Original subtitles

[intense rock music]

♪ ♪

[country rock music]

‐ My name is Ryan Dumont,

39, from Fort Scott, Kansas.

I'm as country as country comes.

I seen a gentlemen making blades

at an amusement park.

Decided I could do it.

And I've never looked back.

I'm pretty confident in what I can do.

♪ ♪

‐ My name's Steve Wells. I'm 47 years old.

I spent eight years of my life

riding bulls in rodeo.

I took a bad fall and broke my leg.

And all of a sudden, my priorities changed.

And getting into bladesmithing

really gave me an avenue for creativity.

‐ My name is Wesley Boone.

I am 23 years old,

and I am a part‐time bladesmith.

I got into bladesmithing through martial arts.

My specialty would be fighting knives.

I like knives that are going to be used.

‐ Name's Bud Smith.

I'm 65 years old.

I'm from Harmony, North Carolina.

I've made knives for the movies.

I've made them for television.

I got pretty good at it, apparently.

[chuckles]

♪ ♪

‐ Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.

You are here to engage in three timed rounds

of edged weapon‐making competition

specifically designed

to test every aspect of your skills

in front of a panel of expert judges

that will tell us which of you

is our next Forged in Fire champion,

leaving this Forge with a check for $10,000.

Let's go ahead and meet your judges.

Now, up first,

two‐time Forged in Fire champion,

Ben Abbott.

Next, historic weapons

re‐creation specialist, David Baker.

And last,

Kali martial artist, Doug Marcaida.

♪ ♪

Bladesmiths, here in The Forge,

we've had smiths make knives out of everything

from pinball machines, to cars and tanks,

and even backhoes.

Today, there's no big reveals.

You're gonna be making knives out of something smaller.

Much, much smaller.

[dramatic percussive music]

♪ ♪

Gentlemen, what we have here

is a big pile of high carbon steel

drill shavings.

We usually throw these away,

but today, we're gonna ask you guys to get scrappy

and turn these steel shavings into a billet.

From which you will forge a signature blade

in your signature style that is between

10 and 12 inches in length.

‐ It's a bucket full of trash.

They're pushing the limits here.

♪ ♪

‐ You'll have just three hours

in this first round of competition

in which to complete all that work.

If you make it to the second round,

you'll have a chance to attach handles to your blades.

And then we'll test them for strength and durability

in a trash can stab and chop

and for edge retention in a leather bag slice.

How you choose to design your signature blades

to perform in those challenges

is of paramount importance

and will be taken into consideration by our judges.

Good luck. Your three hours starts...now.

[intense rock music]

This is a canister Damascus day, I'm assuming.

‐ Yeah.

‐ It seems like it's a pretty

straightforward challenge;

shove as many of these shavings and bits

into a can as you can.

Throw some 1095 powder in there with it.

Weld it up and then heat and beat.

‐ Getting the canister packed as tightly as possible

with these shavings and the powders can be tough.

♪ ♪

‐ My plan's gonna be a canister.

I don't know of any other way I can get all

the drill filings put together.

I'm using the White Out.

I know that'll keep the can

from adhering to the metal.

Make it easier to get the canister itself off.

‐ Bud has grabbed some White Out.

Strategically, what do you think

about that move, White Out?

‐ It's a release agent,

if it's allowed

to dry naturally in air.

But if you rush it,

it makes it very difficult

to peel that can.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm off to slow start.

♪ ♪

‐ I am very familiar with canister.

That's my go‐to.

♪ ♪

My game plan is to get

the White Out in it so I can peel the can off easier.

A hell of a mess.

And I'm getting White Out all over my face

and all over the table.

‐ I think Ryan actually ate

some of the White Out.

♪ ♪

‐ At home, I would let it dry completely,

but being here, I won't have time.

♪ ♪

Ah, [bleep].

‐ That White Out is wet.

And now he's pouring powdered steel

on top of that.

Which we know,

the White Out's gonna get stuck to the powder.

‐ It's the worst of all worlds

because when you mix a slurry

with the White Out like that, it does weld to the can,

but not really well.

It makes it really difficult to peel.

♪ ♪

‐ I got everything packed in it, welded up.

Looks like a cake. You gotta let it bake.

Longer you let it cook, the better off it is.

It's gonna be a solid billet when it comes out.

♪ ♪

‐ I've never done any canister Damascus before.

‐ Wesley's going for the White Out.

‐ If you're experienced in removing a can,

it's not that big a deal,

but we've seen it go wrong so many times.

‐ Ah! Son of a [bleep].

‐ Chad starting over a billet.

Come on, K. Keep working.

♪ ♪

‐ If I don't put enough White Out

on the outside, it just sticks.

And that can is a pain to get off.

♪ ♪

‐ Everybody going with the White Out?

‐ Steve is the only one of our smiths

who didn't bring any White Out over to his station.

‐ I'm not gonna bother with the White Out.

I'm just gonna go with it. Forge it in.

Try to grind that canister off

when I do the grinding on my blade.

This could be the thing that bites me.

But I'm gonna‐‐I'm gonna take that chance.

♪ ♪

‐ It looks like Steve is gonna try

to force that can lid down into his, uh‐‐

‐ Yeah, that's a good idea. ‐ Into his material there.

‐ Otherwise, you get big air pockets.

Essentially, cold shuts.

‐ I am not the strongest welder,

but I gobbed it on there good enough.

Now we wait.

‐ Bladesmiths!

One hour has elapsed.

You have only two hours remaining

to finish your work.

‐ The tricky thing about canister is

if the forge welds forge and weld,

then I have no clue until I open the can.

♪ ♪

As I'm peeling the can off, I see inside

that I'm not in a good situation.

[bleep]

I see scraps and falling out material.

Half the billets was welded and half of it wasn't.

Gotta make a new one.

I have to start over and build a new billet.

‐ Ryan's starting over. ‐ Yep.

‐ I wonder what he saw on the inside of his canister.

He started to open and peel.

‐ So that's 45 minutes gone.

♪ ♪

‐ Ryan is gonna go without

the White Out this time. ‐ That'll be good.

‐ I don't have time to let the White Out dry properly,

so I'm just gonna pack it full

and I'll grind the canister away.

But first, I have to let it bake.

I can't do anything else but watch the metal heat up.

So I stand there and watch it. [chuckles]

Come on, you dirty bitch. Heat up.

Once I get it heated up to forge temperature,

and I press it lightly,

till I feel like that it's a solid billet.

♪ ♪

‐ Not enough pressure going into that press.

Bud will never get the compression

to set those welds.

‐ Oh, look at Bud.

‐ Wow, look at that. Oh, my God.

That's a lot of powder.

‐ That has not forged well.

♪ ♪

‐ Hopefully I can cut the end of it off.

Being it's got White Out,

it shouldn't take too much to take the canister off.

‐ Bud's over here trying to peel a mess apart.

Man, that thing is mangled, meddled mayhem.

‐ Only thing I can do, hammer like hell.

I had to cut it more than once to get it off.

Finally, both sides basically fell off.

♪ ♪

‐ Oh! ‐ Look at all that sparks.

I'd like to see that billet flux,

brought up to a welding temperature,

and consolidated.

Bud might go with a Big Blu

with one hit and have that billet fall apart.

♪ ♪

‐ Just wanna start compressing things a little bit

before I really get after it.

‐ I'm really impressed with Steve.

He's got great heat.

He's got great control of the press.

He's the only one who didn't use White Out,

so he's just gonna work with that steel can as it is.

♪ ♪

‐ Big Blu.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm trying to give my canister

a little bit more pressure

to refine those welds.

♪ ♪

And then I'm ready to take this can off.

I just try to split it lengthwise.

‐ Wesley used White Out,

and he used flash dies in order to set the welds.

And I imagine there's a lot of air pockets inside there.

‐ The vise keeps moving, so I'm fighting the vise

and trying to get this can off at the same time.

‐ One of the things about this competition

is you gotta know when you try something,

you give it a time limit.

And then if it doesn't work, change strategies.

♪ ♪

‐ I don't wanna be that guy

that didn't even bring a blade to the end of that round.

I'm not gonna get this can off and have time

to finish forging my blade.

Starting over. Starting over.

‐ Oh, man.

Wesley is gonna start over.

I hope to God he does not use‐‐

‐ He has a bottle right by him.

‐ And he has a bottle of White Out.

I wanna smack it out of his hand.

‐ Yeah. [laughing]

‐ So two of our smiths

have opted to start over from scratch.

♪ ♪

‐ This one I'm gonna grind out

a little bit less than I did before

and hopefully that gives me the piece I need.

♪ ♪

‐ I've got my second canister

up to temperature

and hope that it does forge well.

If this one doesn't work out, I don't know if I have

enough time on the clock to do another one.

♪ ♪

This time I see the inside, and it's solid welded.

Smash it down a little more and set them welds,

and start putting a point on it.

♪ ♪

‐ Two hours has elapsed.

You have 60 minutes remaining.

♪ ♪

‐ I strike the billet now,

and I hand‐hammer it.

It needs some work, but it wasn't too bad.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm seeing some head shaking from Bud.

♪ ♪

I don't know what he sees.

‐ I got a couple cracks.

I might have to weld and grind them off.

I don't know.

♪ ♪

I started to weld off a couple of them

that I thought might give me an issue.

‐ Bud over to the MIG welder.

It shows there's most likely surface cracks going on,

but no way to fix it if that's the case.

‐ I don't know how it looks inside of the steel,

but I think the major cracks I got sealed up.

I don't wanna be the first one walking down the hall.

♪ ♪

‐ I get my second piece hot,

and I try to get as much pressure on that as I can.

And then I start cutting it.

I cut off a section, hit it with the punch.

♪ ♪

‐ Come on, Wesley.

‐ I rinse, wash, and repeat.

♪ ♪

And it comes out.

♪ ♪

But I'm still anxious that I'm gonna run out of time.

‐ 20 minutes, bladesmiths.

‐ I'm trying to not to get too fancy.

I'm‐‐I'm sticking with what I know.

I get my forging out close enough

that I've gotta get this thing in the tank

and get it quenched.

♪ ♪

‐ Steve just quenched his blade over here.

♪ ♪

‐ Pretty straight. Ain't bad.

I've got time to get to the grinder

and get some of that mild steel off

from the can, to where I'm down to the hard steel.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm running out of time.

I've gotta grind down through the mild steel

to get to the hardening steel.

I'm gonna get a good, solid quench.

♪ ♪

I'm looking for a salmon color.

It's now or never.

♪ ♪

‐ Ryan just quenched.

Quenched at a pretty good temperature.

‐ Yeah. ‐ It was a little hot.

‐ When I pull it out of the oil,

I see there's a slight warp in it,

so I try to take the warp out.

♪ ♪

‐ Five minutes, bladesmiths. Five minutes.

‐ I have to get a hardened blade.

As to date, I haven't had a blade break on me.

♪ ♪

‐ Bud just quenched.

‐ I assumed it'd be hard,

but I feel nervous because I know

there was a couple of slight cracks in it.

You know, I wonder if the judges are gonna go for that,

I don't know.

♪ ♪

‐ Wesley needs to quench soon.

‐ He needs to quench on this heat.

♪ ♪

‐ Hey, there we go. ‐ All right.

‐ So Wesley has quenched his blade.

One minute! ‐ I didn't see bad warps.

Y'all gave me three hours.

I'm using every bit of time that I can possibly use.

‐ Five, four, three,

two, one!

Bladesmiths, shut down your machines.

Drop your tools. Stop what you're doing.

This first round of competition is over.

[clapping]

♪ ♪

‐ I didn't wanna be that guy to come up here

and not make it.

So I'm relieved, but I'm still anxious

to see how this blade is gonna perform.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, gents,

in this first round of competition,

we asked you guys to make

signature 10 to 12‐inch blades

by using scrap high carbon steel drill shavings.

Now it's time for the judges to take a closer look

at what you've done.

Ryan, you're up first.

Please present your blade to the judges.

[dramatic music]

‐ So, Ryan, first off,

really good choice to start over.

And start over without the White Out

so you didn't have to go through that process.

♪ ♪

There's a lot of mass throughout this entire blade.

It's a lot heavier than it needs to be.

So getting that down to maybe a quarter inch,

it'll take a lot of that weight out.

But, uh, steel looks solid.

Again, good choice to start over.

‐ Thank you. ‐ All right, Steve, you're up.

Please present your blade to the judges.

[dramatic music]

‐ All right, Steve, nice design here.

I like that you put a width to that

so it feels like a good chopper and slicer.

Um, that's not gonna penetrate so well over there.

When we're talking about massive thrusting weapons.

So moving forward, I hope that you

do design something that will penetrate for the test.

You led the way.

Still looks solid.

Just a lot of refinement needed.

Good job. ‐ Thank you, sir.

‐ All right, Wesley, you're up.

[dramatic music]

‐ Wesley, the first thing I see when I pick up this blade

is a really interesting profile.

You've got a nice, aggressive point here for thrusting.

I think you chose a good time to start again.

The one big thing is that there's a crack

on your edge right here

that runs about 1/8 of an inch in.

That's a really dangerous place to have a crack.

That needs to be addressed, because otherwise

this thing is just gonna crack in two.

So if you figure that out,

I'm excited to see how this

whole thing finishes up

because it looks really good so far.

‐ Thank you, sir.

‐ All right, Bud, you're up.

[dramatic music]

‐ Well, Bud, the thing that jumps out at me

as soon as I pick this up is that I'm looking at

a lot of cracks on this blade.

If I had to pick one that scares me the most

it's this one that comes up from here,

and there's another one that comes down from here,

and they're just meeting in the middle.

You see what I'm‐‐ that here.

♪ ♪

‐ Agree.

‐ All right, Bud, after evaluating your blade

here at the table, due to the cracks,

the judges have come to the consensus

that your blade doesn't make the cut.

I'd like to invite you to shake our hands,

shake your competitors' hands,

and then please leave The Forge.

[dramatic music]

‐ I agree with the judges.

The cracks in the blade was just too severe to fix.

I was hoping I could weld it and grind it down,

but I just didn't have enough time to get it done.

I enjoyed the experience of doing it.

I think I proved what I set out to prove.

♪ ♪

‐ Bladesmiths, congratulations.

You've made it to the second round of this competition,

and now it's time to make your blades fully functional

by attaching handles to them.

Now in the first round of this competition,

we had you guys make your blades

out of scrap high carbon drill shavings.

So it's only appropriate in this round

that we're gonna continue with that sort of thing

and you're gonna make your handles out of this.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Gentlemen, this is some scrap wood we found lying around.

Some of that stuff is rotted and some of it's good to go,

but that's part of this challenge.

You'll have to determine which of that wood

you wanna use to make the body of your handle.

Additionally, you must include functional guards,

as well as acid etches by the end of this round.

Now we're giving you guys two whole hours

in which to complete all that work.

When the time runs out on this round,

we'll be testing your blade's strength and durability

in a trash can stab and chop

and the edge retention in a leather bag slice.

After your blades have been tested,

one of your will have to surrender your blade

and leave The Forge.

Good luck. Your two hours starts...now.

[intense rock music]

♪ ♪

Okay, who has the most work to do?

‐ Oh, boy. I would go with Wesley, man.

He's got a lot of structural stuff

to deal with on his blade.

♪ ♪

‐ I have to address the crack in my blade.

And then fit up a guard, fit up a handle,

and sharpen the blade.

It was like

"Y'all trying to put three gallons of water

into a water balloon."

♪ ♪

‐ There's a couple spots on that spine,

and definitely on that edge

that he should weld up.

‐ The crack is all the way through.

So I'm gonna try to re‐profile it

and see if I can fix it.

[saw buzzing]

♪ ♪

‐ That scrap pile is a pile of [bleep].

♪ ♪

I find a piece of green treated wood,

so I know that it's good, hard wood.

♪ ♪

I've given myself an hour to grind

all the problems that they don't like about it.

‐ Ryan's blade was really heavy.

He really has to remove a lot of material.

‐ Get the most of that canister off

clear down to some high carbon steel,

so it'll hold a nice edge.

I know I gotta get the tang down,

'cause it's fatter than [bleep].

‐ Looks like Ryan's tang actually tapered

and got fatter.

And for fitting a guard, how does that work?

‐ It doesn't.

You have to taper it away from the point of the knife.

And it can't go over something big

and then get to something small.

‐ Fogging up!

♪ ♪

‐ I know I've gotta get a handle

on this thing first.

I can do the grinding later.

I grabbed a piece that's kind of blocky,

but it's‐‐it's not too big.

It's got enough meat on it.

Looks solid from the outside,

so I'm going with it.

My biggest concern is getting all this put together in time.

‐ I think I get my blade profile small enough

that the crack disappears.

♪ ♪

With things moving as slowly as they are,

I take my blade and I get it in the acid etch.

‐ Wesley's already in the acid etch over here.

Look at this guy. He came to play, man.

‐ Yeah.

‐ I grab what looks like

one of the braces from a wood pallet or something.

And that should be thick enough.

For my guard, I decided to choose brass.

Brass is easily drilled in machines.

So I should be able to get it fit pretty quickly.

‐ One hour has elapsed.

You have just 60 minutes remaining.

‐ And Ryan's made quick work of that tang.

‐ Yeah.

‐ So I got my blade where I wanted,

got the tang down.

Got all the meat off it.

♪ ♪

I find a piece of nice brass plate

for my guard.

Getting the guard to fit on the tang

is the trickiest part,

'cause you don't have a square drill bit.

You've gotta drill round,

and then flatten it back out.

I love it, love it, love it.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm going for a through tang construction on this knife.

So I choose to heat up this tang

and peen it over.

♪ ♪

‐ Looks like Steve might be setting up

to peen his tang over.

As long as only a little bit of that

peen part is sticking out,

it's‐‐it's not a bad way to do it.

‐ I don't wanna heat up that epoxy if I can help it.

I've got some epoxy in that handle

to try to set things up.

It's gotta work.

I really don't have a chance

to take it back apart and redo it.

[hammer pounding]

‐ He should not be hitting that hard to peen a tang.

‐ I may have been a little long there.

Yes, I was.

‐ He did i‐ He did it. He did it. He did it.

‐ And it breaks off. Now what?

‐ He had about 1/8 of an inch by about 3/4

sticking up out of there.

And just some blind old hitting.

♪ ♪

‐ I think we're good. I got a little sigh of relief.

Got enough left to peen it over.

I just hope it holds.

We ain't gonna turn in an unfinished blade.

‐ 15 minutes, bladesmiths.

♪ ♪

‐ At this point, everything's fitting nice and tight.

♪ ♪

I just need to get some epoxy in it

and get my handle ground down

so it'll be nice and comfortable.

[machine whirring]

♪ ♪

‐ I have yet to sharpen my blade.

‐ All right, so Wesley's got everything all glued up.

‐ While the glue is hardening,

I start working on shaving the handle.

‐ Five minutes!

♪ ♪

‐ Steve's still working on those bevels, man.

‐ Yeah.

‐ I just hope Steve doesn't forget

to acid etch his blade.

[whirring stops]

‐ Just got a few seconds left, and I go to the etch.

The cap is stuck on it.

♪ ♪

Why won't it come off?

‐ Steve, wrestling with the lid of the acid.

[all chuckling]

‐ Just in time.

‐ Five, four, three,

two, one!

Bladesmiths, stop what you're doing.

Throw your hands in the air. ‐ Yeah, buddy.

‐ The second round of competition is over.

‐ Whoo! [clapping]

‐ Way to go, guys.

‐ Way to go. ‐ [grunts]

I am so pumped up.

This challenge was awesome. It was exciting.

And I think I've got a good blade.

♪ ♪

‐ Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test.

The trash can stab and chop.

♪ ♪

To test the tip of your blades,

I'll be stabbing them into these trash cans.

And to test everything else,

I'll be chopping mercilessly into them as well.

Remember, this test is all about

what the cans do to your blades,

and not what the blades do to the cans.

Ryan, you're up first. You ready?

‐ Tear it up. ‐ All right.

[dramatic music]

‐ Stabbing into a trash can

and then chopping the trash can up

is giving me a little worry,

but I believe that my blade is strong.

♪ ♪

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

‐ Well, Ryan, you're all in one piece.

That's a good thing.

Looking at your edge here,

there's a lot of serrations going on.

I can get my fingernail underneath it.

It's‐‐it's rolled over pretty severely.

Your tip held up great.

Your handle‐‐

it's square but rounded a lot too.

So it was rotating in my hand.

I had to readjust to get it back.

But, uh, you took a bunch of scraps

and you made a knife that holds up against a trash can.

So well done for that.

All right, Steve. You see what we're up to.

How are you feeling? ‐ I feel good.

‐ All right. Let's do this.

[dramatic music]

‐ This is a Damascus blade made out of trash.

This thing could blow apart

like a grenade when they hit this can.

Butterflies in my stomach.

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

[clears throat]

‐ Well, Steve, this is a heavy blade.

It's all still in one piece.

There is, however, some rolling right here.

One significant roll.

As for the tip,

there's some dulling that happened

from going into the can.

The handle‐‐you left some flats on here

which is really comfortable.

It kept me in place.

All in all, well done. ‐ Thank you, sir.

‐ Wesley, you're up. How you feel?

‐ Ain't a word for it. [both laugh]

‐ All right.

♪ ♪

‐ If we're doing a range of one to ten,

my confidence is probably 6 3/4.

I'm w ‐ I'm worried thatill be there will be a crack,

and that blade snaps in half.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[exhales]

♪ ♪

‐ Wow, from all of that chopping,

there's a little tiny nick right here

and there's some dulling up towards the tip.

Just less sharp here than it was before.

Moving back to your handle, I like this palm swell idea.

It really holds me in there nicely.

There's a lot of guard here.

You know, you could take away

almost 3/4 of an inch of that.

It'd still be a functional guard.

But for a junkyard piece of pine,

it held up really well. ‐ Thank you, sir.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, bladesmiths.

We're done with the trash‐talking.

Now it's time to find out

how sharp your blades are.

This is the sharpness test‐‐ the leather bag slice.

♪ ♪

To test the sharpness

of the edge of your blade,

I'm gonna take your weapon and slash across

these thick leather bags.

Now unlike the strength test,

this is all about what your blade's edge

does to these leather bags.

Ryan, you're up first. You ready for this?

‐ Let's rock. ‐ All right, let's do it.

♪ ♪

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

All right, Ryan,

let's talk about your blade here.

First up, your handle.

It's comfortable. I can get a good grip in here.

It's ovoid, I can tell where the edge is.

On the first two strikes right there you can see

you got nice, clean cuts.

On the third one, must have hit a dull spot right there,

'cause it didn't cut all the way through.

But with two cuts like that? It will cut.

‐ Thank you.

‐ All right, Steve, it's your turn.

You ready, sir? ‐ I'm ready.

‐ Let's do this.

‐ We have some edge damage

after chopping into the steel can.

I feel like I'm a little bit behind here,

and I'm just praying this thing cuts.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[whispering] There we go.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, Steve, let's talk about your blade here.

First up, your handle construction.

I like the design that you have here

where the belly just drops into there

like a finger weld.

And allows my hand to feel comfortable.

The blade is heavy.

On the first two strikes,

it didn't cut all the way through.

But on the third one, once you find a sweet spot,

then you adjust to that, it does give a very deep cut.

Overall, sir, it will cut. ‐ Thank you, sir.

‐ All right, Wesley, your turn.

So you ready?

‐ Stay ready, ain't gotta get ready.

‐ All right, let's do it.

♪ ♪

‐ My heart's racing.

I didn't have too much time to sharpen my blade.

I don't know if it has enough weight

to compensate for a dull blade.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

‐ All right, Wesley, let's talk about your blade here.

Your handle‐‐it's comfortable.

I like that you put the weld right there,

so I can get my good grip.

Now your edge.

You have a light, fast blade here.

It is sharp in here, but the design

for this particular leather bag‐‐

unfortunately, it will not cut.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, bladesmiths.

The judges have evaluated

the performances of your blades,

and the bladesmith leaving The Forge is...

♪ ♪

Wesley.

Your blade didn't make the cut.

Doug Marcaida's gonna tell you why.

‐ Wesley, first of all, I commend you

for being a great competitor.

You fought all the way through, even when you had to restart.

And you handed us a beautiful design blade

and a comfortable one.

But in the strength test, it took some dulling.

And because of that, it did not perform well

in the sharpness test.

For that reason, we're letting you go.

‐ Wesley, please surrender your blade.

[dramatic music]

‐ I'm happy 'cause I made it way farther

than I thought I was gonna make it.

But I would've liked to

keep pushing and keep fighting and make it

to be Forged in Fire champion.

But I'm proud of what I did.

I have never even attempted anything like this before.

♪ ♪

First thing I'm gonna do?

Just get back to learning,

get back to evolving,

and just try to make myself better.

♪ ♪

‐ Ryan, Steve, congratulations.

You guys have earned your spot

in the final round of this competition.

You came here,

you made beautiful blades out of scraps,

and now it's time to send you back to your home forges

to recreate this iconic weapon from history.

[dramatic music]

The nimcha.

To tell you more about it,

historic weapons recreation specialist

David Baker.

‐ The nimcha is a single‐handed scimitar

widely used throughout North Africa.

This unique weapon featured a hook handle,

knuckle guard, and forward pointing quillions

that were designed as a defensive tool

to catch an opponent's blade.

Featuring a deep fuller on both sides,

the sword was light, quick, and deadly on the battlefield.

Largely made of recycled blades,

the nimcha could be forged quickly

and in large quantities,

and was a crucial weapon

used by the Ottoman soldiers

during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.

‐ Bladesmiths, in the final round on this competition,

we want you to forge your version of this nimcha.

It must fall within the following parameters.

The length of the blade must fall between 27 and 29 inches.

The blade must be curved and sharpened on one edge.

It must have three upswept quillions,

a knuckle‐bow, and a boot or hook‐shaped pommel.

At the end of your four days, you'll return

and present your nimchas to our judges.

And after they've tested them,

and evaluated your craftsmanship,

they'll declare one of you the Forged in Fire champion

who leaves here with a check for $10,000.

Pay attention to the details, bladesmiths.

We'll see you in four days.

‐ Good luck. ‐ Good luck.

[upbeat rock music]

‐ We're in Omaha, Illinois. It's raining outside.

It's a good day to work in the shop,

building our nimcha.

I'm gonna put the fullers in

before I start forging.

[saw grinding]

♪ ♪

My point's going good.

Got it pretty close to what I want.

My forge is not real long.

And while I'm forging this blade, it wants to warp.

I don't think I accounted for the‐‐

the length of this blade and the weight.

The ends wanna hang out.

I've got a lot of steel there.

Lot of stuff to manage.

That's gonna be the challenge.

To keep that under control.

I've got my blade shaped out pretty close to parameters

so day one in the books.

[upbeat rock music]

‐ Back at the home forge,

ready to start beating out this nimcha.

I've never made anything this big.

I'm used to making 3 to 5‐inch skinners.

So it's gonna be a difficult build to keep it straight.

♪ ♪

I've chosen a piece of 5160 spring steel.

I'm very familiar with it and it holds a good edge.

As I'm beveling this thing,

the natural curve is coming into this metal

and making a curve for me.

It flowed in and it just worked out.

I feel good at the end of day one.

And my blade is forged out.

Parameters are met on it.

Tomorrow, I just gotta go in and go full throttle.

‐ It's the beginning of day two,

so we're gonna get after it.

♪ ♪

Working on my guard right now.

I'm trying to get a guard shaped out of a railroad spike.

And I'm using this old hammer.

It needs some maintenance, but still,

we're just gonna make it work the best we can.

♪ ♪

‐ I think this‐‐think this belt's hitting this flywheel.

Knocking it off.

This has got me kind of behind.

The hammer just wasn't

performing like it should.

Aw, see.

That's what that is, duct tape.

Throw some more tape on that.

♪ ♪

Let's see.

♪ ♪

That seemed to work a lot better.

End of day two. I feel pretty good.

Got my guard done today. Got it fit up.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm pretty excited where

I finished up yesterday.

I got all the forging done.

Today, I'm going to finish grinding

and put fullers in it,

and get it ready for quenching.

I'm gonna take a lot of the mass out,

but I will leave some meat on the bones

so it doesn't warp or twist on me.

♪ ♪

Everything's going smooth, just like it's supposed to.

Now that the bevels are in, I'm ready to go in to quench.

I'm a little nervous about the quench,

being a long blade like it is.

There's a lot of things that can go wrong.

♪ ♪

I didn't hear no tings or pings.

I feel pretty good about it, but we'll have to look and see

after it cools off.

♪ ♪

And we've got a straight blade.

♪ ♪

Perfect.

End of day two. I feel great.

I got the blade quenched. I got the fullers put in it.

It's turning out to be a beautiful blade.

‐ Day three. I feel good.

Right now, it's heat treat time.

It's a little nerve‐wracking.

You put all this work into something,

and it all hinges on this one moment.

♪ ♪

This is where things can go bad.

[bleep]

♪ ♪

Uh‐oh.

Cover it up with something.

Outside of the fireball in my face,

the heat treat went well.

I had some minor bends,

and I think I can clean it up good on the grinder.

We're ready to start on the handle tomorrow.

‐ Today is day four,

and also it's my birthday.

I've gotta finish cleaning the guard up on it.

Fit it. Put a pommel on it.

♪ ♪

My brain's running 100 miles an hour,

and I can't figure out how to get this pommel to stay.

After I sat back, I figured out how to do it.

I thread my tang and screwed my pommel on.

It's gonna give enough weight on the back side, I think,

to balance this blade out.

Now that everything's glued together,

and everything's all constructed,

I go to finish sharpening and polishing my blade.

♪ ♪

Now ready to test it and see what it's gonna do.

♪ ♪

End of day four and I feel great.

The blade's done and I get a surprise birthday party

from my family.

It makes me really happy.

Just couldn't be a better day.

I'm ready for competition.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

‐ Ryan, Steve, welcome back to The Forge.

You bladesmiths have had four days at your home forge

to work on your nimchas.

Ryan, how did it go?

‐ Went great. Had a fun time building.

♪ ♪

Made out of 5160 spring steel,

mild steel guard with a hard maple handle.

Stainless steel butt cap with a stainless steel wing nut.

♪ ♪

‐ Looks pretty cool, man. ‐ Thank you.

‐ All right, Steve, how'd it go for you?

‐ I had a couple hiccups, but we got through them.

♪ ♪

I've got an 80CRV2 blade

with a micarta handle,

brass and imitation ivory spacer,

and I made my guard out of a railroad spike.

‐ Well, both of these blades look really nice.

However, this is all about performance

as we put your blades through our three weapons test.

There'll be a strength test, a sharpness test,

and up first, of course, the KEAL test.

Doug?

‐ Bladesmiths, welcome to the KEAL test.

♪ ♪

It's time to find out

what kind of lethal damage

your nimchas will do.

I will take your weapon and deliver some lethal blows

on this boar carcass.

Ryan, you're up first. You ready for this?

‐ Make some barbeque cut. ‐ All right, let's try.

‐ Seeing the boar carcass,

I'm smiling from ear to ear.

I wanted to see him cut a boar carcass in half with it.

I know it's razor sharp.

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

‐ Good job.

‐ All right, Ryan.

I don't know what's a bigger beast.

The boar carcass or your nimcha right here.

This is a heavy sword.

Everything about the weight that you have on this

allows for a very, very deep cut.

But it's a lot of work because of the weight.

It's very forward‐heavy.

But overall, it will KEAL. ‐ Thank you.

‐ All right, Steve, your turn, sir.

You ready? ‐ Yes, sir.

‐ Let's do this.

‐ I'm excited.

Ryan's blade cut well,

so I know I've got some competition here.

Mine better perform.

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

‐ [laughs]

‐ All right, Steve,

let's talk about your nimcha right here.

First up, the handle construction.

It's smooth. It's not blocky.

So I like that you have it ovoid over there.

And marries in.

Before I started testing,

your blade has a little bit kick‐off to the side.

But after the test, it stayed the same.

Your edge, with a thinner profile like that, cuts deep.

Also, it is a much lighter sword

than your competitor's.

I can control with every slash.

Overall, sir, your blade feels good.

It will KEAL.

‐ Thank you, sir.

♪ ♪

‐ Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test.

The pillar and pot chop.

To test the strength and durability of your edge,

as well as the overall construction of your nimchas,

I'll be chopping into these pots and pillars.

Remember, this test is all about

what the targets do to your blades,

and not what your blades do to the target.

Ryan, you're up first, are you ready for this?

‐ Tear it up. ‐ All right, man.

‐ I know I'm behind the eight ball right now.

I need to perform really well in the strengthness test.

Hopefully, I'll pull back up into line with him

and be evened up.

♪ ♪

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

‐ Well, Ryan, in the strength test,

the edge that you have on here took a slight roll.

Like, I can't see it so much as I can feel it.

The rest of it is‐‐ is really wicked sharp.

It's still all in one piece.

Nice job. ‐ Thank you.

‐ Steve, you're up next. You ready for this?

‐ Yes, sir. ‐ All right, cool.

♪ ♪

‐ I feel pretty good.

I think my blade cut

a little better than Ryan's maybe,

but he didn't have that canned flaw in his blade.

So I think I've got a blade that'll hold up to it.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

‐ [bleep], man.

♪ ♪

‐ Well, Steve, we got a problem, man.

‐ [chuckles]

‐ When I picked the sword up,

I was excited.

It's nice, light,

got a good shape to it.

But looking at your steel here.

It's a really big grain in here.

It really could have used more thermocycling.

I'm guessing‐‐I don't know how you‐‐how you treated this,

but...

however you did, it ended up brittle.

♪ ♪

‐ Well, Steve,

your blade has suffered a catastrophic failure

during our strength test,

and can no longer continue with testing.

Therefore, I'd like to invite you to shake our hands,

shake your competitor's hand, and then please exit The Forge.

♪ ♪

‐ Congratulations, man.

I'm disappointed my blade broke.

I didn't wanna go out that way.

But it is what it is.

Thank you.

I just must have got my heat treat wrong.

Nobody's fault but my own.

I didn't win the competition,

but I gained so much more than I lost here.

I'm gonna walk away here with my head held high,

and it's gonna make me a better bladesmith for it.

I've really learned a lot.

♪ ♪

‐ Ryan, congratulations.

You are the Forged in Fire champion,

and that is a title that comes with a check.

Go ahead. You can smile.

‐ [chuckles]

‐ For $10,000, brother. Good job.

[applause]

Come on. ‐ Thank you, sir.

‐ Good job, my friend. ‐ Thank you.

It's not how I wanted to win

this competition, but you know,

it is what it is.

First thing I'm gonna do is hug and kiss my wife.

And love on the kids and play with them.

And get right back in the forge.

There's no sleep for the wicked.

♪ ♪