Alex, Kevin, congratulations.
You guys are in the third and final round
of this competition, which means that you're both one
step closer to the title of Forged in Fire Champion
and a check for $10,000.
All you need to do now is go home
and recreate this iconic weapon from history--
the spatha.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in four days.
Good luck.
Kevin.
So it's day one in Belleville, West Virginia.
I've got a spatha to go make.
Let's get crack-a-lacking.
Woo!
I'm gonna be using 51-60.
It's a forgiving medium.
It'll bring some strength to whatever they're
gonna smash, cut, break, kill.
So I'm gonna try Big Sexy first to bash down
the width of that material to about two
and a half, two and a quarter inches wide.
Come on, dang it.
Work.
Four days isn't enough time to make a spatha.
You don't know what the complications are gonna be.
She's getting there, though.
I slowly started drawing it out.
I'm about 35 inches long.
You know, it's just patience, getting
the equipment to work right.
Tomorrow, pressure will be on, because I
gotta get this thing quenched.
If I don't, I'm behind the ball.
Woo!
Definitely excited to be back home, back in my shop,
where I'm nice and comfortable.
I'm gonna do a full Damascus blade with a little bit
of a ladder pattern in it.
I'm really looking forward to going all out
and making something really cool to impress the judges.
First press was just nice and quick and light, just
to push everything together.
This next press will be a little more aggressive.
Probably the most important part of this entire weld.
My weld seemed to have stuck pretty well.
I'm gonna start drawing this thing out.
I've got one seam that came apart.
I think if I just flux it, get it hot, and press it again,
should be OK.
Let's hope.
This might be a make-or-break moment right here.
I really hope that's the only one,
but deep down, I'm petrified that there
is gonna be more of these seams opening
up throughout this billet.
As I go to start drawing this billet out,
a big seam just opens up right in the center of my billet.
So I think my best bet is gonna be
to break this billet in half, salvage as much welded steel
as I possibly can.
And I'll just do a generic random pattern Damascus.
But it'll still be a Damascus sword.
Well, the good news is both of those seem really solid.
So at least we got something out of that.
KEVIN (VOICEOVER): Today, I need to get
the blade done and quenched.
So I got the shoulders put in.
I have the medial ridge, where you can distinctly see where
it's starting to come together.
It's time for the quench.
Ah, [bleep].
Look at that [bleep] end.
We're quenching again, because I don't have time to eff
around with the normalization.
Because I went all the way down to the bottom, and I felt it
bend.
I got to go through all the steps all over again.
Still got that bend.
I'm gonna temper overnight.
And in that process, it'll start to, hopefully, normalize down.
It's hit or miss.
It's either gonna go well, or it's gonna go wrong.
And, yeah, it went wrong today.
ALEX (VOICEOVER): It's the morning of day two.
Definitely got some setbacks yesterday.
Starting the day with my billet tacked up
and ready for forge welding.
And hoping to end the day with a quenched and hardened spatha.
First press.
Looks OK so far.
But I'm still gonna be really careful.
I've got my billet drawn out pretty close to shape.
I have just enough length there.
You can see, I'm kind of forging in that medial ridge already.
This is the longest blade I have ever attempted to quench.
I pull the blade out of the oil at the end of the day.
I have an intact Damascus blade.
First thing tomorrow, I'm gonna get
my blade etched and the handle prepared
and looking forward to a good day.
I'm feeling better than last night,
because I got the blade tempered and got it straight.
Still behind the ball.
I'm gonna start to fit up the handle,
start looking at different parts to what I think looks well.
So my design plan for this pommel
is I'm gonna take two ends of the deer antler,
and I'm going to carve a lion's head out of them.
Hand-carving anything is time-consuming,
so I can't get lost in my head.
I'll set it in on top of glow in the dark resin.
And then I'll fill that in with a clear epoxy.
I'm not walking in there with something plain.
Tomorrow, I'm gonna put some bronze medal
stain on the blade.
And I'm gonna finish this no matter what.
It'll be done.
ALEX (VOICEOVER): Start of day four.
Fatigue of the past couple days is
definitely starting to set in.
The blade's been etched in the coffee overnight
to really bring out the contrast.
Yeah, it really darkened up that 10-84.
So the spatha needs to have a wooden guard
and a disk shaped pommel.
So I'm going to do a stacked handle.
I'm using iron wood for the guard and the pommel,
because it's super strong.
And then I'm gonna use blackwood for the main part
of the handle.
I've got all my individual pieces of this handle.
Fit it up nice and tight.
Got to get this blade sharpened.
I've never sharpened anything this long before,
but I know how to put an edge on a knife.
I cannot wait to see this thing put to the test.
Word.
All right, bladesmiths, your spatha swords look amazing.
But it's time to find out what kind of lethal damage
that they can do.
To do that, I will take your weapon,
deliver some killing slashes and blows on this more
than willing ballistics dummy.
Alex, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Let's do it.
[blade impacts]
All right, Alex, first up, I can really
appreciate the beauty that you have with your Damascus pattern
right there.
It really stands out.
Very clean lines.
The medial ridge you have on here,
I can imagine how much work that takes
to get it almost perfectly straight all the way
through to the tip.
Your tip is sharp enough to penetrate with a thrust
and lacerate on the way out.
And most importantly, it will kill.
Thank you.
Good job.
All right, Kevin, it's your turn.
So are you ready?
Hell yeah.
Let's do this.
Alex's spatha just destroyed that ballistics dummy.
And now, I'm feeling anxious, excited.
I got the adrenaline going.
- There's no medial ridge. - Let me see.
What's up?
No medial ridge on either side of the blade?
That's one of the parameters.
Right?
Kevin, your blade must fall within our parameters
in order to be tested evenly and fairly with your competitors.
Your blade does not have a central ridge.
That was a parameter that was outlined
before we ever sent you home.
And for that reason, you cannot be the Forged in Fire Champion.
Come on, my friend.
You know, it's just a bummer I can't see it tested.
That's what I really wanted to see.
I want to see how it holds up.
Nice work on that handle.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
When I was making it, it had the defined ridge in it.
Just with the sanding and grinding,
it just took more of it off.
But this whole experience has been a blast.
Congratulations.
KEVIN (VOICEOVER): This isn't a loss.
I'm coming home with a $10,000 experience.
Alex, you made a sharp and deadly spatha,
but not only that, you made something
that is detailed and beautiful.
Your attention to detail has elevated you to the title
of Forged in Fire Champion.
Congratulations.
Your title comes with a check for $10,000.
Good job, brother.
ALEX (VOICEOVER): This is pretty wild.
I came here to challenge myself and put myself
through a super rigorous test.
And I came out on top, and feels great.
This $10,000, I'm actually gonna give
it all straight to my parents.
They supported me through college as I
was learning bladesmithing.
And they're both getting ready to retire,
so it's all going to them.