I neglected to check
if the brass ferrules would fit
into the holes that I drilled,
and they ended up being
too small.
- Not sure what he's doing,
but as long as he gets it done
before all that glue dries.
- That's what I'm worried about.
Yeah.
- Now I got to scrape
all of the epoxy off of it
before it cures
and get everything re-drilled.
♪
I just went up two sizes
on the drill
and got the ferrules to fit.
They fit perfect now.
Nice.
I just got to reapply
all my epoxy again.
- Bladesmiths,
you have one hour remaining.
[scraping]
- Robert's sitting down
on a box.
He's hand-sanding his handle.
Hasn't epoxied anything.
Hasn't drilled any holes.
The back end of his blade
still has cracks.
- Does that make any sense
to you?
- Not to me.
No.
♪
- At this point, the time is
really starting to get to me.
I couldn't find
a decent block of wood,
so I had to build one
out of three slabs of Micarta.
♪
- Bladesmiths, you have
just 30 minutes remaining!
- [bleep]!
♪
Is the highest grit belt here
400?
This is not a [bleep] way
I want to go out.
Ah, [bleep]!
- Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two,
one.
Bladesmiths,
shut down your machines.
Drop your tools.
♪
- Nice job, man.
- You know, it's anybody's game.
I hope my blade holds up.
But there's no point in stress,
because it's already done.
♪
- Bladesmiths,
welcome to the strength test:
the ice chop.
I'm gonna take
each of your blades
and do downward strikes
on these blocks of ice.
This is really gonna test
your edge
and the overall strength
of your weapon.
Ted, you're up.
Are you ready?
- Oh, yeah.
I'd like to see my knife
do well in a test.
If it does fail, I'd like
to see a good, flashy fail
from a flashy knife.
[laughs]
♪
- [laughing]
- Hm.
Made a mess out of that.
- Yeah, it did.
- Your edge held up very well.
The handle feels
very comfortable too.
You've got the guard
and the drop there
so my hand kind of locks
into place,
which is nice... makes it feel
a lot more comfortable
swinging it.
Nice job, Ted.
- Thank you.
- Deker, you're up.
Are you ready?
- Let's make a snow cone.
I feel that my blade's got
some meat to it,
and it's got
a relatively thick edge.
But I'm a little concerned
I didn't have enough time
to put the edge I wanted on it.
♪
♪
- You better have
a big whiskey glass
for those pieces of ice.
- May need one.
♪
- Deker, the bend on the blade
apparently didn't make
any difference on ice.
You've also got a thicker edge
that's actually backing up
your cutting edge here.
Good job.
- Thank you.
- Robert, you're up next.
- I don't know if I got
the heat treatment spot on.
I see these blocks of ice,
and they're just massive,
and I can only hope
at this point
that everything goes well,
that I put my best into it.
♪
♪
- Well, Robert, it works on ice.
We do have a few issues though.
Your handle and your blade
are offset from each other.
So where my hand thinks
the edge is going
is a little to the side.
And we've got a seam
that's opened up
right here by the handle
as well.
It did hold its edge, though.
Good job.
♪
Good job, bladesmiths.
Now I'm gonna pass you off
to Doug
for the sharpness test.
♪
- Bladesmiths,
this is the sharpness test.
To see if your weapon
held its edge
and maintained its sharpness,
I will slash
through these hedges.
If it stayed sharp,
it should cut cleanly.
If not, it will
probably break the branches
or just push it aside.
Ted, you're up.
You ready?
- I'm ready.
- Let's do this.
♪
♪
Ted, your blade feels good
in the hand.
I love the feel
of your handle here...
The swell and the guard.
On the passes here,
it cut some of the branches,
but not all the way through.
But remember, these are
freestanding branches,
so after the impact,
it tends to bend.
The balance of your blade
feels very good.
This, sir, will cut.
- Thank you.
- Good job.
Deker, you're up.
Ready?
- Let's do some yard work.
♪
I'm not happy with the edge
that I got on that blade,
and I'm concerned that the top
of the hedge
is just gonna flop over
and spring right back up.
♪
♪
- Deker, you have
a sharp blade over here.
You know, what really helped
is that curve.
On the backhand slice,
it actually grabbed more.
It's got a good balance to it.
Good recovery.
It is a light blade.
Very light blade.
Overall, a sharp blade.
And this, sir, will cut.
Good job.
Robert, it's your turn.
You ready?
- Ready.
- Let's do this.
♪
♪
Well, Robert, you also have
a sharp blade here.
It caught from the belly
to the inward curve,
allowed me to slash,
and the same thing
on the backhand slash.
♪
The handle, though...
it's not that comfortable
in the hand.
But the balance of the blade
is light.
It does feel good.
And as you can see
with the motion here, it cuts.
- Thank you.
- I'm not super confident
that I'll be going on
to round three.
It's definitely anybody's game
at this point.
♪
What did you guys think
of that test?
- It was pretty tough.
- I thought that was cool.
- Let's start
with Robert's blade.
- What I like about the blade
is the belly actually pushed
the rest of the branches
into it to allow
for a very good, clean cut.
- I like the shape
of your handle.
- I was checking it
in my bare hand,
and I should've been checking it
with a gloved hand.
- I kind of like a big swell
on a handle.
What I don't like
is the fact that,
you know, it's out of alignment.
Robert spent
almost two hours sanding
as opposed to using that time
to align this blade
and deal with the problems.
- Moving on.
Let's talk about Deker's blade.
- A curve in the blade
is obviously an issue.
He tried grinding it out,
so he thinned out
a lot of blade.
Fortunately he had
a thick spine.
- It makes it ideal
for cutting hedges.
Now you're probably gonna get
requests for making
a purposely warped knife.
- Purposely warped blade.
- If he had a straight blade,
we could really see
how sharp his blade was.
On the initial pass,
the parts where that's curved up
didn't catch much,
but I still can't help
but appreciate
the canister weld.
So we know we have
a good blade over here.
- All right.
Let's talk about Ted's blade.
- Is it the prettiest blade
we've ever seen? No.
But it's not too heavy.
It held up beautifully.
He managed to get that hamon
in there,
which is really nice.
It's well built.
It feels really good
in the hand.
- His edge held up very well,
but on the lower part,
it's just not as sharp,
so I think that caused him
a little bit of an issue.
♪
- Judges, which of our smiths
are we sending home?
Have you made up your minds?
- Oh, yeah.
- Let's go tell our smiths.
♪
Bladesmiths, over the last
two rounds of competition,
each of you has designed,
forged, and fit and finished
a blade that performed
in our weapons tests.
Only two of you can move forward
into the final round
of competition.
♪
The judges have made
a final decision.
It's time for one of you
to leave the Forge.
♪
The bladesmith leaving the Forge
is...
♪
- Bladesmiths, each of you
has designed, forged,
and fit and finished
a blade that performed
in our weapons tests.
Only two of you can move forward
into the final round
of competition.
The judges have made
a final decision.
♪
Robert,
your blade did not make the cut.
- My fellow judges and I
all agree that your blade design
was the most appropriate
for our tests.
But the problems
in the construction:
the delaminations, that weld
that just isn't holding.
A couple of those cracks
opened up even further,
and because of that, we
just can't let you go through.
- Thank you.
- Robert,
please surrender your weapon.
♪
- I came here to prove
that I was a good smith
even though I'm young.
I know I did the best
that I could,
and it was
a difficult competition.
This just helps reinforce
that it's a life lesson
of knife making that there
are always places to improve.
You're never too good.
You're never too old or young
to learn.
♪
- Ted, Deker, congratulations.
Your work has secured your place
in the "Forged in Fire" final.
When you arrived here,
you forged a signature blade
of your own design.
Now we're sending you home
to forge an iconic weapon
from history.
♪
The tabar.
- It's not a sword.
♪
- The tabar is a battle-ax
originating from Persia,
Armenia, India,
and surrounding cultures.
Usually made entirely of metal,
it has a strongly curved blade
and a hammerheaded pole
that was often decorated
with inscriptions.
The light, metallic handle
is what makes the ax unique
and durable in battle.
During the 17th and 18th
centuries,
the tabar was a standard
weapon of the mounted warriors
of India, Afghanistan,
and what is now Pakistan.
With its double-edged blade
and piercing spike,
it was an unrelenting weapon
of war.
This fierce weapon is featured
in the iconic film series,
"The Lord of the Rings."
♪
It must be an effective,
working version
of that deadly weapon.
- I have never made
a tabar before.
I have never seen
a tabar before.
I read a book about an
elephant called Babar once.
♪
- You will have five days
at your home forge
to complete your work.
At the end of five days,
you will return
and present your tabars
to our panel of judges.
Only after they've submitted
those weapons
to a series of brutal
and dynamic tests
will they declare one of you
the "Forged in Fire" champion
and the recipient
of a $10,000 check.
♪
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in five days.
♪
[dog barking]
- Feels good to be home.
Today being the first day
of the challenge,
I'm gonna figure out the design.
With the size of the tabar
being, you know, 40 inches long,
I'm gonna do
a modular construction.
I'm gonna do the handle
in a piece.
The head's gonna be
a separate piece.
The spike's gonna be
a separate piece.
And then I will assemble
everything.
Today I'm gonna work
on the handle.
There's a lot to think about
in getting everything
put together the right way.
[grinding]
[clears throat]
♪
Right now, just a really,
really long eye-poker.
♪
- I'm happy to be back
in my own forge
where I've got my own stuff.
I feel I can be
a lot more effective here.
Juicy and delicious.
Planning on doing some pattern
welding for this project.
If it's worth making,
it's worth making a Damascus.
This piece here is gonna turn
into a long bar of steel,
similar to this, that'll then
get cut up into sections
so I can stack multiple layers
together
in a billet to weld.
[crackling]
The interesting part of it
is that the weapon's
entirely steel.
There's no wooden haft.
So that is gonna present
some interesting construction
challenges, I think,
but it's gonna be fun.
♪
- Day three... it's all about
getting this ax-head done.
That's the most important part
of the tabar.
I mean, you can't really have
a double-headed ax
without the double-headed ax
part.
♪
I decided to make an ax-head
out of an eight-pound
sledgehammer head.
It's a very good
high-impact steel.
I want to be able to chop a car
in half with this thing, so...
[whirring]
♪
I'm gonna do
an asymmetrical double-headed.
One blade's gonna be a little
bit heavier than the other.
♪
I'm fullering the metal
so it spreads wide
so I can start building
the beards of the blade.
♪
♪
Awesome.
Cool profile too.
♪
- So, it's day three here
in the shop.
Time to get the steel
starting to look
less like a lump of stuff
and more like an ax.
Inside the mind of a madman.
I'm going into the press
to do the very first
fullering operation.
Defining moment.
I start to squish,
and I see something
I never like to see.
[bleep]!
The very end of the billet
has started to just open up.
I can't afford
to lose this billet.
If I can flux this before any
scale has a chance to form,
I've got a chance
to save this weld.
But I only have seconds.
[whirring]
It must be doing all right,
'cause I can't even tell
which side it's on.
This is my second shot.
And then...
[bleep]!
♪
The hammer's not working
exactly the way it should.
I pretty rapidly discovered
that it's just not gonna be safe
to run it.
It could break
and throw parts flying.
[bleep]! [bleep]! [bleep]!
There's just no way
I'm gonna be able
to get this forging done
by hand.
This is bad.
[sighs]
♪
♪
- We're down at my
blacksmith guild's shop.
The guild has generously allowed
me to use their power hammer
because mine just wasn't
gonna be able to do it.
♪
And just that right there
probably saved me 45 minutes.
Definitely a little more sexy
than what I left with yesterday.
♪
Now I've got the spike
in the forge
and I've got to get that
drawn out.
♪
Good gravy.
The spike is gonna make
this thing heavier than hell.
I'm behind what I had set
myself for a schedule.
I've got a lot to figure out,
and I've still got a lot
to do tomorrow.
Certainly hope
nothing goes wrong.
But failure's not an option.
♪
- It's day four,
and I'm gonna harden the ax.
♪
The different parts of the ax
need to be heat treated.
The head's gonna have to have
a differential heat treat.
The edge has to be hard enough
to stay sharp,
you know, depending on what
they decide to hit with it.
I don't have a forge big enough
to fit the ax fully assembled.
So I used the front of the forge
and my cutting torch
and got it up to critical,
and then I quenched one side,
and then the other.
♪
Sweet.
Yep, she's hard.
I'm behind where I want to be,
but I'm not worried.
It'll be ready to go.
Huh.
♪
Let's go kill something.
♪
Sweet.
♪
- That's done.
♪
Come hell or high water,
that's it.
♪
- Ted, Deker, welcome back,
and welcome to the sand pit.
Because we're gonna be swinging
giant axes around,
we thought we should come
somewhere
with a little bit more
elbow room.
You've had five days
to work on your tabars.
Ted, how did it go?
- Um, it went well.
I was going for
kind of a ancient look.
Look like something you dug
out of the dirt.
I did a lot of etching
on the blades.
One side, it has lotus flowers,
and the other side,
I have Persian writing,
and it says "Forged in Fire."
- Nice.
Deker, how did it go?
- It went pretty well.
Long five days.
I wish I'd had a little more
time for some finish work,
but I tried to throw
a little bit
of the Indo-Persian influence
in with the twist Damascus
that's on the spike,
and a little something new
with the geometry of the spike,
which is based on a trocar point
for penetrating better.
- Nice.
Well, gentlemen,
your weapons look great,
but this round
is all about performance.
We are now gonna put
your weapons
through a series of tests.
First up is the kill test.
Doug.
- Bladesmiths,
this is the kill test.
The tabar's three sharp sides
allows for three times the
chances of killing an opponent
in the heat of battle.
To test the lethality
and function of your weapon,
I will test all three sides
by chopping
at this animal carcass.
Ted, you're up.
Are you ready?
- Heck yeah.
- Let's do this.
♪
♪
Well, Ted,
the design of your blade
really digs in to the carcass.
The hooks grabs everything
that's in there
and rips it right out.
Balance is a little bit heavy,
but it will do a lot
of destruction.
This weapon, sir, will kill.
- Awesome.
- Good job, sir.
- Thank you.
- Deker, it's your turn.
You ready?
- Let's cut some bacon, Doug.
- Let's do this.
♪
♪
- Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Well, Deker, your edges
are very sharp,
as you can see what it did.
It pretty much wanted
to cut all the way through.
The feel, though,
is a little bit rounded
for the handle.
But, nonetheless, it's light,
so I can generate more power
to control it.
This is a weapon that will kill.
Good job, sir.
- Thank you.
- I'm gonna pass things off
to Dave for the next test.
- We're on a pretty even
playing field.
We both did well
in the first two tests.
You know,
it's anybody's game, man.
It's anybody's game.
♪
- All right, gentlemen.
It's time for the strength test.
Now, the tabar was a brutal
weapon on the battlefield,
and it was used by warriors
from India to Pakistan
all the way into Afghanistan.
Its all-metal construction
made it
an incredibly strong weapon
on the battlefield.
So to test your weapon's edge
and its shaft,
we're gonna hook it
into our device over here.
It's gonna take a single blow
against the shield,
and then a single blow
against the barrel.
Ted, you're up.
Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
- All right.
- I don't know
what kind of pressures
they're putting on those,
but this is the test
that's gonna show whether my ax
is gonna break
or if it's just gonna, you
know, bounce off of things.
- Three, two, one.
Engaging.
T, gentlemenit's time
for the strength test.
Ted, you're up.
Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
- All right.
♪
Three, two, one.
Engaging.
♪
You put a really good crease
in the shield.
And that's a heck of a chop
you just chopped in that
hardened oak of this barrel.
Little bit of a roll
right up here on this edge
that hit the shield.
And the shaft of the ax looks
perfectly straight.
Didn't flex at all.
Well done.
- Thank you.
- All right, Deker, you're up.
- Let's tap a keg.
♪
- All right.
Three, two, one.
Engage.
♪
[clanks]
- Son of a bitch.
♪
- Well, Deker,
your spike sheared off
right at that rivet point.
- Yep.
- Well, you put a good crease
in the shield.
♪
See you put a good cut
in the barrel.
♪
The edge of the ax here
that hit the barrel,
you'll see a little coloration,
some slight shiny spots.
The side that hit the shield...
doesn't look
like any damage at all.
But that spike coming off...
well, that's a problem.
♪
- At the moment
when that spike fell,
my heart just sank.
♪
- Gentlemen, you both put in
a lot of work on your tabars.
But in this arena,
there can only be one
"Forged in Fire" champion.
♪
Ted, you are
the "Forged in Fire" champion.
Deker, your weapon
did not make the cut.
- Congratulations.
- Good job.
- Deker,
you made a great weapon.
The only thing
that really killed you
was the structure of that spike.
The rivet didn't have
enough meat on either side
to hold it together...
Bit of a flex in the shaft.
That was the reason
we had to let you go.
- Understood.
- Deker, please surrender
your weapon.
- I came here to prove to myself
that I could stand and deliver
on an even playing field
with full-time bladesmiths,
and I'm just gonna use this
as a learning experience
and get better.
What I learned is they're
the best people in the world,
and you just can't lose
when you hang out with them.
- Ted, congratulations, you are
the "Forged in Fire" champion
and will be receiving a check
for $10,000.
Good job.
- Awesome. Thank you.
[applause]
I joined this competition
to see if I had what it took
to make a better weapon
than three other guys.
And I did it.
And that makes me happy.
- Props for putting
"Forged in Fire" on your blade.
- Yeah!
- In Persian around here,
it says,
"Caution: sharp edge."
- Nice touch.
- When I'm working
with a bunch of guys
I really respect,
they're gonna push the quality
that I do.
It pushed me a lot.
That's what I enjoyed about it.
♪