Forged in Fire (2015–…): Season 8, Episode 23 - Fire And Water - full transcript

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- my name is eric himker.

I'm 29 years old,
and I'm a design engineer.

I design seat structures
for cars,

and it's very important

because if the person
is not comfortable,

they're not gonna buy that car.

Same thing goes for a knife.

If that is not comfortable,

they're not gonna
wield that knife.



♪ ♪

- my name is dave armor, and
I am from auburn, illinois.

I got into bladesmithing
when I was 15.

I went to a theme park where
they had a gun and knife shop,

and a man was demonstrating
how to make a knife.

Being 15
and just being fascinated,

I followed him into his shop
and asked so many questions,

he literally took a book
on knifemaking

that was for sale,
threw it at me

and said get the hell
out of his shop.

- Hi, I'm martin sack.
I'm 52 years old.

I started training
in martial arts in 1975.

I'm a senior professor in the
art of american kempo karat,

and that's what kind of led me



to the bladesmithing
portion of it.

I want to recreate
ancient martial arts weaponry.

It just goes hand-in-hand.

♪ ♪

- my name is jimmy riley.

I'm 33, and I am
a full-time welding teacher

at my local high school.

I love my welding
instructor job.

The opportunity to teach
the next generation

and inspire them
into making things

is the greatest thing
that I've ever done.

♪ ♪

- bladesmiths,
welcome to the forge.

We've got three
very intense rounds

of bladesmithing competition
for you.

At the end of each round,
you're gonna present your work

to our panel of expert judges.

The men behind me are the ones
who will decide

which one of you
is gonna be leaving here

carrying the title
of "forged in fire" champion

and pockets full of $10,000.

Today, they are
abs master smith j. Neilson,

historic weapons re-creation
specialist dave baker,

and edged weapon
specialist doug marcaida.

Bladesmiths, throughout history,

there have been cultures that
have truly immersed themselves

in the artistry
that is bladesmithing.

Today, in the forge,
we are gonna be highlighting

the korean heritage.

Every aspect
of this competition,

we are gonna be
honoring their culture,

whether it's the tests,
the techniques,

or the weapons
we're having you build.

As you see next to me, we have
a yin-yang on the floor.

The yin-yang represents
the delicate balance

between two opposing forces.

When it comes to bladesmithing,

there are no two opposing forces

that hold more importance
than fire and water.

Behind each of you,
there is a water tank.

The koreans have mastered
the art of the water quench,

an extremely delicate process
that, when done properly,

ends with an extremely strong
and durable blade.

If you make a mistake,
you'll end up with cracks,

with fissures or a blade
that could just shatter.

In this competition, we have
gotten rid of the oil buckets.

We're gonna ask
for a water quench.

- Ah, crap.

It's very dangerous
to quench in water.

You can get a crack.
You can get a warp.

You can get a crack and a warp.

Many, many things can go wrong.

- You're probably wondering
what am I going

to be quenching in water.

We want you to build this.

♪ ♪

the hwando sword.

- The hwando is a single-edged
battle-worthy sword

of the korean military
during the joseon dynasty

between the 12th
and 19th centuries.

During the imjin war,
the sword was modified

and forged to sharper and longer

to battle the invading japanese.

The hwando's lightweight
and compact size

provided the korean warriors

with a fast and effective weapon

capable of delivering cuts
with precision

and ease of recovery.

Although the size and form
differed in diverse period,

the single-edged, slightly
curved blade is constant.

It is prominently used
in the recent netflix

hit series "kingdom."

- now, gentlemen,
here to tell you about it

is a bladesmith
who made this blade,

an extremely talented
korean-american bladesmith

who just so happens to also be
a "forged in fire" champion:

Boyd ritter.

- I really wanted
to build a hwando

because there's a lot
of versatility in this sword.

It is designed
as a secondary weapon

for close-quarter combat.

It's a very sleek weapon,
but the action is incredible.

It's been enriching to dig into

my own heritage a little bit,

learning all of this history
and realize

that you're a part of it.

It's just been really cool.

Whew!

- Guys, we want you
to recreate this blade

down to the finest of details.

In order for you to be set up
for round two,

we're going to be supplying you
with the habakis.

On your workstations, we have
supplied you with w1 steel,

which you must use
to make your hwando swords.

Moving into round two,

you're going to add handles
to your blades,

turning them into
fully functioning weapons,

at which point the judges
are going to be testing

for strength and durability
in a wax wood staff attack

and for edge or tension
in a rubber tube slice.

You have three hours on
the clock, so good luck.

Your time starts now.

♪ ♪

- this is going to be fun.

- So we asked these guys
to make boyd ritter's hwand.

- That's a gorgeous piece.
It must have been fun for boyd

doing something from
his own cultural history.

♪ ♪

- you could probably get
at least three of these hwandos

out of that chunk of steel,

so I'm going to start out
with half of it.

I have zero experience
with any sort of eastern asian

blades of any kind,
but as an engineer,

one of the strengths
that we have to do

is develop strategies
to overcome a problem.

- Is this a ceremonial blade,
or is this a fighting weapo?

- No, it's a fighting weapon

during the joseon period
of korea.

The koreans were
more militaristic,

where they saw the sword
as a tool.

♪ ♪

- jimmy has got his steel cut
in half and in the forge,

and he just cut a sliver off
what's left of the w1 he ha.

- I have never attempted
a water quench,

but I know that it's going
to introduce tons of crack.

I don't want any of that
to happen, so I test it.

- W stands for water.

It's a more forgiving metal
to be quenched in water,

but that's a very smart move
on jimmy's part.

If you haven't done this before,

do your trial-and-error
right now.

♪ ♪

- when I put it in the vice
and cinch it down,

it breaks under the pressure
of the vice.

- That snapped real easy.

- I know immediately

that the steel is very brittle
out of the quench.

I'm going to have
to thermocycle my blade

a couple times
before I quench it.

♪ ♪

- they gave us a really large
piece of steel,

but I'm not sure how much of it
I need for a piece,

so I'm going to just forge out
off of it as much as I need.

- After that first heat,
you're going to be able

to draw that cylinder out

the length of this blade
then cut it to shape.

- I've worked with w1.
It's forgiving,

but it's also got
a little bit of a trick.

You get it a little too cold
or a little too hot,

or you get a little
aggressive hitting it,

you're going to have
some problems.

♪ ♪

- my game plan
is to draw the steel out

almost to the full length
I need it to be

and then work
on the width parameters.

I have some experience
in korean martial arts,

but I've never made
a hwando sword before.

- This is a fairly
simple shape of a knife.

If you look at the spine,

it's virtually straight
until the end,

where it has a bit of
an upkick at the tip.

- It's in my wheelhouse.

I understand these blades.

I own several of them,

and I feel that I'll be able
to replicate that.

♪ ♪

- as an engineer,
it's very important

to leave myself enough room
to be able

to make the next step
even that much more precise.

- It looks like eric has
a piece of quarter-inch stel

as a stopper in the press.

- Well, that's a smart idea.

- The kiss block
on the die of the press

makes it really easy for me

to draw out the steel
to a quarter-inch thickness.

It's just going to save me
that much time down the road

instead of having
to forge it way thicker

and grind it all back,
or forge too thin

and not be able
to make the blade

as thick as I would like.

- Doug, you're always talking
about forging thick,

grinding thin.

Would this be a time when
they would want to forge it

to shape pretty thick,

so when they
go in the water quench,

it doesn't shock the inside
and then grind it down?

- Yes.
- Feeling good, looking good!

- Bladesmiths, you're down
to two hours remaining

in round one!

- I'm trying to only work
the first half of the cylinder.

That way, if I really screw
it up and I have to cut off,

I can just start pressing
that down

and lengthening the piece
that I've already got.

- Yeah, I'd be putting that
back in a fire,

especially on a water quench.

You don't want to work
the steel too cold,

because you could actually
pound stress fractures

into the steel that will
open up when it hits the water.

- The big challenge
with this round

is everything
has to be dialed in,

so I'm going to take my time,
double-check things

and hopefully get it right.

♪ ♪

- now that the billet is
a little bit more manageable,

I can start to work
on the development of the tang.

- A large part
of this challenge,

other than the water quench,
is the habaki.

- Yep.

- Adding the habaki does add
a level of difficulty

because you need to make sure
your shoulders are correct

so that everything slides up to
it and marries nice and tight.

Where's the time check, grady?

[laughter]

- bladesmiths, you guys have
90 minutes remaining!

♪ ♪

- I got to get one of those.

- Look how thin
jimmy's blade is.

- My billet's getting
pretty long,

and the thickness is a little
under

what I would like it to be,

so I go ahead and take off
a pretty good size

before I actually start
shaping the blade.

So they give us a habaki,

which I'm immediately
grateful for,

because that alone
is two or three hours of work,

but the catch-22 is that we
have to tailor-make this blae

around an existing piece.

- He's got a super-thin
profile blade.

- Yeah, is his blade going to
be too thin for that habaki,

which is going
to force him to make one?

♪ ♪

- all righty.

I feel like I've got it drawn
out to the size I need.

I'm going to start
hammering it to shape.

[sighs]

as I'm working the steel,
my arms are tired.

My hands are tired.

Time to cut it off
and start forming the point

and to make this actually
look like a sword.

♪ ♪

- jimmy's blade
is still super narrow.

- So the blade is
pretty close to the part

where I need
to start thermocycling

and start thinking
about the quench.

♪ ♪

both: Oh!

- Jimmy's blade got so hot,

when he's pulling it out,
it fell in two.

- You know how thin that blade
had to be for that to happe?

- Exactly.

- My heart falls
and hits the floor.

W1 is one of those steels
that if you do anything to it

at too high a temperature,
it will stress that metal.

- I'm about halfway through
the clock at this point,

and I'm distraught and confused

and I am definitely
feeling the heat.

There's just nothing left of it.

Ah!

And my sword melts in half.

Ah!
Starting over!

There is not an ounce
of quit in me.

All right, all right,
all right, all right.

Calm down, calm down.

Today's challenge is all
about balance, yin and yang.

You know, peace and storm,

so I know that I need
to center myself

and calm down a little bit.

Just a little bit of panic.
- You got it, dude.

- Just a little bit of panic.

♪ ♪

- eric's blade's
looking nice over there.

- I feel like time's flying by,

so at this point,
I start the thermocycles.

I know that doing the
thermocycling on this blade

is going to at least help

with relieving
some of that stress

before it goes in
for the quench.

How are you doing, dave?

- I'm going to try to get
this heat halfway even

so I can normalize it.

- All right, eric and dave both
doing rounds of thermocycling,

so if somebody goes
and quenches today

without doing the proper
thermocycling,

we're going to see cracks.

- Oh, probably, yeah.
I'd put money on it.

- Gentlemen, you have
one hour remaining!

♪ ♪

- so I start to do
my thermocycle on the blade,

and I notice that because
there's a little bit

more beef in the tip,
it starts to warp.

♪ ♪

it's warping like crazy.

I know I need to correct that.

I bring it over
to the post vice,

and I kind of use that
very gently

just to align everything.

I wanted to thermocycle
a few more times,

but I don't have
the time to do that.

I need to really focus
on fixing this warp.

Lord willing,
I make it to round wwo.

- Guys, if I've learned
one thing in this forge so far,

it's water quenches are bad.

- Water quenching
is actually a technique

that's been used forever.

You can get away with it.

Add salt,
and then you add the brine.

It makes it a little bit safer.

And dave took like 3 or 4 cups
of salt and put it in his tank.

- Adding salt to the water

slows down the quench speed
a little bit,

so I just throw
a whole bunch in there,

and hopefully,
I've got enough in it.

I realistically
only have one chance

to get this quench right.

It's not like oil where
I can go back and re-quench

if I don't get it hard enough.

It's do it now.
This is the blade I've got.

All right, guys.

Hold onto your butts.
Here it goes.

- Drumroll, everyone.
- Oh!

- Do it, do it, do it.
- Here we go.

♪ ♪

- straight!
- Nice!

- Now we just got to find out
if I really cracked it.

♪ ♪

- all right, well, jimmy drew
that steel down pretty quickl.

That's good.

- Yeah, about three times faster

than he did the first round.

- Not bad for 40 minutes.

- Jimmy's blade is so thin he's
bending it with the wire brush

as he's cleaning the scale off.

- Oh, my goodness.

Jimmy's doing the exact
same thing he did last time.

- Exactly the same.

- I'm ready for the quench.

I'm hoping that it works.

I just don't have enough time
to start a third billet.

- Go, go, go, there we are!
- There we go, number two!

- Jimmy's quenched.

- As it's starting
to cool down a little more,

the back end is starting
to warp a little bit,

so I clamp it up

and give it the slightest
amount of pressure.

- Ah!
- And he just snapped it!

It happened!
- Oh man!

Damn it!
- Get to the welder, man!

Get to the welder.

- I don't have enough time
to start over,

but I'm going to do everything
I can to make a blade.

I don't even wait
for it to cool off.

I'm a welding instructor.

I figure I might as well do
what I'm good at.

- Man, I feel for jimmy.

This is so brutal!

- I add a layer of clay
to the spine in hopes

that it will keep
the spine nice and soft

so when they're doing
any chopping challenges,

it'll be more
resistant to shock.

Fingers crossed,
the quench should go well.

♪ ♪

- eric's giving it
a good file check.

The moment of truth!

♪ ♪

- nice!

I am successful.

- So I know time is running out.

I'm going to edge quench it.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
- Holy smokes!

- That was a hot blade.

- This is where you worry
about hearing that tink!

[soft ping]
- oh!

- And there it happened.

My heart drops.

I notice that there's
a crack on the blade.

- It's not that surprising.

Martin quenched
at a very high temperatur.

- Do you think
if there's one crack,

there's going to be more?
- Usually.

- I ain't got it in me
to do anything else.

- I think martin's tapping out.

- I feel like it's an issue

that I know I can
potentially fix later.

I have something to turn
into the judges at this poin,

and I don't want to press
my luck any further.

- Well, he's got a quenched
and hardened blade,

so as long as
he's within parameters,

he's still in the running.

- Five, four, three, two, one!

Gentlemen, round one is over!

♪ ♪

- even though the blade
broke in half,

the welds came out all right,

so I'm thinking
I might have this.

I've seen people
come back from worse.

♪ ♪

- gentlemen, in the first three
hours of this competition,

we asked you to recreate
boyd ritters' hwando sword

and then do something
we've never

asked smiths to do before:
A water quench.

And you all have blades
to turn in,

so every one of you
has something to be proud of,

but this is a competition,

which means there have
to be eliminations.

Time has come
for our first critique,

and eric, you're up first.
Please present your work.

♪ ♪

- eric, right off the bat,
looking at this,

the steel looks really good.

You did all the prep work
that I like seeing

to get that grain
structure down tight,

so you have fewer problems
in the quench.

Right now, you don't have
clearly-defined shoulders

on the spine of this blade,

so if you move forward,
the biggest thing I see

is how you're going to set up
for the habaki,

the guard, handle, and all that,

but other than that,
well on your way.

Nicely done.
- Thank you.

- Dave, you're up next.
You ready?

- Yes, sir.
- Please present your work.

♪ ♪

- dave, you do have
a couple issues.

You do have a couple of cracks
right on the edge,

and they kind of come up
and curve back.

So if you move
onto the next round,

I'd address those,

so this thing
doesn't come flying apart,

but the rest of the blade
looks pretty solid,

and you left yourself
some good sacrificial material

to deal with,
so good job on that.

- Thank you.

- Martin, how you feeling?
- I'm feeling okay.

Thank you.
- Please present your work.

♪ ♪

- the profile you have here
isn't bad at all,

but your knife has
a little bit of a warp,

as you can see, sir.

But the really big thing
that I see with your weapon

right here is that you have
two visible cracks.

One goes right across the edge,

but this one down here
actually is open,

where I can see
right through that.

You definitely have
to take care of that.

♪ ♪

- jimmy, you ready?
- I am.

- Please present your work.

♪ ♪

- jimmy, you did something
that I really like to see,

which was testing the materil
and in testing the material,

you found out
it was pretty brittle.

So after coming out of that
quench, all I was thinking is,

"ah, we're going to
see that again,"

and we did.

There are multiple cracks
along this edge

that are very small,

and any one of those
can be the stress riser

that breaks these blades.

But you got a good shape
going there.

You never gave up.
Good job.

- Thank you, sir.

- Gentlemen, we gave you
a very difficult task

in the first round
of this competition.

You should all be proud
of yourselves,

but only three of you
can move forward.

The judges have
made their decision,

and the bladesmith
leaving the forge...

♪ ♪

is martin.

- Martin, you've developed
a warp and an extreme curve

in that blade that actually
peeled your steel apart,

and you've got wide-open cracks.

That's why we're letting you go.

- I understand.

- Martin, you fought hard,
but unfortunately,

I'm going to have to ask you
to please surrender your work

and leave the forge.

- The competition is very tough.

It is definitely no joke,

but I had so much fun,
I can't even tell you.

I feel like I have to go home

and try the water quench
from the house.

♪ ♪

- well, gentlemen,
congratulations.

The three of you have made it

through into the second round
of our competition,

where you're going
to fix any issues

you have with your blades
and add handles to them,

turning them into fully
functioning weapons.

Now, we asked you to recreate
boyd ritters' hwando swor.

So, in this round,
your handles are no different.

You need to include a habaki,
a guard, a wrap-handle

and, at the end of this round,
the judges are going to test

for strength and durability
in a wax wood staff attac,

and we're going to check
for edge retention

in a rubber tube slice.

You guys have two hours on
the clock to complete all that.

Good luck.
Your time starts now.

♪ ♪

- all right,
so we've got cracks.

- Dave has some serious
cracking issues

that he's got to clear up.
- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- a crack on the edge
is a death sentence to knife

because as soon as you hit it,
it's gone, it's two pieces.

What I'm doing is opening up
deeper surface area

so that I can fill
in those welds

and then grind it off
as I shape the edge.

- The key question is, are
they able to fix those cracks

and really support it?

- That's ugly,
but it's fixed, temporarily.

- Jimmy over here had a blade
that broke in half, was welded.

- It's also got multiple cracks
along the edge.

- I've got a bunch of cracks
to take care of,

so I start opening
the biggest ones possible

so I can weld them together.

My biggest concern in this round

is not getting all
the cracks welded up.

Now that I've got
the spine welded up,

I've got my edge welded up.

All I can do is hope

that my blade survives
that strength test.

Man, that's ugly!

- Dave mentioned he has concerns

about how my habaki's
going to fit up,

so I need to grind
a shoulder on the top

and match the angle
on the bottom.

The habaki,
when you put it on the blade,

should be somewhat tight,
so just getting it fit up

and hoping
that it's a tight fit.

- Eric's fitting up his habaki,

and it looks pretty tight.

♪ ♪

- after I get my guard fitted,

I grab three pieces
of green g-10.

- Dave looks like he's actually
making a frame handle.

- I'm cutting the middle piee
of g-10

to fit around the tang,

and then I'm going to put
a piece of g-10

on either side of it,
secure it with a pin,

and that's what's going to hold
everything in place.

This is the quickest way

I could think of to do a handle.

Okay, cord, cord, cord, cord.

- All right, guys.
You have one hour remaining.

- Thank you, sir!

I've got my scales ready to go,

and my guard and habaki
are all fitted up,

and I'm starting
to feel pretty good.

It's a shame to cover up
this nice chunk of wood.

- All right.
Jimmy is starting his wrap.

- I don't have a lot of time
to spend on it,

so I'm choosing the easiest way

to wrap it as tight as I can
in a spiral fashion.

- So now that I've got
the handle material

wrapped and tucked in,

the last thing I have to do
is get this pommel on there,

get the tang peened over.

Ideally,
for a peening over a tan,

you would add some heat,
but with the paracord

and the handle material
3/8ths of an inch away,

and I don't feel comfortable
adding heat.

- Ooh! It didn't work.

- Getting this tang peened over

is taking me a lot longer
than I would like to.

My arm's starting to get tired.

- I think what's happening
is he tried to peen over t

with too much material,
so you're really not moving

the material
the way you want it to.

- I'm stuck using
the peen of my hammer

to spread this material,

and it's just not going
as quickly as I would like.

I don't think there would be
any saving my handle

if I can't make this work.

Oh, my goodness.

- Well, right now, eric
has to solve the problem

in his butt cap.
It still looks very loose.

- Thankfully,
I finally get it secured.

There's about 20 minutes
left in the competition,

and I just got to make sure

that my blade is nice and sharp

and it's going to cut anything
that they throw at it.

♪ ♪

- with this knife,
I'm going to try to do

a pretty blunt convexed edge.

It's going to be sharp
but not that sharp,

so it will have
a little bit more insurance

against it breaking.

We'll see what happens.

♪ ♪

- aw!

- What?

- As I grind on it, I'm seeing
more and more cracks.

- Oh, hell!

- Because of how thin
the blade is,

it's a little more delicate
than I would hope it to be.

There's nothing else I can do.

I'm hoping
that it holds together.

♪ ♪

- five, four,

three, two,

one.
Gentlemen, round two is over!

- I'm overall happy
with how I did.

The handle is not my best work,

but it does feel comfortable
in the hand, so I'm happy.

♪ ♪

- bladesmiths,
welcome to our strength test.

The wax wood staff attack...

that's going to test
how your heat treat worked out

and the overall construction
of your weapons.

Sound like fun?

- Let's do it.
- Yeah!

- Such enthusiasm.

Eric, you're first.
Are you ready to go?

- Let's see what she's got.
- All right. Let's do it.

- Water quench
is a very vigorous

and very aggressive quench.

This could definitely snap
my blade right in half.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- all right, eric.
You survived. Nice job.

You did pick up a bend,

but you have no damage
to your edge whatsoever.

Proof of concept
that a water quench

is a viable method, so good job.

- Thank you.
- Dave, you're up next.

You ready?
- No.

- Well, we're gonna do it
anyway.

- Okay.

After watching eric's blade

just get beat on
under those staffs,

all I can think of is jay
is about to go full neilson.

This is not going to be pretty.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

damn!

- Oops.
- Yeah.

- Actually, don't feel bad
about this.

Your grain structure
is actually not bad.

It's slightly coarse.

It's not quite that gray
velvet you want,

but once I hit it,

the shock traveled
into this fracture right here.

But your overall construction,
everything is tight.

You turned in something viable,

just didn't make it
through this test.

- Yep.

- Hate to see it, dave,

but you did suffer
a catastrophic failure

during the first swing
on the wax wood staff,

but you're not out
of the fight yet.

Now, jimmy, you have to survive

one strike on the wax wood staff

to move forward
in this competition. You ready?

- I am ready.
- All right. Let's do it. Jay?

- I am feeling so much pressure.

This is literally
a make-or-break moment,

and I'm just hoping and praying.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- [bleep]

- jimmy, we got several pieces,

and you can see on each one
there's dark spots.

There were cracks in the blade.

- Damn.

- The grain structure is
really, really big, but, again,

water quench... you fought hard.

You've got to be proud of that.
- Thank you, sir.

- Eric, you are moving forward
into the third round,

so congratulations.

Now, gentlemen, it came down
to two broken blades,

but only one of you guys

is moving forward
in this competition,

and the bladesmith
leaving the forge is...

Jimmy.

- Jimmy, first off,
I commend you for that wok

you did in the first round.
You did not give up at all.

That's something to be proud of.

When it came to this break,
it was one blade

broke in one spot.
Your blade literally shattered,

and there's no longer
a viable blade there,

and that's why
we're letting you go.

- I understand.
- Well, jimmy, unfortunately,

you're not going to be moving
forward in this competition,

and I'm going to have to ask you

to please step off
the forge floor, man.

- Thank you, all.
It's been an honor.

I was hoping
to survive one strike,

but unfortunately not.

Even though I didn't win,

I know that I am
a damn good smith,

and I can make
a blade worth wielding.

♪ ♪

- eric, dave, congratulations.

Gentlemen, you guys have
solidified yourself spots

in our third and final round
of this competition.

Now, in this final round,
we're going to be

sending you guys back
to your home forges

to build yet another iconic
weapon from korean history.

We're going to have
you build this.

♪ ♪

the woldo.

- The woldo is a polearm
weapon that has been wielded

by korean warriors
since the 6th century.

The large crescent blade

provided the user
with incredible force

that delivered lethal blows
and deep cuts

with one swing into an opponent.

Historically, this heavy
weapon required special skils

and was only wielded in battle
by elite korean warriors.

Today, korean martial artists
who specialize in the woldo

perform intricate maneuvers
with this intimidating weapon

at festivals
and cultural events.

- Now, guys, your blades

need to measure
between 22 and 24 inches.

You need to feature
a peak on the spine.

You guys also need
to feature a guard

and a 50 to 52-inch polearm.

The good news is the water
quench is behind you,

so you guys can forget
about that.

You can choose to quench
however you want.

- That weapon is big.

I've never finished
a blade this long.

I have made a blade this long,
and it broke upon testing,

so hopefully,
this one will go much better.

- All right, gentlemen,
and we're giving you four days

to build your woldo swords,

and I want to see
your best work,

because one of them
will be worth $10,000.

We'll see you in four days.

♪ ♪

- I'm back here at my home
forge in detroit.

Excited to get the forge
fired up

and start going on this woldo.
Look at that!

This thing's going to be
almost as tall as I am,

and that's pretty frightening.

So I'm to the point
where I've got the blade

forged out.

I have to cut a notch and
use a chisel to open it up.

There we go!
The woldo is in good shape.

I got plenty of meat on there
that I can grind back

and get to the shape
I'm looking for.

♪ ♪

- we're back here in auburn,
illinois.

My goal for the day is to hae
the rough shape forged

and to have a solid piece
when I'm done for the da.

This is a little outside
of my comfort zone.

This has some weird curves
and peaks to it

that's going to be
a bit of a forging challenge.

I may have ruined this early on.

I forged the piece over
so that actually the top pat

is actually
folding over on itself.

It's called a cold shut.

It causes all kinds
of problems later on

because the pieces
aren't attached.

I go over the grinder.

If I can grind it out,
I'm not too bad,

but if it's really deep
or it's something I can't fix,

I'm screwed.

- Day two, rough brand is done.
So here I am,

a man asking for all
the bladesmiths of the univere

to send me their good juju.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

that is a hard blade.

Overall, good quench.

♪ ♪

- day two today, my goal is
to get the bevels in,

get it ground
and get it heat treated.

I do see one problem.
It's opened up on me.

I've got a real problem.

Apparently, when I ground
that cold shut out,

I didn't get it
completely ground out,

and it folded over a little bit.

Pfffttt.

If it goes deep into the seal,
man, I'm probably in bad shape.

If it runs all the way through,
then the blade is ruined,

and I've got to start over.

So I'm trying to figure out
what I can do.

Is this something I can repair
or am I just plain old screwed

and it's time to start again?

So right now
it's just back to the grinder.

Good news is everything's solid.

The cold shut I was worried
about is grinding out.

I have a blade ready
to heat treat.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

I'm straight?

Yep!
And it's hard.

That's as good
as I can hope for right now.

♪ ♪

- day three. So today,
I have to make the shaft

and then
get everything put together.

So I decide, as a little
decorative embellishment,

to add a little grip
to the handle.

I'm going to flute
and inlay some paracord.

I'm using imperial red
and royal blue

to honor the colors
of the korean flag.

Ooh, nice!

I'm looking pretty good going
into day four, so I'm pleased.

- Day four. Yesterday,
I got the blade finished,

and I've got the shaft shaped
and roughed in,

so today it's a lot of fit,
finish, assembly

and just putting
the final touches on my weapon.

So I grab some pink paracord
that I'm going to use

to wrap the areas
between the collars,

and then I have
a pink wood stain

that I'm going to stain
the hickory with.

When I do a knife show,
I always have one knife

on my table
that has a pink handle.

It's not the typical
looking thing,

but I think
it looks kind of neat,

so I'm going to go with it.

I think this is a solid piece.
I think it will test well,

but we're going to see
what happens.

♪ ♪

- gentlemen, welcome back
to the forge.

You guys had four days to work
on your korean woldos,

and they look great,

but we want to hear
about your builds.

Eric, how did it go for you?

- Overall it went really wel.

Made the blade out of
oil-quenched w-1,

mild steel collars,
paracord wrap

and wrought-iron guard
and pommel.

- Fantastic.
Dave, how did your build go?

- It went pretty well.
The blade is 5160.

The handle is hickory

and has copper collars
and a paracord wrap.

- Well, gentlemen, both
your blades look deadly,

but there's only one way
for us to find out

if they function
as well as they look.

We've got a strength test,
a sharpness test,

and up first, the keal.
Doug?

♪ ♪

- bladesmiths...
[speaking foreign language]

and welcome to the keal test.

To find what kind of lethal
damage your weapons will do,

I will take your weapons
and deliver lethal blows

on this ballistics dummy.

Eric, you're first.
You ready for this?

- Yes, sir.
- All right. Let's do this.

- Bones are dense, and they can
do some damage to an edge,

so my heart's racing.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- all right, eric. Let's talk
about your woldo here.

It is forward heavy.

There's a lot of metal in here,
but it is wieldable.

Now, your edge is sharp.

It penetrates deeply
into this ballistics dummy,

cutting the gel torso
and into the bones.

Overall, sir, your woldo,
it will keal.

- Thank you.
- All right, dave.

Your turn, sir.
Are you ready?

- Yes, sir.
- Let's do this.

♪ ♪

- I'm looking at this
ballistics dummy right now,

and it's a hard test.

If I messed up on this blade,
that dummy's going to show it,

and if it works well,
parts go flying.

♪ ♪

- all right, dave.
So about your woldo here.

It is a little bit heavier
than the other weapon.

Heavier weapons require
a lot of adjustments,

but your edge here is sharp.

With this forward weight,

it cuts deep into
this ballistics dummy

and cuts the bones inside,
but in doing so, sir,

your edge over here did take
a little bit of rolling.

But the other parts are fine,

and overall, sir,
your woldo will keal.

- Thank you.

- All right, gentlemen.
You know what time it is.

It's time for the strength test.

We're calling this one
the bamboo man attack.

To test the overall
construction of your blade,

I'm going to take them
and gently tap them against

our bamboo men over here.
And remember, this is not about

what your weapons do
to these targets.

It's about what these targets
do to your weapons.

Eric, you're up first.
Are you ready?

- Yes, sir.
- All right.

- Bamboo's a very hard wood,

and it can definitely take
some chips out of an edge.

And also, with this long
of a handle on it,

it could just snap it in two.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- so, eric, right off,
this is a heavy beast.

Your balance point is not bad.

I kind of like that right there,

where you can
manipulate the weapon.

As far as the weapon
performance goes,

you maintained an edge
all the way along.

It's still sharp.
Nicely done.

- Thank you.
- All right, dave. You're up.

You ready?
- Yes, sir.

[dynamic music]

♪ ♪

- all right, dave.

Your weapon is really,
really heavy.

So you can make
a devastating cut,

but recovery is really slow.

As far as the blade, the blade
itself is dented sideways here

and up above here,
but still solid,

so you survived quite nicely.
Well done, dave.

- Thank you.

♪ ♪

- bladesmiths,
this is the sharpness test,

the sugarcane slice.

To find out how sharp
your weapons are,

I'm going to attempt to cut
through all these sugarcanes.

Unlike the strength test,

this is all about
what your weapons do

and how well
they cut the sugarcanes.

Eric, are you ready to do this?

- Yes, sir.

♪ ♪

- all right, eric.

Let's talk about your edge here.

Your edge, it's sharp.

It cut through
all the sugarcanes,

and overall, sir,
your weapon will cut.

- Thank you.
- Dave, it's your turn, sir.

You ready for this?
- Yes, sir.

♪ ♪

- damn.

- All right, dave. Let's talk
about your weapon here.

It's still sharp, and it cuts
cleanly all the way through,

but the weight of your blade as
I'm cutting dragged downward,

and I ran out of sugarcane,

but overall, sir, your weapon,
it will cut.

- Thank you.

- Well, gentlemen, you both
performed extremely well

in our korean-themed challenge.

Both your woldos
did great during our test,

but this is a competition,
and there has to be a winner.

The judges have made
the decision,

and today's "forged in fire"
champion is...

♪ ♪

eric.
Congratulations.

Now, dave, you fought hard,

but unfortunately,
you're not today's winner,

and dave's going
to tell you why.

- Dave, your blade did great
in the kill test,

and it did well
in the sharpness test.

What this came down
to were two things:

The overall weight of your blade

and the damage it took
in the strength test.

Those are the reasons
we're letting you go.

- I understand.
Thanks for having me.

- Well, dave, it's clear

you have what it takes
to fight in this forge,

and you're an extremely
talented smith,

but unfortunately, your time
in this competition has ended,

and for that reason,
I'm going to have to ask you

to please step off
the forge floor.

- Good job, man.

I got a ton
out of this experience.

I met some great people.

I got to play
with some techniques

and types of weapons
I would normally not do,

and I had a blast doing it,
so I can't complain at all.

- Well, eric, you know what
that means.

You are the newest
"forged in fire" champion.

You're going to be
walking out of here

with a check for $10,000.
Congratulations.

- I feel awesome
coming out here,

winning the competition,
having my skills validate.

This is a crowning achievement
of mine.

- Well done.
- Thank you.

If somebody wants me
to make a woldo,

it's going to cost them
10 grand.

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.