Original subtitles

[dramatic music]tic mu]

♪ ♪

- my name is nicolas nichols.

I am a classically trained chef.

The thing about making knives

and being in restaurants

is they're both very, very hot environments,

and I love and I thrive on the heat.

I would really, really love

if we were to make kitchen knives.

That would be awesome,

because that's what I'm used to holding

in my hand all day.

♪ ♪

- my name's logan brackin.

I've always been real crafty

with my hands, and I thought,

"hey, you know what?

I could do something really cool

and give a lasting gift to my family members.

And so, from then, I've been making blades ever since.

♪ ♪

- my name's keaton goddard.

I've always enjoyed working with my hands,

and I just came across a video one day

of a guy making a knife out of a file.

And I was like, "all right. That's kind of cool."

so I tried it and just kind of grew from there.

I'm taking on this competition to prove to myself

that I can do it.

I quit my job a few months ago,

and I'm just trying to do my own thing.

♪ ♪

- my name is dale paris.

I'm 48 years old,

and I'm a full-time farrier.

I started bladesmithing six years ago.

I just took some old horseshoes

and put some blades on the end of 'em

just because I could. [laughs]

and I just kind of got the bug.

♪ ♪

- bladesmiths, welcome to the forge.

You are here to test your bladesmithing skills

in three timed rounds of edged-weapon making.

They will be judged by a panel of experts.

These are the guys that tell us

which of you is the next "forged in fire" champion,

walking out of here with a check for $10,000.

So what do you say we meet 'em?

Up first, abs master smith j. Neilson.

Next, historic weapons re-creation specialist

david baker.

And last, edged- and impact-weapon specialist

doug marcaida.

Gentlemen, on your anvils is a cloth.

Go ahead and lift that cloth up.

♪ ♪

what you have there

is a two-inch-diameter round stock

of w-1 high-carbon steel.

Now, today we're measuring how well you guys move metal,

how well you put it exactly where it needs to be.

So there will be no signature blades

in your signature style today.

No, no, instead you'll be forging

the last piece to a puzzle...

♪ ♪

this puzzle.

You must take that bar of steel

and forge as precisely as possible

the last piece in our custom "forged in fire" puzzle here.

There are no length and width parameters.

You will be judged on how closely

you can forge that steel into that exact shape.

Now, you have just enough steel

to make that full-tang design happen,

so make sure you plan accordingly.

- One wrong hammer blow, and you're gonna be in trouble.

♪ ♪

- you'll have just three hours

in this first round of the competition.

Now, 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 bone chop

and for edge retention

in the dreaded and infamous apple slice.

Gentlemen, I remind you that after this first round,

one of you will be selected to surrender your blade

and leave the forge.

Good luck, bladesmiths.

Your three hours starts now.

♪ ♪

so this is a unique challenge.

Basically, these guys have to take that bar of steel

and forge that exact shape

cut into our "forged in fire" puzzle.

How difficult is this?

- Yeah, it's difficult.

It's a lot harder to make something

that's a set design on demand.

They've actually got a cutout instead of a blade here.

- Dale and keaton already have work sticks

welded onto their rounds,

and they've got them in the forge.

- I look over, and I see keaton

and dale over there welding already.

And I grab some paper, and I trace out my shape,

so that way, I can measure and take dimensions

on different aspects of the blade.

- Logan immediately comes over with a piece of paper.

- There you go. - And he's gonna trace out

his design.

♪ ♪

- coming from a culinary background,

we had this thing called mise en place,

which means "everything in its place."

I like to get my stuff set up,

get everything ready to go

before I start running around like a crazy person in here.

Trying to get my time spaced out.

That way, I know what's going on,

'cause I don't want to get beat by the clock.

This is a very, very big piece of steel,

but it's a really, really big knife,

so I just got to be patient and let it heat up.

- While the steel's heating up, I run over

and grab a piece of paper

and then head to the puzzle.

Want some help there?

- Keaton was nice enough--

he helped me finish tracing it out.

This is good for me. Let's do yours.

- I know we're here competing, but at the end of the day,

we're all in this together.

♪ ♪

- so I want to go over

and trace the piece of puzzle.

- You help him, then we'll jump.

- Sweet. - Yep.

- Keaton really helped me out by holding my paper up.

- Dale has come over.

Everybody is mimicking what logan's already done

by starting to trace out the shape.

- It was nice how it worked out.

Everyone helped everyone else get their pattern.

- Making this template's a nice way

to have a good idea of where that size is

and everything else.

- Good? - Yeah.

♪ ♪

- I haven't really done anything this precise before.

I think I'm just gonna try and get it a little bit oversized

and sort of grind that final shape so it'll fit perfectly.

Hot behind you.

♪ ♪

my idea here is to not only draw the billet out lengthwise

but also widthwise

so that the billet doesn't become too long.

I'm feeling pretty good so far.

- There's a really big belly on the bottom of this blade,

and I'm trying to make sure that I have enough room

to put that in there.

- Well, now we've got nick on the press

on the left side of the forge.

- I don't want it to be too thin.

I know that j. Is gonna try

to beat the heck out of this knife,

and I want to have enough on the backside of this knife

to whenever he hits it, it's not gonna mess it up.

- My plan is to take it over to the press,

draw it out to about three inches shy of the length,

and then widen it to about two inches of the blade.

♪ ♪

- the first step to me is to fuller that metal out.

That's smart work.

- Overall, this is a wicked challenge.

It's hard.

I did not think that taking a round piece of steel

and making a puzzle piece was going to be this difficult.

- There's a lot of different curves

on this knife,

so I need to think to myself

strategically how to move the metal.

You can put it back,

but it's kind of like putting toothpaste back in the tube.

It's really hard.

I'm thinking the press is gonna be the best way

to lengthen and widen the metal.

- Dale rotating in.

♪ ♪

- I'm reheating and pressing.

I'm getting to the point where I notice

that I don't have enough metal

in the right areas,

and I have it thinned out too much.

[groans]

there's no way that I can recover

to meet the parameters of the knife.

If I went and tried to chase it,

it would waste a lot of valuable time

I could be going home.

♪ ♪

- I'm reheating and pressing and reheating and pressing.

I'm getting to the point where I notice

that I don't have enough metal,

and I have it thinned out too much

[groans]

so I have to start all over.

♪ ♪

- dale has ditched his original piece of steel,

and he's starting over.

- I already know that I'm behind.

I have to use my time very wisely

to play catch-up.

- So now that I'm done forging,

I need to refine things.

I head over to the belt grinder,

and I start cleaning up the blade.

- Keaton's starting to grind

some of the flat surfaces on this blade.

- I work on refining the profile,

getting that recurved-blade shape in.

- Bladesmiths! One hour has elapsed!

You have two hours remaining to finish your work!

Two hours!

- I keep going back to the puzzle

because I don't want to take off too much material

- keaton is our only smith who continues to walk up here

and trace the outline of this blade

onto his billet.

Keaton's really got the right idea here.

♪ ♪

- I'm hitting this knife over the horn of the anvil

and the curve is coming in just like I want it to.

- Looks like logan is just adding

a little bit more curve

- I stretch the handle out,

I take it over, and I look at the steel

compared with the puzzle piece,

and, crap, it's too long.

♪ ♪

- logan's somehow finding steel to cut off of this blade.

- Logan's cutting off at least four inches.

We gave these guys enough steel to make that pattern.

They really should not be removing any material.

- I don't need unnecessary amounts of metal

on the back end of this.

♪ ♪

- logan might be able to forge that shape,

but it's gonna be a mini version.

- My steel's thin,

but I think I'm gonna get pretty close

if everything ends up going well.

- Now that I have the beginning of my knife,

I need to put my template on it

so that I can draw the pattern on the blade.

- Dale's been letting his hammer go,

and he's caught up quite a bit.

- When you attack a shape you've never done before,

and it doesn't work out

you learn a lot of things

that you shouldn't be doing. - Right.

- So, when you try it again, you don't go down that road.

♪ ♪

- I'm trying to cool it down

so that I can put it into the water

without the metal cracking.

I know that that's a big no-no,

but it's a risk that I'm gonna have to take,

because I've already lost

30 or 40 minutes in the beginning.

- Putting it in the water,

there's a good possibility

he puts a bunch of stress fractures in there.

- The next thing is, grind down to my profile.

That's the most important point.

♪ ♪

- right now not real confident.

This is definitely not a blade-shaped object at all.

It looks more like a boat oar.

I mean, if I was going to go down the hudson,

I guess I'd be okay.

- Now, you can see nic's paddle.

Doug, what do you think of that shape?

- It's a spatula. [laughs]

- it's a spatula. [laughter]

- I'm struggling a little bit. It's a little hot in here.

I'm trying to catch up.

Not an excuse, you just got to adapt and overcome.

♪ ♪

- nic is struggling with this

a little bit more than I thought.

- Once I get this rough, rough profiling done,

I'm gonna head over to the grinder.

I feel like that's my strongest suit

in this whole competition.

- Bladesmiths!

Two hours has elapsed!

You got 60 minutes remaining!

- With an hour left, I want to quench,

and I want to get over to the grinder to grind.

I'm always on a time crunch at my house.

My wife does a good job of reminding me,

"hey, it's time to finish up."

and I can just hear wil willis in the back of my head--

"hey, you've got one hour!"

♪ ♪

- logan just quenched over here.

♪ ♪

- just skates right over the edge,

and I'm ecstatic.

- The large amount that logan took off concerns me.

- He might come up a little bit short.

- I've got to put in this choil,

and then that little-bitty kick on the back.

My biggest concern is finishing

before the time runs out.

♪ ♪

- so I'm at the grinder.

I look at the clock. I have 30 minutes left.

I need to get this thing in the forge

and quench it.

I'm definitely nervous

'cause I've never worked with w-1 before.

♪ ♪

- he quenched at that perfect salmon color.

♪ ♪

- it looks straight, check it for hardness,

and I'm not happy. [file scraping]

the file is not skating off the blade.

- That blade hardened up.

Listening to the file on there,

it sounded to me like he had a bunch of decarb on the blade.

- I think keaton's gonna put that back.

- Oh, boy. - Big mistake.

- So, unfortunately, I have to go back in the forge.

This is really bad because

it can develop cracks and warping.

♪ ♪

- oh, looks like keaton went for a second quench.

♪ ♪

- this time, when I pull the blade out,

it's got a bad warp in it.

So I go over to the bench, put it in the vise,

try and straighten it by hand,

and it's not where it needs to be.

♪ ♪

I got to do a third quench.

♪ ♪

- did keaton just go back in the forge?

- Yes, he did.

- So keaton going back in for a third time.

Not feeling good about his heat treat.

- The whole time, I know the clock's ticking.

I'm nervous as hell.

Just praying that it's straight.

It's got a little bit of a warp.

I'm a little bit worried,

but at this point, I'm running out of time.

I think I can grind it out.

I need to keep moving.

- 20 minutes!

20 minutes, bladesmiths!

♪ ♪

- I feel my blade is looking really good.

I'm liking my profile.

It's fitting in the puzzle.

Now I need to go quench my blade.

♪ ♪

- dale is really the come-from-behind kid here.

♪ ♪

- everything looks good, looks straight.

♪ ♪

- oh! - Oh, no!

[laughing]

- drop that anywhere.

- Time to french-fry your arm.

- Oh, boy.

- Oh, he's got oil all over his sleeve.

Now he's gonna catch on fire, this guy.

- Basically, he just turned his arm into a wick.

- I decided to sacrifice my shirt for the blade.

I felt that the blade was more important.

And luckily, I brought a second shirt with me.

I go directly back over to the grinders,

and I'm gonna just do as much material removal

as I possibly can.

- 15 minutes!

♪ ♪

- I got this profile down the way that I want it.

Might not be the exact shape that's up there,

but I'm gonna have to move forward.

I really, really need this quench to go right.

It's now or never.

♪ ♪

- nic quenched.

- I got my little jig set up to make sure it's straight.

♪ ♪

[blade clatters] - oh! That's where that goes.

- It may be hard, but it's still brittle.

♪ ♪

- there's just this big, huge crack

at the tip of my knife.

♪ ♪

I don't want to give up,

but at this point, I don't know that I can do anything.

♪ ♪

- five...Four...Three...

Two...One!

Bladesmiths, shut down your machines,

drop your tools!

This first round of competition is over!

♪ ♪

- I'm looking down at this thing,

and no matter what way I look, I see the crack.

I feel like I got a shooter's chance,

but I don't know what's gonna happen.

♪ ♪

- all right, bladesmiths.

In this first round of competition,

we asked you guys to forge the missing piece

to our "forged in fire" custom puzzle over here.

Now, we found our piece,

and it's time to check how yours fit up.

Dale, you're up first.

Please present your blade to the judges.

♪ ♪

- very close.

- All right, dale, first off,

really good job on knowing when to start over--

smartest thing you did out there.

These cracks you've got,

these multiple cracks along here,

you're gonna have to really deal with these carefully,

because this crack right here in the middle

goes halfway through this blade.

So there's no just grinding it to shape

and hoping they go away-- they're not gonna go away.

But again, I commend you

on knowing when to change your direction.

I think that was a really smart move.

- Keaton, you're up.

Please present your blade to the judges.

♪ ♪

- that's really good. It's closest.

♪ ♪

- I got a tip for you.

Before you run a file across,

take some of the scale off and then hit it with the file,

'cause I think what you were doing

was, you were just blowing through scale,

forged scale that was on there, not the hard steel underneath.

But this right here, this deep forge mark,

that's gonna be tough to get out.

But I think you're set up good.

I think you did a good job.

- All right, logan.

Let's see how your blade matches up.

Please present your weapon to the judges.

♪ ♪

- definitely a lot of gaps there.

♪ ♪

all right, logan. As you were trying to draw it out,

you cut out some steel,

so, obviously, there's not enough steel

to fill the gaps in there.

Your grinds are uneven.

If you move forward,

I'd really like to see you clean that up.

- All right, nic, you're up.

Please present your blade to the judges.

♪ ♪

- doesn't match at all.

♪ ♪

- I kind of like the shape of this.

It's just-- it's not the same shape.

You have this really pronounced ridge

and then a break,

as opposed to this almost flat line

on the back of this.

The 800-pound gorilla in the room,

other than me, is that crack.

I've seen w-1 pop like this.

It's definitely a big issue.

♪ ♪

- all right, bladesmiths.

The judges have made their final decision.

The bladesmith leaving the forge is...

♪ ♪

nic.

Unfortunately, your blade doesn't make the cut.

Doug marcaida's gonna tell you why.

- Nic, aside from the open crack

that you have in your blade,

this challenge was all about

forging a blade that would fit into our puzzle,

and your blade didn't do that.

It's for those reasons we're sending you home.

- Nic, please surrender your blade.

- They made the right decision.

I'm a little disappointed.

I didn't really want to go home first,

but it was the wrong shape.

Didn't quite make it out

to the size that it needed to be.

Getting to have this experience was definitely

a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,

and I wouldn't change anything.

♪ ♪

- bladesmiths, congratulations.

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

The additional stipulation in this round

is that you must use at least two different types

of handle material on each side

of the tang for your blades to create that handle.

You have just two hours in this round

in which to finish all that work.

That includes addressing the flaws and issues

identified in your blades.

After the time runs out in this round,

your blades will be tested for strength and durability

in a bone chop

and for edge retention in an apple slice.

And then based on their performance in those tests

and your overall craftsmanship,

one of you will be selected to surrender your blade

and leave the forge.

Gentlemen, your two hours starts now.

♪ ♪

two hours to work out the issues with the blades

and get them ready for testing by attaching handles to 'em.

That's two different materials on both sides.

- The first thing I do is head back to the grinder.

My idea here is just to get everything

as flat as possible.

- Keaton's got to clean up his blade.

He's got that really deep forge mark on that one side.

♪ ♪

- I'm giving myself about 30 minutes

to take care of these issues.

And from there, I'm gonna move on

to finding materials for my handle.

♪ ♪

- I'm trying to correct some of the issues

that I have on my blade-- one of them being

just a wonky profile.

- Logan has to fix the grinds that he has.

They're very uneven.

- I think I'm gonna finish strong,

but I really don't know.

I'm mostly concerned with the clock.

- When you're on the grinder, it just eats up so much time.

The main thing that I have to address

is that I have five cracks in my blade.

- He would be very wise--

open those cracks up so he gets deep penetration

on any welding he does on that.

♪ ♪

- so I went ahead and ground 'em out a little bit,

welded 'em up.

Now I'm just getting everything flat.

I feel like I'm in an okay spot right now.

I start grinding my blade down to its profile,

and I'm noticing that the cracks are still appearing.

[bleep].

♪ ♪

this has become a problem.

Have to grind the cracks out and hope that I get 'em fixed.

- Concerns me that dale had to go back

and open 'em up again, and reweld them again.

♪ ♪

- I go back to the grinder,

and I notice that I have two more cracks

oh, [bleep].

I don't have time for this.

I need to get this fixed.

If I don't, then I'm automatically gone.

♪ ♪

this is make it or break.

♪ ♪

- I start grinding back down to my profile,

and I notice that I have two more cracks.

Oh, [bleep].

Now I have to go back for a third time.

[judges groaning] - oh, no.

- The more he was grinding, it was exposing more cracks.

- I hope this will be the last time

I'm gonna have to weld.

[bleep].

♪ ♪

- all the bevels on this blade look great.

It's pretty straight now. I'm happy with it.

So I can finally get to my handle.

I'm thinking in the back of my head,

"g10 is a pain in the butt to drill.

Horn is not gonna work."

I look up, and I see this red piece of wood,

and it's got two holes already drilled into it.

I'm gonna use that as the first part

of my handle material.

The other one, I just grab linen micarta

'cause it usually holds up really well.

I like to take my time.

For me, I would rather turn in a somewhat unfinished handle

and know that it's not gonna break

than to turn in a handle that's put together well,

but the glue didn't set,

and the second they chop something, crack.

♪ ♪

- I'm feeling pretty good.

I was able to get most of the hammer blow out.

There's still a little bit left right there, obviously,

but I don't want to go too thin for the strength test.

- The only thing that we're really worried about

with keaton's blade is that deep hammer mark

and his heat treat.

- Now I'm going to move on to my handle.

This is really the puzzle part.

Getting everything to fit and line up

is the hardest part about this.

I cut out my handle scales,

and then I match them up together

by clamping them, I save time

because I don't have to grind them individually.

I don't really know what kinds of wood I went with.

I just went with different colors

to make it look like a puzzle.

- Bladesmiths! 60 minutes has elapsed.

That is half the time in round two.

One hour.

- I know that time is getting short.

I know I got to deal with my handle.

I know I need two different handle materials,

so I just go grab two big, thick pieces of wood

and figure I'm just gonna grind it all away.

♪ ♪

- so I have everything glued up.

Got everything where it needs to be

with a solid mechanical connection.

In the larger piece here, I have two pins going through.

Smaller piece, I have one.

Theoretically, it should be solid.

- Keaton's got a nicely shaped blade,

it fit into our puzzle well.

- I think keaton will get by with that one deep hammer mark.

- The next step is gonna be sharpening

and then shaping the handle.

♪ ♪

- 15 minutes, bladesmiths!

- My goal with the handle is just make it nice and smooth.

Keep it skinny.

- Man, that looks nice.

♪ ♪

- my cracks are gone. I have my handle glued on.

Everything looks good.

Now all I have to do is get my handle done.

- I think dale's shaping his handle already.

♪ ♪

- there we go.

- Five minutes, bladesmiths.

You have less than five minutes remaining

to finish your work.

- When I'm making knives, there's times I wing it,

and there's times I don't.

The second I got over to that grinder,

it's winging it.

I've got to make this handle feel good.

- We've got logan doing some hand-sanding.

- He's doing the old airport shoeshine technique.

- As I get closer and closer and closer,

I grab it, and I went, "that's a handle."

- five...Four...Three...

Two...One.

Bladesmiths, shut down your machines, drop your tools.

This second round of competition is over.

- Finally, the clock stops.

I put down my knife,

and I'm not gonna lie-- I'm really nervous.

Bone chops are not kind on blades.

But I think that if it survives j. Neilson's hand,

I'll be okay.

- Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test...

The bone chop.

Now, to test your edge-holding ability

and overall construction of your blades,

I am going to, with great joy and violence,

beat your blades into these bones

and try to get all the way through them.

Now, I really don't care what your blades do to the bones,

if they get through them or not.

I want to see what the bones are gonna do to your blades.

Logan, you're up first. You ready to go?

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

♪ ♪

- we're about to do the bone chop.

♪ ♪

my blade looks like it's got a good hardness,

but have you ever seen j. Neilson swing a blade?

He could hit that bone and snap.

- [grunts]

♪ ♪

[grunting]

♪ ♪

- okay, logan, let's start with your handle.

The best feature about the handle

was the finger well here.

So I was able to pretty much lock in on that.

Your blade, on the other hand,

stayed straight,

but you got several actual tears in the metal.

And there's a bunch of chewed-up spots in the middle.

So problem with the heat treat.

But overall, you survived.

Good job. - Thank you, sir.

- All right, keaton. How you feeling?

- Little nervous. - Little nervous?

- Yep. - I feel fine.

- Let's do it. - [laughs] let's do it.

♪ ♪

going in the bone chop, seeing the testing in person,

it's way more brutal than you think.

I'm pretty nervous about mine breaking.

♪ ♪

- [grunting]

♪ ♪

keaton, couple things.

You can see your edge rolled over.

So there's an issue with the heat treat.

It's got a couple chew points.

The handle, you lost...

Part of your bolster material.

But overall, it stayed straight and in line.

Good job. - Thank you.

- All right, dale. Last one to go. You ready?

- Ah, yeah, since I'm the last one,

there's no one else.

Let's do it. - [laughs]

♪ ♪

- I feel very confident.

I have a decent edge on my blade,

but I know that my blade had five cracks,

and I'm hoping that I got them all addressed

and my blade holds up.

♪ ♪

right now, I'm a little bit nervous.

♪ ♪

- I know that my blade had five cracks,

and I'm hoping that I got them all addressed,

and my blade holds up.

♪ ♪

- okay, dale, on the plus side,

you got through the first bone, no problem.

Bad side is, you got no knife now.

Your grain structure actually looks very good.

But if you look on this side,

there's that dark spot right there.

You had a stress fracture in there

that the bone just opened up completely.

But you got through one bone,

and you never quit, so good on you.

- Thank you.

♪ ♪

- dale, your blade has suffered a catastrophic failure

in the first strike in our strength test

and can no longer continue with testing.

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

shake your competitors hands,

and then exit the forge to the right.

- This experience has been really good for me.

I may not be a "forged in fire" champion,

but I know that I gave it my all

and my best and I never quit.

When I go home, I'm gonna get back in the shop

and make more knives.

♪ ♪

- logan, keaton, congratulations.

You guys have made it

to the final round of this competition.

Now it's time to send you back to your home forges

to re-create an iconic weapon from history...

♪ ♪

the japanese ono.

Oh, yes. [rim shot]

and here to tell you more about it,

historic weapons re-creation specialist david baker.

- The japanese ono was a long battle-ax

used by the samurai warriors during the 17th century.

Measuring nearly six feet long,

these intimidating poleaxes

were used to destroy barricades

and smash opponents' armor.

After becoming feudal japan's official police force

during the edo period,

the samurai used their ono to keep the peace,

which they accomplished for over 250 years.

Gentlemen, your final challenge is to forge a japanese ono

that falls within the following parameters.

The overall length of this weapon

must be between 58 and 60 inches.

It is a double-headed ax blade,

and the larger head of this blade

must measure between seven and nine inches.

- Never heard of it. Never seen it.

I'm a little bit worried

about figuring out how to make the whole thing

out of one piece 'cause it's pretty big

and it's kind of an awkward shape.

So it's gonna be a tough challenge.

- You'll have four days at your home forges

in which to complete all this work.

After that, you'll return

and present your weapons to our judges,

and then they'll test the hell out of them.

And then based on your craftsmanship

and your weapon's performance,

they'll declare one of you the "forged in fire" champion,

who also earns a check for $10,000.

Good luck. We'll see you in four days.

- Good luck, man.

♪ ♪

[hammer clangs]

- we are in bryan, texas,

and I am making a japanese ono.

My goal is to maybe get it lengthened

to the length parameters

and then see how much steel I have left to work with.

[machine whirring]

I've almost got it to the width that I want it.

Once I get it shaped and straightened,

I'm gonna cut what extra I don't need off,

and I'm gonna stack that in my billet

to draw out the edge portion.

♪ ♪

and now it's time to forge it all together.

♪ ♪

so mainly what I'll do tomorrow

is start with working this area right here.

I'd like to fatten this out,

and then I'll be happy with this for the most part.

♪ ♪

[hammer clangs]

- so it's the final round. I'm back here on nantucket.

I'm gonna make a japanese ono.

So I start by trying to widen the steel

with the drawing hammer,

and I realize it's gonna make my ax way too thin.

So I take the bar of steel,

and I'm just hitting it into the anvil.

So, if I upset it, it'll get fatter,

and then I can draw it wider from that thickness.

♪ ♪

not only is it getting thicker,

but I'm also starting to get that crescent shape

that I'm looking for.

♪ ♪

so it's the end of day one.

I got both of these ax heads

pretty much completely forged out.

I didn't have any "oh, [bleep]" moments today,

but you never know-- there could be one coming up.

- I feel like today's gonna be a good day.

I'm gonna go ahead and clean up the piece.

I'm gonna set all my weld lines with the welder

and create a scarf weld

so I can bring out more of the head of the ax.

So I'm gonna draw it out a little bit both ways

and see how well they stuck.

♪ ♪

[machine whirring]

♪ ♪

I start noticing cracks. My welds aren't welded up.

And as I'm just grinding and grinding and grinding,

I see I've only got a 16th of steel left.

♪ ♪

[bleep].

My blade broke. It shattered.

Kind of disappointed right now.

The forge welds never stuck.

The original piece was all that held on.

I've got to start over.

I've got to find something to turn in.

♪ ♪

trash.

♪ ♪

this is not what I planned.

♪ ♪

- I start noticing cracks.

My welds aren't welded up.

And I see I've only got a 16th of steel left.

♪ ♪

[bleep].

My blade broke. It shattered.

♪ ♪

the forge welds never stuck.

The original piece was all that held on.

I've got to start over

I've got to find something to turn in.

♪ ♪

I've got plenty of time to at least turn in something ugly.

So I've got some spring steel, and we're gonna go from there.

♪ ♪

[machine whirring]

it's going good.

Tomorrow I have to finish the small head.

I've got to shape the big head,

and then the rest of the day I can start working

on the handle.

- It's the start of day three.

I was not able to quench last night.

I need to quench this thing as soon as possible

because I'm running out of time.

♪ ♪

I did it!

Nice and straight.

♪ ♪

ah, this is great. Dude, I'm so happy.

It's time to do some casting.

I'm casting the heart ornaments

that are gonna go around the holes in the ax.

Artistry and craftsmanship are very important to me,

so I want to incorporate that.

I put some bronze in the crucible,

get the bronze melting.

♪ ♪

I pull 'em out, cool 'em off in some water.

It's just looking really good.

Perfect.

- It's the morning of day three.

It's going okay, considering the fact

I had to restart yesterday.

Hopefully just finish drawing out the little head

and then start drawing out the big head.

♪ ♪

I've got a small ax head. I'm happy with that.

I got to finish shaping it, then go along the big one.

[machine whirring]

I'm actually kind of happy it fell apart at this point.

It's coming out a lot better. It's working a lot better.

I think it was meant to be.

♪ ♪

I've almost got the shape of my head,

so I'm gonna stick it in the forge real quick,

heat it up, and then we're gonna go for a quench.

♪ ♪

big side first.

♪ ♪

now I'm about to quench the smaller part.

Too hot, too hot, too hot, too hot, too hot, too hot.

♪ ♪

[files scraping] like music to my ears.

End of day three.

Honestly, I'm just happy

that I'm gonna be turning something in.

- So it's the start of day four.

Got the bronze hearts attached.

The ax head is pretty much done.

Shiny!

Next is figure out this handle.

Just gonna use this piece of hickory.

Got a nice, straight grain to it.

I head over to the belt grinder,

and I just start hogging off material.

I'm just trying to get it down to a manageable size

because I don't really have a lot of time.

I'm also shaving the end of the hickory

so that it'll slide into the socket of the ax head.

♪ ♪

and I got to do one more thing--

drill the hole and then put that pin in it

and peen it over.

♪ ♪

and we're done.

Am I going to be making another one of these anytime soon?

Oh, no.

♪ ♪

- logan, keaton.

Welcome back to the forge.

You fellas have had four days at your home forges

to build your onos.

Logan, how'd it go?

- I had a few "oh, no's" with my first ono.

- Okay.

- My second one came out a lot better.

My ono is made out of a dump truck leaf spring--5160.

The handle is made out of hickory.

I put a leather wrap to strengthen the neck.

It's a single pin with epoxy and a shaft.

- All right, all right. Keaton...

How do you compare?

♪ ♪

- my blade's forged out of 80crv2.

It is tig-welded to the steel socket,

and it is attached to a hickory shaft,

and then I created some bronze embellishments

to go around the heart-shaped holes in the blade.

- All right, gentlemen.

Now it's time to see whose blade

is worthy of being a "forged in fire" champion

in our strength test, a sharpness test,

and up first, doug's keal test.

Doug.

♪ ♪

- all right, bladesmiths. Welcome to the keal test.

It's time to find out

what kind of lethal damage your onos will do.

To find that out, I will take your weapon

and deliver some lethal blows on this ballistics dummy.

Let's see if your onos can be an "oh, yes!"

[chuckles] logan, you're up first.

You ready for this? - Yes, sir.

Coming into testing, my biggest fear

is that the shaft's gonna break.

But I made this ono for battle.

It is ready to keal.

♪ ♪

[chuckles]

- [breathing heavily]

♪ ♪

oh...No.

[laughs] logan.

This is a lot of fun.

The damage that you did with your design over here--

for every chop using this digs in,

on the way out, it guts you.

Pretty much opened everything

and crushed everything in its path.

More importantly, your ono is an "oh, yes."

it will keal.

- Thank you.

- Keaton, your turn, sir. You ready?

- Oh, yeah.

- Let's do this.

- Coming into testing, I'm feeling good.

I think my weapon is lightweight.

It's gonna cut well,

and I'm excited to see what this thing can do.

♪ ♪

- all right, keaton, let's talk about your ono here.

At first, when I picked it up, I was like, "oh, wow.

That's light."

but then when I wielded it, I was like, "oh, yes."

this thing stayed on. It's solid.

Your edges, they're sharp.

And that's why it dug in very deep.

Overall, sir, your ono is an "oh, yes!"

and it will keal. - Thank you.

♪ ♪

- bladesmiths.

Welcome to our strength test--

bamboo wall chop.

Now, to push your onos to the limit,

I'm gonna beat them repeatedly

against this strong, thick, springy bamboo.

Now, again, it's not what your onos do to the wall.

It's what the wall does to your onos.

Logan, how you feeling?

- Good. - Good. I feel good, too.

Let's go to it.

- I'm a little nervous about the wall chop.

I'm afraid something's gonna break on my blade.

Bamboo is tough,

and I have no clue what's gonna happen to my weapon.

♪ ♪

- [grunting]

♪ ♪

all right, logan, good job.

Your edge is still good.

Everything's still tight.

It's heavy.

The wrap makes it a little difficult to slide down

during the chop,

but everything's still tight, sharp.

Did a lot to that.

Good job. - Thank you, sir.

- Keaton, how you feeling? - Good.

Let's do it.

I feel like we're pretty much neck and neck.

We both performed really well on the keal test.

Hickory's a pretty strong material.

So, if that shaft breaks, that's it--I'm going home.

♪ ♪

- going into the strength test,

the ono is only going to be as strong

as its weakest point.

So, if that shaft breaks, that's it.

I really need to perform well in this test.

♪ ♪

- [grunting]

♪ ♪

- he's letting it go, huh?

♪ ♪

- all right, keaton, good job.

It's nice, light, fast, easy to swing.

My favorite aspect

is how you have the wood going all the way through

and split up top here.

Your edges are still good. Everything's tight.

Good job. - Thank you.

♪ ♪

- all right, bladesmiths.

Now it's time to find out how sharp they are.

This is the sharpness test.

The water tube slice.

Now, unlike the strength test,

this is all about what your edge does

to those water tubes.

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

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

- Coming into this test,

seeing how keaton performed on the wall,

I feel like I'm behind.

And I'm a little nervous at this point.

♪ ♪

- all right, logan.

That's an impressive cut-- very clean,

no jagged edges on the tubes.

Your weapon, sir, it will cut.

- Thank you, sir. - Good job.

- All right, keaton, your turn, sir.

You ready? - Yep.

- Let's do this.

- The last test is critical.

I really need it to have nice, clean cuts.

So any edge damage from the strength test

could be the difference between winning and losing.

♪ ♪

- all right, keaton, let's talk about your weapon here.

Once again, I have to mention

just how thin the profile of your blade is,

making it razor-sharp.

And the cuts are very clean.

Overall, sir, it'll cut.

- Thank you.

- All right, bladesmiths. The weapons tests are complete.

I just need to get final confirmation from them

about which of you is our "forged in fire" champion.

♪ ♪

all right. Weapons tests are complete.

Doug, is one more effective than the other?

- No, they both performed equally well.

- Okay, now let's talk

about weight, balance, and craftsmanship.

- Weight, balance, and craftsmanship

are all found in one particular weapon...

- I agree with doug.

Logan's blade is really forward-heavy.

It's a little harder to control.

- All right.

♪ ♪

all right, bladesmiths.

The judges have evaluated your craftsmanship.

You've both done incredible work here today,

but only one of you can be the "forged in fire" champion,

and that champion is...

♪ ♪

keaton. Congratulations.

You're the "forged in fire" champion.

Logan, unfortunately, your weapon didn't make the cut.

David baker's gonna tell you why.

- Logan, you brought us a beautiful weapon.

This came down to the finer details

of weight and balance

and the usability of the weapon.

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

- Yes, sir.

- Logan, that is a highly devastating weapon,

but at this time,

I have to ask you to please shake our hands

shake your competitor's hand, and please exit the forge.

Come on forward, my friend.

♪ ♪

- I'm happy for keaton, but I'm disappointed.

I broke my first blade the first two days in,

so, I mean, being able to crank something out

in 23 hours, I'm happy with it.

Moving forward, I'm going to continue headstrong.

I may not be a "forged in fire" champion,

but I'm happy that I made great friends.

- Keaton, that beautifully crafted

and deadly ono has earned you the title

of "forged in fire" champion,

and that's a title that comes with a check

for $10,000.

Good job, brother.

♪ ♪

is that your smiling face?

- [laughs] - 'cause you look like

you're in pain right now. - No, I'm excited.

- All right. Come on forward and shake our hands, my friend.

- "forged in fire" champion-- I did it.

This experience has been great.

It was definitely a challenge.

The biggest thing I took away from this

was just work hard, keep going,

no matter what happens.

♪ ♪