All language subtitles for Forged.in.Fire.S09E23.720p.WEB.h264-KOGi_Legendas01.ENG

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Here in The Forge,
we are always raising the ba,

but now we are putting it
at an all-time high.

♪ ♪

Everything
in this competition,

from the steel, the blades,
even the test

will be some of the biggest

we have ever seen
on The Forge floor.

- That’s a big piece of steel.
- [laughs]

- Who will rise
to this massive challenge

and take home $10,000?

- Big knife, big challenge.

- This is
"Forged in Fire: Supersized."

[glass shatters]

♪ ♪

- My name is Eland Green.
I am 26 years old.

I am a part-time bladesmith
out of Callisburg, Texas.

I got into bladesmithing
with a whole lot

of internet surfing.

I ended up
getting my grandpa involved.

We watch "Forged in Fire"
every day.

And being able to say,

"Hey, Grandpa,
I got on ’Forged in Fire’"

And I know
he’ll be proud of that.

♪ ♪

- My name’s Clay Unruh, and
I’m from Coldwater, Kansas.

I’m 30 years old, and I’ve been
bladesmithing about five years.

I like making
really weird stuff.

I’ve always been into
fantasy movies and video games.

I’ve made a zombie
apocalypse axe

with, like,
a bat for the handle.

I’m here to prove that
I’m not just another guy

making knives in his garage.
I can hang with the big dogs.

♪ ♪

- My name is Josh Meyer

and I’m 47 years old
from Flagstaff, Arizona.

And I’ve been smithing
for about five years.

My biggest strength
in smithing

is probably the variety
of things I do

’cause I’m not
just a bladesmith,

I’m a full-time artist.

I work primarily in the mediums
of stone, steel, and wood.

♪ ♪

- My name is Rob Harvey.

I’m from Charlotte,
North Carolina.

I work for the Department
of Veterans Affairs,

and I’m a part-time bladesmith.

I was in the Marine Corps,
and I actually spent

most of my time
in Okinawa, Japan.

I definitely take influence

from the Japanese style
of bladesmithing.

I had a great respect for
visiting the shops in Japan.

♪ ♪

- Well, gentlemen,
welcome to The Forge.

The four of you are here
to put your skills to the test

in a massive
bladesmithing competition.

This consists of three rounds.
At the end of each one,

I will ask you
to present your work

to our panel of expert judges.

And they’re the ones
who will decide

who leaves here empty-handed,

who’s taking home the title
and that check for 10 grand.

Now, bladesmiths,
this is a competition

in the series we are calling
"Forged in Fire: Supersized."

Now, bladesmiths,
under this tarp

I’ve got not one,
but two massive pieces of steel

with which we want you

to salvage materials
to make blades.

Now, I’m sure you guys
are ready

to light the forges
and get going.

- Yes, sir.

- So you guys
are gonna need these.

♪ ♪

- I see these
massive coil springs

that look like dinosaur bones,

and I don’t know how you can
draw that out in three hours.

- Bladesmiths,
what you’re looking at here

is 500 combined pounds
of 5160 spring.

In addition
to the spring steel,

you then take the steel,
clad it over your spring

to make a San Mai billet.

With which we want you to make
a massive signature blade

in your signature style
between 16 and 18 inches.

- Big knife, big challenge.

It’s definitely,
definitely supersized.

♪ ♪

- Now, for the three of you
who are lucky enough

to join us in the second
round of competition,

you will add handles
to those signature blades

turning them into
fully functioning weapons

at which point
our judges will put them

through a series of tests.

You’re gonna start off
by checking your strength

and durability
in an ice block chop

and then check
your edger tension

in a double punching bag slice.

All right, guys, we’ve got
three hours on the clock

for the first round of
this supersized competition,

so good luck, stay sharp.
Your time starts now.

♪ ♪

- Yeah, they’re really
springing to it.

- Yeah, really.
- [laughs]

- It’s a big piece of steel.
[laughs]

- It literally takes
two guys to move them.

They’re gonna have a heck
of a time breaking this down

and getting the steel they
need for their core materia.

- As soon as the clock starts,

me and Eland are teaming up
for the greater good

and getting our pieces
of steel harvest.

- Both of our springs
are getting attacked

with the oxy acetylene torches.
You guys think

that’s the fastest method
to get this broken down?

- If you know how to use

an oxy acetylene
cutting torch it is.

- Don’t cut my foot.
[laughs]

I’m nervous.
I’ve made San Mai in the past

but never with
something so large.

- So bare minimum,

what can they get away with
on this spring?

- I wouldn’t go much less
than three inches.

- Okay.
- You can always lose steal,

but not having enough
in the San Mai situation,

30 minutes, 40 minutes,
an hour from now

you’re starting over.

♪ ♪

- Think that’s enough?
- Yeah.

- There you go.
- See? That’s quick, man.

- It would really be
a dick move

just to cut my piece off.

So I stay and help
cut him a piece as well.

♪ ♪

Which one you want?
- I don’t care.

- They’ve both chosen to use

about five inches
of the spring.

So they got a ton of steel
there for their core material.

- While this is heating up,

I go over to the pantry
and find my cladding.

- Typically in
the San Mai competitions,

we see smiths having awful
time just getting that done

with clean, pristine,
bar stock.

We’re asking these guys
to process and work down

a two-inch diameter
piece of round spring

before even cleaning it up,
getting the cladding going,

and getting to the starting
point of a San Mai billet.

There’s a lot of work

in the first three hours
of this competition.

- Waiting on that steel
to heat up drives me nuts,

but if I don’t let
this piece of spring heat up

as thoroughly as it needs to,

then I’m gonna end up getting
cracks all the way through

that piece,
and I do not want that.

♪ ♪

- Josh and I decide
to work together.

- It’s a big,
old piece of steel, man.

- I know.

Cutting into the spring
is very slow,

but being in the Marine Corps
definitely helped give me

determination to do a task
until it’s done.

Come on, come on.

- So what does Rob here need
to do to speed up the process?

- He needs to
heat up his torch.

Put more acetylene in
and then more oxygen in.

- Hammer.
- Here you go.

- All right.

♪ ♪

- Rob really needs
to start speeding up.

- And now it’s time
to cut my piece.

- Almost through.
- There we go. Boom.

- There’s no time to waste.

It’s got to get
in that fire right away.

It’s a big piece of steel.
It’s got a bend on it.

I can’t forge something
straight onto something round.

And I need it to be flat
and so it can have a good bond.

- What’s the ideal thickness
of the core material

before you go ahead and clad?

- You want to have
the same dimension

as the cladding steel
you’ve got.

It’s really what you want

with nice, clean,
square sides, you know?

That would make a perfect weld.

♪ ♪

- I’ve got the coil spring
up to heat.

Now, I get it over
to the press trying to

flatten it out
and straighten it out.

- Clay’s already got
a hot piece of metal.

- He’s been in there
for 20 minutes.

Now he can just
run away with it.

- Yep, just work it down
on the press really quickly.

You can be extremely aggressive
with this stuff.

- Now, I’m welding
these suckers together

as quickly as I can,

because I know that
clock is running down.

♪ ♪

- Bladesmiths,
one hour has elapsed.

You’ve got two hours remaining.

- I had my piece of
spring steel nice and flat.

- Rob’s finished doing
his cleanup.

Oh, I guess he’s--

he’s mid-welding together
all his layers.

- I get my San Mai
pieces welded.

So at this point,
I’m feeling awesome.

♪ ♪

- Now that it’s
up to temperature,

I’m gonna go gently
set my San Mai forge weld.

If this forge weld goes wrong,

I have to start
completely over with cutting

a whole new piece
of coil spring.

I do not have time for that.

- Looks like he’s running out
of a little bit of heat.

- Yeah, one of the reasons
I’m not crazy about

setting long forge welds
on a press

is that bottom piece
is just sitting on that billet,

sucking the heat out
of that bottom piece of steel.

- So at this point, I’m pretty
confident my welds are good,

but now I have
to keep stretching it,

keep stretching it some more

getting to where
I have a blade.

♪ ♪

- Joshua’s, I think,
ready to clad his steel.

- Once I’m up to temperature,

now it’s time to
get over to the press,

and I want to very gently
set these welds.

- Looking at Joshua’s
steel from here,

he’s looking
pretty consolidated.

- By my second pass
on each side,

I’m pretty confident that it’s
that it’s forge-welded good,

and it’s time to heat this
thing up and stretching it out.

Making some bread.

- The pressure is on
for just to shape.

When I heard the tests
that the judges were

gonna be performing today,
I immediately thought,

"Don’t waste time forging
a big, complicated tip.

"Just do simple, easy,
Competition Chopper

with a straight edge
and a little bit of a belly."

- My least favorite thing
on the planet,

the straight-bladed,

clip-point,
Competition Chopper.

- That’s your least favorite
thing on the planet?

- Least favorite knife
on the planet

that’s been on this show.
- You haven’t been out much.

- Yeah.
- At this point, I am beat.

- 16 to 18 is a massive
piece of metal.

- It’s a big blade.

- But one way or another,
I’m turning in a blade.

♪ ♪

- Bladesmiths, you are
halfway through this round.

You’ve got 90 minutes
remaining.

♪ ♪

- Now that I’ve got
the forge weld set,

I’ve got to make a knife.

And I’ve got to make
a supersized knife,

not just any knife.

So I’m going for

in my house what we call
a choppy chop.

It’s just a big Chopper.

It’s got a little bit
of recurve to it

and it’ll be great
for chopping anything,

wood, ice, and it’ll be sharp.

- You know, for starting 20
minutes behind everybody else,

Rob’s making good time now.

- I’m feeling awesome, and now
it’s time to start normalizing.

♪ ♪

- I still have
to shape my blade.

I think I’m gonna lean more
toward my signature drop point.

I want to add a little bit

of a recurve to it
for the ice chop.

Just to give a more forward
heft for when they swing,

it’ll bite in a little bette.

- Eland’s got
a big hunk of metal.

- Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.

- So after lugging around this
giant, honking piece of stee,

my arms are tired.
I’m exhausted.

- Eland starting the work,
his metal cold

losing all the color.
- He keeps doing that.

- Well, working the materials
colder is never a good idea.

I mean, you’re gonna wind up

creating cracks
and stress fractures.

- I feel like I can’t get it
past that 16-inch mark

and I am getting stressed.

♪ ♪

- Joshua has a beautiful
rectangular shape to his blade.

Now to start putting
some form into that.

- I want to make a machete.

I think that’s about
the right size for a machete.

I think it’ll handle itself
very well.

Machetes are nostalgic to me,
because I grew up

in Papua New Guinea, and it
was, like, an everyday tol

that we had whenever
we went around anywhere.

You can’t go through
the jungle without a machete.

- Bladesmiths, you have
45 minutes remaining.

- Now it’s time
to quench this thing.

I gotta do this right
the first time,

because that clock is ticking.

♪ ♪

- Here we go.

- That’s a...
- [groans]

In the oil, like,
all the way in the oil.

- The minute I drop my blade
in the oil,

I thought, "Oh, [bleep].
I’m going home."

- Get it out of there.

- Hopefully it didn’t
hit the bottom and bend.

- This could be it for me.

♪ ♪

- I pull it out
and to my surprise,

it’s pretty straight.

For a second there, I thought
this was over for me.

I’m getting it
over to the grinder,

cleaning it up
as fast as I can.

- Oh, no.
- And I notice there’s a crack

all the way down
the spine of this blade.

Hoping that this crack
doesn’t run very deep

and I can grind it out
in a few minutes.

♪ ♪

- [screams]

- That just seems like
it went awesome.

Right?
[laughter]

- The Japanese believe that
when you scream

you’re transferring your spirit
into the blade

and I transfer everything
I have into that blade.

♪ ♪

What the [bleep]?

- Holy smokes.

- I have a supersized crack

going down the spine
of the blade.

- We’ve seen
time and time again,

in these San Mai
competitions especially

with a high temperature quench
that core material

just shearing and splitting
straight down the middle.

- I really am not sure if
I’m gonna have time to fix it.

♪ ♪

- Eland just quenched,
and it was hot.

- Pulled out and checked.
Everything looks great.

Now I have to
get to the grinder.

I’m just hogging as much
steel off as I can.

Oh, come on.

I have several spots show up,

and it looks like
it could be a crack.

- It’s once again
the curse of the San Mai.

- Seriously.
- A screaming hot quench, man.

- I gotta get rid
of that crack.

If the cracks go all the way
through I’m going home.

Come on now.

♪ ♪

- In the oil.
All right, guys,

four smiths,
four quenched blades.

- We got a nice, hard edge.

Man, I am so relieved.
I am so happy.

I’ve gotta get to the grinder.

I want to try to
clean it up a little bit

and just work
to the last second.

♪ ♪

- Five, four, three,

two, one.

Bladesmiths,
turn off your machines.

Put down your tools.

The first round
of this competition’s over.

- Good job, brother.

- I wasn’t able
to fix that crack.

At this point, I have to hope

one of the other contestants
has a worse blade than me.

And I’m not very confident
that I’ll be advancing

with that crack on the spine.

♪ ♪

- All right, bladesmiths,

the time’s come
for the first critique.

Eland, you’re up first.
Please present your work.

♪ ♪

- So, Eland, great work
in shaping this blade,

but I’ve got
some issues with it,

mainly that it’s got a crack
that runs from the spine

all the way to
basically the tang.

And the worst part is,
it runs on both sides.

You get into the second round,

you’ve got to take
mass off of this thing

and figure out some way
to close that blade up.

♪ ♪

- Clay, sir, how you feeling?
- I’m ready.

- All right,
please present your work.

♪ ♪

- All right, Clay, let’s talk
about your blade here.

So first off, you have a very
basic design of a Chopper,

but what gives me pause is that
there is a crack on the spine.

The saving grace of that is,
there’s none on your edge.

So should you move forward,

I hope you have a plan to fix
this and bring out its beauty.

- Thank you.

- Joshua, it’s your turn.
Please present your work.

♪ ♪

- All right, Joshua, now, your
blade’s a solid quarter inch.

There’s a slight warp to it,

but it’s well within
grinder range.

Biggest thing is, if you’re
getting into the second round,

is to maintain that San Mai.

Don’t lose all
of that cladding material.

Your steel looks good.
Nicely done.

- Thank you, sir.

- Last but not least, Rob.
Please present your work.

♪ ♪

- Well, Rob,
this is a cool-shaped knife.

I love the profile of it.
Bevels are looking good,

but the big thing here
is that there’s a huge crack

that runs down
the spine of your blade

really, really wide.

I wouldn’t at this point
call it a catastrophic failure.

In a competition like this,
you can come back from this

with the right kind of repair.

Great job on the set up
for this knife.

Looks really good,

but this crack really needs
to be dealt with.

- Absolutely.

- Well, gentlemen,
there’s never anything easy

about coming into
a "Forged in Fire" competition

and this one was massive,
but only three of you

can join us in the second round
of this competition.

Now, after discussion,
the judges all agreed

that the smith who will
not be joining us is...

♪ ♪

Eland.

Unfortunately your blade
didn’t make the cut

and Ben’s gonna tell you why.

- Eland, a lot of people had
cracks in their blades today,

but yours is the only one

that went all the way
from the spine to the edge.

And that really is

a catastrophic failure
of a blade,

and it’s for that reason
we’re gonna let you go.

- Well, Eland, you fought hard.

You gave us a blade
that met parameters,

but unfortunately,
it’s not enough

to get you to the second round
of this competition.

At this point in time,
I’m gonna have to ask you

to please surrender your work
and step off The Forge floo.

- My blade wasn’t
the only one to crack,

but unfortunately, my crack
went all the way through,

and it was just the worst out
of the three that showed up.

But I still produced a blade
within the three hours

in the supersize challenge
on top of that.

I’m proud that
I fought till the end.

♪ ♪

- Well, gentlemen,
congratulations.

The three of you are
joining us in the second round

of the supersize competition
where you’re gonna

fix all those issues the judges
brought up about your blades,

as well as add handles to them

turning them into fully
functioning weapons.

Now, if you take a look
over at the pantry,

you notice that all of
our handle material has been

wiped from its shelves aside
from four very large logs.

Those logs are all you can use
for the handles.

After this round is done,

you guys are gonna hand
your blades over to our judges,

and they’re gonna test
for strength and durability

in an ice block chop and then

check your edger tension
in a dual punching bag slice.

You have a lot of work to do
in these two hours.

So good luck.
That time starts now.

♪ ♪

Here we go.

We got a lot of work to do
on these blades.

- A lot.
- They’re heavy.

There’s two massive cracks.
How do we fix those?

- The best thing to do is get
a big, open crack in the back

and just fill that whole thing
with MIG weld,

making sure that that heat

doesn’t travel
all the way down to the edge.

- So I have a two-hour round.

I have to take
this supersized log

and turn this material
into handle material,

but the first thing I have to
fix is the crack on the spine.

So I start welding it
in little increments

so I don’t overheat
the steel completely.

Once you take your temperature

above the tempering
temperature,

your heat treat is ruined.

- You know what’s
going to be interesting

about supersized blades,
it’s really gonna be testd

during an ice block chop.
- Absolutely.

- More mass, more vibrations,

more impact to travel
through the whole thing.

So if you do not address
the cracks early,

it’s gonna open up.

- I successfully
closed the gap.

I welded it up as best I could,
and we’ll see what happens.

♪ ♪

- Going into round two

I’m very fortunate that
I don’t have any cracks,

so that saves me
a lot of time.

I can jump on the grinder
right away

and start working on my warp.

- You know, I’m watching
Joshua grind, and it’s just

a really inefficient way
to remove material.

And Joshua’s got a lot
of material he has to remove.

- Now that I got the warp out,

I’m gonna start grinding down
the rest of the blade

and putting in
the distal taper into it

to thin it out and
lighten it up on the end.

And then I’m gonna start
bringing in the bevels.

- The risk I run
welding the crack

is the heat traveling
to the cutting edge

and softening the edge.

I’m gonna avoid that
the best I can

by submerging the edge
in a pail of water

to try and block that heat from
traveling to the cutting edge.

♪ ♪

- Adding the extreme heat,
it’s kind of dangerous, right?

You make it brittle now.

- Yeah, but if you just kept
the edge in the water,

the heat would
only travel down so far.

There’d be a gradient of heat.

- So he’s just using it
as a heat sink.

- Yeah.

- The back of this blade
looks like a stegosaurus,

but I’m out of time,
and I have to move on.

I’m heading over
to the grinder

to try to remove some of
the meat from this blade.

♪ ♪

- I’ve taken a lot of weight
out of the knife,

and I’m ready now to try and
move on to my handle material.

- I’m excited to see how
these guys tackle these logs.

- They’ve got the option
to use the wedges

and smash them into these logs,
but the bandsaw seems to be

the most efficient tool
to get the job done.

- Oh, yeah.

- I start hammering on it
as hard as I possibly can

and I’m not having any luck
splitting this log.

♪ ♪

[sighs]

♪ ♪

So I go over to the bandsaw,

and I check
how high the gate is

so that I can actually see if
I can get it in there.

And sure enough I can.

I cut out a huge sliver,

and now I’m back in the game

to where I can make
knife scales now.

♪ ♪

- After I get the majority
of the grinding done

and it’s time for me to start
working on the handle,

so probably, the easiest way
to get some wood

off of that log
is to grab a splitter.

And it’s just bouncing.

I’ve got to figure
something else out.

There’s such
a short amount of time,

so I think maybe
I’m just gonna have to

sharpen the splitter up,
make it more like an axe,

and try again.

♪ ♪

- Joshua over here,
managed to split that log,

but now he’s got a rough piece
of wood that’s still a wedg.

- Yeah. If nobody’s on
the bandsaw, use the bandsaw.

- Bladesmiths,
you guys are now

halfway through
the handle round.

You only have one hour
remaining before tests.

♪ ♪

- I head over
to the drill press

and try to drill my pinholes.

- All right,
see if Clay’s able to

get through
that thick, old tang.

[drill rattling]

- Yeah, by that sound
I’d say, "Nope."

- No, it’s not
going well for him.

- In round one
when I quenched,

I dropped the whole blade
in the quench tank.

- That’s a...
- [groans]

- So this entire knife
is hardened,

and hardened steel
does not drill.

[drill rattling]

- Clay’s having trouble
getting through it right now

with only an hour
left on the clock.

♪ ♪

- [bleep].

If I can’t get the holes
drilled in my tang,

I won’t be able to put pins

and establish
a mechanical connection.

And I’d be going home.

I look at the clock,
and I know

I can’t waste time
trying to drill through this.

So I’m getting a little wild.

- Holy smokes.

It’s not often you see somebody
cut their holes in the tang.

- It beats the heck out of
burning up drill bits thoug.

- Yeah, that’s true.
- You know.

- If I can’t drill through it,

I’m gonna burn these holes
through with a torch.

This is something
I’ve never done before,

but desperate times call
for desperate measures.

♪ ♪

It went swimmingly.
I want this one.

Now, I have to
get this log split

and get some wood
for this handle.

♪ ♪

- The handle construction

I’m gonna be doing on this
is a full tang.

So I’ll be putting scales of
this wood on each side

of the tang and pinning it in
and gluing it.

So I got all six holes in,

and now I need to
glue this thing on.

I’m using some fast,
five-minute setting epoxy,

but I don’t have
five minutes to waste.

So I quickly put
some clamps on it,

and I go over to my grinder,

and I start working
on sharpening it.

♪ ♪

- I put the epoxy on,

and now it’s time to wait
for the epoxy to cure.

It is five-minute epoxy,
but when you’re rushing,

those five minutes
seem like eternity.

♪ ♪

- [laughs]
What’s that?

- I don’t know
if that’s how this works.

- Yeah, blowing on it
doesn’t help.

- Makes me feel better.
- All right.

- My epoxy is now hardened,

and I realize that
I barely have any time left.

I want to make sure that
everything is nice and smooth,

’cause if the blade
injures the user,

it’s not a good tool.

♪ ♪

- Rob’s sharpening
his blade right now.

- That’s good.
- Yeah.

- He needs the time.

- I’ve still got
to shape this handle

and do an acid etch,
and there are minutes left.

The pressure is on.

♪ ♪

- Five, four, three

two, one.

Bladesmiths,
turn off your machines.

Put down your tools.
This second round is over.

- I’m nervous going
into testing,

because my handle’s not as
comfortable as I would like,

the finish isn’t
as nice as I would like,

and I’m still worried
about those cracks.

But just that I was able
to complete the challenge

is an accomplishment
in and of itself.

♪ ♪

- All right, bladesmiths,
welcome to the strength test:

The hanging ice block chop.

Clay, you’re up first.
You ready for this?

- Eh.
- All right.

♪ ♪

- I’m not sure how

the crack in my spine
is gonna handle this chop.

Worst-case scenario,
the spine blows apart.

♪ ♪

- All right, Clay, well,
first thing I realized

when I pick up this blade,
though, is its weight.

It’s very heavy, and it’s just
a little difficult to control.

Your edge here
picked up a roll,

and looking at your spine,

there’s a little bit of issue
I can see with the MIG weld,

some gas bubbles
in the MIG weld,

but it held up great.
Nice job.

- Thank you, sir.

- All right, Joshua,
you’re up next.

You ready for this?
- Yes, sir.

♪ ♪

I’m pretty confident
in my blade,

’cause I got
a good forge weld on that.

But I am concerned about

the edge taking
damage on that ice.

♪ ♪

- All right, Joshua,
your pattern is really cool.

I can see it on both sides.

Your blade took a slight ding,
but that being said,

blade is still straight.
Nice job.

- Thank you, sir.

- All right, Rob,
you’re up, man.

You ready?
- Absolutely.

♪ ♪

Doing an ice block
chop destroys blades.

They explode,
and we already know

that I have
a crack in my spine.

And I am not feeling
okay for this.

It is gut-wrenching,

and I don’t know
what’s gonna happen.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- All right, Rob, you nailed

the supersized aspect
of this thing.

It’s big in every dimension.

The handle is big,
but it’s not overly big.

The edge looks perfect.

In all, I think
you did a good job.

- Thank you, sir.

♪ ♪

- Bladesmiths,
this is the sharpness test,

the double punching bag slice.

Clay, you’re up first.
You ready for this?

- If you must.
- We must.

♪ ♪

All right, Clay, let’s talk
about your chop here.

First up, it is a heavy blade,

but because of the weight
coupled with a sharp edge,

it really adds
to cutting into these bags.

Overall, your weapon,
it will cut.

- Thank you, sir.

- All right, Joshua, your turn.
You ready?

- I’m ready, man.
Let’s do this.

♪ ♪

- All right, Joshua, let’s talk
about your blade over here.

Now, your edge, first cut
hit the stitching over there,

but the rest of the bag,
it just obliterated it.

It’s a very sharp edge.
It’s got a nice balance to it,

a good feel swinging it,
and overall, it will cut.

- Thank you, sir.

- All right, Rob, your turn,
sir, you ready?

- Yes, sir.
- Let’s do this.

♪ ♪

All right, Rob,
let’s talk about

your behemoth of a blade here.

Now, the edge is sharp.

Packed with
the weight of this blade,

it cuts deep into the bags,
and overall, it will cut.

- Thank you, sir.

♪ ♪

- Now, gentlemen,
in this competition

you guys all stood up
to the massive task

of turning giant springs
into San Mai blades.

But as you know,
only two of you can join us

in the final round
of this competition.

And after a discussion,
our judges all agreed

that the bladesmith leaving
The Forge is...

♪ ♪

Clay.

Unfortunately, your blade
didn’t make the cut

and Doug’s gonna tell you why.

- Clay, first up,
I want to commend you

for the work you did.
You can show us

that even if you have a crack,
if you make it through

there are ways of fixing it,

and it performed
very well in our test.

But the end of the day,
your blade took some damae

and is the least refined.

And that’s the reason
you’re not moving forward.

- I understand.

- Now, Clay, we want
to say thank you for comig

and fighting so hard,
but unfortunately,

at this time
I’m gonna have to ask you

to please step off
The Forge floor.

- Thank you. Good luck, guys.
- Thank you.

- I agree with
the judges’ decision.

All three blades held up
to the test pretty well,

but the other two smiths

were just much more
refined than mine.

Even though I’m not leaving
the "Forged in Fire" champion,

I think I’ve still proved

that I’m not just some guy
making knives in his garage.

♪ ♪

- Joshua, Rob, gentlemen,
congratulations.

Your hard work has paid off,
and you’re both moving forward

into the final round of
the supersized competition.

You probably noticed that
throughout this competition

we had a little bit of a theme.

There were two giant springs,
we had two ice blocks,

and there were
two punching bags.

Well, we’re gonna
keep that theme of twos going.

You guys will have
four days to build these..

♪ ♪

A pair of elephant
fighting swords.

- Awesome.
- [laughs]

- The double elephant
fighting swords,

or Dhaab Ngao,
trace their origins

back to 18th-century
Lan Na Kingdom

in modern-day Thailand.

Used by mounted
elephant warriors,

these massive, heavy blades

featured a long handle
to assist in counterbalance.

Both blades measure
around 30 inches

and feature
a flame-backed spine

and an upswept tip.

These swords were designed
not only to attack

other mounted soldiers
with lethal stabs and slashe,

but the ridges
and peaks along the spine

had the ability
to trap an adversary’s blade.

Today these swords
are still used

in traditional
Thai martial arts.

This is the largest pair
of weapons

we have ever asked smiths
to go home and make.

But, gentlemen,
they need to fall within

these followed parameters.

Your blade length needs
to be within 27 and 29 inches.

You need to have
an upswept tip,

three flames on the spine
of each of your blades.

Now, going down to the handle.

It need to be ovoid in shape
and between 17 and 19 inches.

Now, guys,
these are large blades,

but that does not mean
they should be heavy.

Each one of these blades
cannot exceed four pounds.

- I have to make
two elephant swords.

Not one.
I have to make two.

Unbelievable.

- Now, guys, you’ve got
a ton of work ahead of you,

but next time
you enter this forge,

one of you will be leaving with

the title of
"Forged in Fire" champion

and getting a check
for $10,000,

so good luck.

We will see you both
in four days.

- Let’s do this.

♪ ♪

- Back here in my home forge
in Flagstaff, Arizona.

I’ve decided I wanted to make
Damascus for these blades,

something that stands out
a little bit

against my competitor.

All right, I’m gonna be
using the 5160

and some 15N20.

I’m pretty comfortable
making the sword.

It’s the time constraints
that I have

for making two of them
in four days

that’s gonna be
the tricky part.

All right.
I’ve only got one forge,

so I want to get both of those
billets in there if I can

so I can rotate the billets
back and forth

and keep this process
going along.

So far, looking good.

End of day one,
I got a lot done,

was able to get about 90%

of the blades forged out
this first day.

So feeling good.

I’m exhausted, but I’m ready
to rock and roll tomorrow.

Coming along.
Whoo-hoo.

♪ ♪

- Day one, we’re back in my
home forge in North Carolina.

My goal is to make
a 150-layer Damascus billet.

It’s a lot of steel.
It’s enough for two sword.

I’m using one big billet
so that I can accomplish

both swords from one billet

rather than starting
with two billets.

So hopefully,
it will go faster.

Cool.

I just finished day one.

I was able to make my
150-layer billet of Damascus.

I’m a little bit nervous.
I definitely feel behind,

but I definitely feel
it’s gonna pay off.

♪ ♪

- Day two.

So what’s next is, I’m gonna
start grinding in the profile

so I can start
making the shapes.

So grinding these three flames
into the top of these blades

is pretty tricky,
and I can’t mess this up,

because this is attached
to this entire sword.

I want to make sure that these
flames look really nice,

because every
little detail counts.

And if Rob does better than me
or if I grind one too short,

I could really mess myself up.
I like it.

So I’ve got the profile
shaped out.

I’ve to the flames all nice,
so now it’s time for me

to get this thing
heat-treated,

’cause my time is ticking.

♪ ♪

Oh, yeah.
Straight as an arrow.

Wow.

♪ ♪

- It’s the morning of day two.

My plan for today is, I’m gonna
forge out both blades

and hopefully get them
heat-treated.

Getting there.

I’ve never done
anything this big,

but I’m moving pretty quickly,
very efficiently.

So I can start building up
my heat-treating oven.

Unfortunately, I’m gonna have
to modify this a little bit

to get the swords in here,
but it’s gonna have to do.

Because of the size
of these blades

being able to heat these
blades up evenly

is very challenging.

There’s one.

♪ ♪

There’s two.

There were no cracks, warps,
nothing crazy like that,

but my biggest concern
throughout the entire

home forge challenge
was my heat-treating.

You know, my heat-treating
oven was not up to par

for handling that
type of heat treatment.

I really just hope
that they’re strong enough.

♪ ♪

- Day four.

Yesterday I got started on
the handle.

So now it’s time
to do the glue up.

I’ve got so many holes.

I’m really concerned about
making sure that

all the pins fit in there

and everything hooks up
together nicely.

That’s not good.

I’m gluing the first piece on,

and the pins
just aren’t going in.

Time is ticking,
and I’ve got a lot to do.

We just had ourselves
a little catastrophe, folks.

♪ ♪

And I realize that
I put it on the wrong side.

So I’ve got to try again.

I’m glad I caught that.
Yeah.

Okay, saved it.
[laughs]

Now I’ve got to hurry up.

I named my swords
Chaos and Tranquility

just because I used
two different types of walnut.

And it was sort of a yin
and a yang feel for me.

All glued up.

Rob, I hope you did well,
buddy, because it’s game time.

Whoo.

♪ ♪

- Day four.

My overall plan for today

is to finish the handles,

get them glued up,
basically sharpened up,

ready to test.

Nice and smooth.

At first I was a little worried
about what I had to do

at this supersized challenge,
but ultimately,

I feel really good about it.

They feel good in the hand.

I met all the parameters.

Both my swords are light
and fast, and they’re sharp.

♪ ♪

- Joshua, Rob, gentlemen,
welcome back to The Forge.

We gave you four days
at your home forges

to work on the largest
pair of weapons

we’ve ever asked smiths to make
in this final round.

Guys, I’ve got to say,
they look amazing.

But before we put them
to the test

to find out which one of you
is coming out on top

of this competition,
I want to hear about them.

So, Rob, how’d you build yours?

♪ ♪

- I made a 150-layer Damascu,
and then I used purple heart

and Osage orange
for the handle material

- Awesome, man.
Joshua, how about you?

- So I’d like you to meet Chaos
and Tranquility over here

made of 5160 and 15N20 steel

with a low-layered,
bold-patterned Damascus,

walnut handles,
and some copper Damascus

for the bolsters.

- Outstanding.
Gentlemen, after today

one of you is
gonna earn the title

of "Forged in Fire" champion,
get a check for $10,000.

Because this is
the supersized competition,

we’re gonna put
your blades through a series

of supersized tests.

And up first,
the KEAL test with Doug.

- Bladesmiths,
welcome to the KEAL test.

Rob, you’re up first.
You ready for this?

- Absolutely.
Let’s do it.

At first sight these tests
are definitely terrifying,

because I know that my blades

had some struggles
in the heat-treating area.

One dummy’s bad enough,
but to see two

is not an exciting thing.

I’m so nervous.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- All right, Rob,
let’s talk about

your elephant
fighting swords here.

First up, the Damascus path

that you have here
are stunning,

but we have a problem.

During the test both blades
took a very significant bend.

As you can see here,

they’re kind of off-center,
not centered.

And judging by
how extreme these are

it looks like
a major heat-treat issue

with both your blades.

With every strike

they will continue to bend
more and more,

so unfortunately, I would not
feel safe testing them further.

♪ ♪

- Now, Rob, both your blades

did make it through
our KEAL test,

but in the midst
of that test they both took

very serious bends
down near the handle.

Our judges did decide to issue
a vote of no confidence,

and we cannot continue
testing your blades.

But you’re not
out of the fight yet.

Joshua, in order
to take home the title of

"Forged in the Fire" champion
and get a check for 10 grand,

your blades will have to make
it through our KEAL test

with no disqualifying issues.
Are you ready?

- I am so ready.
Let’s do this.

♪ ♪

I have some chaos
and some tranquility

going on in my body.

I mean, Rob,
obviously has a bend,

but mine might break.

♪ ♪

- All right, Joshua,
let’s talk about

your elephant swords here.

These blades are nicely done.

I don’t see any
damage to your blades.

They’re nice and tight
and straight.

Over all,
your weapons will KEAL.

- Thank you.

- Well, Joshua,
congratulations.

Your blades made it through
the KEAL test

completely unscathed.

Now, Rob, we want to say
thank you for coming out

and trying so hard
in this competition,

but your time
in The Forge has ended.

I’m gonna have to ask you

to please step off
The Forge floor.

- Thank you. Appreciate it.
- Thank you so much.

- I absolutely know what
was wrong with the blades.

I didn’t have a heat-treating
oven big enough.

I had a feeling that
that was gonna be a weak spo,

and it was dead-on.

I absolutely enjoyed the build.

This definitely pushed my--
my boundaries, and that’s good,

’cause what doesn’t kill you
makes you stronger.

♪ ♪

- Well, Joshua, you are the
new "Forged in Fire" champion,

and you’re gonna be receiving
a check for $10,000.

Congratulations.
- Thank you so much, guys.

It feels amazing.

It’s very surreal.
I can’t believe it.

- You got plans for the money?
- [laughs]

It’s gonna go back to my shop.
- Right on.

- This was a huge
personal journey for me,

but as a full-time
bladesmith and artist

it pushed my creativity,
ingenuity,

and it was incredible.

I’m Joshua Meyer,

and I’m the
"Forged in Fire" champion.

♪ ♪