All language subtitles for Forged.in.Fire.S10E07.720p.WEB.h264-EDITH_Subtitles01

[dramatic music]

♪

[upbeat rock music]

♪

- I'm Cody Santos.
I'm 30 years old.

I am a full-time
physical therapist,

and I have been
a hobbyist bladesmith

for about two years now.

I definitely enjoy
the artistic aspect of it

and seeing that change
with each knife I make.

♪

- My name's Matthew Sweeney.
I'm 44.

I love smithing
because I like to make things.

My favorite knife to make
is actually tattooed on my arm.

This knife was made

for a retired
British Navy submariner,

so he passed it on
to his grandson.

- My name is Kayan Cajudo.
I am 41 years old.

I am a part-time Filipino
martial arts instructor

and a part-time traditional
Filipino sword maker.

I got into traditional
Filipino martial arts

and blade making
through my own heritage.

I've lived in the Philippines
for a short time.

I have a lot of family there.

My dad still lives there
as well.

I think I'll do pretty well.

- My name is Willow Zietman.
I am 32 years old.

I got into blacksmithing
'cause my dad gave me a copy

of "The Lord of the Rings"

and swords and metal
just seemed pretty rad.

♪

- Well, bladesmiths,
welcome to The Forge.

We've got a hell of
a tasty competition for you.

Now, that competition
will consist of three rounds,

and there will be
an elimination

at the end of each one
made by these judges

sitting behind me today.

I hope you're hungry
'cause I've been spending

the past few hours
preparing a delicious meal

of soup for all you guys.

It probably would have gone
a whole lot faster

had I had
an amazing chef's knife.

Now, what makes
a good chef's knife

is one that is lightweight.

It's flexible,
it's comfortable in the hand,

and it is strong and sharp.

As I'm sure you're already

kind of putting things together
and guessing,

that's exactly
what we want you to make today.

Now, we ask that these blades

fall within
the following parameters.

The blade length will have
to be between 10 and 12 inches

from the tip to where
the cutting edge ends,

and by the end
of the first round,

they're gonna have
to be set up

for a full tang
handle construction.

And we want your blades
to feature a hamon.

- A chef knife seems simple,

but the geometry
has to be perfect.

The shape has to be perfect.
I'm a little freaked out.

- And in order to make
your chef's knife,

you're gonna need what's on
the anvils in front of you.

Go ahead and take
that cloth off for me.

♪

What you're all
looking at there

are bars of
W1 good high carbon steel

in the form of round stock.

Now, we've decided to have you
make monosteel blades today

because we want to give you
the opportunity to focus

on all those minute details
that make a chef knife great.

For the three of you

who join us
in the second round,

we have a professional chef
coming in here

to check your blades
for functionality,

and then because this is
"Forged in Fire,"

we're gonna check
for strength and sharpness,

first starting
with a rolling pin chop

and ending
with a chef's apron slice.

Now, bladesmiths, we only have
three hours on the clock.

Your time starts now.

[energetic rock music]

- This is actually
a very specialized challenge.

A chef's knife
is kind of its own beast.

- Yeah, if you're doing
an all-around chef's knife,

you've gotta use that
in a number of different ways.

You want to be able to slice
a tomato with it.

You want to be able to split
a chicken in half with it.

So that blade and handle
have to be comfortable

in a lot of different ways.

♪

- If I put the entire piece
in the forge,

I'm afraid that it'll take
too long to heat up.

- Kayan probably cut
that W1 in quarter.

- You can pull
that blade out of that,

but that's not giving you
any wiggle room whatsoever.

- You know, you're just running
huge risks

when you're working
with minimum.

- I've made plenty
of chef knives before,

but it's my least favorite
thing to make.

A chef knife
has to be perfect.

There's no other way around it.

Three hours
is definitely not enough time

to make a chef knife,
but we gotta do

what we gotta do.
It's "Forged in Fire."

♪

- My game plan is just to go
slow and steady

but not too slow,
rushing around

like a chicken
with its head cut off

with a chef's knife.

♪

I am a full-time mom,

and as the cook in the family,

I want to make sure
that this knife

does what I would
want it to do

when making whatever
I'm making for the family.

♪

- I'm really trying to think
about, like,

how can I set myself up

to have really good
edge geometry on the knife

because that's what makes
culinary knives

perform the way they do.

I just want to make sure
I remind myself

not to take huge bites
on the steel

with the press
because that just adds

a ton of extra stress.

♪

- I like what Cody's
doing right now.

So he's got a nice, long,
rectangular, wide billet

compared to
what it was earlier.

- Honestly, what Cody has now,

he could legitimately
go to the grinder.

- Exactly.

♪

- My steel
is up to temperature,

and then to Big Blu.

[with Russian accent]
He's strong like bitch

who fights bears in the forest.

♪

- I like what Willow's doing.

Watching her, yeah,
she's got a good tip worked in.

That's actually
really good work.

♪

- Feeling that I'm moving
at a brisk pace,

but I'm not
rushing around frantically

or anything like that.

So at this point, I have
a long bar drawn out to length.

From here, I want to refine
the handle shape a little bit.

- We talked about
the chef's knives

being also something
that's light.

When talking about the handle,

something that you can even
use just your fingers

to be slicing off.

You don't need to hammer fist

or really grab on
to a blade like that.

- I have so much extra steel

still on the back
of the handle,

that I might have
to just cut some off.

♪

- See, Cody's doing
what I would do.

Take the whole bar of steel,
stretch it out,

and just when I get
what I need stretched out,

then cut it off from there.

♪

Well, Matt's got enough
material right there.

He seems to be working
Big Blu nicely,

get that tip formed in there.

And he's got a decent amount
of height already.

♪

- [bleep] bent.

♪

- Oh, that's not good.

- I'm working my tip in,
and like a bonehead,

my foot gets stuck,
and I just overpress this.

Folded all over on itself.
It's horrible.

It's mangled.
This tip is ruined.

Fortunately,
I have enough steel

'cause there's no way
of fixing this.

It has to get cut off the end.

Now that that's cut off,
we're going right back.

This time, we're gonna
hammer it in by hand.

♪

- [bleep].

As I start to draw it out,

I realize that I cut off
way too little bit of material.

Made a huge mistake.

I was measuring
for overall length,

not blade.
- The whole length, oh.

- Just a dumb [bleep] move
under pressure.

- Kayan's got, like,
two inches of steel.

- I'm not going to meet
the parameters.

[tense music]

- Kayan's gotta
do something here.

- I'm looking at the clock,
and I realize

that it's been less
than an hour,

so I feel pretty confident
I can restart this project.

♪

- Hey, Kayan's starting over,
guys,

so hopefully he goes back
and grabs more steel this time.

- I got less than three hours.
I need to produce a knife.

Oh, [bleep].

- Bladesmiths,
you've got two hours left!

♪

Willow, she's moving
incredibly fast.

♪

Everybody else
is doing a great job,

but she's just way ahead.

- Thinking about
all the chef's knives

that I've used,
one of the most annoying things

a knife can do is get food
suction cupped to it,

to the flat bevel,

so I put a hollow in there

so that there isn't
as much contact.

- You rarely see a hollow grind
on a chef's knife.

In a chef's knife,
you don't want

material to push out.

You want
to just slide through it.

- I realize when I'm grinding

that I could forget
to put a hamon.

- Willow's taking notes
on her arm.

- [laughs]
All over her arm.

- Whatever works.

[energetic rock music]

- I don't know about you guys,
but my kitchen

always has
the later knife in it.

It's the one you never clean

because you're
gonna use it later.

- [laughs]
- My wife hates it.

- It's very thick
at this point.

I want to get it thinner

so then I can then prep it

to mark it
to put the bevels on.

- Well, that's one
of the things when you get into

balancing a chef's knife--

you balance it from where
you pinch it up here,

but if you need
to manipulate a knife,

you want to be
up here pinching it.

- So I want
to set something up

that can be comfortable
for either way it's used,

especially knowing there's
gonna be a professional chef

using this knife in the test.

♪

- Kayan restarted,
still kind of running through

the same process, drawing out.

- I managed to form
my second blade.

So at this point,
I am reheating it

and drawing it out.

I feel like I'm totally
under pressure,

but I still have
pretty good time,

and I'm changing my profile

to a Binakuko.

It's a traditional
Filipino chef's knife,

which is actually
for butchering.

- He's drawing it out
and making it smaller,

not making it wider.
- Wider's the key.

- Three hours is very difficult
to make a functioning knife.

Less than three hours
is really pushing those limits,

but I'm gonna give it my best.

- If he got on Big Blu
in one pass,

he could get the width
he needs--

in one heat.

♪

- Bladesmiths,
you got one hour left!

♪

- Typically, a hamon
is put on something

that's gonna be for chopping.

It acts like a shock absorber
on the back of the knife.

It takes off some stress.

♪

- Oh, all right.
Matt is in the oil.

How do you feel
about temperature?

- The issue with overheating
with W1

is you might see
the stress fractures show up

in the tempering cycle.

- [grunts]

I see two big cracks all
along the spine of the blade

because I quenched too hot.

- You quenched this blade
so hot

that you've actually split
the W1 core.

♪

- I'm looking at my knife.
It's beautiful.

♪

[groans]

- Matt does not look happy.

- I see a crack.

- He's got a crack.
- Oh, boy.

- I'm devastated.

I'm looking at this thing,

and it looks like
the Grand Canyon.

- I mean, he's gotta know
if there's one crack,

- I mean, he's gotta know
if there's one crack,

there's likely more.

- I'm heartbroken.
I look at the clock.

Oh, [bleep].

At this point, there is
no time to start over.

[dramatic music]

My brain is already moving.
I know what I need to do.

I run straight to the welder.

Now we gotta get this
reprofiled and reground,

then back into the clay
and back into the forge.

♪

[energetic rock music]

- So we asked these smiths
to give us a hamon

on their chef's knives,
and that's not something

I've ever seen
in one of these competitions.

So how do they go about
achieving an attractive hamon?

- You cover up everything
you don't want hardened,

and that clay acts
as an insulator,

so that steel never gets
to the hardening temperature

when you quench it.

♪

- Wow.

- I feel great about the knife
'cause, as I'm looking down

grinding it, I can
actually see the hamon line,

and I am able to breathe
a big sigh of relief.

♪

- Once I'm reasonably happy
with the grind,

I go over to the forge,
and I look down at my arm,

and I remember, "Oh, crud,

I almost forgot the hamon."

Thank goodness
for the writing.

Ugh, can you imagine
if I hadn't written

all over myself in Sharpie?
That would've sucked.

I'm praying
that a hamon happens,

and that I've done
everything right.

Whoa.

Ugh, it's so beautiful.

Wow.

It worked.

- Bladesmiths,
you got 30 minutes left!

Kayan had a pretty interesting

and kind of
off-the-wall design.

- That's not the shape
of a chef knife

that we're looking for.
- No.

♪

- That's screaming.

There is a hairline fracture.

- This is rough.

You do not want to be in
this predicament right now.

- At this point,
I can't get the crack out.

I have to finish the blade
and have something

to present to the judges.

♪

- Five, four, three,

two, one!

Kitchen is closed, bladesmiths!
This round's over!

- If they were to test
this blade right now,

I'm not sure
if it would survive,

but hopefully,
I'll be able to fix it

in the next round.

[tense music]

- All right, bladesmiths,
over the past three hours,

you took your W1,
turned them into

your custom chef's knives,
but the time has come

for the first critique
and elimination.

Cody, you're up first.
Please present your work.

♪

- All right, Cody,
you've got a good shape.

It's very identifiable
as a kitchen knife,

which is great,
but if I were using this

in a kitchen situation,
you know,

and I was going
to cut my vegetables,

problem is
is there's about 1/4-inch gap

between the blade
and my cutting board.

You can't get that
all the way down,

and that's because of this tail
you've got here.

If you move forward,
correcting this

would be the main thing to do.

♪

- Matt, you're up.
You ready?

- Sure.

♪

- All right, Matthew,
good shape on this piece.

The big issues, though,
you've got a good warp

on the back third here,
and you've got a good crack

right here.

If you don't figure out
a way to fix this,

I know there's a couple guys
on this panel

that like breaking things
in half.

- Yes, sir.

- All right, Kayan, you're up.
You ready?

- Ready.

- All right, Kayan, let's talk
about your blade here.

First up, good on you
for restarting,

and that way,
you were able to present us

with a blade,
but the one thing

that you're missing is
the height of a chef's knife.

Your handle construction,
if you don't have that height,

now my knuckles dig in
when I make that impact

to try to cut this way.

But the big issue here
is that you have a crack

that goes across the edge
onto the other side.

If you move forward
to the second round,

there is a way to address that.

- Last but not least, Willow.
You ready?

Please present your work.

♪

- All right, Willow,
right off,

classic lines
for a chef's knife.

Really well done.

I would have loved
to have seen maybe

about 1/2 inch more in height,
but you've got just enough

of a rocker in that blade
so I can do

some vegetable chopping,
which is great.

For me,
it's a little bit small

in the handle.
Your edge is spot-on.

I think you did a great job.
Well done.

- Thank you.

♪

- Well, bladesmiths,
in this competition,

only three of you can join us

in the second round
of this competition,

and after discussion,
the judges did make

that final decision,

and the bladesmith
leaving the forge is...

♪

Kayan, unfortunately, your
blade did not make the cut,

and J.'s gonna tell you why.

- Kayan, you're not
the only one that has a crack

in your blade,
but yours is the only one

that's not recognizable
as a kitchen knife

that we asked for.

It doesn't have
the right profile, height,

and that's not something
you're gonna be able to fix

in the next round.

That's why
we're sending you home.

- Kayan, at this point in time,

I'm gonna have to ask you
to please surrender your work

and step off The Forge floor.

♪

- Thank you for the experience.
- Goodbye.

- The judges were looking
for something different.

I don't think
I should have tried

to do a traditional
Filipino butcher knife.

Nobody knows
what that is here.

I enjoyed meeting
the other bladesmiths,

and it was a good experience.

- Well, bladesmiths,
congratulations.

The three of you are joining us

in the second round of this
chef's knife competition.

Now, in this round, we ask
that you finish your blades

by adding handles to them.

Now, I'm sorry to say,
the pantry is closed.

You will only have access
to these cutting boards

right here
to finish your blades.

Like I said before, we are
bringing a professional chef

into this forge to test
your blades for functionality,

and then they're gonna go into
the hands of our judges

who will check for strength
and sharpness

in a rolling pin chop

and a chef's apron slice.

Bladesmiths, you've got
two hours on the clock

to finish your blades,
and that time starts now.

[energetic rock music]

- So we gave them
plastic cutting boards.

How good of a material
is this to finish a blade?

- I haven't seen it
in any supply catalogs

or on any show tables,
so probably not that great.

- Well, right off the bat,
Matt's got a really big issue.

He's got what I would say
is the largest crack

that's made it into
the second round,

so he's gotta find
a way to fix it.

- I'm going straight
for the welder.

I'm welding both sides
and really get a good

heat penetration
into that crack.

- The best thing he can do
is get another piece

of W1 that they're using
and use the gas torch

and melt that in.

Now, that gives a strong weld
with lots of penetration.

Now, if you just do
a surface weld,

then you go and grind it,
you probably have

a paper thin bond...
- Yeah.

- Over the crack.

- I feel like I'm rushing
like crazy right now.

I have so much I need to do
and only two hours.

I gotta move.

♪

- Willow's gone over
to the welder

and is putting weld
on top of the tang.

What's the deal there?

- We talked about
how skinny her handle was.

- Mm-hmm.

- She's just making that tang
a little wider

so when she puts
some scales on it,

it'll be a easier situation.
- Wow.

- That's not a bad idea.

- If I build out the back side
of my handle

with the welder,
I should be able

to get the handle to that
more comfortable thickness.

♪

[imitating welder crackling]

♪

- In the critique,
Dave gave me feedback

that the tail of the handle
was a little bit too tall,

preventing the knife
from making full contact

with the cutting board,
so this is priority number one

coming into the round.

To fix it,
I'm going over the grinder.

I'm gonna remove
a fraction of an inch

from the bottom of the handle
to give better clearance.

- In my opinion, if you're
making a chef's knife,

do all those movements
that you would do

if you were cutting up
a vegetable.

As a matter of fact,
we've got vegetables

right there on the table.

Grab some of those...
- Go for it.

- And see how it feels
in your hand

and adjust accordingly.

- That's what
we're looking for.

♪

- I decided to use blue
for my handle

so that it would be
color coordinated.

This is
the goofiest stuff ever.

It's a weird material.

I'm going to make
the handle comfortable.

Then I look down,
and I think I'm bleeding.

♪

[screams]

I just let them
bandage up my hand,

and I just--
I don't stop working.

- And look at Willow holding on
to the cutting board

with her teeth.

- Don't think I'd be putting
anything in this shop

in my mouth.

- Thank you so much.
- Yeah, no worries.

- [imitates chomping]

Start having an early lunch.
Thank you.

♪

- Cody's moving along well.

I mean, he's already got
the holes drilled.

- So now my handle
is reprofiled.

When I first go to the grinder,
this material is awful.

It's melting.
It's sticky.

- So smiths have to use
this cutting board

and nothing else
aside form pin stocks

to finish these blades out.

So what makes it so challenging

using this material
in particular?

- It is a softer plastic.

You just gotta be careful
about melting, scorching,

and stuff like that.
- It's going terrible so far.

This stuff is disgusting.
- It's horrible.

It just turns into putty.

- I would definitely
not suggest this

as handle material.

- The weld filled the crack,
but the heat

ruined my heat treat,
so now I gotta quench again.

- My issue with doing
an edge quench

when you've only really heated
1/2 inch

of that material
is that material

is never gonna get hard.

- You just deal with
that one little dead space

and hope for the best.
- Yeah, exactly.

And hope that space isn't
what hits the rolling pin.

♪

- Son of a...

- I find another crack.

I'm freaking out.

I don't know
what to do with myself.

[bleep].

But then I see
how small it is.

I'm going
right for the grinder.

I'm grinding this one out.

I'm doing my best that I can.

I don't even want to know
how much time I got left.

All I need to worry about is
what tasks need to be done now.

[energetic rock music]

- I have a little bit
of a problem with my blade.

It's called J. Neilson.

He has a penchant
for bashing things

really hard.

♪

So I actually go with
quite a lot thicker

of a cutting edge.

I just want to make sure
that this knife functions well

and survives testing.

♪

- So now I'm trying to put
a final grind on my blade.

And while I'm doing this,
I'm noting a small divot

on the cutting edge
of the blade

from where the blade got
a little bit too thin.

- Now, I wonder if that's
gonna impede the blade

from making full contact.

- If there's a gap of any kind,

well, this is good
for opening bottles now.

- Oh, yeah.

- It's definitely
concerning for me

because it's so thin there
in the blade,

it's definitely more prone
to damage during testing,

but at this point,
I'm thinking this divot

is something
I'm gonna have to live with.

- Bladesmiths,
you got 15 minutes!

♪

- I've fixed all my problems,

so now I need to get a handle
on this knife

and sharpen this blade.

♪

- It's good to see him
get past the issues

he had at the critique.
- Yeah.

- He's reshaped that blade
into something

that's gonna work.

- I'm grinding on my bevels
and flats one more time.

I need to put a sharp edge
on this blade.

It's gotta cut nice,
or I'm going home.

♪

- Five, four, three,

two, one!

Bladesmiths,
put down your tools!

This round is over!

- I'm feeling exhausted.

After these two hours

and how much work
I've put into it,

I am so happy.

I love the way my knife looks.

Handle looks like crap,
but it's smooth,

it fits good in my hand.

It's gonna work.

♪

- Bladesmiths, welcome to
our functionality test.

First, I'd like to introduce
our expert

from the culinary world,
Chef Plum.

♪

We're gonna have Chef Plum
do some slicing and dicing

on these vegetables,
this way he can use

a variety of
knife handling techniques

as well check
for the versatility,

comfort, and function
of your chef's knife.

Willow, you're up first.
You ready?

We gotta do this, yeah?
- Okay.

- All right.

♪

- The thing that scares me
is tomatoes.

It takes a really sharp knife
to get through a tomato.

♪

[energetic rock music]

♪

- All right, Chef,
what do you think overall

about Willow's chef's knife?

- Well, Doug, the knife itself
is very heavy,

but the handle feels
really good in your hand.

Cutting the onion,
as you can see,

it wasn't quite as easy
to get uniform cuts on it,

but when cutting the pepper,
the dexterity of it,

feeling versatile,
and I could move it,

it felt very, very comfortable.

- All right, Willow,
overall, it will cut.

- Yes!

- Matthew, you're up.
You ready, sir?

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

♪

- Due to the weld that
I had to do for the crack,

I'm worried on the sharpness
on the front of the knife,

and I know that's a sweet spot
the chef

is gonna be looking for.
I'm definitely nervous.

is gonna be looking for.
I'm definitely nervous.

I'm hoping that my blade
doesn't break.

[energetic rock music]

♪

- Yeah, so I couldn't get
all the way through with that.

♪

- All right, Chef,
what do you think

of Matthew's chef's knife?

- It wouldn't rock like
I like to have a knife rock

through an onion,
and cutting the pepper itself,

I feel like I had to put a lot
of pressure in there.

A lot of pressure
is a scary thing.

It usually means a dull knife.

A dull knife
is a dangerous knife.

And cutting the tomato itself,

you know, when I tried
to slice that paper thin,

I had to really
kind of get in there

and do the sawing
back and forth action,

but I do love the color of it.
It looks beautiful.

- All right, Matthew,
overall, it will cut.

- Thank you.

- All right, Cody, you're up.
Are you ready?

- As ready as I'll be.
- All right, let's do this.

♪

- I know my knife
is very sharp,

but I'm a little bit concerned
about the overground spot

on the edge.

Definitely could affect
how easily it is to cut.

♪

- What do you think
of Cody's blade?

- Doug, this handle
feels really nice.

It might be the best feeling
handle we've had so far.

It does have this little notch
in the blade.

As you saw
when I cut the green onions,

I think it got stuck in there.

However, the edge is nice,

and I really do like
the feature here

how he kind of made it
a sharp point on the end

so if you're gonna
cut something small,

you can do that.

But overall, I like this knife.

- All right, Cody,

it will cut.

- Thank you, Doug.

- All right, Chef Plum,
thank you for gracing us

with your expertise today.

Next up is a dynamic
strength test with Dave.

♪

- All right, bladesmiths,

welcome to our
dynamic strength

and sharpness test.

Kitchen knives
usually last a lifetime,

so we're gonna just sort of
speed up the process

of all the abuse
it would take over those years

and put it into one test.

Willow, you're up first.
You ready?

♪

I'll take that as a yes.

♪

[heavy rock music]

♪

- [gasps]

- All right, Willow,
the changes you made

to your handle,
that flare at the back

gave me a lot of retention.
Super sharp edge.

It went right through the apron
with no problem,

and all in all,
it held up beautiful.

Nicely done.
- Thank you.

- All right, Matthew,
you ready?

- Do it.

- We'll get through this.

♪

[heavy rock music]

♪

- [bleep].

♪

[bleep].

♪

- So Matthew, first off,
you can see on the apron

those lines are torn
more than they're cut...

- Yeah.

- And that's because
this whole section right here

just isn't sharp,
but the weld you did

to fix that crack,
excellent job.

- So nicely done.

- Thank you.
- All right, Cody, you ready?

- You bet.
- Okay.

♪

[heavy rock music]

♪

- Mm-hmm.

♪

- All right, Cody, right there
where my thumbnail is,

do you see that discoloration?

There was
a teeny, little crack there

that I didn't see, and just
going in and out of that wood,

it caught it.

I would love to continue
testing with it,

but, you know,
one more hit on that,

and that blade
will probably go flying,

and that's--
it becomes a safety issue.

- Cody,
you did a phenomenal job,

but you have a massive chunk
out of your blade.

We consider that
a catastrophic failure,

so unfortunately, we cannot
continue testing your blade,

and for that reason, your time
in this competition has ended.

I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off

The Forge floor.
- Thank you, guys.

- Thank you.

- I think where the blade
broke was so unexpected,

and I didn't see any cracks
on the blade

when inspecting it
several times

throughout the challenge.

The experience
has been a lot of fun,

and I've learned a lot.

I'm proud of myself for how far
I went in the competition,

and I can't wait
to keep making more knives.

♪

- Well, Matthew, Willow,
congratulations.

The two of you
have proven your skills

and are joining us
in the third and final round

of this kitchen themed
competition.

Over the past two rounds,
you've both built

a small chef's knife.

In the next four days,
we're upping the ante

and asking you both to build

a slightly
more intimidating blade

from the culinary world.

Bladesmiths,
we want you to build this.

♪

The hog splitter.
- Bring it.

- The hog splitter
is an evolution of size

and strength of one of
humanity's oldest tools,

the butcher's cleaver.

This monstrous tool features
a broad, square blade

with a sharp, straight edge
designed to be strong enough

to hack and chop cleanly
through thick slabs

of meat and bone,
and a long handle

to aid with precision.

Its size and power
are so renowned,

its inspired
many gruesome recreations

in pop culture, including
the video game "Bloodborne,"

where the title character's
main weapon is a saw cleaver.

Bladesmiths,
this massive cleaver blade

will have to be between
22 and 24 inches long

and be no less
than 4 inches tall

throughout the entirety
of its length.

The handle needs to be
between 14 inches

and 16 inches long,
and on top of that,

we want you both
to include a maker's mark

that resembles an animal.

- A hog splitter
is this giant cleaver

for splitting entire
pig carcasses in half.

That's awesome.

I mean, it's not kosher,

but, like, that's okay.

- Bladesmiths, one of you
will leave this forge

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

so good luck.

We'll see you both
in four days.

- Let's go.

♪

It's beginning of day one,

I'm gonna start making
a hog splitter.

I've never made a weapon
this big before.

The challenge is drawing it
so wide

and so far out.

I'm starting with 36 layers
of 1095 and 15N20.

♪

I have some wrought iron
around here.

I'm gonna do Damascus San Mai,

and it's gonna look awesome.

[bleep].

I think I got
a little overzealous

and banana'd my top layer.

♪

We're gonna pull it off
and go from there.

It looks beautiful.

♪

I've got the wrought iron
all drawn out.

♪

It's time to get
our full billet together.

End of day one, I have
a successful forge weld.

I'm happy.
Let's keep moving.

All right, good.

♪

- It's the morning of day one.

My plan is to make
this hog splitter

out of San Mai Damascus

with a core of 80CrV2.

♪

I set up my Damascus billet,
and I chuck it in the forge.

Oh, my God.

Dear God, it's heavy.

♪

I am starting to get
a little worried

because it's just
such a hard material.

It's just so much to move.

The billet is
an inch and 1/2 wide.

I'm aiming for
a 4 1/2-inch wide blade,

so I clean it up
and then restack

and triple my layer count.

At the end of day one,

I have a 72 layer Damascus.

I'm feeling reasonably good
so far.

Here we go.

♪

- First thing I need
to do this morning

is draw out my billet.

♪

Looking good.

Looks like I need about
another inch for my width.

It's going pretty smooth.

Now that we're forged
to length and width,

it's time to grind the profile
and get a shape on this blade.

♪

I'm starting to see a few

little inclusions
on the spine.

♪

Getting cracks
is one of the worst things

that could happen
to a blade of this size.

When the judges go to test it,
it would definitely fail.

I'm at the edge
of my parameters right now,

so I don't want
to grind any farther,

so I'm just gonna
fill it with weld

and make it solid.

I'm happy with this result.

Hopefully we can
make it through testing.

♪

- Morning of day three,
I still have to draw out

this hog splitter to size.

♪

It's just taking forever.

Carbon steel
is really, really hard.

It feels like pounding
on a rock.

♪

I am worried that I just
won't have enough width

in my blade to make this work
and to meet parameters.

- I'm running out of material
to get my hog splitter

to the size
that it really needs to be.

I thought I had enough,
but I don't.

Time is limited,

so I decide to weld
a 1-inch piece of bar

onto the spine so that
I meet width parameters.

[energetic rock music]

I am just praying that,
when I put it in the oil,

it doesn't bend or warp.

♪

It is straight.
Nothing seems to have cracked.

I'm feeling
tentatively triumphant,

but tomorrow might be terrible.
Who knows?

[bleep] jeepers, my goodness.

I think I'm done for the day.

♪

- Day four, we gotta get
an edge on our blade,

and we gotta do
all our handle work today.

Yesterday,
we got a quench done,

and then I painted a bear paw

with nail polish,
so when I etch this,

when I clean off
the nail polish,

it will leave
the negative image

on bare steel.

First thing
I'm gonna do this morning

is clean off that nail polish.

I want to see
that maker's mark pop.

Looks great.

It's time to get
the handle ready.

♪

It's the end of day four.
This thing is awesome.

It is sharp.
It is sleek.

I can't wait to see it cut.

I'm happy as hell right now.

♪

- Day four, I have
a fully hardened blade.

I just need to put
the rest of my handle on,

etch, sharpen,
and put an animal on it.

I go for an etch,
and it's beautiful.

It's not as bright as I'd like,

but you can't have everything
in this world.

♪

I need to engrave a dragon
into this thing.

I'm carving a dragon because
they're kind of my signature,

one of the things that I teach
and that stands out

about my classes
is that we always finish

by making a silly, little
dragon face.

♪

Now I can get to
my fit and finish work.

♪

It looks really good,

and it feels really good
in the hand.

I guess I'm done.

[dramatic music]

♪

- Bladesmiths,
welcome back to The Forge.

It is time to find out
which one of you

is going home with the
"Forged in Fire" champion title

and a check for $10,000.

Now, in this final round,
we asked the both of you

to go back to your home forges

to build another
culinary blade.

This one is a beast,
but before we test them,

I want to hear about 'em.

So, Willow,
how'd the build go for you?

- Kicked my butt.

♪

The core is 80CrV2
San Mai'd over

with 144 layers of 1080

and 15N20 on each side,

but it wouldn't take an etch.

I don't know if, like,
a sheep peed in my etch--

- A sheep?

Do you have sheep?
- I do have sheep, yes.

- Okay, good.

- And the bucket was right out
near the sheep.

[laughter]

Matthew, how about you?
- I had a blast.

♪

36 layers of 1095 15N20,
and then I jacketed that

in 1800s wrought iron
from an old anchor chain

with Caribbean rosewood
for the handle.

- Right on.

All right, bladesmiths,
well, the time has come

for us to find out which one
of you is going home

with the big win.

Now first,
the KEAL test with Doug.

♪

- Bladesmiths,
welcome to the Kill test.

♪

In keeping with
our culinary theme,

I'm gonna take
your hog splitter

and try to use it
like a butcher

to split this hog in half.

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

- Let's go full hog.
- All right, let's do that.

- I want to throw up.

I want to curl up into a ball.

In order to meet parameters,
I had to add some steel

along the spine.

All I can think about,
is it okay?

Will it cut?

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

[laughter]

♪

- All right, Willow, let's talk
about your hog splitter here.

First up, the overall look,
kind of unique.

I like that point
at the tip over there.

It kind of gives it
a different look.

Holding onto it was nice
and smooth,

and with a very heavy,
top loaded blade,

I can control even with
light cuts to make sure

that I can split
a whole hog in half.

And overall, your hog splitter,

it will Kill.

- Yes.

- Matthew, you're up.
You ready?

- Do your worst.
- All right.

- Going into this test,
I am close to [bleep] myself.

It was a heck of a huge weapon
to build.

I definitely had
some struggles,

but it's awesome.
I love looking at this thing.

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

[bleep].

♪

- Gentlemen, this does not look
like its within parameters.

It looks smaller.
What do you guys think?

- Had to be at least 4?
- Yeah, 4 inches.

- Throughout the entire--
- Through the entire--yeah.

It has to be a minimal of four.
Let's just find out.

♪

- What are we at?

- He's at least
an 1/8 of an inch short,

1/8 to 1/4 short.
- All the way through.

- So it's a parameter failure.
- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

♪

- [sighs]

- All right, Matthew,
we got a bit of an issue.

With this blade,
we had a series of parameters,

one of which was that
it should not be

any less than 4 inches
throughout the entirety

of the blade,
and it seems

that you did not meet
that mark,

so this is considered
a parameter failure.

We want to say thank you
for coming out.

You're clearly
a talented smith,

but unfortunately, your time
in this competition has ended.

I'm gonna have to ask you
to please step off

The Forge floor.

- Before I ground my edge,
I knew I was darn close

to get parameter,
and I must have just gone

a little bit too small.
It is what it is.

But overall,
this experience was awesome.

I would definitely
do this again

if I was invited back.

- Well, Willow,
congratulations.

That makes you
a "Forged in Fire" champion.

You'll be receiving a check
for $10,000.

- I had an absolute blast.
I have learned so much.

I'm, like, 20 times
the bladesmith I was

even a week ago.

- Thank you.
- Creative work around--

- Hey, can I give you a hug?

I know you're very big
and scary, but can I hug you?

[laughter]

- I'm not very big.
- Well, you're bigger than me.

- All right, sure.

♪