Well, Paul, Isaac, congratulations.
You are both moving forward into round three of our competition.
Now, you guys are heading back to your home forges
to work on yet another iconic weapon from the Civil War era.
And that weapon is
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Ulysses Grant's Donelson sword.
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The Donelson sword is a commemorative blade awarded
to General Ulysses S Grant for his victory
at Fort Donelson in February of 1862,
one of the first major Union victories of the Civil War.
The weapon features a highly ornate handle
and an engraved blade based on the popular 1860s officer
sword.
After General Grant's death, his wife donated the sword
to the Smithsonian Institute in 1886,
and it remains under their care to this day.
You have four days to work on your swords.
Good luck.
See you then.
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I'm Isaac Gardner, and I'm 24 years old.
I'm a full-time jeweler.
As a jeweler, there's a lot of small detail work
and making sure that I have something
that's one, comfortable, and two, strong, and three,
looks amazing.
So as a bladesmith I focus on the same three aspects.
It's time to quench it.
Oh, OK.
Hopefully, it came out hard.
That's hard.
Oh, I feel so much better.
I need the rear-facing quillon, and the two clamshell guards,
and the knuckle bow.
It's going to be something like that.
So now that I have the components complete
I can move on to welding them together.
I'm really happy with how it's looking.
That's so cool.
It's really ornate and complex.
I cut in the channels for my turquoise and amber inlay.
There we go.
Cool beans.
I've worked really hard up to this point,
and now I'm so happy with my General Grant's Donelson sword.
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I'm Paul Sutt.
I'm from New Jersey and I'm a personal trainer.
So I've been a lifelong martial artist and a weapons expert.
And when I had the opportunity to learn how to forge,
I jumped on it as fast as I could.
It's just my passion.
So we're getting close to quench time.
It's a little tricky for me because I've never
done a blade this thin before.
I'm nervous as hell.
Two whole days hammering this sword out.
If something goes wrong with the quench
there is no time to do that again.
Here we go.
Don't feel any tings or pings or anything.
I pull it out and I'm so happy.
It looks straight.
It looks perfect.
So now I'm going to do a little bit of work on the clamshell,
try to make it look as pretty as I can as quick as I can.
And then it's going to be shaping the handle
into a comfortable handle.
Almost.
So I finally got all the pieces to fit on the tang.
All right.
This entire experience has been more fun than I
ever imagined it would be.
The blade is a little bit chunky, but it will kill.
Bladesmiths, welcome to the kill test.
The sword is made to be a dueling type of weapon.
So I'm going to try to deliver the same light slashes
and thrust to this ballistics dummy.
Paul, you ready for this?
Oh yes, sir.
All right.
Let's do this.
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All right, Paul.
Let's talk about your version of General Grant's Donelson sword.
The weight on this blade is not that of a dueling sword
because it requires a little bit more than just wrist movement.
But it is a great cutting sword.
Your edges are sharp.
Even with the harassing cut you can see they're cutting deeply.
And more importantly, sir, it will kill.
Isaac, your turn, sir.
Are you ready for this?
I guess.
OK.
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All right, Isaac.
Let's talk about your weapon here.
What I like about it is the time you
took to put these details that we were
asking for onto your sword.
Every cut was deep.
And not a lot of power is required when you're
swinging something so light.
But, probably hitting the bone, your blade
did take a slight bend.
But overall, sir, your weapon will kill.
Thank you.
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Paul, Isaac, you know what time it is.
Time for the strength test.
A fan favorite and the cringe-worthy flex test.
And we're going to flex those blades to 35
degrees in either direction.
If you're still holding true, we're going to go to 45
degrees in either direction.
Paul, you ready for this?
Not really, but go ahead and bend away.
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Oh!
Oh.
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So Paul, as far as the construction of your blade
goes, the handle's comfortable, we
saw how will this sword cuts.
You did a good job.
But if you look into that blade, you
can actually see a dark spot on both sides of this blade.
And whether that's a flaw that you picked up
in the forging process or flaw in the steel,
I have no way of really telling right now.
The grain structure on this looks fine.
But having it shatter, having it pop like that,
that's a big issue.
Mm-hmm.
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Well Paul, we absolutely hate to see that.
You put a lot of work into your blade.
You made it past 35 on both sides,
but you did break on the way to 45.
But you're not out of the fight yet.
Isaac, you've got to survive both of the 35 degree turns
as well as the official ruling of 40 degrees towards south.
My heart is in my throat.
This is literally make or break.
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Congratulations, man.
Thanks.
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Paul, I want to say thank you for your hard work.
You have what it takes to fight in this forge.
But, unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you to please
step off the forge floor.
Thank you, gentlemen.
This was such a good experience and it was an honor to compete
against such a good competitor.
Isaac we asked you to build General Grant's Donelson sword.
You performed phenomenally and built us something that is not
only functional but absolutely beautiful and stunning
to look at.
You are the "Forged in Fire" champion
and you, sir, earned yourself a check for $10,000.
Congratulations.
I'm the "Forged in Fire" champion, baby!
Woo!
How do you feel?
Cloud nine.
Feeling so good.
That's a remarkable piece of work
and you should be incredibly proud of it.
Thank you.
There's just too many feelings going
through my head and my heart to really process
what's all happening right now.
I can't believe it.
I'm feeling so good.
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