cameron mike congratulations it is now down to the two of you to decide who's gonna go home with
the title of fortune fire champion and a check for ten thousand dollars now this final round
of competition we're going to be sending you guys back to your home forges to build not one
but two iconic multi-tools and weapons from russia that weapon is
the spence that shovel
originating in the 19th century these all-purpose shovels were adapted for use
by the russian special forces the spez nets these versatile shovels were used as entrenching tools
ores for rafting and even as cookware the soviet military units eventually trained to use the
specinet shovel as a weapon the short handles made for quick moves in close quarter combats
these shovels feature deadly sharp edges that can be used for anything from chopping wood
to slashing flesh or even thrown at a target this utilitarian tool can be seen wielded in
season three of history channel's hit survival series alone you guys will have four days to
work on your spetsnaz shovels so good luck we'll see you in four days good luck my name is cameron
lafrance i am 20 years old from warner robins georgia i got into metal works thanks to my
father it's really what sparked no pun intended my drive for working with metal and fire i have
a lot of steel to move and a very thin blade to forge out so hopefully all goes well i start off
with these two pieces of leaf spring just to see if i can get it forged down to parameters
and then i noticed a piece of w1 that i had laying around it's two inch round stock so i know for a
fact that it's enough material for the job i need it to do i'm gonna keep stretching it up and then
working on the width i gotta still flatten out one of my billets that's hot i'm getting
the handle and blade junction merged up and then quench i'm having to make sure that they're both
exactly the same but still very confident i can do that looks pretty badass if i don't say so myself
i feel like i've gotten to a place now to where my blades are ready for the heat treat here we go
sound i want to hear end of day 3 i am very happy to finally have all these shovel heads forged out
hardened can't wait for fourth day to get these fit and finished up and out of here
i've had a lot of good luck in my past with one special girl so
i can go ahead and put my girlfriend's name and russian on the handle
just as a hopeful good luck charm and if it doesn't work then i know who to blame
my name is mike powell i'm from hastings florida i make blades as often as i can usually a couple
hours in the morning before work and then as much time as my wife let me on the weekend she
sacrifices a lot of art one-on-one time for me to be in my shop making blades if i win the 10k
i'm gonna get my wife something nice that we can enjoy together i'm gonna forge out these shovels
and see if i can win this i got it about drawn out to length i haven't quite got it as wide as i want
i'm not sure i have enough material i go cut me another piece of steel for the second one drop
it in the forge that ought to do it about three blows in the whole end of the billet just explodes
wow what the heck never seen a piece of steel do that now i've got one piece left this sucks no way
this is my third attempt do-over i take my time i keep my steel to the right temperature
that didn't explode on me this time so it worked out
never built anything like this before never even thought about building anything like this before
but honestly i loved it it was a challenge it was a learning experience it made me a better
smith so i learned i gained a lot of experience and overall it was very exciting and i'm happy
with it i'd say that's a matching set bladesmiths welcome to the kill test
can you dig it well i certainly can your dance shovels look ready to go but what kind of lethal
damage can they do to find that out i'm going to take your shovels and deliver some lethal blows
to this ballistics dummy cameron you're up first you ready for this oh yeah all right let's do this
food
all right cameron let's talk about your spencer shovels here the weight is right but there is a
little bit issue with your handles they're too smooth a couple of times it really felt like it
wanted to slip out they deliver nice cuts thrusts are very effective and overall sir you will kill
all right mike your turn so you ready i'm ready
all right mike talk about your nice shovels here these are razor sharp your handle construction
the one thing i didn't care for was it's round when it's round it can go different ways and i
have to constantly make adjustments but because of the ribbing that you have there i was able to
hold on to it quite well overall sir your shovels will kill awesome all right gentlemen you know
what time it is it's time for the strength test what we're calling our throwing chop
what i'm going to be doing is throwing your shovels into our targets and then chopping
on our fence here and what this is about is not what your shovels do to these targets but what
these targets can do to your shovels cameron you're out first you ready yep let's do this
all right cameron for throwing the smooth handle is great that's not a plus for chopping though
when i'm chopping i'm constantly kind of pulling it back into my hand because it wants to slide
forward this right here this thin spot where you've got that hammer it took a roll right there
they threw well good job thank you very much all right mike you're up you ready yeah i'm ready okay
okay so right off the bat finish work is really nice your sockets are really beautiful they threw
great they certainly chopped fine i don't see any issues with the edge of your blade at all
these are definitely well-made tools good job thank you
all right bladesmiths this is the sharpest test
the sandman slice now unlike the strength this is all about what your weapons do
to the sandman cameron you're up for us you ready for this let's do this do this
all right cameron no issues with slashing and chopping on the sandman sir your weapons
do a cut all right mike your turns are you ready i'm ready
all right mike your edges are sharp
every cut was deep and sliced nicely overall sir it will cut thank you
well gentlemen you guys should both be very proud of yourselves we put your spetsnaz shovels through
very hard tests as you know there can only be one champion of fortune fire today's champion is
mike congratulations you are the forge and fire champion cameron unfortunately that means you
didn't win today and dave's going to tell you why cameron what this came down to was really
two things your handle being as slippery as it was and the damage you took in the strength test
for those reasons we're letting you go all right cameron you definitely have what it takes to fight
in the forge you made it from four down to two it was a close call but your time in the forge has
ended i'm gonna have to ask you to please step off the forge floor thank you take care cam i wanted
to win it really badly to prove myself that i can really go up to the standards as what other abs
master smiths are able to do this experience it's really amazing and i couldn't have asked for more
mike congratulations that means you are today's fortune fire champion and you'll be getting a
check for ten thousand dollars so congratulations thank you i'm feeling amazing like on top of the
world amazing mike i was really impressed on the finish you got on those it's really nice clean
from top to bottom well done thank you i build knives for a hobby from this point on though
i really want to concentrate on doing real high-end work and just improve my skills
you