Forged in Fire (2015–…): Season 8, Episode 1 - Veteran's Knife Special - full transcript
On this special episode, Forged in Fire salutes our nation's veterans. Four bladesmiths with ties to the military are tasked with re-creating four unique blades co-designed by distinguished vets, all using different techniques, du...
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- my name is chris coe,
I'm 40 years old,
and I've been bladesmithing
for several years now.
I have a huge appreciation
for the military
and the veterans.
My father is a vietnam vet.
He served
in the united states army.
He was in the infantry
and on huey helicopters.
This is a knife I made
for my father
out of recycled
huey helicopter parts.
I actually had to smuggle it
out of his office
to bring it here.
- My name's brandon rader
I'm 35 years old.
I'm a disabled veteran.
I was in the 173rd, 1st of 508.
When I started bladesmithing,
I realized there was
more therapeutic things
behind it,
and it just kept going
from there.
I'm excited. No, it's gonna be
a fun ride to party town.
- My name's trish arno,
and I'm 41 years old.
I joined the army after 9/11
because so many families
lost their loved ones,
and I wanted to be able
to do something
to give back to those families.
During basic training,
I sustained
multiple stress fractures
throughout both legs.
They sent me home on an
honorable medical discharge.
I took up forging so I could
kind of keep my body loose.
It gave me a new purpose
and brought
a lot of life to me.
- My name is mike rizzo.
I'm 31 years old, and I'm
a commercial building manager.
I served in the army
for four years
and did a tour in iraq.
The name of my forge
is muffin man metalworks.
The nickname came when I painted
the room in my house
"warm muffin."
so now I'm known
as the muffin man.
[laughs]
[suspenseful music]
- bladesmiths,
welcome to the forge.
You're about to take part
in three rounds
of intense forging competition.
At the end of each round,
I want you to present your work
to my panel of expert judges.
The judges today are gonna be
two-time "forged in fire"
champion ben abbott.
Next, we've got historic
weapons re-creation specialist
dave baker.
And finally,
edged weapon specialist
and kali martial artist
doug marcaida.
Remember, there's $10,000
and the title
of "forged in fire" champion
on the line, so I wanna see
your absolute best work.
Today in the forge, we're
feeling a little patriotic.
So we're gonna
salute our veterans
by giving you a competition
unlike anything
we've seen before.
Today, we're not gonna ask you
to build one blade.
We're gonna ask you to build
four different knives.
Next to me, you see four crates.
In each crate, there's a knife
from the case american heroes
knife series.
Each one is codesigned
by a distinguished veteran
from the u.S. Military.
Your challenge today
is to come up,
select a crate at random,
and build the knife inside.
But inside each crate,
you'll also find
a specific technique
we want you to use
to build that knife.
Chris, come on up,
select your blade.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
you've selected the lamb hunter,
codesigned by u.S. Army
special missions unit
sergeant major kyle lamb.
This knife features
deep finger grooves
in the ricasso
and a very effective
spear-point tip.
The design of this knife
is well-suited
for someone like kyle lamb,
who's a professional
outdoorsman.
You see there you need
to build your knife
using a san mai method.
- [bleep]. [laughs]
san mai to me has always
been the dark art.
It's not my strong suit.
- All right, brandon,
you're up next.
Come on up and select a crate.
- Outstanding.
♪ ♪
- you selected the hambone.
This knife was codesigned
by medal of honor recipient
u.S. Army staff sergeant
clint romesha.
This knife features
an exposed tang at the pommel,
wide bevels, and an upswept
cutting edge.
This knife was born from
clint's love for the hunt,
and it was made specifically
for skinning game.
You'll also notice
on the spine of this weapon,
there are eight stars.
Each one was placed there
to memorialize
the team members clint lost
during operation
enduring freedom.
And you'll see there you also
have to build this knife
using a twisted damascus
pattern.
All right, trish, come on up
and select your crate.
♪ ♪
all right,
you've chosen the skinner.
This knife was codesigned
by u.S. Army
and u.S. Navy special operator
kevin holland.
This lightweight knife design
features a flat grind
and a distal taper.
This here is a versatile knife.
It was built
for any camping situation
or even as a reliable
hunting knife.
And just to make it
a little harder,
you're gonna need to use
a canister damascus technique
to build this knife. - Oh, yeah.
Oh, god, kill me now. [laughs]
skinner knife... no problem.
Can is the problem.
Gotta get past that
before I can make a skinner.
- Last but not least, mike.
Come on up, man,
select your crate.
- What a selection.
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
you've selected
the recurve utility no. 6,
codesigned by u.S. Navy
special operator harry bologna.
This knife features
a thick spine for striking,
an exposed tang at the pommel,
and an s curve cutting edge
made to maximize
cutting ability.
You've gotta build that knife
using a raindrop pattern
damascus.
- [clicks tongue]
- make sure you follow
these parameters.
Your knife needs to be between
7 and 9 inches
from tip to plunge grind,
and in round two
of this competition,
you're gonna be adding handles
to your knives, making them
fully functioning weapons.
We're gonna be checking
your strength and durability
doing an e-tool
and canteen chop.
And to test your edge retention,
we'll be doing
a gunpowder bag swipe.
You'll only have three hours
to complete these tasks,
so good luck; do your best.
Your time starts now.
[exciting music]
- ha-ha!
- And the adventure continues!
We've got veterans out there
on the floor.
Doug's a veteran,
and you're a veteran too
from the army, correct?
- Yes, sir.
I spent some time
in the special forces
during iraq.
But it's good to see we've got
some people in the forge today
that support our brave warriors
and come here to do their best.
- 90% of metalwork
is preparatory,
so I'm cleaning every side
on the grinder.
- That prep at the beginning
will save you so much time
once those welds start to form.
- That's kind of funny;
my father, back in vietnam,
he had a sergeant major
who always talked about
the seven ps:
Proper prior planning
prevents piss-poor performance.
- I'm gonna use every single
piece of steel
given in front of me.
- Holy cow.
- [laughs]
- you guys seeing the size
of mike's stack over here?
- I'm starting off
with more layers than I need,
but I'd rather have it
and not need it
than need it and not have it.
That's a saying, right?
[laughs]
[rock music]
- I'm excited about this knife.
It looks like a camp knife
designed by rambo.
- That canister is large.
That's gonna be
a lot of steel to work with.
You can cut a lot
of that material off
and save it as backup.
- I know I'm gonna have
to peel it off
instead of shaving it off
so that I can make sure
I have a hardenable edge.
- So it looks like
trish put white out
in her canister,
but she's letting it sit.
- Yeah, very important.
We see a lot of the smiths
rush the process,
and they wind up putting
white out on everything
they put in the can.
- Do not stab me. Ouch.
- San mai's the process
of having a hardened billet
with a soft outer jacket
on the blade,
and I don't have a lot
of experience with it.
So it's gonna be
uphill battle from the get-go.
- Ben, there's two ways
to make san mai, right?
- Yeah, the taco method,
where you take
a piece of mild steel
and you wrap it
around the high carbon steel.
Another way is, you just start
with three separate
pieces of steel.
That way, you see on the spine
and on the blade
that inner core.
- I'm drawing out
the mild steel first
because I'm thinking
it would be the quickest thing
to work with.
[groans]
[dramatic music]
the mild steel did not go
as planned.
I know I'm gonna have
to start over
while there's still time
on the clock.
Yeah, I got a big problem
with that.
We ain't coming back from it.
One of those days. [laughs]
- almost ready to start
moving metal.
Before I start
making this knife,
I gotta get my steel together.
I need to start
alternating layers
so that way
the pattern will show up
with the different kinds
of metal.
- Brandon is worrying me.
That billet is not hot enough.
- Oh! Did you see that?
- Yeah.
- Come on with it.
No plan survives first contact.
I knew I had to break off,
regroup,
adapt, improvise, overcome,
and move on
to the next objective.
- Brandon lost some
of his metal,
and it is a very skinny billet
that he has right now.
- He probably should have
started over.
- There's still one
fully forged, welded
on the end of the stick.
I'm not gonna have
as much steel as I wanted,
but I'll work with it.
- Two hours remaining!
- My welds appear to be solid,
and I'm going to make
another two passes
just to make sure
they're super solid.
- The guy in the lead
right now is mike.
Now it's just a matter
of putting
the raindrop pattern in there.
- To get a good pattern,
you need a lot of layers.
- Even after 19 layers,
I now have 19 different points
where something could fail.
So I'd rather not risk
cutting and restacking it
and starting that
whole process all over again.
It's all about
making it look good, right?
[laughs]
- now I know how david felt
against goliath. - [laughs]
[rock music]
- looks like trish
is in the press right now,
using the squaring dies.
- Yeah, and I don't think
that billet was hot enough
either.
♪ ♪
- ah, [bleep]!
- Oh, no.
- I'm seeing these sparks,
and I know
that that means
that the powdered steel
is still in powdered form.
It's not compressed,
so now I'm letting
oxygen into the canister
and just creating
all kinds of inclusions
and delaminations
throughout that billet.
I don't know
if that's salvageable.
Think I'm gonna need a new can.
- Even though that billet
was leaking,
it didn't leak that badly.
She could have gone over,
welded that hole closed,
and continued to work on it.
She didn't need to build
a new one.
- Hail mary time.
[heavy metal music]
- I have a good set
of forge-welded damascus.
Now it's time to set
the pattern.
I fired,
so hopefully I got enough
to twist it
and then draw it back out.
- When you do that twist,
you lose a lot of material,
and if you're just close to
what you need with the twist,
you're not gonna have enough
by the time you grind it.
- I'm gonna try
to twist this steel
as much as I can
without getting any kind
of delaminations on it
and still have enough twist
in there to pull
a pretty pattern.
The whole machine just starts
pushing and rocking on me.
I gotta bury my knee into it.
It doesn't have
as many twists as I want,
but I think I have
enough steel at this point
to get the dimensions and widths
and still pull the pattern out.
We're getting there, brother.
We're getting there, now.
[exciting music]
- after the attempt
with the mild steel failed,
I realized that I should have
just started
with the high carbon billet
and worked from there.
- Chris is still just
drawing out
the three components
of his san mai.
I don't think he's ever forged
welded them together yet.
- The clock is not my friend.
I have to get moving.
- Come on, little can.
After the first can was so big,
I'm thinking
maybe two smaller ones
will fare better for me.
- Do you think there's any
coming back from this?
- Well, there's the legend
of neil kamimura.
He did a knife from a raw can
to something on the table
in 32 minutes.
- She's got quite a bit
more than that at this point.
- [groans]
I am screwed!
- That billet is not hot enough.
[dramatic music]
- the heat in here is no joke.
I did basic training
in south carolina,
in the dead of summer,
but this is like
standing in the desert
next to a lava flow.
- One hour remaining!
♪ ♪
- you okay?
- I'm hot and dizzy.
- You're dizzy?
- I can't breathe.
I can't catch my breath.
I know I have
to get out of here.
- It looks like trish
just got escorted
off the floor by the medic.
- Yeah, I think
she's reached her limit.
♪ ♪
off the floor by the medic.
- The physical aspect
of these competitions
can be brutal.
- In my head, I wanna go,
but body's just like,
"you're done."
- so what do you wanna do?
'cause it's ultimately
up to you.
- I wanna give it
one last hoorah.
- Okay.
- I didn't come here
to friggin' quit.
I'm not gonna stop.
I'm gonna keep going.
- Hey, look who's back!
- Welcome back!
- Welcome!
- Great.
- I ain't dead yet!
- Let's go!
- It doesn't matter
how much time's on that clock.
I am going to take what's left
of the first billet,
and I'm gonna just
try to put out there
whatever I can.
- If she's got
2/3 of that billet
welded together, she's got
more than enough metal
to make that knife.
[rock music]
- now it's time
to do my raindrop pattern.
- To do raindrops,
you just drill
some shallow impressions
in your billet
and then forge it out.
You've got a raindrop pattern.
- [laughs]
the drill bit's glowing.
- Right?
- It's a struggle to just get
any sort of drill bit
to drill into the billet.
- Hey, mike, how many bits
is that so far?
- [laughs]
it's chewing right through 'em.
- Mike is drilling
on very hot steel
and ruining the temper
of his drill bit.
- I'm really not a fan
of raindrop damascus
at this point.
I'm no weatherman, but I think
that's some raindrops.
- Whoa!
- Okay, now, finally,
with less
than an hour remaining,
chris is tack welding
his three layers
for his san mai billet.
- I have to get this thing
forge welded.
Not going very good.
I have a really bad offset
on the tip,
where one side's thicker
than the other.
I should have welded up
further to the tip
and then blended that in
that way,
but I'm just trying to work
with what I got.
[dramatic music]
- brandon quenched.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
attention to details...
Forgot the stars, brother.
The stars on the spine
of this blade represent
the eight members
of clint romesha's team
that did not make it back.
So I cannot forget
to put these stars
on the back of this knife.
I have to put it back
in the forge
so I can work with the metal
and chisel it in.
- Instead of putting
those stars in now,
he doesn't need to do that
until the next round.
- Well, if he wants
to do it on the soft steel,
he has to do it
before he quenches.
- All right.
I'm gonna have to re-quench it,
and it's a risky choice
because it's already been
heat-treated and hardened.
And I can get delamination,
fractures...
All kinds of stuff can go wrong.
Ooh! She hard, man.
- 20 minutes remaining
on the clock!
- I'm running out of time.
I gotta get something
going here.
- It seems like
what trish is gonna do now
is attempt
to peel that can away.
- There we go! Finally!
I don't care what it is.
I'm turning in something.
I'd rather get a lump of coal
for christmas
than nothing at all. [laughs]
- trish is working to the end.
I like that.
- It kind of gets
my heart going a little bit.
It brings you back
to my time in training,
when the first thing
that came to my mind is "quit."
it's the easiest thing to do.
The hardest thing to do
is to stick it out.
♪ ♪
five minutes remaining!
- And three of our blades
have not been quenched.
- I'm getting ready
to quench to blade.
It could warp. I could delam.
It could twist. It could crack.
I don't have enough time
on the clock
for any of that.
- And we got a quench.
Chris quenched.
- The clock is ticking away,
and I gotta get this thing
in the oil.
- Just quench it.
- There's a quench.
- Thank you!
- I'm just hoping
I got a straight blade.
- Trish could run with
a hail mary quench right now.
- She's not giving up.
- No, she's not. She's tough.
- Five, four, three,
two, one!
Bladesmiths,
put down your weapons!
Turn off your machines!
This round of competition
is over!
[tense music]
- time's up and I'm looking at
the first incomplete knife
I've ever made.
So I know I'm as cooked
as that piece of steel
on that anvil, but I didn't
go down without a fight.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, in round one,
you had three hours
to work on
your case american hero knives.
It was an absolute tough one,
so thank you
for giving your best work.
Unfortunately, trish,
in that time,
you weren't able
to finish your knife,
but I wanna say thank you
because although it was
extremely difficult,
you ran up against the wall
countless times,
you didn't give up.
So I'm gonna ask you
to surrender your steel
and leave the forge floor.
- Yes, sir.
Thank you, guys.
I'm proud of myself
for sticking in there.
You know, obviously,
I wish I could have
produced something
more knife-looking.
I'm sorry I couldn't
give you something better.
- [laughs]
- you never quit, girl.
That's... that's what it's about.
- Good luck, guys.
I didn't give up
because I don't quit.
I'm stubborn. [laughs]
that's why I joined the army.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen,
you're still here.
Congratulations.
But we're not out
of the woods yet. At this point,
I'm gonna have the judges
check your blades
and make sure
you're within parameters.
Mike, you had
the recurve utility no. 6,
codesigned by harry bologna.
Please present your weapon.
[dramatic music]
- hi, mike.
You did a great job on this
so far.
Some of the little issues:
The handle, in general,
is really massive.
It's got another inch and a half
to what it needs to have.
But all your welds are tight.
Well done. - Thank you.
- Brandon, you had the hambone,
codesigned by clint romesha.
Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- all right, brandon.
When you lost half your stack,
you got us worried over here
'cause it looked like
a very lean billet that you had,
but you made it through.
I can see the twist pattern
right there.
Good job on that.
And I really appreciate
that you got
the eight stars in there
to really commemorate
and give homage to what romesha
was really trying to do
with the hambone knife.
Good job.
- All right, chris,
you're up next.
You had the lamb hunter
in the san mai method.
Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- right off the bat, you do
have a san mai happening here,
but that hard core
has a crack in it
that goes right across
the blade edge.
That has to be dealt with.
If we move into testing,
we've almost got
a blade that's guaranteed
to fail.
From now on, it's just refining
what you've got going here
and fixing this issue.
- Guys, congratulations.
You made it past round one.
We're moving into round two.
At this point,
we're gonna ask you
to put scales on your blades,
making them
fully-functioning weapons,
using only the synthetic
materials in the pantry.
Any of the unique features
you have
in your case american heroes
knives,
we wanna see those
at the end of this round.
We'll be testing the durability
and strength of your weapons
in the e-tool and canteen chop,
and checking your edge retention
in the gunpowder bag slice.
You only have two hours
to complete your work.
So good luck.
Your time starts now.
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
based on what you guys said
in the critique,
it sounds like chris
has absolutely the most to do
in this round.
- He's got a crack that runs
right across
the edge of the blade.
He needs to fill that with weld
and then do an edge quench,
or chris is going to lose
the temper on either side
of that weld.
- My blade might not
be in the best shape,
but I'm confident
I can turn this around.
- I think it's safe to say
chris is gonna be
re-quenching his blade.
What do you think
could go wrong?
- It's gonna be too soft.
It's not gonna hold up
to the test,
so we're gonna see some rolling.
- A three-hour round one
was a time crunch.
Two hours is just
a whole nother ball game,
and I'm really feeling
the stress.
- Mike has a handle
that's so wicked long,
so it's out of proportion.
[tense music]
- now that I've got
my tang shortened,
I immediately start
slotting some little channels
above my tang for a thumb grip.
Am I 100% happy
with my blade shape?
Of course not.
Time is not on our side here,
so I gotta move on
to create this handle.
- I'm feeling good.
I got the holes drilled
in my handle.
Coming up behind you, brother.
I move back over
to my work station...
[rock music]
what in the world did I do?
And that's when I realized
I missed one of the holes,
and it does not match up.
You gotta be [bleep] with me,
man.
If I don't fix this issue,
scale's gonna break off.
It's gonna fail.
- Is brandon cutting out
new handle scales?
- Sometimes the best thing to do
is not try to fix the problem,
but just start over.
- It's time to choose
my handle material,
and I see this honeycomb
pattern.
That's the handle I want on it.
It's indexable.
They're all symmetric shapes.
If I can align one side up
and drill through
to the other side,
I have a mirror image
of the other side.
It basically aligned itself.
- Looks like we got
chris gluing up
his handle scales now.
- I'm shocked that I made up
this much time
making the handles.
- Gentlemen,
you got one hour remaining!
- I have all the holes
drilled on one scale.
Now I'm trying to do
a mock fit up
of the other scale.
[bleep]!
And we're off by just
fractions of an inch.
Struggling to get this thing
to line up together.
The longer I spend messing
around with these pins,
the less time I have
to finish my blade.
[bleep]!
To line up together
to get a handle glued up.
[dramatic music]
[drill whirring]
I'm just oblong-ing the holes
to make it work.
If one of those pins
doesn't line up,
I'm just gonna fill it with
goop and hope it works.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
- the edge that I'm going for
on my blade is more curved in,
like a meat cleaver style.
I think it'll help me some
during the chopping test.
The last thing I want is to
remove way too much metal
and have a weak spot.
I've come way too far
in this competition
to mess up
on these final few steps.
- All right, gentlemen,
you got 30 minutes remaining.
[exciting rock music]
- I got my crack fixed,
I got my handle on,
and now I'm moving
on to the final touches.
I have to make those grooves
in the finger wells
of the hunter.
I use a triangular file
to actually cut the grooves.
- I'm quite impressed with
the work that chris has done.
Round one, we thought
he wouldn't even finish.
You stay in the fight
all the way till the end.
[upbeat music]
- I don't normally forge
a lot of recurves.
They tend to be
very difficult to sharpen.
They can get a bit awkward
on a grinder.
- It is possible for mike
to go too far in sharpening,
make a really, really fine edge,
and get all sorts of problems
in the strength test.
[rock music]
- I cannot have any hot spots
in this handle
because if it's not comfortable,
it's gonna just cause
more stress to your body
that you do not need.
- Brandon's knocking down
those handle edges.
Now if you go to one
of the finishing belts
and then run it at a slow speed,
it actually does that
beautifully and evenly.
- So that's the perfect machine
for what he's doing right now.
- Sure.
- And he's using a dremel
and an angle grinder.
- Yep.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- razor sharp.
- Five, four, three,
two, one!
Turn off your machines!
Put down your tools!
This round is over!
- I'm extremely excited
for testing
'cause it wasn't easy on me,
and I don't want the judges
to be easy on that.
I want it to come full circle.
- Bladesmiths,
welcome to the strength test.
To test the strength
and durability
of your edges as well
as the overall construction
of your knives,
I'll be chopping them
into this canteen and e-tool.
Mike, you're up first.
You ready for this?
- Send it.
[dramatic music]
this is definitely
the most brutal thing
we're gonna be doing,
so I'm super anxious
about what's gonna happen
to my blade.
♪ ♪
[exhales sharply]
[uneasy music]
- all right, mike.
I like this knife.
It's a good reproduction
of the recurve utility no. 6.
Your handle... that's
a perfectly-sized handle.
Nicely done,
but that being said,
it did take a chip,
definitely from the canteen.
So didn't come out unscathed,
but it came through this test
really well.
So nice job. - Thank you.
- All right, brandon,
you're up next.
You ready?
- Range is hot, brother.
- All right.
- Going into this test,
I'm really nervous
about the chop.
I do not want my spine
to break on this knife.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- all right, brandon.
Well, your finger well spacing
is spread out.
You know, I can't hold this
with a fist.
I have to hold it at an angle
in order to get my fingers
in all the wells.
So that's an issue,
but the knife is in one piece.
Well done. - Thank you, sir.
- All right, chris, you're up.
You ready?
- Have at it.
- All right.
[tense music]
- the canteen, I don't have
too much concern over.
It's the e-tool
that I'm worried about
'cause of all the repairs
that had to go on to the blade.
I'm concerned
about having two knives
at the end of the strength test:
A handle and a blade.
♪ ♪
that had to go on to the blade,
I'm concerned
about having two knives
at the end of the strength test.
[suspenseful music]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- well, chris, I have a feeling
that the mig welding
you did close to the edge
without re-quenching has led
to a softening of the blade,
'cause there is a deflection
right here at edge,
where I struck the metal.
But the rest of the blade
held up,
came out the other side
in one piece.
So nice job. - Thank you.
[suspenseful music]
- all right, bladesmiths,
this is the sharpness test:
The gunpowder bag slice.
To find out how sharp
your weapons are,
I will take your weapon
and try to cut cleanly
on this canvas bag
filled with powder.
Mike, you're up first.
You ready for this?
- Let's do it.
- Let's do this.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
all right, mike,
let's talk about
your recurve utility knife no.6.
Your edge took some damage
in the beginning,
but it was not a factor at all
in slicing the bags.
Overall, sir, it'll cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, brandon,
it's your turn, so you ready?
- Sweep and clear, sir.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- all right, brandon,
let's talk about
your hambone knife here.
On this particular test,
it cut deep
and it cut cleanly.
Overall, sir, it'll cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- Chris, you're up. You ready?
- Swing it.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- all right, chris,
let's talk about
your lamb hunter knife here.
I love the handle
because all that stippling
you did there really gives
a very nice grip to your blade.
Now the edge itself:
The grind that you have in here
is very wide and obtuse,
almost like an ax-head.
It cuts but not deeply
because, as you can see,
I can run my finger this way.
It's not as sharp
as you would have
with a different grind.
But overall, sir, it did cut.
- Thank you.
[uneasy music]
- bladesmiths, we have finished
our american hero knives,
and we've gone through
two rounds of grueling testing.
The judges have made
a decision, and only two of you
will be moving forward
into round three.
And the bladesmith leaving
the forge is...
♪ ♪
chris.
You're not gonna be
going forward.
Doug will tell you why.
- Chris, at the end of the day,
the bags speak for themselves.
The sharpness test, your blade
was just outperformed
by the other two knives.
- I understand.
- Chris, you fought very hard,
but unfortunately,
I'm gonna have to ask you
to leave the forge floor.
- Gentlemen, it's been an honor.
- You too, brother.
- I completely agree
with the judges' decision
on my blade.
It did a lot better than
I thought it was gonna do,
but it just didn't cut it
in the end.
One thing I'm gonna take away
from this experience is,
no matter how hard
you think it's gonna be,
you just have to keep going.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- mike, brandon,
congratulations, guys.
You made it this far.
In round three,
we're sending you home
for four days
to re-create a weapon
from american military history,
and that weapon is...
The american eagle head saber.
- [laughs]
- [exhales, laughs]
- the american eagle head saber
was carried by some
of the earliest soldiers
in american military.
Wildly used during
the war of 1812,
featuring a long,
slightly curved blade,
the weapon was known
to inflict deep, lethal cuts.
The iconic sword stands out
because of the bald eagle
prominently carved
in the pommel.
The eagle became
the national bird in 1782
and is sacred among
native american tribes.
Before there were
any mass-produced
military-issue weapons,
these sabers were made
by civilians
and prized by u.S. Officers.
There were many variations
and styles built,
which makes them
highly collectible today.
Gentlemen, pay close attention
because you must stay
within the following parameters:
Your blade needs to be
between 28 and 30 inches,
and you need to include
an eagle head pommel.
- I'm immediately terrified.
I've made one sword before,
and it took much longer
than four days to make.
- Bladesmiths, good luck.
We'll see you in four days.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
- day one... I'm glad
to finally be back home
at my home forge,
back in my element.
I felt a little caged up
down there,
but they set the dog loose, man.
It's time to get
some fun stuff going.
Got some heavier truck spring.
It's good steel,
so I wanna get it
to where I'm not gonna
put any stress fractures
or anything like that in.
Kind of lay it on here,
arched up,
start trying to draw it down
that way.
♪ ♪
by george, I think it works,
man.
[upbeat rock music]
- it's day one.
I'm back at my home shop,
aka the bakery.
It's called a bakery
because I'm the muffin man.
I'm the master baker here.
I'm choosing to use
a piece of 5160 spring steel
that's out of
an american-made pickup truck.
I'm really focusing
on keeping american hardware
in this piece and making it
just star-spangled awesome.
First thing I gotta do with
this piece of leaf spring is,
I'm gonna start drawing
this material down and out.
This particular saber
seems to have
a very gentle curve
throughout the entire length.
So I start in the middle,
and then I slowly work
the front and the backside
of the blade.
It's quite the dance.
I like it.
I like it a lot.
[exciting music]
- starting off day two,
trying to get the blade
pretty much finished today
so I can start working
on my handle.
I got pretty much all my grind
on the blade done,
think it's about time for me
to get ready for quench.
♪ ♪
you'll sing
"twinkle, twinkle," man.
For the design of this sword,
I wanna integrate
some stuff on to the blade,
so I'm gonna go ahead
and do some etching on it,
and anything
where you scratch, that's where
the ferric chloride's
gonna etch.
I think I'm gonna put
some stars on it,
put some lightning bolts
to symbolize the storm
that every soldier goes through
in his life.
The dates I picked was 1941...
The day that pearl harbor
got hit.
The other day I picked
was 1775...
Kind of kicked off
the revolutionary war.
I'm stoked
at how my sword came out.
[rock music]
- it's the start
of day two today.
I'm hoping to have
a heat-treated blade
by the end of the day today.
Got the forge heating up,
got my oil set up.
And now I'm getting
super nervous
'cause it's almost time
to quench.
[exhales deeply]
my heart is racing.
The pressure's building.
All right. Here we go.
♪ ♪
I'm just hoping that this blade
has stayed straight.
A kick here or there,
but nothing
a grinder can't handle.
It's such a relief to have
this quench out of the way,
and now I wanna focus
on the details of this handle.
♪ ♪
- day four,
last day of the build.
I'm making an eagle head saber,
which was used all the way up
to the civil war-era times.
Figured I'd go with
a civil war-era outfit,
feel it'll give me
the spirit I need
to go ahead
and finish this sword up.
First order of business
I'm gonna go for...
Go ahead, put this pommel on.
♪ ♪
[bleep]!
Now that it's broke,
I gotta come up
with another plan.
I'm gonna thread up
the base of this tang
and try to put another one on.
I should note that I've never
really done this before.
That ain't gonna work.
Ended up stripping it out.
There is no way
this thing's gonna
lock down tight on its own.
I've gotta come up
with something else now.
This is killing me, man.
I'm not sure
if I got enough time
to get this unit done.
I'm just gonna go ahead
and weld it.
[upbeat rock music]
she's solid.
Look, the weld's not pretty,
but it does its job.
While my wife's inside,
I'm gonna go ahead
and cut up
one of her tiki torches.
But don't tell nobody 'cause
you'll get in trouble too.
♪ ♪
[upbeat music]
- it's the start of day four.
I'm definitely feeling
the pressure of the final day.
I chose to do
the eagle's head pommel
out of scrap steel.
The bald eagle
is a very important piece
of this blade to me.
I'm a very patriotic person,
so I'm really just dialed into
getting this looking right.
[sighs] okay.
I'm going for
a black op-themed sword,
so I'm darkening the blade
and all my hardware.
I'm pretty happy with the look
of the flat black.
The eagle kind of looks
like a crow now,
but I'm super happy
that I was able
to make a sword in four days.
Whew!
[tense music]
- veterans,
welcome back to the forge.
You guys have had four days
back at your home forges
to work on your renditions
of the eagle head saber.
Now before we get into it,
I wanna say as a veteran,
thank you guys both
for your service.
But we're here for your saber,
so, mike,
tell us about your blade.
[dramatic music]
- it's acid-washed, 5160,
out of an american pickup truck.
The stirrup guard
is all mild steel,
and it's african blackwood
for the handle.
Sort of went
for a black ops theme.
- Well, thank you very much.
You put a ton of work into that.
Brandon, tell me
about your work.
♪ ♪
- I went ahead and made my saber
out of 5160 steel.
For the handle,
I integrated purpleheart wood
to symbolize
the purple heart award.
On the blade, I etched
13 stars down the blade
to symbolize the 13 stars
on the medal of honor award.
- There is a lot of detail
in there, man.
So the only way to figure out
which one of these sabers
is gonna end up on top is
to put 'em through three tests.
We're gonna put you through
a strength test,
a sharpness test,
and up first, the infamous
doug marcaida keal test.
[ominous music]
- all right, bladesmiths,
welcome to the keal test.
♪ ♪
let's find out what kind
of lethal damage
your sabers will do.
I will take your weapon
and deliver some
lethal blows and slashes
on this ballistics dummy.
All right, mike, your turn,
so you ready?
- Let's do it.
[dramatic music]
the ballistics dummy
is just a brutal test.
A simple shock
could break it apart.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
phew.
♪ ♪
- all right, mike, let's talk
about your saber here.
Your edge is razor sharp,
and because
it's a lighter sword,
I can really maneuver
the blade to deeper cuts.
Overall, sir,
your saber will keal.
- Thank you.
- All right, brandon,
it's your turn, so you ready?
- Oh, let's see
what he's made of.
[tense music]
I was so excited to see
jelly bob sitting up there.
I wanna see stuff break.
I wanna see stuff
get slashed up.
I wanna see heads roll.
I wanna see
all kinds of fun stuff
and things, man.
♪ ♪
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
♪ ♪
[both laugh]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
all right, brandon, let's talk
about your weapon here.
It's a heavy beast.
The added weight
delivers a very deep cut
into the ballistics dummy,
but even wielding it,
I have to actually take pause
to be able to swing again.
[grunts]
♪ ♪
but overall, sir,
your weapon will keal.
- Thank you, sir.
[tense music]
- all right, gentlemen,
it's time
for the strength test.
To test the strength
and overall construction
of your blade, I'll be swinging
into our muskets here.
Now, you might think
this is an insane test,
and it is an insane test,
but if you notice,
that bottom barrel there
has four nicks in it.
That's from my saber,
the saber that was displayed.
I'm not gonna ask your weapons
to go through anything
I don't put
my own weapons through,
and I expect you guys to pass.
All right, mike, you're up.
You ready?
- [exhales] ooh, let's...
- oh, come on!
It's just gun barrels.
[laughter]
[dramatic music]
- the strength test
looks brutal.
This is just stuff you don't
normally test blades on.
It could ultimately shatter
in one swing.
[exhales sharply] let's see.
♪ ♪
it could ultimately
shatter in one swing.
[exhales sharply] let's see.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[exhales sharply]
- all right, mike,
your weapon is light enough
that it is very easy to control.
Your blade came through it well.
It took some chips,
but all in all,
your weapon is still
in one piece.
It's still solid,
held up beautifully.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
- Brandon, you ready?
- Oh, let's do stuff
and things, man.
- [chuckles]
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
[clinking]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
all right, brandon,
your blade has not lost
any of its edge,
and it certainly held up.
So that's great,
but the biggest issue
is that that's just snapped
clean off.
- Yeah.
- How was your handle
constructed?
- Once I fit the blade guard on,
I stacked leather coins up
inside the copper sheath,
put them on epoxy,
and then kind of hammered
on the disk on the back.
- So basically,
this eagle head pommel
is your only
mechanical connection.
- Yes.
- Okay.
- Okay.
[tense music]
brandon, you brought us
an absolutely beautiful blade.
It's very clear
you put a lot of heart
and a lot of thought into it,
but being that your pommel
is the only thing holding
the blade together,
we consider that
a catastrophic failure
and cannot move forward
in the testing.
With that reason,
I'm gonna have to ask you
to leave the forge.
Thanks for what you did
for our country.
- Thank you, brother.
Been a pleasure, gentlemen.
Overall, it was
an amazing experience
building this weapon.
I'm happy
about how my blade turned out.
I mean, the pommel broke off,
but it didn't take
no blade damage.
It's still got a couple more
battles left in her.
♪ ♪
- all right, mike,
congratulations.
You are
the "forged in fire" champion,
and you'll be heading out
of here a little bit richer
with a $10,000 check
in your pocket.
So well done. - Good job, man.
- I am to the moon.
I didn't think I would
make it to the final round,
let alone come out on top.
I'm the newest
"forged in fire" champion,
and at home, I'm the muffin man.
So, I guess,
everybody out there,
you're... you're looking
at a tough muff.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- my name is chris coe,
I'm 40 years old,
and I've been bladesmithing
for several years now.
I have a huge appreciation
for the military
and the veterans.
My father is a vietnam vet.
He served
in the united states army.
He was in the infantry
and on huey helicopters.
This is a knife I made
for my father
out of recycled
huey helicopter parts.
I actually had to smuggle it
out of his office
to bring it here.
- My name's brandon rader
I'm 35 years old.
I'm a disabled veteran.
I was in the 173rd, 1st of 508.
When I started bladesmithing,
I realized there was
more therapeutic things
behind it,
and it just kept going
from there.
I'm excited. No, it's gonna be
a fun ride to party town.
- My name's trish arno,
and I'm 41 years old.
I joined the army after 9/11
because so many families
lost their loved ones,
and I wanted to be able
to do something
to give back to those families.
During basic training,
I sustained
multiple stress fractures
throughout both legs.
They sent me home on an
honorable medical discharge.
I took up forging so I could
kind of keep my body loose.
It gave me a new purpose
and brought
a lot of life to me.
- My name is mike rizzo.
I'm 31 years old, and I'm
a commercial building manager.
I served in the army
for four years
and did a tour in iraq.
The name of my forge
is muffin man metalworks.
The nickname came when I painted
the room in my house
"warm muffin."
so now I'm known
as the muffin man.
[laughs]
[suspenseful music]
- bladesmiths,
welcome to the forge.
You're about to take part
in three rounds
of intense forging competition.
At the end of each round,
I want you to present your work
to my panel of expert judges.
The judges today are gonna be
two-time "forged in fire"
champion ben abbott.
Next, we've got historic
weapons re-creation specialist
dave baker.
And finally,
edged weapon specialist
and kali martial artist
doug marcaida.
Remember, there's $10,000
and the title
of "forged in fire" champion
on the line, so I wanna see
your absolute best work.
Today in the forge, we're
feeling a little patriotic.
So we're gonna
salute our veterans
by giving you a competition
unlike anything
we've seen before.
Today, we're not gonna ask you
to build one blade.
We're gonna ask you to build
four different knives.
Next to me, you see four crates.
In each crate, there's a knife
from the case american heroes
knife series.
Each one is codesigned
by a distinguished veteran
from the u.S. Military.
Your challenge today
is to come up,
select a crate at random,
and build the knife inside.
But inside each crate,
you'll also find
a specific technique
we want you to use
to build that knife.
Chris, come on up,
select your blade.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
you've selected the lamb hunter,
codesigned by u.S. Army
special missions unit
sergeant major kyle lamb.
This knife features
deep finger grooves
in the ricasso
and a very effective
spear-point tip.
The design of this knife
is well-suited
for someone like kyle lamb,
who's a professional
outdoorsman.
You see there you need
to build your knife
using a san mai method.
- [bleep]. [laughs]
san mai to me has always
been the dark art.
It's not my strong suit.
- All right, brandon,
you're up next.
Come on up and select a crate.
- Outstanding.
♪ ♪
- you selected the hambone.
This knife was codesigned
by medal of honor recipient
u.S. Army staff sergeant
clint romesha.
This knife features
an exposed tang at the pommel,
wide bevels, and an upswept
cutting edge.
This knife was born from
clint's love for the hunt,
and it was made specifically
for skinning game.
You'll also notice
on the spine of this weapon,
there are eight stars.
Each one was placed there
to memorialize
the team members clint lost
during operation
enduring freedom.
And you'll see there you also
have to build this knife
using a twisted damascus
pattern.
All right, trish, come on up
and select your crate.
♪ ♪
all right,
you've chosen the skinner.
This knife was codesigned
by u.S. Army
and u.S. Navy special operator
kevin holland.
This lightweight knife design
features a flat grind
and a distal taper.
This here is a versatile knife.
It was built
for any camping situation
or even as a reliable
hunting knife.
And just to make it
a little harder,
you're gonna need to use
a canister damascus technique
to build this knife. - Oh, yeah.
Oh, god, kill me now. [laughs]
skinner knife... no problem.
Can is the problem.
Gotta get past that
before I can make a skinner.
- Last but not least, mike.
Come on up, man,
select your crate.
- What a selection.
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
you've selected
the recurve utility no. 6,
codesigned by u.S. Navy
special operator harry bologna.
This knife features
a thick spine for striking,
an exposed tang at the pommel,
and an s curve cutting edge
made to maximize
cutting ability.
You've gotta build that knife
using a raindrop pattern
damascus.
- [clicks tongue]
- make sure you follow
these parameters.
Your knife needs to be between
7 and 9 inches
from tip to plunge grind,
and in round two
of this competition,
you're gonna be adding handles
to your knives, making them
fully functioning weapons.
We're gonna be checking
your strength and durability
doing an e-tool
and canteen chop.
And to test your edge retention,
we'll be doing
a gunpowder bag swipe.
You'll only have three hours
to complete these tasks,
so good luck; do your best.
Your time starts now.
[exciting music]
- ha-ha!
- And the adventure continues!
We've got veterans out there
on the floor.
Doug's a veteran,
and you're a veteran too
from the army, correct?
- Yes, sir.
I spent some time
in the special forces
during iraq.
But it's good to see we've got
some people in the forge today
that support our brave warriors
and come here to do their best.
- 90% of metalwork
is preparatory,
so I'm cleaning every side
on the grinder.
- That prep at the beginning
will save you so much time
once those welds start to form.
- That's kind of funny;
my father, back in vietnam,
he had a sergeant major
who always talked about
the seven ps:
Proper prior planning
prevents piss-poor performance.
- I'm gonna use every single
piece of steel
given in front of me.
- Holy cow.
- [laughs]
- you guys seeing the size
of mike's stack over here?
- I'm starting off
with more layers than I need,
but I'd rather have it
and not need it
than need it and not have it.
That's a saying, right?
[laughs]
[rock music]
- I'm excited about this knife.
It looks like a camp knife
designed by rambo.
- That canister is large.
That's gonna be
a lot of steel to work with.
You can cut a lot
of that material off
and save it as backup.
- I know I'm gonna have
to peel it off
instead of shaving it off
so that I can make sure
I have a hardenable edge.
- So it looks like
trish put white out
in her canister,
but she's letting it sit.
- Yeah, very important.
We see a lot of the smiths
rush the process,
and they wind up putting
white out on everything
they put in the can.
- Do not stab me. Ouch.
- San mai's the process
of having a hardened billet
with a soft outer jacket
on the blade,
and I don't have a lot
of experience with it.
So it's gonna be
uphill battle from the get-go.
- Ben, there's two ways
to make san mai, right?
- Yeah, the taco method,
where you take
a piece of mild steel
and you wrap it
around the high carbon steel.
Another way is, you just start
with three separate
pieces of steel.
That way, you see on the spine
and on the blade
that inner core.
- I'm drawing out
the mild steel first
because I'm thinking
it would be the quickest thing
to work with.
[groans]
[dramatic music]
the mild steel did not go
as planned.
I know I'm gonna have
to start over
while there's still time
on the clock.
Yeah, I got a big problem
with that.
We ain't coming back from it.
One of those days. [laughs]
- almost ready to start
moving metal.
Before I start
making this knife,
I gotta get my steel together.
I need to start
alternating layers
so that way
the pattern will show up
with the different kinds
of metal.
- Brandon is worrying me.
That billet is not hot enough.
- Oh! Did you see that?
- Yeah.
- Come on with it.
No plan survives first contact.
I knew I had to break off,
regroup,
adapt, improvise, overcome,
and move on
to the next objective.
- Brandon lost some
of his metal,
and it is a very skinny billet
that he has right now.
- He probably should have
started over.
- There's still one
fully forged, welded
on the end of the stick.
I'm not gonna have
as much steel as I wanted,
but I'll work with it.
- Two hours remaining!
- My welds appear to be solid,
and I'm going to make
another two passes
just to make sure
they're super solid.
- The guy in the lead
right now is mike.
Now it's just a matter
of putting
the raindrop pattern in there.
- To get a good pattern,
you need a lot of layers.
- Even after 19 layers,
I now have 19 different points
where something could fail.
So I'd rather not risk
cutting and restacking it
and starting that
whole process all over again.
It's all about
making it look good, right?
[laughs]
- now I know how david felt
against goliath. - [laughs]
[rock music]
- looks like trish
is in the press right now,
using the squaring dies.
- Yeah, and I don't think
that billet was hot enough
either.
♪ ♪
- ah, [bleep]!
- Oh, no.
- I'm seeing these sparks,
and I know
that that means
that the powdered steel
is still in powdered form.
It's not compressed,
so now I'm letting
oxygen into the canister
and just creating
all kinds of inclusions
and delaminations
throughout that billet.
I don't know
if that's salvageable.
Think I'm gonna need a new can.
- Even though that billet
was leaking,
it didn't leak that badly.
She could have gone over,
welded that hole closed,
and continued to work on it.
She didn't need to build
a new one.
- Hail mary time.
[heavy metal music]
- I have a good set
of forge-welded damascus.
Now it's time to set
the pattern.
I fired,
so hopefully I got enough
to twist it
and then draw it back out.
- When you do that twist,
you lose a lot of material,
and if you're just close to
what you need with the twist,
you're not gonna have enough
by the time you grind it.
- I'm gonna try
to twist this steel
as much as I can
without getting any kind
of delaminations on it
and still have enough twist
in there to pull
a pretty pattern.
The whole machine just starts
pushing and rocking on me.
I gotta bury my knee into it.
It doesn't have
as many twists as I want,
but I think I have
enough steel at this point
to get the dimensions and widths
and still pull the pattern out.
We're getting there, brother.
We're getting there, now.
[exciting music]
- after the attempt
with the mild steel failed,
I realized that I should have
just started
with the high carbon billet
and worked from there.
- Chris is still just
drawing out
the three components
of his san mai.
I don't think he's ever forged
welded them together yet.
- The clock is not my friend.
I have to get moving.
- Come on, little can.
After the first can was so big,
I'm thinking
maybe two smaller ones
will fare better for me.
- Do you think there's any
coming back from this?
- Well, there's the legend
of neil kamimura.
He did a knife from a raw can
to something on the table
in 32 minutes.
- She's got quite a bit
more than that at this point.
- [groans]
I am screwed!
- That billet is not hot enough.
[dramatic music]
- the heat in here is no joke.
I did basic training
in south carolina,
in the dead of summer,
but this is like
standing in the desert
next to a lava flow.
- One hour remaining!
♪ ♪
- you okay?
- I'm hot and dizzy.
- You're dizzy?
- I can't breathe.
I can't catch my breath.
I know I have
to get out of here.
- It looks like trish
just got escorted
off the floor by the medic.
- Yeah, I think
she's reached her limit.
♪ ♪
off the floor by the medic.
- The physical aspect
of these competitions
can be brutal.
- In my head, I wanna go,
but body's just like,
"you're done."
- so what do you wanna do?
'cause it's ultimately
up to you.
- I wanna give it
one last hoorah.
- Okay.
- I didn't come here
to friggin' quit.
I'm not gonna stop.
I'm gonna keep going.
- Hey, look who's back!
- Welcome back!
- Welcome!
- Great.
- I ain't dead yet!
- Let's go!
- It doesn't matter
how much time's on that clock.
I am going to take what's left
of the first billet,
and I'm gonna just
try to put out there
whatever I can.
- If she's got
2/3 of that billet
welded together, she's got
more than enough metal
to make that knife.
[rock music]
- now it's time
to do my raindrop pattern.
- To do raindrops,
you just drill
some shallow impressions
in your billet
and then forge it out.
You've got a raindrop pattern.
- [laughs]
the drill bit's glowing.
- Right?
- It's a struggle to just get
any sort of drill bit
to drill into the billet.
- Hey, mike, how many bits
is that so far?
- [laughs]
it's chewing right through 'em.
- Mike is drilling
on very hot steel
and ruining the temper
of his drill bit.
- I'm really not a fan
of raindrop damascus
at this point.
I'm no weatherman, but I think
that's some raindrops.
- Whoa!
- Okay, now, finally,
with less
than an hour remaining,
chris is tack welding
his three layers
for his san mai billet.
- I have to get this thing
forge welded.
Not going very good.
I have a really bad offset
on the tip,
where one side's thicker
than the other.
I should have welded up
further to the tip
and then blended that in
that way,
but I'm just trying to work
with what I got.
[dramatic music]
- brandon quenched.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
attention to details...
Forgot the stars, brother.
The stars on the spine
of this blade represent
the eight members
of clint romesha's team
that did not make it back.
So I cannot forget
to put these stars
on the back of this knife.
I have to put it back
in the forge
so I can work with the metal
and chisel it in.
- Instead of putting
those stars in now,
he doesn't need to do that
until the next round.
- Well, if he wants
to do it on the soft steel,
he has to do it
before he quenches.
- All right.
I'm gonna have to re-quench it,
and it's a risky choice
because it's already been
heat-treated and hardened.
And I can get delamination,
fractures...
All kinds of stuff can go wrong.
Ooh! She hard, man.
- 20 minutes remaining
on the clock!
- I'm running out of time.
I gotta get something
going here.
- It seems like
what trish is gonna do now
is attempt
to peel that can away.
- There we go! Finally!
I don't care what it is.
I'm turning in something.
I'd rather get a lump of coal
for christmas
than nothing at all. [laughs]
- trish is working to the end.
I like that.
- It kind of gets
my heart going a little bit.
It brings you back
to my time in training,
when the first thing
that came to my mind is "quit."
it's the easiest thing to do.
The hardest thing to do
is to stick it out.
♪ ♪
five minutes remaining!
- And three of our blades
have not been quenched.
- I'm getting ready
to quench to blade.
It could warp. I could delam.
It could twist. It could crack.
I don't have enough time
on the clock
for any of that.
- And we got a quench.
Chris quenched.
- The clock is ticking away,
and I gotta get this thing
in the oil.
- Just quench it.
- There's a quench.
- Thank you!
- I'm just hoping
I got a straight blade.
- Trish could run with
a hail mary quench right now.
- She's not giving up.
- No, she's not. She's tough.
- Five, four, three,
two, one!
Bladesmiths,
put down your weapons!
Turn off your machines!
This round of competition
is over!
[tense music]
- time's up and I'm looking at
the first incomplete knife
I've ever made.
So I know I'm as cooked
as that piece of steel
on that anvil, but I didn't
go down without a fight.
♪ ♪
- bladesmiths, in round one,
you had three hours
to work on
your case american hero knives.
It was an absolute tough one,
so thank you
for giving your best work.
Unfortunately, trish,
in that time,
you weren't able
to finish your knife,
but I wanna say thank you
because although it was
extremely difficult,
you ran up against the wall
countless times,
you didn't give up.
So I'm gonna ask you
to surrender your steel
and leave the forge floor.
- Yes, sir.
Thank you, guys.
I'm proud of myself
for sticking in there.
You know, obviously,
I wish I could have
produced something
more knife-looking.
I'm sorry I couldn't
give you something better.
- [laughs]
- you never quit, girl.
That's... that's what it's about.
- Good luck, guys.
I didn't give up
because I don't quit.
I'm stubborn. [laughs]
that's why I joined the army.
♪ ♪
- all right, gentlemen,
you're still here.
Congratulations.
But we're not out
of the woods yet. At this point,
I'm gonna have the judges
check your blades
and make sure
you're within parameters.
Mike, you had
the recurve utility no. 6,
codesigned by harry bologna.
Please present your weapon.
[dramatic music]
- hi, mike.
You did a great job on this
so far.
Some of the little issues:
The handle, in general,
is really massive.
It's got another inch and a half
to what it needs to have.
But all your welds are tight.
Well done. - Thank you.
- Brandon, you had the hambone,
codesigned by clint romesha.
Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- all right, brandon.
When you lost half your stack,
you got us worried over here
'cause it looked like
a very lean billet that you had,
but you made it through.
I can see the twist pattern
right there.
Good job on that.
And I really appreciate
that you got
the eight stars in there
to really commemorate
and give homage to what romesha
was really trying to do
with the hambone knife.
Good job.
- All right, chris,
you're up next.
You had the lamb hunter
in the san mai method.
Please present your work.
♪ ♪
- right off the bat, you do
have a san mai happening here,
but that hard core
has a crack in it
that goes right across
the blade edge.
That has to be dealt with.
If we move into testing,
we've almost got
a blade that's guaranteed
to fail.
From now on, it's just refining
what you've got going here
and fixing this issue.
- Guys, congratulations.
You made it past round one.
We're moving into round two.
At this point,
we're gonna ask you
to put scales on your blades,
making them
fully-functioning weapons,
using only the synthetic
materials in the pantry.
Any of the unique features
you have
in your case american heroes
knives,
we wanna see those
at the end of this round.
We'll be testing the durability
and strength of your weapons
in the e-tool and canteen chop,
and checking your edge retention
in the gunpowder bag slice.
You only have two hours
to complete your work.
So good luck.
Your time starts now.
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
based on what you guys said
in the critique,
it sounds like chris
has absolutely the most to do
in this round.
- He's got a crack that runs
right across
the edge of the blade.
He needs to fill that with weld
and then do an edge quench,
or chris is going to lose
the temper on either side
of that weld.
- My blade might not
be in the best shape,
but I'm confident
I can turn this around.
- I think it's safe to say
chris is gonna be
re-quenching his blade.
What do you think
could go wrong?
- It's gonna be too soft.
It's not gonna hold up
to the test,
so we're gonna see some rolling.
- A three-hour round one
was a time crunch.
Two hours is just
a whole nother ball game,
and I'm really feeling
the stress.
- Mike has a handle
that's so wicked long,
so it's out of proportion.
[tense music]
- now that I've got
my tang shortened,
I immediately start
slotting some little channels
above my tang for a thumb grip.
Am I 100% happy
with my blade shape?
Of course not.
Time is not on our side here,
so I gotta move on
to create this handle.
- I'm feeling good.
I got the holes drilled
in my handle.
Coming up behind you, brother.
I move back over
to my work station...
[rock music]
what in the world did I do?
And that's when I realized
I missed one of the holes,
and it does not match up.
You gotta be [bleep] with me,
man.
If I don't fix this issue,
scale's gonna break off.
It's gonna fail.
- Is brandon cutting out
new handle scales?
- Sometimes the best thing to do
is not try to fix the problem,
but just start over.
- It's time to choose
my handle material,
and I see this honeycomb
pattern.
That's the handle I want on it.
It's indexable.
They're all symmetric shapes.
If I can align one side up
and drill through
to the other side,
I have a mirror image
of the other side.
It basically aligned itself.
- Looks like we got
chris gluing up
his handle scales now.
- I'm shocked that I made up
this much time
making the handles.
- Gentlemen,
you got one hour remaining!
- I have all the holes
drilled on one scale.
Now I'm trying to do
a mock fit up
of the other scale.
[bleep]!
And we're off by just
fractions of an inch.
Struggling to get this thing
to line up together.
The longer I spend messing
around with these pins,
the less time I have
to finish my blade.
[bleep]!
To line up together
to get a handle glued up.
[dramatic music]
[drill whirring]
I'm just oblong-ing the holes
to make it work.
If one of those pins
doesn't line up,
I'm just gonna fill it with
goop and hope it works.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
- the edge that I'm going for
on my blade is more curved in,
like a meat cleaver style.
I think it'll help me some
during the chopping test.
The last thing I want is to
remove way too much metal
and have a weak spot.
I've come way too far
in this competition
to mess up
on these final few steps.
- All right, gentlemen,
you got 30 minutes remaining.
[exciting rock music]
- I got my crack fixed,
I got my handle on,
and now I'm moving
on to the final touches.
I have to make those grooves
in the finger wells
of the hunter.
I use a triangular file
to actually cut the grooves.
- I'm quite impressed with
the work that chris has done.
Round one, we thought
he wouldn't even finish.
You stay in the fight
all the way till the end.
[upbeat music]
- I don't normally forge
a lot of recurves.
They tend to be
very difficult to sharpen.
They can get a bit awkward
on a grinder.
- It is possible for mike
to go too far in sharpening,
make a really, really fine edge,
and get all sorts of problems
in the strength test.
[rock music]
- I cannot have any hot spots
in this handle
because if it's not comfortable,
it's gonna just cause
more stress to your body
that you do not need.
- Brandon's knocking down
those handle edges.
Now if you go to one
of the finishing belts
and then run it at a slow speed,
it actually does that
beautifully and evenly.
- So that's the perfect machine
for what he's doing right now.
- Sure.
- And he's using a dremel
and an angle grinder.
- Yep.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- razor sharp.
- Five, four, three,
two, one!
Turn off your machines!
Put down your tools!
This round is over!
- I'm extremely excited
for testing
'cause it wasn't easy on me,
and I don't want the judges
to be easy on that.
I want it to come full circle.
- Bladesmiths,
welcome to the strength test.
To test the strength
and durability
of your edges as well
as the overall construction
of your knives,
I'll be chopping them
into this canteen and e-tool.
Mike, you're up first.
You ready for this?
- Send it.
[dramatic music]
this is definitely
the most brutal thing
we're gonna be doing,
so I'm super anxious
about what's gonna happen
to my blade.
♪ ♪
[exhales sharply]
[uneasy music]
- all right, mike.
I like this knife.
It's a good reproduction
of the recurve utility no. 6.
Your handle... that's
a perfectly-sized handle.
Nicely done,
but that being said,
it did take a chip,
definitely from the canteen.
So didn't come out unscathed,
but it came through this test
really well.
So nice job. - Thank you.
- All right, brandon,
you're up next.
You ready?
- Range is hot, brother.
- All right.
- Going into this test,
I'm really nervous
about the chop.
I do not want my spine
to break on this knife.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- all right, brandon.
Well, your finger well spacing
is spread out.
You know, I can't hold this
with a fist.
I have to hold it at an angle
in order to get my fingers
in all the wells.
So that's an issue,
but the knife is in one piece.
Well done. - Thank you, sir.
- All right, chris, you're up.
You ready?
- Have at it.
- All right.
[tense music]
- the canteen, I don't have
too much concern over.
It's the e-tool
that I'm worried about
'cause of all the repairs
that had to go on to the blade.
I'm concerned
about having two knives
at the end of the strength test:
A handle and a blade.
♪ ♪
that had to go on to the blade,
I'm concerned
about having two knives
at the end of the strength test.
[suspenseful music]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- well, chris, I have a feeling
that the mig welding
you did close to the edge
without re-quenching has led
to a softening of the blade,
'cause there is a deflection
right here at edge,
where I struck the metal.
But the rest of the blade
held up,
came out the other side
in one piece.
So nice job. - Thank you.
[suspenseful music]
- all right, bladesmiths,
this is the sharpness test:
The gunpowder bag slice.
To find out how sharp
your weapons are,
I will take your weapon
and try to cut cleanly
on this canvas bag
filled with powder.
Mike, you're up first.
You ready for this?
- Let's do it.
- Let's do this.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
all right, mike,
let's talk about
your recurve utility knife no.6.
Your edge took some damage
in the beginning,
but it was not a factor at all
in slicing the bags.
Overall, sir, it'll cut.
- Thank you.
- All right, brandon,
it's your turn, so you ready?
- Sweep and clear, sir.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- all right, brandon,
let's talk about
your hambone knife here.
On this particular test,
it cut deep
and it cut cleanly.
Overall, sir, it'll cut.
- Thank you, sir.
- Chris, you're up. You ready?
- Swing it.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- all right, chris,
let's talk about
your lamb hunter knife here.
I love the handle
because all that stippling
you did there really gives
a very nice grip to your blade.
Now the edge itself:
The grind that you have in here
is very wide and obtuse,
almost like an ax-head.
It cuts but not deeply
because, as you can see,
I can run my finger this way.
It's not as sharp
as you would have
with a different grind.
But overall, sir, it did cut.
- Thank you.
[uneasy music]
- bladesmiths, we have finished
our american hero knives,
and we've gone through
two rounds of grueling testing.
The judges have made
a decision, and only two of you
will be moving forward
into round three.
And the bladesmith leaving
the forge is...
♪ ♪
chris.
You're not gonna be
going forward.
Doug will tell you why.
- Chris, at the end of the day,
the bags speak for themselves.
The sharpness test, your blade
was just outperformed
by the other two knives.
- I understand.
- Chris, you fought very hard,
but unfortunately,
I'm gonna have to ask you
to leave the forge floor.
- Gentlemen, it's been an honor.
- You too, brother.
- I completely agree
with the judges' decision
on my blade.
It did a lot better than
I thought it was gonna do,
but it just didn't cut it
in the end.
One thing I'm gonna take away
from this experience is,
no matter how hard
you think it's gonna be,
you just have to keep going.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- mike, brandon,
congratulations, guys.
You made it this far.
In round three,
we're sending you home
for four days
to re-create a weapon
from american military history,
and that weapon is...
The american eagle head saber.
- [laughs]
- [exhales, laughs]
- the american eagle head saber
was carried by some
of the earliest soldiers
in american military.
Wildly used during
the war of 1812,
featuring a long,
slightly curved blade,
the weapon was known
to inflict deep, lethal cuts.
The iconic sword stands out
because of the bald eagle
prominently carved
in the pommel.
The eagle became
the national bird in 1782
and is sacred among
native american tribes.
Before there were
any mass-produced
military-issue weapons,
these sabers were made
by civilians
and prized by u.S. Officers.
There were many variations
and styles built,
which makes them
highly collectible today.
Gentlemen, pay close attention
because you must stay
within the following parameters:
Your blade needs to be
between 28 and 30 inches,
and you need to include
an eagle head pommel.
- I'm immediately terrified.
I've made one sword before,
and it took much longer
than four days to make.
- Bladesmiths, good luck.
We'll see you in four days.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
- day one... I'm glad
to finally be back home
at my home forge,
back in my element.
I felt a little caged up
down there,
but they set the dog loose, man.
It's time to get
some fun stuff going.
Got some heavier truck spring.
It's good steel,
so I wanna get it
to where I'm not gonna
put any stress fractures
or anything like that in.
Kind of lay it on here,
arched up,
start trying to draw it down
that way.
♪ ♪
by george, I think it works,
man.
[upbeat rock music]
- it's day one.
I'm back at my home shop,
aka the bakery.
It's called a bakery
because I'm the muffin man.
I'm the master baker here.
I'm choosing to use
a piece of 5160 spring steel
that's out of
an american-made pickup truck.
I'm really focusing
on keeping american hardware
in this piece and making it
just star-spangled awesome.
First thing I gotta do with
this piece of leaf spring is,
I'm gonna start drawing
this material down and out.
This particular saber
seems to have
a very gentle curve
throughout the entire length.
So I start in the middle,
and then I slowly work
the front and the backside
of the blade.
It's quite the dance.
I like it.
I like it a lot.
[exciting music]
- starting off day two,
trying to get the blade
pretty much finished today
so I can start working
on my handle.
I got pretty much all my grind
on the blade done,
think it's about time for me
to get ready for quench.
♪ ♪
you'll sing
"twinkle, twinkle," man.
For the design of this sword,
I wanna integrate
some stuff on to the blade,
so I'm gonna go ahead
and do some etching on it,
and anything
where you scratch, that's where
the ferric chloride's
gonna etch.
I think I'm gonna put
some stars on it,
put some lightning bolts
to symbolize the storm
that every soldier goes through
in his life.
The dates I picked was 1941...
The day that pearl harbor
got hit.
The other day I picked
was 1775...
Kind of kicked off
the revolutionary war.
I'm stoked
at how my sword came out.
[rock music]
- it's the start
of day two today.
I'm hoping to have
a heat-treated blade
by the end of the day today.
Got the forge heating up,
got my oil set up.
And now I'm getting
super nervous
'cause it's almost time
to quench.
[exhales deeply]
my heart is racing.
The pressure's building.
All right. Here we go.
♪ ♪
I'm just hoping that this blade
has stayed straight.
A kick here or there,
but nothing
a grinder can't handle.
It's such a relief to have
this quench out of the way,
and now I wanna focus
on the details of this handle.
♪ ♪
- day four,
last day of the build.
I'm making an eagle head saber,
which was used all the way up
to the civil war-era times.
Figured I'd go with
a civil war-era outfit,
feel it'll give me
the spirit I need
to go ahead
and finish this sword up.
First order of business
I'm gonna go for...
Go ahead, put this pommel on.
♪ ♪
[bleep]!
Now that it's broke,
I gotta come up
with another plan.
I'm gonna thread up
the base of this tang
and try to put another one on.
I should note that I've never
really done this before.
That ain't gonna work.
Ended up stripping it out.
There is no way
this thing's gonna
lock down tight on its own.
I've gotta come up
with something else now.
This is killing me, man.
I'm not sure
if I got enough time
to get this unit done.
I'm just gonna go ahead
and weld it.
[upbeat rock music]
she's solid.
Look, the weld's not pretty,
but it does its job.
While my wife's inside,
I'm gonna go ahead
and cut up
one of her tiki torches.
But don't tell nobody 'cause
you'll get in trouble too.
♪ ♪
[upbeat music]
- it's the start of day four.
I'm definitely feeling
the pressure of the final day.
I chose to do
the eagle's head pommel
out of scrap steel.
The bald eagle
is a very important piece
of this blade to me.
I'm a very patriotic person,
so I'm really just dialed into
getting this looking right.
[sighs] okay.
I'm going for
a black op-themed sword,
so I'm darkening the blade
and all my hardware.
I'm pretty happy with the look
of the flat black.
The eagle kind of looks
like a crow now,
but I'm super happy
that I was able
to make a sword in four days.
Whew!
[tense music]
- veterans,
welcome back to the forge.
You guys have had four days
back at your home forges
to work on your renditions
of the eagle head saber.
Now before we get into it,
I wanna say as a veteran,
thank you guys both
for your service.
But we're here for your saber,
so, mike,
tell us about your blade.
[dramatic music]
- it's acid-washed, 5160,
out of an american pickup truck.
The stirrup guard
is all mild steel,
and it's african blackwood
for the handle.
Sort of went
for a black ops theme.
- Well, thank you very much.
You put a ton of work into that.
Brandon, tell me
about your work.
♪ ♪
- I went ahead and made my saber
out of 5160 steel.
For the handle,
I integrated purpleheart wood
to symbolize
the purple heart award.
On the blade, I etched
13 stars down the blade
to symbolize the 13 stars
on the medal of honor award.
- There is a lot of detail
in there, man.
So the only way to figure out
which one of these sabers
is gonna end up on top is
to put 'em through three tests.
We're gonna put you through
a strength test,
a sharpness test,
and up first, the infamous
doug marcaida keal test.
[ominous music]
- all right, bladesmiths,
welcome to the keal test.
♪ ♪
let's find out what kind
of lethal damage
your sabers will do.
I will take your weapon
and deliver some
lethal blows and slashes
on this ballistics dummy.
All right, mike, your turn,
so you ready?
- Let's do it.
[dramatic music]
the ballistics dummy
is just a brutal test.
A simple shock
could break it apart.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
phew.
♪ ♪
- all right, mike, let's talk
about your saber here.
Your edge is razor sharp,
and because
it's a lighter sword,
I can really maneuver
the blade to deeper cuts.
Overall, sir,
your saber will keal.
- Thank you.
- All right, brandon,
it's your turn, so you ready?
- Oh, let's see
what he's made of.
[tense music]
I was so excited to see
jelly bob sitting up there.
I wanna see stuff break.
I wanna see stuff
get slashed up.
I wanna see heads roll.
I wanna see
all kinds of fun stuff
and things, man.
♪ ♪
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
♪ ♪
[both laugh]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
all right, brandon, let's talk
about your weapon here.
It's a heavy beast.
The added weight
delivers a very deep cut
into the ballistics dummy,
but even wielding it,
I have to actually take pause
to be able to swing again.
[grunts]
♪ ♪
but overall, sir,
your weapon will keal.
- Thank you, sir.
[tense music]
- all right, gentlemen,
it's time
for the strength test.
To test the strength
and overall construction
of your blade, I'll be swinging
into our muskets here.
Now, you might think
this is an insane test,
and it is an insane test,
but if you notice,
that bottom barrel there
has four nicks in it.
That's from my saber,
the saber that was displayed.
I'm not gonna ask your weapons
to go through anything
I don't put
my own weapons through,
and I expect you guys to pass.
All right, mike, you're up.
You ready?
- [exhales] ooh, let's...
- oh, come on!
It's just gun barrels.
[laughter]
[dramatic music]
- the strength test
looks brutal.
This is just stuff you don't
normally test blades on.
It could ultimately shatter
in one swing.
[exhales sharply] let's see.
♪ ♪
it could ultimately
shatter in one swing.
[exhales sharply] let's see.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[exhales sharply]
- all right, mike,
your weapon is light enough
that it is very easy to control.
Your blade came through it well.
It took some chips,
but all in all,
your weapon is still
in one piece.
It's still solid,
held up beautifully.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
- Brandon, you ready?
- Oh, let's do stuff
and things, man.
- [chuckles]
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
[clinking]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
all right, brandon,
your blade has not lost
any of its edge,
and it certainly held up.
So that's great,
but the biggest issue
is that that's just snapped
clean off.
- Yeah.
- How was your handle
constructed?
- Once I fit the blade guard on,
I stacked leather coins up
inside the copper sheath,
put them on epoxy,
and then kind of hammered
on the disk on the back.
- So basically,
this eagle head pommel
is your only
mechanical connection.
- Yes.
- Okay.
- Okay.
[tense music]
brandon, you brought us
an absolutely beautiful blade.
It's very clear
you put a lot of heart
and a lot of thought into it,
but being that your pommel
is the only thing holding
the blade together,
we consider that
a catastrophic failure
and cannot move forward
in the testing.
With that reason,
I'm gonna have to ask you
to leave the forge.
Thanks for what you did
for our country.
- Thank you, brother.
Been a pleasure, gentlemen.
Overall, it was
an amazing experience
building this weapon.
I'm happy
about how my blade turned out.
I mean, the pommel broke off,
but it didn't take
no blade damage.
It's still got a couple more
battles left in her.
♪ ♪
- all right, mike,
congratulations.
You are
the "forged in fire" champion,
and you'll be heading out
of here a little bit richer
with a $10,000 check
in your pocket.
So well done. - Good job, man.
- I am to the moon.
I didn't think I would
make it to the final round,
let alone come out on top.
I'm the newest
"forged in fire" champion,
and at home, I'm the muffin man.
So, I guess,
everybody out there,
you're... you're looking
at a tough muff.
[rock music]
♪ ♪