Original subtitles

- Here in The Forge, we've put hundreds of smiths

to the test.

- It's hot in here.

- But only a select few have proven themselves

time and time again, remaining undefeated.

Now three of our most decorated champions will put

their perfect records on the line and go head-to-head

against previous "Forged in Fire" winners,

in some of the most heated battles yet.

- This is a living nightmare.

- Everything's right now,

if you know what I'm saying.

- Will anyone have what it takes to finally...

Oh!

Beat the Unbeaten?

- I'm Boyd Ritter. I'm 48.

I'm a returning champion from season seven.

I did the Christmas episode and won

with the British cavalry saber.

I would love to move on to the next round.

My skill set today versus my skill set

when I started are completely different.

Whoever the next unbeaten is has their hands full.

- My name is Ryan Searls, and I'm 21 years old.

I first competed on season nine,

and became a "Forged in Fire" champion when I was able

to make the best kilij sword on the Best in Damascus round.

It was something else.

I'm someone that loves to be challenged, so I'm excited

to come back here and show more of my artistry skills,

knowing that I had only a little bit of experience

the first go-around, and to show

that it's not a fluke that I won "Forged in Fire."

I'm back to prove it all over again.

- "Forged in Fire" champions, welcome back to The Forge.

You guys know how this goes.

You're here to showcase your skills and be tested

at the highest level in this bladesmithing competition.

Now today it'll be quite a bit different than the last time

you were here because this is Beat the Unbeaten.

And here's how it's gonna go.

The first of our two rounds will consist of the two of you

going head-to-head in five straight hours

of knife-making competition.

Now when that five hours is up,

our judges are gonna step in and test your blades

to decide which one of you has impressed them the most

and who will be moving into the second round

of competition.

And that is where things get interesting,

because your competitor will be one

of our Titans of the Forge--

somebody with an unbeaten record.

It'll either be Gladiator of the Forge Jesse Hu,

superchamp Collin Sage,

or our very own judge Ben Abbott.

Now today to kick things off in this first round,

we are paying tribute

to our Hollywood-themed competitions.

And next to me here, we've got the stars

of the "Forged in Fire's" red carpet--

Arya Stark's Needle from "Game of Thrones,"

Inigo Montoya's sword from "The Princess Bride,"

Robin Hood's bow, and finally, one of my very favorites,

the fireman's ax from "The Shining."

Your task is to pick any blade from any movie or any TV show

and build a weapon inspired by it.

- There are so many options. I'm thinking of everything.

I'm thinking of "Lord of the Rings,"

I'm thinking of "Conan,"

any of the kind of main pop culture type of weapons

that are out there.

- Now, gentlemen, let's talk steel.

On your anvils, you've both got a red cloth.

Go ahead and remove that.

What you're looking at there are fishhooks, ball bearings,

chains, nickel, and copper.

Obviously, that's because we want you to make

your film-inspired blade using canister Damascus.

Now all we ask is that your weapon measure

between 11 and 13 inches of cutting edge.

When the five hours is up, our judges are gonna step in

and test your weapons for strength and durability

in a film reel chop,

then check your edge retention in a fabric bag slice.

Now, gentlemen,

you've got your materials, you've got your task.

So good luck, because your time starts now.

These guys are doing canister Damascus blades.

They can do whatever weapon they want,

but it has to be inspired

by a movie or a television show.

What would you guys do?

- I'd do from the original animated--Peter Pan's dagger.

- Ooh. - It's really thick.

It's got arms on it. - Pretty cool.

- I don't enjoy canisters at all.

There's just too many things that could go wrong.

The first time I competed, I had to forge weld all

of these oddly-shaped pieces of 1095 together,

and it didn't go well,

and I would definitely rather do that again.

- So Boyd's got his can in the fire,

and now we're gonna see him come up with a design.

Hey, Boyd, what are you making?

- I'm making a kukri.

It's from the "Final Fantasy" movie, "The Kingsglaive."

- Oh, right on.

- I'm gonna put my own touch on this kukri.

The one in the movie, it had some really cool features

that are very artistic; no one would wield it,

so I'm gonna work around those a little bit,

and we'll see what happens.

- Oh, that's what I would have done.

- What? - The broken saber

from "Branded."

You're not old enough. - Nope.

- All right, Tell Sackett's Bowie knife

from "The Sacketts."

- Also before my time.

- Hey, Ryan, what are you making?

- First thing that came to mind--"Lord of the Rings,"

but I want to do something with just a single edge,

so we're going kinda Elvish in a sense,

gonna have a nice curve to it, and a little bit of bedazzle.

Hopefully I can do some artwork on it, have fun with it.

We'll see how it goes.

- That's cool. I like that. - All right.

- Very lofty goals here. - And it's iconic.

- I decide to use White Out and to be able

to hopefully peel the can

so I'm not bellied up to the grinder,

just hogging off material, wasting time.

I wanna be able just to have the steel and just get it done.

- The choice to do the White Out,

it takes up a lot of time.

- Yeah, the time-saving you get

by not removing the can and the pattern you can make

by having that can on the blade sort of outweigh the idea

of having this pristine bar

to work with after you've removed the can.

- You know, now that I think about it,

my fascination with knives really came

when I remembered "The Iron Mistress," the Bowie.

And I remembered how shiny that was.

Way before your time. - I feel like today's

just gonna be you guys talking about movies

I've never even heard of.

- Now my can's up to temperature,

I'm gonna get all those welds consolidated.

I did not expect to win last time.

I had weird things happen in round one.

I lost my focus.

I jumped on Jamie's anvil for a little bit.

I'm fairly confident in my skills,

but I don't move as fast as I used to,

so the clock is definitely a big factor for me.

So we'll just see.

- Boyd's already got a forge weld.

Moving along just fine.

- As I'm pressing down, I wanna take it nice and easy

because I want that White Out to do its job,

and hopefully that can, when I cut it,

it peels right out.

- Don't get too aggressive.

The risk comes in of winding up,

making flanges on the edge of the can,

which make it really hard to get off.

Looks like it welded to the can,

so I guess we'll just keep it with the can.

- The reason you add the White Out to the canister

is so that the canister doesn't weld to your core.

Even if it does some welding,

it's not gonna happen everywhere.

You're gonna have these huge delaminations, these blisters,

these issues that are gonna pop up for the rest of the time.

- The clock's ticking down. I don't know if I can restart

and just have another billet sitting there soaking.

So I gotta think quick and try to squish this down

to a billet, and see how much of it forge-welded.

- I don't think Boyd's metal is moving the way

that Boyd is thinking his metal is moving.

Yeah, he's having a rough time getting that shaped, I think.

- I'm drawing out my steel, and halfway through this,

I realize that I'm forging this thing upside down.

Oh, man.

So my cutting edge is on top,

where I think should have been the curve down for the spine.

It's just a hot mess, so a lot of this now

becomes hammer work, which I really wasn't planning on.

It's a little bit slower. It's taking up time.

But it's the only path forward at this point.

- I think Boyd's now starting to realize he bit off

a little bit more than he could chew with

that very in-depth design.

- Yeah.

These kind of mistakes are gonna add up

and eat into that five hours really quickly.

I am concerned about finishing a knife.

- All right, guys. You have three hours left!

- I don't know if all the entirety of the can

is forge-welded or just certain spots,

and there is actually way more steel than I need,

so instead of working and hauling around

this big billet, I'm just gonna cut it in half,

and, you know, that will give me a better look

at even the center of the billet

to make sure that forge-welded.

I am starting to see voids.

- Oh, no. The can may not be welded.

- I was worried about this.

It could be just on the outside, the voids.

I don't know how far they run down.

I don't know if they're just all over the piece.

Now it's getting me worried that I didn't forge weld

this can right.

This could be catastrophic. I may have to start over.

- Right now, he needs to find out for sure

that it's forge-welded inside,

because if it's not, abandon it.

- I'm just praying that those voids disappear,

and I'm able to grind it off

and get a usable chunk of steel

that I can make this knife out of.

This is a little scary.

- Well, we're two hours into this competition.

Pretty serious things going on with Ryan.

The can may not be welded.

- I'm just hoping that those voids are having

to do with just the mild steel jacket

and I'm able to grind it off

and get a usable chunk of steel

that I can make this knife out of.

It's solid. Whew.

Relief goes over me. I was able to get that can off.

I have a solid core, and we're looking good.

- At this point, I'm feeling pretty stressed.

I wasn't expecting to have to do this much handwork,

and it's eating into my time,

so I need to change tack really quick.

- Please tell me you guys see what Boyd's doing right now.

He's scribbling out that hook on the blade.

Oh. - These are movie knives.

He's merely doing some editing. - Yeah, yeah.

- I make the decision at this point

just to cut in a normal ricasso

and forego one of the big defining features,

this big swoop on it.

I just don't have the time to make it at this point.

- He's gonna have an 11- to 13-inch blade,

so assuming he meets parameters,

is the design change gonna come into play

when you guys get into testing?

- I mean, I think it will for me,

because he was shooting for a recreation of a movie weapon,

and then he just cut off the defining features

that make this kukri different than any other kukri out there.

- I'm not sure how the judges are gonna take this.

But right now, I'm just concerned

with making a functional knife.

- As I'm forging this blade out,

it's very sleek.

It has nice curves.

It's looking great.

- Based on what I'm seeing right now,

I think it's safe to say Ryan is a whole lot closer

to his Elvish sword from "Lord of the Rings."

- Ooh, I've got another one.

Morgan's dagger from "Cutthroat Island."

- What?

- Do you do anything other than watch movies?

- It's looking cool. I'm digging the shape.

It's just time to move on and get

this blade into the quench.

- All right, Ryan's in the quench.

- Pretty good. Pretty good.

- So it's time to quench my blade.

I've made several simple mistakes

that have cost me enough time that I won't be able

to recover if this quench goes wrong.

I just won't have time to rebuild another blade.

- Oh! - Oh, my God.

- There's the fireball. - Yeah.

That was a very aggressive temperature for the quench.

- Yeah. - I am a little nervous

about the temperature of the quench,

but I have to move on.

- That kind of heat, the chance of the blade being brittle,

maybe taking some serious damage

during the strength test, are probably pretty high.

- I just hope it's gonna be good enough,

'cause I'm outta time.

- Bladesmiths, you've got one hour remaining.

- For the handle, I need to save time,

especially if I wanna do more artistry on this.

- So Ryan just found a piece of hollow horn.

It's not the most comfortable shape for a handle.

- Pretty small. - Yeah.

- Already has a hole in it.

Now I don't have to worry about drilling anything,

and it looks exactly like what I drew as well.

It just seems to be too wide. It starts rotating.

Now I'm worried if I fill it with epoxy

and it doesn't harden right,

and it just starts rotating in the hands,

now you have a blade that's just twirling around.

So I decide to go with stabilized burl hybrid instead.

- I think that's the best idea he's had.

- Maybe he realized how spindly it is.

- Or the fact that he couldn't get it to stabilize.

- I definitely wasted some time trying

to save time using the water buffalo horn,

but I don't want anything wiggling,

so having a really nice and snug handle

is gonna hopefully make this knife even more stellar.

- I'm ready to start fitting up my handle.

The last time I competed, I ended up turning in a knife

with about the ugliest handle I think I've ever done,

and my wife and son still tease me today about that.

This time around, I'd like to think

I'm gonna turn out a better handle.

Um, we'll see.

No, that's terrible.

I drilled the hole in the wrong place,

so now I have a gap between the top

of my handle and my guard.

- Boyd's working at a leisurely, at-home pace

right now, and he really needs

to get a little bit more back behind it.

- He's got that spacer, which is a good thing.

- Oh, that's a smart move.

- Miraculously, it fits that gap perfectly.

At this point, I'm very happy, but I got a little bit of work

to do to finish this blade right now.

- Ryan's got everything together.

He's just embellishing this blade at this point.

- If I can remember back

to "The Lord of the Ring" movies,

the Elvish blades always had some weird swirls

and artwork onto it, kind of makes it look enchanted

in some aspects, so I want to pay tribute to that,

just add a little bit of artwork,

a little decoration to it.

Ooh, looking good. Look at that.

- Very obvious when things are going right for Ryan.

He looks at the blade, and he goes, "Yeah, okay."

- It looks pretty cool, and it looks solid.

I'm ready to go.

- Five, four, three, two, one.

Bladesmiths, turn off your machines,

put down your tools.

This Hollywood round is over.

- Good job, dude. Oh, my God.

- I'm looking at my blade.

Hopefully it would have made the Elvish people

of "The Lord of the Rings" pleased,

especially for five hours.

Like, come on.

I hope nothing falls apart,

and it can just glide through the testing with ease.

- All right, bladesmiths.

This is the strength test-- the film reel chop.

Boyd, you're up first. You ready?

- You bet. - All righty.

- Going into the testing, I am pretty nervous.

My biggest concern really is that edge.

Is it hard enough? Is it gonna roll

in that first strength test?

- All right, Boyd, your blade is still all in one piece.

The big thing is that the edge took a lot of deformation.

It's moving everywhere.

I can get my fingernail up underneath

a lot of these curves.

I think that the edge was a little fine,

and maybe the hardness wasn't quite there

to have it stand up to this test.

The overall look of your blade, it has a kukri look to it,

but it doesn't really have a "Final Fantasy" movie

kind of kukri look to it.

Could have taken a little more refinement, but well done.

- Thanks.

- All right, Ryan. You're up next.

- Let's do it.

- After the punishment

that Boyd's blade went through,

I'm not sure what to expect, but I don't wanna do this.

Is my edge gonna roll? Is it gonna chip?

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

- All right, Ryan.

Your edge held up pretty well.

My big thing is there's a chip right here--

it's not huge-- and some wobbling.

But for such a fine edge, it held up pretty well.

I think you nailed the look, and I do see a knife

that's inspired by Elven blades

from "The Lord of the Rings" that looks the part.

Nice job. - Right. Thank ya.

- Champions, this is the sharpness test--

the Hollywood sandbag slice.

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

- No. - All right.

We're gonna do it anyways.

All right, Boyd, let's talk about your kukri here.

You took a lot of damage here during the strength test,

but the forward-leading tip

actually does not get in the way with the slashes.

It is sharp and good enough

to cut through these Hollywood sandbags.

Overall, your weapon, it will cut.

- Thank you, sir. - Nice job.

- Thanks.

- All right, Ryan. Your turn. So are you ready?

- Yeah. both: All right.

- I'm back.

All right, Ryan, let's talk about

your movie-inspired "Lord of the Rings" knife.

Your edge is sharp.

Not only did it just cut the front,

it also cut the back of the sandbag.

It's easy to wield, and most importantly, it will cut.

- Sweet.

- Gentlemen, over the past five hours,

you had to design and build a Hollywood-themed blade out

of canister Damascus, and you brought us

beautiful blades that made it through our tests.

But in this Beat the Unbeaten competition,

only one of you can face off against one of our titans.

And after a discussion,

the judges did make that decision.

The bladesmith leaving The Forge is...

Boyd, unfortunately, your blade just didn't make the cut,

and Dave's gonna tell you why.

- Boyd, this came down to three things--

the fact that your blade took the damage

that it did in the strength test,

which then made the blade underperform in the cut test,

and your blade was the furthest away

from its initial design when it was finished.

Those are the reasons we're letting you go.

- Totally understand.

- Boyd, I hope you had as much fun working on The Forge floor

as we had watching you, but I've gotta ask you

to step off the floor.

both: Thanks. - It was a pleasure.

- Yeah.

Compared to the first time I competed,

this challenge was a lot harder.

At the same time, I felt more comfortable doing it.

So I didn't produce the winning blade this time,

but I did produce a handle, at least,

that my wife and kids probably won't tease me about.

The blade, on the other hand, that's a different story.

- Well, Ryan, congratulations, man.

You built us a showstopper in the first round

of this competition, and now you're entering

into round two of the Beat the Unbeaten competition.

Now in order for you to take home your second

"Forged in Fire" champion title and a check for $10,000,

you're gonna have to beat one of our Titans of the Forge.

It'll either be Gladiator of the Forge Jesse Hu,

superchamp Collin Sage,

or our very own judge Ben Abbott.

- Out of Jesse, Collin, or even Ben,

it's going to be tough, but I think my skill set

can match anyone they throw at me.

- You feeling up to the challenge?

- Bring it. - All right, man.

You are gonna have to beat out this guy.

You know what?

He's not coming out that door.

'Cause you're competing against our very own Ben Abbott...

- Currently an unbeaten smith

with the highest record in this competition.

Well, Ben, welcome back.

- Thank you, brother.

I just watched Ryan make his knife.

It's obvious that he's got skill,

and my thus far undefeated record is on the line.

I'm here. I'm ready.

Bring it on.

- All right, gentlemen.

Here's how this second and final round is gonna go.

Over the next eight hours, you guys are stuck

in this forge, battling it out, building a weapon from history.

And in order to find out which weapon that is,

I'm going to open up the "Forged in Fire" vault here

and give you, Ryan, access to pick any weapon

you wanna to build against your competitor.

You ready to go in?

- Let's do it. - All right.

She's all yours.

- Looking at the "Forged in Fire" history

and being able to pick one, what do I go with?

Coming from more of an art background,

I want something that I can really just pour

creative inspiration into and have a lot of fun with.

- Get the big one.

- Oh, fantastic.

All right. Great choice.

All right, Ryan.

You chose the kelewang.

- Really?

- Kelewang has been a staple of the Malaysian combat arsenal

since the 18th century.

Featuring a single-edged blade with a curved belly,

this sword was designed to deliver deep, deadly slashes

and lethal chops in the heat of battle.

This complex design proved extremely challenging

for our smiths back in season five of "Forged in Fire"

when a stress fracture cost one smith the competition.

Now, gentlemen, you will have eight hours

to complete this blade,

but make sure you follow within the following parameters.

Your blade length needs to be between 23 and 26 inches.

Now it also needs to have a decorative curl

on the spine, a disk guard, and a feather design handle.

- I have never built a kelewang before.

I don't really build big, wide, exotic weapons like that,

especially in eight hours, and having that curl

sticking off the back is an aspect that could fail.

- All right, now on top of choosing the weapon,

Ryan, you also get to pick whatever technique

you want to build your kelewang with against Ben.

What are you thinking?

- It does feel good that I get to pick

what we're gonna be doing.

It kind of gives me an upper hand a little bit too.

Let's do a chevron Damascus pattern.

- Chevron Damascus. All right.

- Solid, solid choice.

All right, guys, we got eight hours on the clock.

So good luck, 'cause your time starts now.

Off to the races, both our smiths with a quick pace.

Now what I think is really interesting is the choice

to do the kelewang.

Now it's an interesting-shaped blade.

- Definitely, because all the pieces,

that one particular piece right there on the spine,

decorative curl.

"Interesting" is the word for that.

- I'm an artist and bladesmith.

I love to create things that are just wild and complex,

so I picked the kelewang.

- So Ryan's got a billet together with 22 layers

of 1095, 15N20, and 80CrV2.

- That's gonna hurt

when he gets to etching that chevron.

You don't get a lot of contrast between the 1095

and the 80CrV2.

The layer count will look lower.

- Knowing that I'm going against someone

like Ben Abbott, I don't think I have enough fingers

to count how many times he's won.

He's crazy, and to be able to compete against somebody

like that, I mean, whew!

I hope I know what I'm doin'.

How you feeling, Ben?

- Feelin' pretty good, man. How 'bout you?

- Man, he's running all over the place.

- When I'm not competing, my time is always precious,

but I don't work to the point of exhaustion every day.

- All right. So Ben's got around 25 layers.

- He's not gonna go with the 25 layers.

- No, this is where he's gonna elevate his build.

- I'm gonna draw it out, cut it into six,

then I'm gonna put one layer of 80CrV2 in the middle,

weld it all together for a total of 151 layers.

Any time I compete, I try to block off

who I'm competing against and just make the best thing

I can in the time allotted.

But after watching Ryan win this,

makes me push a little bit further,

do a little bit extra, just to see if I can

try to do something that might push me ahead.

- Looks like Ryan's already gone for one pass

on the press.

He went very aggressive,

and it looked like it was bulging out already.

- But if you go hog at the very beginning,

you're stressing all those welds.

- I feel like everything's nice and tight.

Everything seems to be solid.

I think I got a good forge weld,

and it's just time to draw out this billet

and start forging this sword.

- One thing that concerns me about this press

is that the dies are narrower than the billet,

and I've seen in competition

where squeezing part of the billet,

leaving some of it exposed, can have it open up,

so I'm gonna make some flat plates

that are two inches wide,

so that I can get this forge weld done

in one squeeze.

- Now with the way Ben set this up,

he's able to go into the press parallel to the dies

and have full contact on the entire billet.

- Very cool.

- Ben screaming hot onto the press

with his little jig.

- I can get a good, solid forge weld.

Now it's time to draw this stuff out.

- So Ryan's starting to get some length.

He's satisfied with the welds.

Now he's really drawing this one out.

- So I'm forging out this sword,

and I realize along the edge...

It looks like the billet had split open a little bit.

It looks to be a delam.

- Here's the thing.

Ryan was having issues on that press,

in my opinion, because he was hurrying.

- So this is all a product of him going too fast

and trying to get too much press on his original welds,

which set him off course?

- If you rush,

you wind up fixing problems because you rushed.

- Jeez Louise.

- It's deeper than I thought.

- This Beat the Unbeaten competition is a serious one.

We got both the smiths working extremely hard

at this very unique, almost fantasy-like blade.

So Ryan's starting to get some length.

He's satisfied with the welds.

Now he's really drawing this one out.

- I realize along the edge...

Ooh.

It looks like the billet had split open a little bit.

- So this is all a product of him going too fast

and trying to get too much pressure on his original welds?

- Yeah. If you rush,

you wind up fixing problems because you rushed.

- Jeez Louise.

- It's deeper than I thought.

And I'm like, "Okay, I may have to start over."

Just seeing a delam in the billet

gets me worried if there's anything else

that happened in this billet as well

and if I didn't forge weld it right.

- There's a really different focus

on both these smiths' approach.

Ryan is all about speed, but it's showing

in some of the problems that he's running into--

he's got delaminations on the edge of this weapon,

where Ben is focusing on being precise,

having clean materials, before he moves forward.

- I get it to a point where I think it's gone,

and hopefully we got that whole delam out.

This is a little scary.

- So I draw the billet out to a good length

and a decent thickness,

ready for putting in the pattern.

- How exactly do they go about doing that?

We don't see it often. - Basically,

you're doing a ladder pattern.

You're just not doing straight lines.

You're doing angled lines.

- One of the more difficult parts about

this whole chevron Damascus,

you have to be sure to cut deep enough

that the pattern is evident later.

The risk is, you don't want the two cuts

to be right next to each other,

'cause they could create a very thin spot there.

So offset the cuts, so when you flatten it,

hopefully you have enough meat to not have ground

all the way through your steel.

- Now the advantage of having more layers

is Ben has to do less chevron.

Every chevron is gonna look more dramatic,

'cause there are going to be more layers

coming through that chevron.

- So I have my chevrons cut into the steel.

Now it's time to draw this billet out

and make a blade.

- Gentlemen, you guys have six hours left!

- It's looking cool. I'm digging the shape.

I did get the chevrons cut in.

My next step is to put in this decorative curl.

- You know, one of the things about this decorative curl

they have to be careful of-- the one that we tested,

it broke off because they forgot

to round the corners after they chiseled it,

so it caused a stress riser on that.

- Wow.

- You gotta make sure it's strong enough

to stay on there when we're testing it.

- And the clock's ticking down.

I'm looking at the curl and, you know,

it looks a little rough,

but it's there, and I'm happy with it.

It's just time to move on

and get this blade ready for quench.

- Ryan is cruising.

He's already got a fully formed blade.

He's just gotta quench it, and then he's into assembly.

- If you don't get the right heat,

it can really mess up your hardness.

- His decorative curl is starting

to heat up a lot faster than the rest of the blade.

- Yeah, I think I'd do all the heat treat and the quench,

then take a torch and just soften that whole thing up.

- So eliminating the chances of it breaking.

- Oh, yeah.

- Right at the four-hour mark, Ryan's in the oil.

- It actually looks pretty straight.

I feel pretty comfortable that I nailed this.

But, you know, fingers crossed.

We'll see how testing--

you never know until testing.

- Yep, this one should be to quench.

- No matter how many times I've won these competitions,

every single time I quench,

I am absolutely nervous as all get-out.

- Ben has now quenched.

- Check that right about now. Make sure there's no warp.

- I've earned a reputation of being unbeaten.

And to get beaten, what am I then?

I'm the mostly win guy.

After the quench, I look over to see where Ryan is,

and it looks like he's pretty far along.

So I know I've got my work cut out for me for sure.

- Ben's grabbed a piece of copper.

What do you think he's doing with it?

- See how this has a bolster of bone?

- Yeah. - He's gonna make a ferrule

that's gonna go around that wood,

which is traditional and what you should do.

Whenever you've got a hidden tang, putting

a ferrule around there will keep that wood from splitting.

- Getting a ferrule the exact right length

to fit on perfectly is quite a task.

In the ease of my own shop, you make it a little short,

and then you cross-peen it to length,

and you get it to-- fits just on perfectly.

But here, I've got five-minute epoxy,

so close enough is good enough.

Let's get that ferrule on there.

- Right now, I need to get this handle on

as fast as possible, so I'm gonna go for a burn-in.

- We got a burn-through coming.

- Oh, God. Please, no.

Love it. - Hate it.

The time, I can smell it burning.

It's not the burn-through you smell, it's time.

- There could be a few issues with this.

I could overheat the tang. I could snap the tang off.

I could bend the tang outta shape.

I don't know, but I know that time is ticking down,

and I just need to get this thing together

and hope for the best.

- To each their own.

- The burn-in goes really smooth.

It goes right up against where I want it to,

and I know that this handle will be as snug as it can be.

- Ryan, Ben, guys, you got two hours left!

- I pull the sword out of the etch,

and it looks beautiful.

But right now, I don't have time to sit and stare at it.

I remember that I wanted to temper the curl.

My concern with this curl on the back of the blade

is that it has a higher propensity to crack there.

So to mitigate this, I heat that area

to a much higher temperature, to increase its toughness

and prevent it from cracking and breaking.

- That's what you want.

Ben did a lot of really good work out there.

- Everything's pinned together. It's looking good.

All I got to do now is get an edge on this thing.

- Ten minutes left!

- I'm in the final push, and I'm digging deep

to finish this thing through.

And it's time to get this blade looking

as stellar as I can get it.

I wanna add a little bit more element to the handle itself,

because it's looking a little blank.

I think it'll be a little bit fun to add,

you know, more of a decorative component.

Hopefully if it comes down to fit and finish,

I have more art.

- What I like about this is, it's not just about

fine-tuning their blades.

They're actually looking to add embellishments...

- Yeah. - Try to one-up the other guy.

It's good to see. - You know,

Ben has been doing this a long time,

and he's beaten a lot of good smiths.

And I know he's gonna bring the heat,

and I am hoping just to match that as well.

- Five, four, three, two, one. Bladesmiths, that is a wrap.

Turn off your machines. Put down your tools.

This round is over.

- Hell yeah, dude. - That was awesome.

- Time is up, and I think I did

as much artistry as I can in the allotted time.

I wish we had four days to do it.

I think it would be a totally different story

in what I was able to do,

but it's looking pretty good for eight hours.

- All right, champions.

Welcome to the dynamic KEAL test.

All right. Uh, Ben, you're up first.

You ready for this? - Yes, sir.

- Let's do it.

I'm getting ready for testing and just waiting

for that first chop on the fence post.

And it's a strange thing,

it happens to me every single time--

I can physically hear my heartbeat in my ears,

'cause I am so nervous, and my palms are sweaty,

and I can't sit still.

- All right, Ben, let's talk about your kelewang here.

The overall profile of your blade is seamless.

It just flows from the handle all the way nicely to the tip.

Now the balance of this blade makes for very clean cuts.

Your edge took no damage. It's still very sharp.

Overall, your weapon, sir, it will KEAL.

- Thanks, Doug.

- Ryan, you ready for this? - All right.

- All right. We'll do it then.

- Going into testing,

is it the best-looking kelewang?

Maybe not, but I'm just praying that it holds up.

- All right, Ryan. First up, your handle.

The way this handle fits in my hand,

it's a very nice grip.

The edge is sharp.

It cut cleanly on the sugarcane,

the cardboard filled with rice, and the water tubes,

and it demolished and beheaded the ballistics dummy.

And most importantly, it will KEAL.

- Sweet.

- All right, gentlemen. Welcome to the strength test.

I'll be cutting fish, chopping a surfboard,

and hitting that cow fence.

Ben, you ready? - Let's do it.

- All right, Ben, right off, really good-looking sword.

Really good-feeling sword.

Rounding that joint off was supersmart.

That way, there's no stress right there at that joint.

It held up beautifully in the test.

It cut really well.

It's a very dramatic-looking sword,

and it performed really, really well.

Well done. - Thank you.

- Ryan, are you ready? - Let's do it.

- Okay.

- Oh, no.

- It's not catastrophic.

- So Ryan, right off, let's talk about the obvious.

Your curl snapped off,

and you can see the discoloration right there.

There's a crack that ran halfway down through that.

That crack is what caused the issue.

And, you know, this is not a catastrophic failure

since the weapon is still usable and still testable,

but it's definitely a major issue.

- Well, guys, that was an incredibly tough competition.

But at the end of it, the judges did have

a decision to make, and they did make that choice.

And the winner of this Beat the Unbeaten competition is...

Ben Abbott. Congratulations, man.

Now, Ryan, you fought hard. You gave us a great blade.

But unfortunately, you didn't come out on top this time,

and Dave's gonna tell you why.

- Ryan, you gave us a great blade,

and it performed really well on the test,

but that decorative curl did break off,

and we consider that a weapons failure--

not a catastrophic failure,

and that's why we went on with your testing,

but still a weapons failure.

That's why we're letting you go.

- Now, Ryan, it's been an absolute pleasure.

But before you step off The Forge floor, man,

we'd all love to shake your hand.

- You know, that damn curl, man,

it just snapped right off.

That's not what I was wanting, but I came back here

to really push myself and prove myself,

and, you know, to be challenged against the best.

I made mistakes, and, you know,

I'll learn from those,

but knowing what I do know now,

I think I could take you again, Ben,

and, you know, it's only a matter of time.

Bring it.

- Well, Ben, you took a bunch of risks,

some extra forge welds, but it all paid off.

You gave us a beautiful kelewang

that took zero damage during our tests.

Congratulations, man. You are still the unbeaten.

Very well done. Get back over here, man.

- I just won 11th competition, and I am on the moon.

I am so ecstatic.

It's difficult to explain in words how exciting it is

to win one of these competitions,

so perhaps an interpretive dance would help.