Original subtitles

[rock music]

‐ Here in The Forge,

we've seen the best of the best win this competition.

But during the next two weeks, four bladesmiths...

are in for a very special event.

Welcome to the Summer Forging Games.

What you've signed up for is an extravaganza

like nothing we've ever had in The Forge before.

There will be four events throughout this competition,

and in each event, the judges will assign ranks,

first through fourth place.

So that by the end of the fourth event,

the points total leader will be crowned

our Summer Forging Games champion

who walks out of here with a check for $15,000.

The Summer Forging Games start here.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

‐ My name is Gene Click,

I'm from Sevierville, Tennessee.

I'm 42 years old, and I own a fitness and martial arts

Brazilian jiu‐jitsu academy.

I'm so excited to be here.

I mean, this is "Forged in Fire," man.

My kids watch it with me.

To be able to compete in these forging games, it's amazing.

That's an exciting thing. I'm super stoked.

♪ ♪

‐ My name's Chad Kennedy, I'm 34 years old.

I'm from Holliday, Texas,

and I'm a welder in the oil field.

Sometimes in my line of work I have to hurry and work fast

and still do a quality job that's not gonna fail.

The pressure from those kind of situations

are the most relatable thing I could've had to this situation

where we're under a lot of pressure to make something

functional in a very short amount of time.

♪ ♪

‐ My name's Gary Bird, I'm an information technology

specialist for the state of California.

Working with metal was completely new.

I learned how to weld, build my own forge.

It's just been a really exciting journey.

I really wanted to challenge myself

and come on "Forged in Fire" to see

how I could do under the time constraints.

♪ ♪

‐ My name's Matt Bayman, I'm 41 years old,

and I'm a union pile driver.

I enjoy mechanics and building stuff as a fabricator.

Naturally, I saw a power hammer and had to build one.

And that really kicked it off.

I just lose myself and I find myself in that moment.

And that's the beauty of it for me.

‐ Bladesmiths, welcome to The Forge.

You're here for a very special event.

We're gonna be asking you guys to pit your skills

against the steel, against the clock,

against the challenges, and, of course,

against each other,

all in front of a panel of expert judges.

Let's go ahead and meet your judges now.

Up first, ABS master smith J. Neilson.

Next, historic‐weapons re‐creation specialist

David Baker.

And last, Kali martial artist Doug Marcaida.

Bladesmiths, what you've signed up for is an extravaganza

like nothing we've ever had in The Forge before.

Welcome to the Summer Forging Games.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Here's how this is gonna work.

There will be four events throughout this competition,

and in each event, you will be required to forge

a blade from its inception to completion,

and it will be evaluated for craftsmanship

and tested for performance by our judges.

Then they will assign ranks, first through fourth place.

In event one, a first place finish is worth ten points.

Second place finish is worth six points.

A third place finish is worth three,

and a fourth place finish is worth just one point.

If you don't finish your blades,

if you miss the parameters on your blades

or if your blade fails during testing,

you'll be awarded no points and still move on

to the next round, so don't be disheartened.

You can still win even with a scratch at the start.

‐ This is cool because each event

is a lot like Brazilian jiu‐jitsu tournaments.

You'll compete in a round robin format,

so say you drop the ball, you lose your first match.

Well, you get an opportunity to‐‐to fight yourself

back into the final round.

That's an exciting thing. I'm super stoked.

‐ If you look to our scoreboard over here on the wall,

we will carry over points from event to event,

so that by the time the fourth event has wrapped,

the points total leader will be crowned

our Summer Forging Games champion

who walks out of here with a check for $15,000

and this Damascus medal.

This isn't a winner‐take‐all competition.

Second place will get the brass medal and $4,000.

Third place gets the copper medal and $1,000.

And the only guy that's gotta leave here with no dough

is the fourth place finisher.

There will be no elimination at the end of this event.

The individual with the least number of points after our

second event will be eliminated from this competition.

We're gonna go ahead and get this started.

Your first event.

On your anvils, there's a cloth.

Go ahead and lift that up.

♪ ♪

Gentlemen, that is a railroad spike

and a piece of 1095 high carbon steel.

In the first event of this competition,

you will have three hours

to combine those two steels together to create a blade

that is between eight and ten inches in length.

There will be no additional material

provided to you in this round.

At the end of the three hours, we'll be testing your blades

in a boxing ring turnbuckle chop and a rope slice.

♪ ♪

Good luck, bladesmiths. Your three hours starts now.

♪ ♪

This is a really unique event

that we have going on in The Forge right here.

We've got these guys competing in four different events

where they will make four different weapons,

and then they're gonna tally scores

throughout those four events. The high score wins.

‐ This is the first time

we're not getting rid of a smith per challenge.

‐ Right.

‐ And even if somebody just flops on the first one,

they can make up in those other challenges

and try to get ahead.

‐ I'm going straight over to the welder

to put a handle on that 1095 and get it in the forge.

‐ I feel pretty good about the challenge.

You just turn out your best work every time,

and whatever happens is what happens.

While I'm waiting on my steel to heat up,

I'm over on the grinder.

If I don't get this railroad spike clean,

there's gonna be a layer of scale

in between the 1095 and the railroad spike.

♪ ♪

‐ So these guys have to combine the railroad spike

and a piece of 1095 high carbon steel.

What do you expect to see?

‐ I would expect to see somewhat of a San Mai.

You're not getting parameter length

by doing a standard San Mai spike,

so split it down the middle a bit,

forge down the high carbon steel, taper it in,

and then start forming the rest of the blade.

♪ ♪

‐ So normally, if you have three hours to make the knife,

and then you have more time to add the handle

and actually sharpen the knife.

Today, we're gonna have to make the knife in three hours

from beginning to end, so this is gonna be

a really big challenge.

I think the key to success for me is‐‐

is gonna be to stay calm, try and plan my work,

and get through the event with a useable knife.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm here to win the Damascus medal

of the Summer Forging Games,

'cause there's only of them out there,

and I want it going back to my house.

‐ Holding that top place is gonna be hard to do.

I mean, you've got four competitors

out here with a lot of skill.

‐ I'm a natural‐born competitor, man.

I've competed my whole life.

It's a chance for me to prove something to myself

and win this thing.

This blade has to be between eight and ten inches,

as far as our parameters. So I see horribly.

So I'm gonna take some tape, take my ruler,

take myself off nine inches,

that's gonna give me an inch either way to play.

I don't have to look at measuring tape,

I don't have to look at anything.

All I have to do is look at this piece of tape,

that piece of tape, and make sure my blade

is right there, and I'm golden.

I made my ruler Gene‐proof.

♪ ♪

‐ No one's out on the first day if they have a bad day.

You still have a second chance to move forward.

I want all those points every round.

I wanna go home with the big bucks.

That's what I came here to do.

‐ Matt starts whaling on the anvil.

‐ I'm just gonna start pounding this thing out

once it's at forge‐welding temperature, get a good weld,

profile it out, try to be in and out real quick.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm welding the 1095 to the railroad spike.

I got them the same size.

‐ The main thing is, regardless of what you're building,

is that first weld.

That weld between the high carbon and the railroad spike.

‐ As long as I've got it cleaned and hot,

I ought to have a clean forge weld.

Otherwise, my blade's gonna split in half.

♪ ♪

‐ Chad is not hesitating

to just beat the hell out of that piece of steel.

‐ I like that.

‐ That's the worst thing you could do it.

And so when that thing doesn't split apart,

I know I've got a really good weld.

♪ ♪

‐ One hour has elapsed.

You have two hours left in this event.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm gonna work my pieces separately.

My goal is to take the railroad nail, draw that out,

and get it ready for your handle,

and then I'm gonna take my 1095,

draw it out to the parameters,

and then make these buddies best friends.

I gotta make sure that I'm giving them a strong knife,

a sharp knife, and a usable knife.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm trying to get a nice, flat billet.

I'm gonna can cut through the railroad spike,

make a San Mai out of it.

Once I flatten them out, I'll have three pieces

of flat steel that I can then forge together.

I like San Mai for the aesthetic and for the function.

On the aesthetic, after you etch the knife,

you see the layers in the knife.

And for the function, you have a nice durable blade.

♪ ♪

‐ I feel like my welds are set.

Now I can really make things happen.

Big Blu is a beautiful goddess on the floor.

Everybody's in love with her

once they get to dance with her.

Starting to draw it out,

and I realize that I'm about an inch short.

♪ ♪

Parameters are everything.

So what I do is I use my hammer,

and I start creating the bevels,

and that's gonna give me the steel where I need it.

♪ ♪

‐ Steel is nice and hot. It's time to forge weld.

If I try to do this at the wrong temperature,

there's a big risk that I won't be able to

forge weld the steel together.

♪ ♪

I'm having difficulty setting my forge weld.

I have some delamination in the handle.

Parameters don't say how much railroad spike you need,

so I'm just gonna go with the small amount

that I have forge welded together,

and grind off the steel that did not get forge welded.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm working my steel, and I'm feeling good.

I'm checking the clock, and I'm, like,

"Man, this is gonna be a breeze."

[bleep].

I realized that I screwed myself in my parameters,

'cause I'm an inch short on my blade.

Do I start over? Do I just start from scratch?

I don't know what to do at this point.

I grab a fullering tool and I start taking that tang

and start trying to draw that metal out.

But I don't wanna thin this blade out too much.

So I realize that I have to use the railroad spike

to improve the strength of my tang.

‐ Those two pieces of railroad spike,

he's basically just gonna pop them on like scales

and forge weld them in place. ‐ Okay.

‐ Which really is last‐ditch effort,

'cause it wasn't his plan.

‐ One of the cool things about being a blacksmith

is you become a black belt in workarounds.

If I don't have it, I'm gonna heat some steel up

and make the damn thing.

‐ Bladesmiths! Two hours has elapsed!

♪ ♪

‐ Looking at Matt's blade here,

it does look like he's got a little bit of width

on the terminating point of that tang.

‐ It flares just a little bit, might be enough to just keep it

in your hand, and you know. ‐ Might be.

‐ There's not gonna be any handles,

'cause there's not gonna be any handle wraps.

There's not gonna be anything like that in this round.

So the integral handle,

it's the best way to balance out a big chopper blade.

So what I do is I'm leaving the spine

and the underbelly of that handle thick.

It's heavy, it's chunky,

but it feels just right in my hand.

Just trying to contour it, keep it real tight.

I don't want a bunch of handle.

I want J. to like it.

I want everybody to like it that swings it.

I'm most worried right now that my hair's not perfect.

Other than that, everything is good.

‐ Well, it looks like Chad‐‐

he's gonna do an edge quench, right?

‐ I think so.

♪ ♪

‐ Pull it out, everything looks good.

Test it with a file, it's good.

I've still got plenty of time left,

but I still have a lot of steel that I need to remove,

and I still gotta get an edge on this thing,

and it's off to the grinder.

♪ ♪

‐ My blade is starting to look more like a knife.

The delams are looking better.

I still have some that are visible.

I don't wanna take too much steel off.

Since we aren't putting handle material on,

I need to leave enough material on the handle itself

so it can comfortably be gripped.

So I make the decision to go ahead and heat‐treat.

This is where all that hard work could go away

if you come out with cracked steel

or a big bend in the steel.

♪ ♪

If I blow apart one of these delaminations,

at best, I might get one point, at worst, I could get zero.

So my success hinges on this moment.

♪ ♪

The file skates across the surface,

my welds look good to me,

and I can move on to the grinder and do the finish work.

♪ ♪

‐ Matt just quenched his blade.

I don't notice him having any problems right now,

so hopefully things are straight.

‐ This event is unlike anything I was expecting.

I have one chance to get everything done.

I don't wanna hand a turd to the judges.

I want my knife to stand out.

I want those points.

‐ Ten minutes!

‐ I'm looking at that clock and I'm thinking,

"Jesus, and I haven't even quenched this thing."

I think my forge welds stuck.

If they're good, they're gonna stay,

if they're not, the whole world's gonna know.

So I'm crossing my fingers on my scales,

and it's off to get my blade quenched.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Boom. Big flame. That wasn't a good heat treat.

Gotta go back, which I hate doing,

because you're gonna add

so much more stress to the blade.

But [bleep], man, I can't turn in a soft blade.

♪ ♪

No explosion in my face, which is always a plus.

Grab the file, it skates. It's off to the grinders.

‐ 30 seconds!

♪ ♪

‐ I realize I'm not gonna be able to get

this thing where I need it.

So I just start moving the steel as much as I can

and then I go underneath to hit the slack belt

to try to bring myself a nice, concave edge

that's gonna hold up more to‐‐ to chopping.

‐ Five, four, three, two, one!

Bladesmiths, stop what you're doing.

Shut down your machines.

The timed portion of this first event is over!

‐ I finished this damn thing.

It's got an edge, it's met parameters.

The stupid railroad nail is on the handle,

and I'm ready to see Doug smash this thing.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, bladesmiths.

Welcome to our first test of the Summer Forging Games.

The boxing ring post chop and rope slice.

♪ ♪

Now to test the overall construction of your weapon,

I will bash them with these corner posts

and then try to cut these ropes.

Now remember, after this test, we're gonna be placing

your blades from first place to fourth place.

It depends on how well they're crafted,

and how well they perform.

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

‐ Yes, sir. ‐ Let's do this.

‐ Going first puts me in the bull's‐eye.

It basically sets the measuring stick

for the other three bladesmiths.

If my blade goes in and it just explodes,

it's a wide open door for them to just move forward.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

All right, Gene, let's talk about your weapon.

The design of your handle is comfortable.

But the one thing is that you have some delaminations

that actually stick out.

That's a big issue right there.

Now, it did not affect me in swinging or cutting.

But I can see if you're not careful,

when you move your hands around,

it can be an issue.

There are some chips,

damage done to your edge while bashing into that.

But it did not affect its ability

to cut the rope and chop through.

Overall, sir, it is a weapon well‐constructed,

sharp, and strong. Good job.

‐ Thank you, sir. ‐ All right, Chad.

Your turn, sir. You ready?

‐ Yes, sir. ‐ Let's do this.

‐ I'm thinking, best case scenario,

I don't have any blade damage and it cuts through both

the ropes after the turnbuckle and the post.

But after seeing Gene's have some edge damage,

I'm wondering if I'm gonna have the same problem.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

‐ Good job, dude. ‐ Cool.

♪ ♪

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

First up, the handle construction.

I like the way it feels right here.

Now, your edge.

On the strength test, it did take some chips,

and you have a significant roll here

where you can actually feel it, but it did not affect

its ability to slice through the rope and chop through.

Overall, well‐constructed and sharp.

Good job, sir. ‐ Thank you.

‐ All right, Gary, your turn, sir.

Ready? ‐ Yes.

‐ Let's do this.

‐ Doug has my blade in his hand.

My knees are a little shaky, my hands are a little sweaty.

I'm even questioning whether they're gonna test it or not,

'cause I did have some delamination.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[tense pulsing music]

♪ ♪

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

Your handle construction.

You have some delaminations here.

If you look at this corner right here,

if you go against it, it actually is quite sharp

Now, your edge.

You have an obtuse edge, almost like an axe head here.

Which lends itself to be actually a chopper.

It was getting caught into the wood right there

when I was smashing into it.

There is no rollovers, just glinting.

But when I attempted to slice the rope,

it actually did lacerate the rope,

but not deep enough to cut all the way through.

And you can tell by my ability to rub through this,

it's not razor sharp.

But it is sharp enough to chop through the rope.

Overall, it's a strong blade, and it is sharp.

All right, Matt. Your turn, sir.

Ready?

‐ Yes, sir. ‐ Let's do this.

‐ The way I feel right now? Anxious, uncertain, nervous.

I mean, I'm kind of a mess inside.

But I'm extremely excited.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

‐ All right, Matt, let's talk about your weapon here.

First up, the handle construction.

It's smooth, but there seems to be a hot spot there

when I grab onto it tightly. Your edge is obtuse.

It chopped into the wood, and there was just glinting.

No chips, no rolls.

It's sharp enough to slice the rope

and chop right through it.

A strong blade, a sharp blade.

‐ Thank you, sir. ‐ Good job.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, gentlemen,

this first event in the Summer Forging Games is complete.

Your blades have been constructed,

they've been tested, and now the judges need to

place your blades in rank order.

And for that, we're gonna need to deliberate

right here on The Forge floor, so if you don't mind,

we're just gonna take a minute. Thank you very much.

‐ I'm feeling pretty good that my blade

didn't just bust apart.

I feel like, you know, it's anybody's game still.

Right now, I'm hoping that

I'm anywhere in the middle of the pack,

uh, to maybe even being at the top.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, judges.

Our bladesmiths' weapons have been tested.

We've gotta place these things from first place

to fourth place and award the guys the points.

We're gonna start with anvil number one, Gene's blade.

‐ All right.

With Gene's blade, it performed well on the sharpness test.

It cut the rope, and it chopped right through it.

The issue I have is with his handle right here,

having that sticking out. That's a big issue right there.

‐ Wow.

On anvil number two, we had Chad.

What do you think?

‐ Right off, I like the dimension of Chad's blade.

The welds are really nicely done.

I like the fact that he's taken the time

to round off every single edge.

Everywhere you're going to be holding onto this blade

is smooth and rounded, which is great.

The effort was made to make it comfortable in the hand.

‐ All right, we're gonna move on to Gary.

What do you think?

‐ [sighs]

It's uh‐‐ Gary's knife's unfinished.

Yes, it has an edge, and yeah, you can hold on to it.

But the biggest issue I have with this

is having these sharp points back here in the handle.

It didn't cut Doug in the tests,

but, uh, it's waiting to cut somebody.

And last, on anvil number four, is Matt.

‐ In terms of the test,

this edge took the least damage,

and did cut the rope and chop through the ropes.

‐ All right, gentlemen.

We've seen the blades tested, I've heard your critiques.

Now it's time to rank our bladesmiths

from first place to fourth place in this first event.

J.?

‐ For me, Chad would be first, Matt, second,

Gene, third, and Gary, fourth.

‐ Doug, what do you think?

‐ I would switch between Chad and Matt,

simply because Chad did take a chip and damage to his blade,

whereas Matt did not.

‐ All right, Dave.

You're the tiebreaker in this one.

‐ [sighs] It's a tough choice.

I'm‐‐I'm looking at a better‐smithed blade

and the one that didn't take damage.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

‐ All right, bladesmiths.

Your blades were tested, they've been evaluated.

The judges have deliberated, and here are the standings.

In fourth place, we've got Gary earning one point.

In third place, Gene, you earned three points.

And our first place competitor...

♪ ♪

Is Chad. You've got ten points, buddy.

Matt, that leaves you with six.

Everybody's done fantastic work,

and now it's time for our second event.

All right, gentlemen.

Over here on our pantry shelves,

we've got stacks of 15N20 and 1095 steel.

What does that mean, gentlemen?

all: Damascus.

That's right. This is a Damascus challenge.

And it's gonna be made even more tough,

because in our second event,

you're not making just one blade,

you're making two throwing knives

that must be between 11 and 13 inches overall,

from tip to the end of your handle.

You'll have just three hours in this round

in which to complete all that work, and after this,

we'll be testing your throwing knives in a throwing test.

I remind you,

the individual with the least number of points after

this event will be eliminated from this competition.

Gentlemen, do your best. Your three hours starts now.

♪ ♪

Event one knives: Gone, out, off the table.

Doug, talk to me.

‐ The thing about having our Summer Forge Games

is that they're multiple events.

Gary and Gene should just get first event out of their heads.

That was just a warm‐up, if anything.

They're gonna get a chance to do it again.

‐ I've never made a throwing knife,

so today's gonna be my first and second throwing knives.

I'm coming into event two with three points,

which isn't ideal.

I'm in third, so I'm gonna have to pick up some slack.

I'm taping up my ruler so I can't screw up my parameters.

All I gotta do is stay between these two blue lines,

and I'm golden.

♪ ♪

‐ My goal for every event is to get as many points as I can,

and so I'm just gonna do my best work,

and hopefully it'll turn out all right for me.

‐ Chad was our frontrunner coming out of our first event.

He's got ten points, putting him four points ahead

of any other competitor.

‐ So we have to make Damascus.

The trick is, now we have three hours,

and we have to make two knives, so it's gonna be a challenge.

If you start with good steel, it makes it a‐‐

a better possibility of getting good welds.

So the only kind of throwing weapon I've ever made before

was a tomahawk, and that's not at all the same.

I designed kind of a throwing knife.

Got a good tip on it, um, but it's also gonna have

a lot of meat so that you can really feel it

when you're throwing it.

‐ Whatever shape or design that they decide to go with,

make it identical. ‐ Yeah.

‐ So there's some consistency to what you're throwing.

‐ Use one billet and cut it in half.

‐ That would be the way to go.

‐ Going into this second event, I'm in second place.

I feel like I should've done better.

I really wanna focus on keeping it simple,

just really trying to meet the parameters.

It's a tall order, but I feel confident in my skills.

♪ ♪

‐ I have one point right now.

I really need to take the lead on this event.

I really need to either score ten or six points,

either first or second in this event,

so I can hopefully move forward.

I only have one point.

I'm facing elimination if I don't do well in this event.

I have made throwing knives.

Key to the test is to make 'em even and the same weight.

♪ ♪

‐ So I'm satisfied with the taking of my weld.

So it's now time to dance with Big Blu.

Me and Big Blu, we got a relationship now.

You know, we're pretty tight.

I actually narrow it down in the center,

and I'm gonna draw out the handles.

At this point, everything's going great.

Couldn't be happier.

‐ So it looks like my billet's up to heat.

I'm gonna set my welds with a hammer.

It's a lot more cautious approach to me

to set it by hand, but, you know,

I can't be too careful at this point.

‐ Chad's doing a great job. ‐ Yeah.

‐ Working it nice and slow.

It's what you wanna do with the knives.

‐ I can really be particular on exactly where I hit the billet,

and not be too violent by going over to Big Blu

and just smashing the heck out of it.

♪ ♪

‐ I really need to get the billet nice and hot

so that these pieces will all forge weld together.

So I don't wanna rush this part of the process.

If they don't set, I'm not gonna be able to‐‐

to get two knives out of the steel.

‐ Gary's got the farthest to go here.

He's got the most ground to make up,

he came out of the first round with a single point.

How is he doing here?

‐ Gary's doing good so far, but he's going slow.

‐ I need to be careful. I wanna make sure I'm‐‐

you know, I don't go too‐‐ too heavy on the pedal.

‐ Gary had a‐‐

a lot of delamination issues in the first event.

And that was just two pieces of steel.

Now we have 16 plus pieces.

Let's see if he can pull it off.

♪ ♪

‐ I get my steel hot, and I‐I'm over to the press.

‐ Oh, no. His weld didn't hold.

‐ It's kinda like if you're making that big sandwich,

take a big bite, and everything comes out

the other damn end, and it's all over the floor.

‐ You can see one end of Gene's billet

is hotter than the other, and what's why he's gonna

have those seams pop open.

‐ This is a real problem.

‐ So now I'm looking at my billet.

It's not forge welded,

and I'm gonna have to figure this out right now.

I can't come in fourth,

'cause that's gonna put me out of the competition.

‐ I realize I'm rushing,

I didn't let my steel get hot enough.

All of my welds come apart.

This time, I get it really hot

then allow the width of that die to sandwich it down.

I do feel like it's starting to weld to itself,

which is the ultimate goal,

but it's gonna have to go right back in the heat.

I'm gonna have to repeat this process a few times

before I can really start drawing this out.

‐ You have just 90 minutes remaining!

‐ So I get it drawn out to 26 inches,

go over to the chop saw, cut it in half.

And so I wanna forge one at a time.

‐ I like what Chad's doing. ‐ That's a great idea.

We were just talking about here that both blades

should be symmetrical, cut it in half.

That way, it's gonna be identical.

‐ It's not tough to do two blades at once.

It's just tough to do two blades at once in three hours.

♪ ♪

‐ So this point in the event

is when it really starts to matter.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

My game plan is try to get these two knives

as similar as possible.

Now I have two identical throwing knives

at 12 inches long.

I realize that they're real heavy.

I want them heavy.

You have to throw them real hard, but man, do they stick,

and they make a really loud "thunk."

‐ Matt's really moving forward.

I mean, he's got a definite point forming

on both of those billets he's working on.

He's doing all right.

‐ I wanted to cut this in half and have two billets,

so that I have one in the forge,

I can be working on the other.

I have a little bit of‐‐ of bend in them.

I'm not‐‐ not happy with the profile,

but it is what it is at this point.

‐ Gary's got an interesting shape going on over here.

‐ Problem that we got with Gary having such thin handles,

you're gonna have a hard time holding onto them.

‐ Okay. ‐ [grunts]

I don't like my handle,

but they're pretty close to matching,

so I think they'll throw well together.

♪ ♪

‐ So I finally get my steel drawn out, cut them in half.

I wanna quench my blades early

so that's gonna guarantee me a hard edge.

I wouldn't call them knives yet.

They're more like bricks. [chuckles]

‐ Did Gene quench prematurely?

‐ Yeah, Gene didn't really have much of a shape.

It was still more of a billet.

So now that that steel's hard, it takes longer to grind.

‐ Bladesmiths, 30 minutes remaining!

‐ I feel good, but I know

that it's still really anyone's game.

I make the decision to just quench the tip,

thinking that's the only critical area of the blade.

I have one of my knives cooling down,

so what I need to do is set up another vise

at another station, so I go to the scrap bin,

and I'm gonna go find two matching pieces of angle iron.

Ow, [bleep]!

I snag the inside of my left arm.

‐ It's in the worst place.

Every time he moves, that bandage is gonna come loose.

‐ And every time you sweat, it runs right to there.

‐ It's nasty. I'm that guy.

I'm bleeding on "Forged in Fire.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm just gonna do a little bit of an edge quench.

There's no need for the tang

or the spine of the knife to be hard.

I mean, we're throwing these things around,

so you don't want them to break.

As I'm starting to finish up and realizing that they're

pretty similar to what I was shooting for,

uh, but things don't always work out

when you only have three hours.

‐ Is there a frontrunner right now?

‐ Chad. Both blades, they're beautiful.

Just the grind, the shape of the blade.

He opted to go with almost like

a Bowie style knife of throwing knife.

♪ ♪

‐ My plan is to heat treat one knife and then the other.

I'm just gonna harden maybe the last quarter of the knife,

'cause that's the part that's gonna be

digging into the wood.

‐ Gary's blade is small.

Small knives, when you throw them,

you just don't get the momentum to get‐‐have them stick.

They tend to bounce out of the target.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm feeling pretty good.

But, you know, we're down to the wire,

so I'm gonna have to keep hustling,

but I'm gonna work till the last second.

I've got the edges kinda profiled in.

It's time to start working on the handles.

I wanna present a better knife than I did in event one.

But the problem is, the buffing belt took my edge with it.

‐ Oh, boy.

‐ I don't have time to fix it, so here I am again,

uh, stuck with some bad on‐the‐spot decisions.

‐ Five, four, three, two, one!

Bladesmiths, stop what you're doing,

shut down your machines, drop your tools.

This second event is over!

♪ ♪

‐ I'm frustrated, I'm disappointed,

but I'm also relieved because I was concerned

I wasn't gonna be able to turn anything in.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, gentlemen.

Welcome to the second event test

of our Summer Forging Games,

the knife throwing triple threat.

♪ ♪

Now what I wanna learn in this test is, one,

how quickly I can adapt your knife to my throwing style.

Two, see how accurate I can get

with your knife in a short period of time.

And three, see how tough they are.

All right, Gene, you're up first.

You ready?

‐ Yes, sir. ‐ All right.

‐ Going first is tough. It's nerve‐racking.

You really kinda set the bar, low or high.

My knife is hard, it's strong,

and I just hope that he hits that tip

and it stays in one piece.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[knife clangs]

[soft dramatic music]

‐ All right. So, Gene.

Right off, a lot of weight to these.

It's a fairly classic shape overall for a thrower.

What I do appreciate is that the handles are even in size.

The handles feel the same, regardless of the knife,

which is really what I was looking for.

But when we moved to the harder target,

this knife did take a bit of damage.

And you did lose just the tip right there,

just pecked out a little bit.

But these didn't start out with a lot of point of them anyway.

But, uh, they threw well. Good job.

‐ Thank you, sir.

‐ All right, Chad, you're up. You ready for this?

‐ Yes, sir. ‐ Okay, let's do this.

‐ I feel pretty good about the knives that I've made,

but I have no idea what they're gonna do.

Honestly, I just wanna get some points in this round.

It'd be nice to get the ten points,

but if I come up with any points but one point,

it would be a win for me.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

[knife clangs]

‐ All right. So Chad, I think you nailed it.

These are a great weight, a great size,

feels super comfortable in my hand.

They match really nicely.

This is something that's super important in‐‐in throwing.

Your tips‐‐ they hit into the clay pigeons,

didn't lose any tip.

Just a great job all the way around.

Nicely done. ‐ Thank you.

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

‐ Let's do it. ‐ Okay.

‐ I'm not sure how Dave is gonna react

to the orientation of my handles.

They're a little bit thin, so I'm‐‐I'm really nervous.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

‐ All right, so right off, uh, when I looked at these,

I was, like, "Nah, I don't like them."

[chuckles]

I'm proven wrong again. [laughs]

These actually throw really good.

I did not think this skinny drop handle would throw well.

It actually feels better like that.

I was throwing them with a curve, going up into my hand,

as opposed to down.

They throw really nicely,

they got a really sharp point on them.

When it penetrates, it just buries itself really nicely.

The back of the handle‐‐

there's a couple of spots on here that I can feel.

Uh, they really drag when it left my hand,

but they threw really well, so good job.

‐ Thank you.

‐ All right, Matt. You're up next.

You ready to go?

‐ Sure. ‐ Yeah, let's do it.

‐ I see three possibilities of how this shakes out.

One, they stick. Two, they don't.

Three, they shatter into pieces and we have powder.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Nice.

[knife clangs]

‐ Nice work, dude.

‐ [exhales] Thanks, brother.

‐ So, Matt. These things are heavy.

These have what I like to call "the brick factor."

[chuckles] It's like throwing a brick.

Doesn't matter if you hit it with a point or not,

whoever you hit is going down.

The blades themselves don't quite match.

You've got one lean blade and one wider blade.

But what I do like is the handles match beautifully.

And they really fit my hand well.

They do have a very acute point.

In profile, I would've loved to have seen a‐‐

a little bit leaner, but man‐‐I mean, it's‐‐

it's hard to argue with, uh‐‐

uh, how easy it was to get accurate with these.

As far as being tough, your points are still there.

Well done. ‐ Thank you, sir.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, bladesmiths.

The second event in the Summer Forging Games is complete,

and the judges need to have a deliberation.

I remind you that after this deliberation,

the person with the lowest points

will be eliminated from the games.

Bladesmiths, we need The Forge floor.

Thank you.

‐ The only concern I have is I don't really have a say over

how the judges feel or‐‐ or what is done.

There's things I wish I would've done,

but it is what it is.

It's in the hands of the judges now.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, judges.

This is a very serious decision.

These are the Summer Forging Games.

If Gene scores just one point, he's heading home.

♪ ♪

on the end.

‐ As a matching set,

the handles are the same contour,

but the blades do not.

It doesn't have much of a tip at all.

It's kinda rounded over here.

And in the performance, it was one that,

uh, stuck least compared to the other blades.

‐ And Gene's was the only one that took any damage,

and it rolled the tip‐‐

what little tip he had rolled over.

‐ Let's move on to Chad's blades.

‐ Chad gave us some‐‐ some really well‐crafted work.

Damascus came out nice.

Tapers everywhere, nothing sharp.

I could take these out in the field and throw them,

cut up game with them, do all kinds of stuff with these.

They came out really nice.

‐ Let's talk a little bit about what Gary's done here.

This guy had to make up some ground.

How did he do?

‐ I mean, we were all looking at these, pretty goofy, like‐‐

Never seen a throwing knife with a handle like that.

Thought Gary was a little confused, at first.

But you threw them just fine, they stuck well.

They match up.

I mean, it's odd, but it's about match.

‐ Right. ‐ So, good job on him.

‐ So Matt came out of that first event

in second place with six points.

How did he do here?

‐ Off the bat, it's heavy.

You know, you're throwing‐‐ like, you said,

it's like throwing a brick.

But looking at the handles, these handles match.

The points match.

Other than that, you can also see the Damascus pattern.

But that's it.

It's not really a finely refined blade.

The saving grace,

they were accurate when you threw them.

‐ Right. ‐ All right, judges.

So let's just talk a little bit about the differences between

Gene's blades and Matt's for a second.

Neither one of them was really a clearly matched set,

but the handles matched. Blades did not.

These were heavy, Gene's were a lot lighter.

Dave, you were more accurate with these.

‐ I think this handle shape

is more conducive to an accurate throw.

‐ Okay. ‐ The wider handle shapes,

they certainly exist in‐‐ in throwing knives.

And if that's what you're used to throwing,

you'd probably be more accurate with those.

But with that rounded tip on there,

you're never gonna get them to dig very well into any target.

‐ All right, judges, I need to know.

Have you made your final decision?

‐ Oh, yeah. ‐ Let's bring in our smiths.

♪ ♪

All right, bladesmiths.

The second event in our Summer Forging Games is complete.

The judges' deliberation is complete,

and they have ranked your work.

In first place, Chad, congratulations.

That's ten more points to you, buddy,

giving you a point total of 20.

In second place, Gary. Our come‐from‐behind guy,

you came out of that first round with just one point,

and now you've made up another six points,

giving you seven total.

Our third place finisher is...

♪ ♪

Matt, congratulations. That's three points to you.

Adding to your six from the first event,

that gives you nine points total.

And our fourth place finisher is Gene.

You came in third on the first event,

and here, coming in fourth in the second event

gives you one point, for a total of four.

Gene, you came out with the least number

of points after two events.

Unfortunately, at this time, you've been eliminated

from the Summer Forging Games.

‐ My knives performed poorly.

The other bladesmiths did a better job,

and I'm cool with that.

‐ It was a good fight, man. ‐ Thank you, sir.

I've learned a lot, and I'm just excited

to go back home, put that new knowledge to work,

become a better bladesmith, and hopefully come back one day

and show these judges what I'm capable of.

♪ ♪

‐ Bladesmiths, welcome to our third event

in the Summer Forging Games.

In this third event, the points will be doubled.

However, we're not giving away those points.

Oh, no‐‐we're gonna make you work for them.

Here, in the third event,

we're gonna have you forge one of these.

♪ ♪

Next time on "Forged in Fire"...

Welcome to our third event

in the Summer Forging Games.

♪ ♪

‐ The guy to beat over here is Chad.

‐ I'm not even close to my finished dimensions.

I don't know what I'm gonna do.

♪ ♪

‐ It is still anyone's game.

♪ ♪