MAN 1: This is the Armed Forces Tournament.
Tonight, the dueling begins.
Up first, the two branch duel, where a veteran from the Army
and the Air Force goes up against a veteran from the Navy
and the Air Force.
Next to me we have a huge weapons crate with four
handles coming out of it.
Now, these are attached to blades
from iconic military history.
There's only four blades here, because you
are the second duel to take part in this tournament.
What I want you guys to do is come together,
talk amongst yourselves and decide
which one of these blades you want to build based solely
on the handle you can see.
I'm thinking five.
I'm good with it.
Do five.
All right.
Rock on, chief.
All right, gentlemen.
You guys are going to be building this.
[music playing]
Yeah.
This is the World War II Air Force survival axe.
DAVE (VOICEOVER): The United States Army Air Force
survival axe was a staple in US bomber planes
during World War II.
The standard issue tool featured an axe head and sharp pike that
could be used to stab and slice through aircraft aluminum
skin after a crash, while its rubber handle
provided protection from electrical shock.
Although this axe isn't used much today,
its legacy lives on in the 2014 video game "The Forest."
MAN 1: All right, gentlemen.
Good luck.
Your time starts now.
JOE STICKEL: My name's Joe Stickel.
I'm a retired Chief Master Sergeant for the Oregon
International Guard.
I went in the army right out of high school.
And then I served Active Guard with Kingsley Field
in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
So what I decided I'm going to do is make two billets.
I get the first billet in the forge,
I figure I can get that heating up
and then I start cleaning my second billet.
It's coming along really nice.
It looks like it's good weld.
So now I've got to twist it.
MAN 2: Joe is twisting his billet right now,
but using the press.
- The press. - Yeah.
It's awesome.
JOE STICKEL: I cut the excess off,
I need to draw some width to it to get the axe shape to it.
And then I need to pull out my spike on the other side.
DAVE: There we go.
Look.
We've got some shape happening over here on Joe.
JOE STICKEL: I drifted in the hole,
I realized that that cutting edge, width-wise,
is entirely too thin.
And that's what they're going to be hitting that thing into.
I had plenty of Damascus already done up.
So what I'm going to do is take this piece,
make it into a C-shape, make sure I got long enough
for each side, match it up to the cutting edge of the axe
and then I'll forge weld it.
I'm feeling pressured, but I know I'm going to get it done.
MAN 1: Joe's quenching, guys.
JOE STICKEL: My welds appeared to hold.
I think it came out about as good as can be expected.
I have to turn in a finished product.
It's tough, but there's no quitting now.
I mean, I came here to do a job and that's
what I'm going to do.
So I just go ahead and go with the quarter wrap.
I'm happy with the fact that I got something done.
It ain't pretty, by no means.
But I do believe it's a solid piece.
DANA DUPUIS: Hi, my name is Dana Dupuis.
I'm 50-years-old.
I joined the Navy out a high school in 1988.
I served for four years.
And then I joined the Air Force Reserves
and I retired 2014 as a Master Sergeant.
The amount of steel they gave us was a lot of steel,
so I decided to split it.
MAN 2: Dana is not using very much of this steel.
MAN 1: Wow.
DAVE: That's a huge risk.
DANA DUPUIS: As my steel is heating in the forge,
I decide to clean up the other steel.
To forge weld this backup steel case, I need it.
Because on the off chance that billet blows up or something,
I have to stand by and I can go right to it.
What the [bleep].
Right now, I can't get my head around how I'm
going to make this damn shape.
As I started thinking about drilling my patterns,
I realized the steel is too thin to be able to get
my raindrop pattern in.
I mean, honestly, if I were Dana
right now, I might start again.
DAVE: Yeah, it would be a good idea.
Well, there he goes.
DANA DUPUIS: So I toss that to the side,
then I started the other part of my billet
that I've already forged.
Guys, standing to scraped what he's been working on
for the past two and 1/2 hours.
DANA DUPUIS: So my game plan right now
is I got the new piece, started on the spike again,
kind of like elongate the center a little differently
and leave it thicker.
We've got this.
I've got this.
I'll get some mild steel.
I'll cut off the raindrop I already have going on
and I'll forge weld hand weld the bit on some mild steel.
It's not the best thing, it's not my first choice,
but it's my Hail Mary.
MAN 1: Dana's quenched.
Not cut it to shape yet, but he does have a quenched blade.
[music playing]
Skates.
So I wrap it as best as I can and I think
I got to put something else.
So I reached down and I grab blue painter's tape.
MAN 2: Oh, nice.
Kind of a pale homage to blue painter's tape
and the Air Force and the Navy are blue too.
It worked.
[music playing]
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bladesmiths, turn off your tools.
Put down your weapons.
This round is over.
Yeah!
MAN 1: Great fight, gentlemen.
Great fight.
All right, gentlemen.
You know what time it is.
It's time for the strength test.
I'm going to take your axes and I'm going to be smashing them
into these helmets to see the overall construction
and feel of your blade.
Remember, this test is not about what
those axes do to that helmet, what that helmet can
do to your axes.
All right, Joe, today you are up first.
Are you ready?
I'm ready, Dave.
All right.
JOE STICKEL: My biggest concern is where I welded my handle on.
I mean, that junction is at a critical location.
When you have that many wells in something
like this, when you smash it into a steel helmet,
there's obviously opportunities for failure.
[music playing]
[banging]
Well, Joe, it held up.
You still got a sharp edge on this thing.
It's a very obtuse edge, but so is the original.
You didn't lose any of those welds.
Nothing came loose.
Handle construction, it's actually
comfortable to hold on to.
All in all, it held up beautifully in this test.
So good job, Joe.
Thanks, Dave.
DAVE: All right, Dana. Your turn.
You ready?
No.
[music playing]
DANA DUPUIS: I don't know what's going to happen with my axe.
So many things can go wrong for my construction.
I'm just hoping that it doesn't break apart when he strikes.
Guys, you know, as much as I'd love to test it,
it's just not the axe we asked for.
Yeah. We want to be fair.
It's not what we ask for.
It's pretty far off.
DAVE: And, I mean, I'm not even sure of the construction,
the connection here.
I'd need to peel this back and it's not what we asked for.
Dana, I got to tell you.
You fought really, really hard.
But in the end, this just isn't the axe in the shape
we were looking to test.
And it wouldn't be fair to test this against your opponent, who
actually turned in the axe that was in the style
that we're looking for.
Good man.
I got to tell you, there's no quitting you.
And I really do appreciate that, Dana.
Thank you.
Well, Dana, I got to start off by saying,
you guys had to have chosen the hardest blade
to build in this competition.
Come hell or high water, you decided
you were going to give us a blade,
so we want to commend you for that.
But unfortunately, we can't test your blade
equally against Joe's.
For that reason, your time in this competition has ended.
I'm going to have to ask you to please
step off the forge floor.
[music playing]
DANA DUPUIS: All I can say that Joe is, man, I hope
you win it for the Air Force.
I love you, brother.
[music playing]
MAN 1: Well, Joe, you know what that means, man?
You got yourself a seat in the final round of the Armed
Forces Redeployment Tournament.
You just got yourself a check for $2,000.
Congratulations.
JOE STICKEL: I'm excited to move on to the next phase.
It gives me an opportunity to hopefully be able to prove what
I know I'm capable of doing.
How do you feel?
I wish we could have tested them both.
We always wish for it.
JOE STICKEL (VOICEOVER): This challenge was very difficult.
I can only imagine what they're going
to have in the next round.