Original subtitles

‐ Tonight, we continue our second half

of the Summer Forging Games.

After two events...

Gene, you've been eliminated.

There are only three of you left.

♪ ♪

Which means that you're gonna come out of here

with something, but you'll wanna come out of here

the "Forged in Fire" Summer Forging Games Champion

who walks out of here with $15,000.

The Summer Forging Games continues now.

♪ ♪

[hard rock music]

♪ ♪

Bladesmiths, welcome to our third event

in the Summer Forging Games.

After two events, there are only three of you left,

which means there's good news‐‐

each one of you is going home

with at least a thousand dollars.

There's more good news‐‐ in this third event,

the points awarded for first, second, and third place

will be doubled.

20 points for first place,

12 points for second place, and six points for third place.

If you find you're a little bit behind,

this is a good time to make up ground.

However, we're not giving away those points.

We're gonna make you work for them.

Here in the third event,

we're gonna have you forge one of these.

♪ ♪

A Greek xiphos.

♪ ♪

Here to tell you more about it,

historic weapons re‐creation specialist, David Baker.

‐ The Greek xiphos is a double‐edged short sword

used by the Greek hoplites and Spartan warriors.

Carried in a baldric sword belt,

the soldiers would use these swords

as a secondary weapon when their spear

was thrown or destroyed in battle.

This leaf shaped sword was accurate and maneuverable

in close quarters,

allowing soldiers to strike past their shields.

These deadly swords can be seen wielded

in the 2004 movie "Troy."

♪ ♪

‐ We want you to demonstrate

the Summer Forging Games Champion skills

by forging us your own version of this blade.

Just make sure that it falls within

the following parameters.

The length of your blade must be

between 19 and 21 inches.

It must have a wasp‐waist, be double‐edged.

It should have a guard, a handle, and a pommel.

Over here on our pantry shelves,

we've got some pristine steel.

We're not gonna tell you what kind of steel

to forge this blade out of.

We're not even gonna tell you what technique to use.

We want you to demonstrate your utmost capability here.

Now, gentlemen, you'll have just six hours

to completely forge, shape, harden, temper,

and construct this blade so that we can test them.

But I'm not gonna tell you what the tests are.

‐ Holy moly, that's a big sword.

We only have six hours to make this thing,

and that's about six times not enough time

to finish something like this.

‐ Good luck, bladesmiths. Your six hours starts now.

♪ ♪

Never have we had smiths forge for six straight hours

a complete finale weapon.

That includes shaping the blade, shaping the handle,

and assemble their weapons.

‐ Yeah.

‐ I really need to step up my game.

I need a first or second place in this one.

I was really happy getting second place

in the second event.

I really struggled in that first event,

so I need to score some points

so I can continue to catapult up in this competition.

I see some 15N20 and 1095

that we used in the previous event.

I didn't have any problems putting that together.

It's 10 layers of each,

so it's gonna be a 20‐layer Damascus.

‐ Gary is very, very meticulous about cleaning his steel.

‐ It's paid off for him in the last challenge.

The fact that he got perfect Damascus layers welded up...

The welds are really nicely done.

So good job. ‐ Thank you.

‐ That dude can forge‐weld.

He can make a billet, no doubt about it.

♪ ♪

‐ My game plan is to take some 1095 and 15N20,

and stack them up, and then cut it and restack it.

And that way, I've got more layers.

♪ ♪

‐ Obviously, the guy to beat over here is Chad.

‐ I finished first place

in both the first and the second event,

but I can't take it easy.

Gotta get the 20 points added on on this third event

so that I can stay ahead of my competitors.

♪ ♪

‐ Going into this third event,

there's more points on the table, and I want them all.

Right now, I'm in second place.

There's only two points between Gary and I,

so I really need to come through

and try to get closer to‐‐

Chad's got a huge lead on both of us.

‐ Hopefully Matt doesn't do his best work

and I'll have a chance at getting the 20 points.

‐ Hey!

[laughter]

♪ ♪

‐ I'm choosing 1095 and 15N20. Do some Damascus.

‐ It looks like all three of our smiths

are going with the Damascus, so there's a lot

of material management, time management.

‐ Yeah, there's a lot more time on the clock than normal,

but there's a lot of complexities

to making this sword.

‐ This is a blade that we have sent smiths home

and given them five days at their home forges to create.

These guys have only six hours.

That is a testament to how hard this competition has become.

‐ The most difficult part of this build for me...

♪ ♪

Can't really put my finger on just one.

♪ ♪

‐ I get my steel to welding temp.

Now it's time to set my welds.

♪ ♪

It looks like it's going well.

I'ma cycle through that twice

and make sure it's set.

I did that last time.

It worked for me, so I'm gonna do it again.

This steel's gonna take some time to heat up,

so I head over to the pantry and find out what I'm gonna use

for the handle, the guard, and the pommel.

‐ It's smart‐‐while your steel's heating up,

don't waste time, go get to work.

‐ One hour in the third event has elapsed!

♪ ♪

‐ I'm still drawing out my billet,

trying to get it long enough to where I can forge that sword

and still have enough for a tang.

This is extremely difficult.

I mean, this is basically like a dagger,

except it's an enormous dagger.

♪ ♪

It's gotta have a leaf shaped blade

and it's gotta have four bevels on this thing.

So there's four sides that I have to grind,

four sides that I have to keep straight.

It's gonna be a challenge,

but hopefully we can get it done.

♪ ♪

‐ I totally need to differentiate myself

from my competitors.

Gonna do an integral guard, handle, and pommel.

[grunting]

‐ Matt's doing something interesting.

♪ ♪

He's doing an integral pommel and a guard.

That's really cool.

‐ It's a lot more work on my part.

A lot can go wrong.

But I think in the end, it's gonna be worth it.

♪ ♪

‐ We're coming up on three and a half hour mark

in this event, and Gary's got a bar of steel

that we usually give to guys to kick off a three‐hour event.

‐ I don't have that much time left.

Pride be damned‐‐ no matter what anyone thinks,

I need to finish this sword.

I got my billet formed,

and I'm gonna cut it into shape and grind it.

‐ He's got a great billet. He forge welded things out.

We think that his steel is homogenous,

and he's just gonna grind to shape.

‐ At least try to forge your tip and tang in.

♪ ♪

‐ I know I've got a long haul over here.

It's gonna take a while.

♪ ♪

‐ This integral handle, integral guard‐‐

it's definitely got its plus side

if everything works out right.

♪ ♪

Guess what? It doesn't work.

I'm pissed off.

‐ And here we talk about timing it.

Good initiative, bad judgment maybe.

‐ Not where I wanted to be.

I know I have enough material,

but, man, I'm just not gonna get as much guard as I wanted,

and it's a lot harder than I thought.

♪ ♪

‐ Matt hasn't even started on his blade yet,

start shaping it.

‐ Time's ticking.

I got a lot of sword to draw, way more than I thought.

I'm not even close to my finished dimension.

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

I might be starting over.

♪ ♪

‐ This integral handle, integral guard‐‐

it doesn't work.

I'm pissed off.

‐ Matt ought to change up his entire thing.

The problem I'm seeing is,

he's not going to be able to...

make that a really viable guard.

‐ He should just stretch it out and do a regular tang.

‐ Now I realize that I need to pivot

on what my original plan was.

There's not gonna be a clearly defined integral guard.

It's just gonna be more of a blade stop for your hand.

‐ If he had isolated that section earlier on

before he had drawn that billet out,

he would've had more material there to work with.

‐ Running out of time fast. I knew this was gonna be hard.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

♪ ♪

‐ Chad doing some thermocycling.

‐ I don't know what the tests are gonna be,

so I gotta prepare it for everything.

I hope the test is like, "Let's cut this silk."

Yes. [laughs]

Realistically, I know it's not gonna be something easy.

It's gonna be something brutal

because that's what J. likes to do.

♪ ♪

‐ There he is. He's in the quench.

‐ I get my blade in the oil

and I'm just gonna let this thing sit.

At this point, all I've really done

is work on my blade.

The guard, handle, and pommel‐‐

it's gonna take a long time

to get those things to fit together

and be comfortable in the judge's hand,

so I've really gotta hurry.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm going in. ‐ Gary has quenched.

♪ ♪

Matt just quenched.

‐ As soon as I quench, I check it.

It's straight.

I'm not even gonna file‐check it.

I'm gonna move to the grinder.

‐ Bladesmiths, you have 60 minutes remaining

in the timed portion of this event.

♪ ♪

‐ Before you quench, this blade's too soft.

After you quench, it's way too hard.

So tempering it allows you to take some of the hardness out,

but not all the way to the point

back to where you were before the quench.

It's the happy medium that keeps it from chipping

and from rolling over.

‐ This is the first time we're requiring the smiths

to torch temper their own blades.

‐ How does that work?

‐ Just slowly heat it carefully.

You're gonna change the colors in the blade.

What you're gonna look for is like a golden straw color...

‐ Okay. ‐ Is what you want.

‐ If I don't really pay attention to what I'm doing,

I could mess this thing up big‐time,

and I don't have time to start over.

♪ ♪

‐ It's time to start tempering.

I'm really trying to slowly apply this heat.

I don't wanna rush this.

This is a make or break situation.

‐ There's less than 20 minutes left on the clock.

These guys are on a marathon forging adventure

trying to knock out this Greek xiphos.

These guys have to get their handles constructed,

they got to get pommels screwed on,

they got to get everything sharpened.

‐ Round's almost over.

Loving the shape of my blade,

but this handle, I'm just not really in love with it.

The major problem is that

there's no palm swell in there,

so there's just not a good grip.

So I'm gonna take some paracord,

and I'm just gonna tie

about three or four engineer's knots,

and I'm gonna epoxy over the top of it,

and just smooth it down

and make sure it fits good into my hand.

♪ ♪

‐ I see the clock ticking down.

I need to move on to my handle.

This drill bit will not go

through the entire handle piece,

so without even a hesitation, I cut that sucker in half.

♪ ♪

I realize I probably cost myself time.

Now I have to wallow it out for the tang,

glue them together,

and get a mechanical connection onto the tang.

This is a serious setback.

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

‐ Oh, man.

‐ I have to get these scales onto this sword.

The only thing left I can do is grab some paracord

and tie the handle onto my sword.

♪ ♪

‐ He could shape that very quickly, and then wrap it up.

‐ Problem is, all his focus is on the handle‐‐

forget about sharpening the blade.

‐ Ah, he's gotta sharpen the blade still!

‐ And he still has to torch temper it.

‐ If I don't finish this,

I'm coming out of this event with a zero

and that is not acceptable.

This is do or die at this point.

‐ Five, four, three,

two, one.

Bladesmiths, stop what you're doing.

The timed portion of this third event is over.

‐ Thank God. [applause]

♪ ♪

This six‐hour event was brutal.

I feel like I did everything I could,

and I'm really proud of what I made.

♪ ♪

‐ Bladesmiths, welcome to our third event testing.

Now, you guys worked really hard these last six hours.

Let's see if your swords can survive

our javelin chop and sugarcane slice.

♪ ♪

Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take your swords

and I'm gonna beat them repeatedly into these javelins,

and then try to cut that sugarcane,

see if your edge held up.

It's gonna test everything from the tip to the pommel.

Now Chad, you're up first. Are you ready to go?

‐ Break it in half.

‐ [laughs] Don't tell me stuff like that.

[laughter]

♪ ♪

‐ I'm nervous 'cause sugarcane's tough

and I don't know what those javelins are made of,

but I'm sure they're tough too.

So just anxious to see what my blade'll do.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[rock music]

‐ [grunting]

♪ ♪

Nice job, Chad.

Edge is great. No edge damage at all.

♪ ♪

The handle's comfortable.

It's a little bit small for my hands,

a little harder to hold onto.

It's very forward heavy,

so a couple times when I was trying to swing‐‐

the small handle and a heavy blade,

I was kind of glancing a little bit.

But when I got it to bite, it cut through really good.

I'm impressed. Good job.

‐ Thank you.

‐ Matt, you ready? ‐ Yes, sir.

‐ All right. I'm ready too.

♪ ♪

‐ My biggest concern is that somehow, someway,

maybe the torch temper wasn't perfect,

so we might have either some deflections, some rolling,

maybe some chipping, or some breakage.

Chad's sword performed well.

I really need to perform well

in order to get those 20 points, and I want them.

♪ ♪

‐ [grunting]

♪ ♪

All right, Matt. Good job.

‐ Thank you.

‐ Your edge is still there.

You attempted to do an integral guard on there.

What you got here will stop a hand from sliding up,

but the other purpose of the guard is

to keep the blade from sliding down onto your hand.

That, you don't have.

But, as far as holding it for the strength test,

it chopped, it sliced.

Good job. ‐ Thank you.

‐ And then there was Gary. How are you feeling, Gary?

‐ Not too bad. ‐ Not too bad?

Good. [laughs]

♪ ♪

‐ I'm really nervous about this test.

I have no idea what's gonna happen.

I wrapped that handle in paracord.

I put a bow on this thing for the judges.

I'm just not sure it's the kind of present they want.

[tense music]

[blade trembling]

♪ ♪

‐ Okay, Gary, I guess the time got away from you.

‐ It did.

‐ I've seen some interesting handles over the years.

This is one of the top ones. [laughs]

I mean, I‐‐seriously, I can't get my hand around it

to be able to swing it.

It's loose, and you never torch tempered it,

which was a requirement. ‐ Yeah.

‐ Not being able to hold onto it securely,

and the fact that if I start swinging this,

it might just shatter, it's not really safe to test.

♪ ♪

‐ Gary, unfortunately, we won't be testing your blade

in this event, and that means that you get zero points,

but you're not out of the competition.

There is still the longest shot in the world

that you could win the whole shebang.

Matt, Chad, we still have to determine

which of you won this third event,

so give me a moment.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm feeling a lot of butterflies in my stomach,

anxiety, nervousness.

‐ It's finished, it's got a guard, it's got a pommel,

which is what we wanted.

It's a comfortable handle. ‐ Okay.

Is craftsmanship subjective here

with that integral handle and the pommel?

‐ Well, it's an integral handle,

so not really a guard on it, not really a pommel on it, so‐‐

‐ Missed the mark on a couple of the features of the blade.

Okay. All right.

♪ ♪

All right, gentlemen, our first place winner

in this third event...

♪ ♪

Is Chad.

Man, you've been running away with this.

Congratulations, you just earned 20 additional points.

And Matt, you got second place,

and that gives you another 12 points.

All three of you bladesmiths

are participating in our final event

and the title is still up for grabs.

We'll meet you back on the Forge floor.

Thank you.

‐ Zero points is disappointing for sure.

I don't know what's gonna be in store for the fourth event,

but I know I really need to make a comeback.

‐ Bladesmiths, we are heading into our fourth event

of the Summer Forging Games.

And in this fourth event,

we are once again doubling the points

for where you place.

There will be 40 points awarded for first place,

24 for second place, and 12 points for third place.

Now let's talk weapons. And yeah, I said "weapons."

We're gonna continue to push you

to your absolute physical and mental limits.

Ready to see them?

♪ ♪

Okay.

♪ ♪

‐ One of these weapons. ‐ Oh.

‐ You must choose to forge one of these four blades.

And then based on the difficulty of the blade,

you will be awarded bonus points.

For example, the Kachin dao,

one of the easiest shapes up here,

is worth five bonus points.

The Katzbalger‐‐10. The kora sword is worth 15.

And the Ngombe Ngulu is 20 additional points.

That's in addition to the points that you will be awarded

for where you place after the blades have been tested.

‐ With seven points, I've got a lot of ground to make up.

I need to decide a balance between the extra points

and what I think I might be able to make.

This is gonna be a tough decision.

‐ You will have four days at your home forges

to produce your weapon.

At the end of those four days,

you'll present your weapons to the judges,

they'll test them, they'll place you,

and then one of you will become

the very first Summer Forging Games Champion

who walks out of here with a Damascus medal

and $15,000.

Second place gets a brass medal and $4,000.

Third place, you get that copper medal and just $1,000.

‐ I've done really well so far, but I can't let up right now

'cause I could still lose this thing.

There's a big decision to be made.

I mean, I've gotta pick a weapon that I know I can make,

I can‐‐ know I can make it well,

and I know I can make it fast.

♪ ♪

‐ Gentlemen, you're gonna come out of here with something,

but you want to come out of here

with the "Forged in Fire"

Summer Forging Games Champion title.

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

♪ ♪

‐ So it's day one of the fourth and final event.

‐ I'm choosing to make the Kachin dao.

It's five bonus points. It is a tribal sword.

It was used for beheadings.

I know I could get more bonus points

making a more difficult sword,

but I wanna make the sword that I know I can make,

and give me a chance to win.

In this first step, I'm only gonna heat the tip up

'cause I wanna flare it out,

maybe work in that little bit of a concave it's got.

I'm actually happy with the shape.

But then I hold it up to the light,

and I see a hole right through the end of that sword.

Well, I got too thin.

Luckily, I'm not too far into the first day.

I'm gonna have to ditch this one and start over.

I'm gonna leave that other one

there by the forge as a reminder.

[laughs]

I think this bigger bar of 5160 is gonna allow me

to not get too thin.

I think I did a better job hammering this one out,

so I'm happy with it.

♪ ♪

‐ It's day one.

It feels really good to be back home.

And I'm gonna go with the Kachin dao

which is worth five points.

I was gonna go with the Ngombe Ngulu,

but I actually really like Kachin dao.

I've made similar to it.

♪ ♪

Going with the dao, I'm definitely not gonna get

those extra bonus points,

but I'm just gonna go with what I know.

I'm going with Damascus for this build

because that's my strong suit, that's my comfortability.

Pretty sure my welds are set. I'm gonna start drawing it out.

I'm just gonna rotate, get that heat real nice

and consistent through the entire billet.

So I got my billet drawn out to length.

I'm gonna start making this profile by hand.

♪ ♪

So day one went great.

I have a rough shape of the blade.

Couldn't be happier. That's it for today.

♪ ♪

‐ It's day one. I decided to shave.

I promised my wife I would shave,

so gotta keep mama happy.

I decided to build a Ngombe Ngulu

because I need those 20 points to kind of secure my place.

I'm gonna use 15N20 and 1084.

I'm making a double‐twist Damascus,

so I have to do a couple twists

and weld it back together.

I don't know a whole lot about the Ngombe Ngulu.

I know that you're supposed to chop

people's heads off with it.

That's not really my style,

but I'll let them do whatever they want.

I'm welding my two billets together.

I got one twist billet, one straight.

I go ahead and start making the point,

and then I start making that hook shape on the end.

Now that I have my blade forged and shaped,

it's a great time to do my quench.

♪ ♪

I got a good quench.

I didn't think that I was gonna get this far today,

but thankfully I did.

‐ So it's day two.

I need to take some meat off this blade.

It's too heavy to swing.

I want a nice balance to this sword,

so I'm using my angle grinder

to take a lot of that steel off of there.

♪ ♪

I'm really happy with the way it feels in my hand right now,

and I can move on to heat treat.

It's starting to look like a sword.

♪ ♪

If I'm gonna win this competition,

this has to go well.

♪ ♪

The blade came out perfectly straight.

I can't be more happy or relieved at this point.

She's hard.

‐ The morning of day two, and I'm feeling pretty good.

First thing I'm gonna do

is I'm gonna start grinding and cutting it.

Everything today is leading up to a quench.

That's the most nerve‐racking point in a build.

I got as much meat out as I can.

It's time to quench.

I've never been so nervous in my life.

You know, a lot of funky stuff can go down

when you have a thin blade.

I put pretty much everything I got into this.

This whole journey comes down to this moment right now.

[bleep].

I notice that it's picked up a bit of a warp.

This is not good.

I have three seconds of malleability in this blade

before it's too late,

so I put it on a flat steel table

and I start to flex it down.

I just keep pushing, and I get it out.

♪ ♪

I think I got it.

‐ So it's the morning of day two, and the plan for today

is to hopefully get all the handle done.

I'm gonna use this Thuya wood for my main handle,

and then, for my two round globes,

I'm gonna use this African blackwood,

so that ought to make a pretty cool contrast.

This handle's got two wooden globes as a pommel,

so that's probably gonna take a little bit of time.

So I get the handle roughly ground.

Now‐‐kind of tricky part, that's making those globes,

but I think I've got an idea.

I'm gonna weld this bolt onto my tool rest,

and then I'm gonna slide these over it,

and I should be able to make a perfect circle

by spinning this.

♪ ♪

[laughs] It worked!

‐ So it's day three. Feeling pretty good.

Today, I need to do some finish work,

get a handle on it, see how far I can get.

‐ This is a piece of ironwood.

It's got a nice, dark finish on it.

It'll go really well with the look of this blade.

♪ ♪

As I'm doing all this work on the handle,

I think, "It doesn't matter 100% on how this looks.

I need to concentrate on the performance of this blade."

It needs to chop, it needs to not break in half,

and that handle needs to be firm and secure.

♪ ♪

Got the handle glued up. Pins are good.

All I have left is to do some finish work on this handle,

and this thing's gonna be ready to test.

‐ Wow. ‐ Hey, Elizabeth, how are you?

‐ I'm good, how are you? ‐ Check it out.

Well, having a Kachin dao around

might be a good intimidation factor

for some of these potential suitors that come by

that wanna date my daughter, so, you know,

I might have to make one just to hang it on the wall.

What do you think about me making knives?

‐ It's really cool, honestly.

Like, I walk out,

and there's always something new you're working on.

‐ What do your friends think? [music stops]

‐ They think that you're kind of weird.

[laughter]

‐ Morning of day three,

and today is bringing everything together.

Handle work‐‐gonna sharpen it, gonna etch it, assemble it.

I'm almost done.

It's hypercritical that this thing fits upright.

I put everything I have out there,

so definitely want it to be great.

So I have all my different components done.

Now all I have to do is etch it and assemble it.

♪ ♪

[whistles]

That's what I'm talking about, people.

This has been a forging marathon.

Back‐to‐back‐to‐back challenges.

These events have been really tough,

but I think this Damascus blade deserves a Damascus medal.

And that's it.

♪ ♪

‐ It's the morning of day four,

and the plan is I'm going to put a edge on it,

and then test it on some rocks.

♪ ♪

Now let's do some testing.

♪ ♪

I think that it will withstand the strength test.

The Summer Forging Games were incredibly tough,

but overall, it's something that's gonna give me a shot

to win $15,000.

[music fades]

[rock music]

♪ ♪

‐ All right, bladesmiths.

Welcome to our fourth and final event

in the Summer Forging Games.

Now heading into this after three events,

here's where things stand.

Chad, obviously you're in the lead.

You've got 40 points.

Matt, you're bringing up second place with 21 points.

And Gary, you're pretty far back in the rear

with just seven points.

However, nobody's out of the running for first place

because heading into this fourth and final event,

we gave you guys the option to earn bonus points

by choosing the difficulty of the weapon that you forged.

Chad, you chose the Ngombe Ngulu worth 20 bonus points.

Tell the judges about the construction of your blade.

♪ ♪

‐ I made two billets of 15N20 and 1084,

some Thuya wood for the handle

and two round globes of African blackwood,

and a nickel silver pommel.

‐ All right, all right.

Gary, you chose the Kachin dao worth five bonus points.

How did it go?

♪ ♪

‐ I used 5160 for the blade,

ironwood for the handle, and a brass pommel.

‐ All right, all right.

And Matt, you also chose the Kachin dao

worth five bonus points.

♪ ♪

‐ I used 15N20, 1080.

The handle is cocobolo,

and I used some aluminum for accents in the pommel.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, bladesmiths, we are now entering

the performance portion of this fourth and final event.

At the end of this event, we're gonna be placing you guys

from first through third place.

There will be three tests.

Up first, the KEAL test. Doug?

♪ ♪

‐ Bladesmiths, this is the KEAL and slice.

♪ ♪

Now to test the lethality of your weapon and sharpness,

I will deliver some killing blows on this ballistics dummy

and try to slice some sandbags from the heavens.

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

‐ Yes, sir.

The first test is the KEAL test,

and I feel real good going into it.

I know my blade's plenty beefy enough

that it should cut right through

and not have any bending or breaking.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[rock music]

‐ All right, Chad,

let's talk about your Ngombe Ngulu right here.

Your spine's very obtuse,

so a lot of the weight is very forward on this,

lending it to be a forward chopping weapon,

but on a recovery, it takes some effort.

But, because of that,

it digs in very deep into this ballistics dummy.

As you can see, it almost took the whole shoulder off.

Your weapon here, sir, will KEAL.

‐ Mm‐hmm.

‐ All right, Gary, your turn, sir, you ready?

‐ Absolutely.

I'm nervous.

I haven't had a first place in any of the events,

so I really need this sword to perform

and give me a chance to win.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[foreboding music]

Oh.

‐ All right, Gary.

The balance of this blade feels good in my hand.

The weight of your weapon lets the weapon do its work.

I don't have to control it

because I'm not trying to wield a heavy weapon.

Your edge is very sharp.

As you can see, there goes one shoulder.

Overall, sir, it will KEAL.

♪ ♪

All right, Matt, your turn, sir, you ready?

‐ Yes, sir.

Gary and I made the same weapon.

That means that it's gonna be head‐to‐head basically

'cause the points are the same on that.

So it's really gonna come down to whose performs better.

This is nerve‐racking.

♪ ♪

Yeah!

♪ ♪

‐ All right, Matt.

Kachin "wow." Your edge is sharp.

The balance that you have here

allows for a deep cut, using momentum as I'm moving.

There is a little bit of a glinting on your edge there

chopping through bone, but the edge is still razor sharp

and it decapitated the head.

Your weapon, sir, it will KEAL.

‐ All right.

♪ ♪

‐ Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test.

I'ma take each of your swords

and bash them into these clay pots,

skulls, and my favorite, the ice block chop.

Chad, you look excited. You ready to go?

‐ Yes, sir. ‐ Okay.

♪

‐ I know nobody thinks that their blade's gonna break,

but if it happens, I'm not gonna get any points,

and all the progress that I had made

by winning the first three events

is all gonna be for nothing.

♪ ♪

‐ [grunting]

[grunting]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Nice job, Chad. ‐ Thank you.

‐ Steel held up great.

You still got an edge on there.

I don't notice any chips, or glinting, or anything.

But handle construction is not my favorite.

Actually, just swinging it that much,

it started hurting the palm of my hand.

I think it swelled up here and tapering back.

But you survived. Good job.

‐ Thank you.

‐ Hey, Gary. Ready to go?

‐ Let's do it.

♪ ♪

‐ [grunting]

♪ ♪

‐ Oh.

♪ ♪

‐ Nice job, Gary.

Your edge still looks good. No damage at all.

The handle is semi‐comfortable.

Could've used a little more finishing.

I like the little skull and crossbone you put on there.

It's a nice extra touch.

But it's all still tight. Good job.

‐ Thank you.

‐ Matt, I know you're ready, right?

‐ Let's do it.

♪ ♪

‐ [grunting]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

All right, Matt, you survived, but there's a couple problems.

You've picked up a pretty significant bend

in your blade up here.

It's pretty thin coming up into this area,

and it was just a bit too much for it.

The edge on your blade is still there.

It's not as sharp as it was, though, before.

Other than that, you survived. Good job.

‐ Thanks.

‐ All right, gentlemen, the final test of the final event:

the sharpness test.

Now we have three different bags up here,

three different materials.

This test is all about the edge of your blade

and what it does to these targets.

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

‐ Yes, sir.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

‐ So right off, Chad, it's a beautiful weapon.

On the first bag, I cut with more of the head,

and it cut deeply.

The second bag‐‐ there's a section right here

that's not very sharp.

It just didn't cut into that bag.

And the third bag, that cut really deep.

But it's sharp. Nicely done.

‐ Thank you.

‐ All right, Gary. You're up next.

Ready to go? ‐ I'm ready.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

‐ Gary, your Kachin dao,

it does exactly what it's supposed to do.

It's got a good edge on it, cut beautifully.

Nicely done. ‐ Thank you.

‐ All right, Matt, are you ready for this?

‐ Sure.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[clears throat]

‐ Matt, the blade, right where it took that bend,

is not very sharp.

I can run my finger on it without worrying about it.

You can see the cuts are kind of torn.

It's a ragged cut as opposed to that clean cut.

And on the last bag, it barely cut it.

But will it cut? Yes, it will.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, bladesmiths.

This concludes the weapons test in this fourth and final event

of the Summer Forging Games,

and the judges and I need to deliberate

about your placement in this competition.

Thank you very much.

♪ ♪

All right, gents, after three events,

we know where our bladesmiths stood

coming into this fourth and final event.

But now, it all comes down to this for the $15,000.

♪ ♪

Let's talk about the performance.

‐ Well, Matt's blade took the most damage,

and it definitely affected

his performance in the sharpness test.

♪ ♪

‐ Right where it took that bend is not very sharp.

‐ All right, what do you think of Gary's blade?

‐ Gary's blade ain't the prettiest thing in the world,

but it did everything we asked for.

It's well balanced, comfortable to hold onto,

no bending, breaking, anything.

It did what we wanted. [grunts]

♪ ♪

‐ Well, let's compare that to Chad's Ngombe Ngulu.

‐ Chad's blade is beautiful.

Unfortunately, the forward weight on that makes it hard

to wield, especially with the handle construction.

It's just not comfortable in all our hands.

‐ Yeah, there's a dull spot right at the base of the curve,

and it really showed up in the sharpness test.

‐ All right, so beautiful blade, not so great

when it comes to the functionality of the weapon.

All right, judges, I need to know

if you made your final decision.

both: Yeah. ‐ Good.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

All right, gentlemen,

the judges' deliberation is complete

and here are the placements after our fourth event.

Our third place contestant is...

♪ ♪

Matt. You got 17 points.

And the winner of our fourth and final event is...

♪ ♪

Gary, congratulations. ‐ Oh.

‐ Chad, that means that you got second place.

Gentlemen, here are the standings overall

for the Summer Forging Games.

Our third place finisher is...

♪ ♪

Matt, with 38 points.

You did fantastic work out here, my friend.

Come forward and claim your medal.

‐ All right.

I'm really proud of the weapon that I made,

but I just got outclassed.

I'm taking away more than some prize money,

more than this medal.

I mean, I got to work on the Forge floor.

Couldn't be happier with this journey.

‐ Second place in the Summer Forging Games

with 52 points is...

♪ ♪

Gary. Good job, brother.

Come forward and grab your medal.

‐ I just can't believe that I won that final event

and got second overall.

I pushed myself harder than I thought I could.

Overall, just an amazing journey.

‐ With 84 points at the end of this competition is Chad.

‐ Thank you. ‐ Congratulations.

You are the Summer Forging Games Champion.

How about that, huh? ‐ Hmm.

‐ Chad, you can come forward and grab your Damascus medal.

Congratulations.

‐ I am the "Forged in Fire" Champion.

Being the champion means a lot.

It means that I can turn out very oddly shaped weapons.

I feel real good.

‐ Gentlemen, you all did fantastic work

in our very first Summer Forging Games.

Be proud of yourselves. Good job.

[applause]

‐ Good job, man.

‐ Chad, you're leaving with $15,000!

‐ All right.

‐ Gary, you're leaving with $4,000!

And Matt, you get a thousand.

‐ I'll take it. ‐ Good job, guys.

‐ Thanks, guys. ‐ Everybody's a winner!

‐ [whistles]

‐ It feels really good and I'm happy.

What's next for me?

I'm gonna go home, wait for my money to arrive,

buy a grinder, and then I'm gonna take my wife on a date.

[laughs]

♪ ♪