ted decker congratulations your work has secured your place in the forge and fire final
when you arrived here you forged a signature blade of your own design
now we're sending you home to forge an iconic weapon from history
the tabar it's not a sword
the tabar is a battle axe originating from persia armenia india and surrounding cultures
usually made entirely of metal it has a strongly curved blade and a hammer-headed pole that was
often decorated with inscriptions the light metallic handle is what makes the axe unique
and durable in battle during the 17th and 18th centuries the tabar was a standard weapon of the
mounted warriors of india afghanistan and what is now pakistan with its double-edged blade and
piercing spike it was an unrelenting weapon of war this fierce weapon is featured in the iconic film
series the lord of the rings you will have five days at your home forge to complete your work
at the end of five days you will return and present your to bars to our panel of judges
only after they've submitted those weapons to a series of brutal and dynamic tests well they
declare one of you the forged and fire champion and the recipient of a ten thousand dollar check
good luck bladesmiths we'll see you in five days
my name is ted thompson i split my time between knife making and tattooing
i've been a knife fanatic my whole life and i just started blacksmithing to see if i could
today i'm going to work on the handle there's a lot to think about on getting everything
put together the right way right now just a really really long eye poker
i decided to make an axe head out of an 8 pound sledgehammer head
it's a very good high impact steel i want to be able to chop a car in half with this thing so
i'm going to do an asymmetrical double-headed one
blade's going to be a little bit heavier than the other
i'm fullering the metal so it spreads wide so i can start building the beards of the blade
awesome cool profile too
i don't have a forge big enough to fit the the axe fully assembled so i use the front of the forge
and my cutting torch and got it up to critical and then i quenched one side and then the other
sweet yeah she's hard it'll be ready to go
i'm decker i work as a computer security consultant blacksmithing and knife making
is sort of a sideline that i do as a little bit of therapy planning on doing some pattern welding
for this project if it's worth making it's worth making in damascus this piece here is
going to turn into a long bar of steel similar to this that'll then get cut up into sections
so i can stack multiple layers together in a billet to weld
time to get this steel starting to look less like a lump of stuff and more like an axe
inside the mind of a madman i'm going into the press to do the very first flooring operation
defining moment i start to squish
and just that right there probably save you 45 minutes
definitely a little more sexy than what i left with yesterday
now i've got the spike in the forge i've got to get that drawn out
good gravy spike is going to make this thing heavier now
i'm behind what i had set myself for schedule i've got a lot to figure out and i've still got
a lot to do tomorrow certainly hope nothing goes wrong but and failure is not an option
let's go kill something sweet
that's done from heller high water that's it blade's bits this is the kill test
the tobar's three sharp sides allows for three times the chances of killing an opponent in
the heat of battle to test the lethality and function of your weapon i will test all three
sides by chopping at this animal carcass ted you're up are you ready heck yeah let's do this
well ted the design of your blade really digs in to the carcass the hooks
grabs everything that's in there and rips it right out
balance is a little bit heavy but it will do a lot of destruction this weapon sir will kill awesome
good job sir thank you decker it's your turn you ready let's cut some bacon doug let's do this
yes yes yes well decker your edges are very sharp as you can see what it did it pretty much wanted
to cut all the way through the feel though is a little bit rounded for the handle but nonetheless
it's light so i can generate more power to control it this is a weapon that will kill
good job sir thank you i'm gonna pass things off to dave for the next test all
right gentlemen it's time for the strength test ted you're up are you ready i'm ready all right
all right three two one engaging
you put a really good crease in the shield and that's a heck of a chop you just dropped
in that hardened oak of this barrel a little bit of a roll right up here on this
edge that hit the shield on the shaft of the ax looks perfectly straight didn't flex at all
well done thank you all right decker you're up let's tap a keg
all right three two one engage
son of a [ __ ] well decker your spike sheared off right at that rivet point yep now you put
a good crease in the shield so you put a good cut in the barrel the edge of the axe here that
hit the barrel just see a little coloration some shiny spots the side that hit the shield
doesn't look like any damage at all but that spike coming off well
that's a problem at the moment when that spike fell my heart just sank
gentlemen you both put in a lot of work on your
to bars but in this arena there can only be one forged and fire champion
ted you are the fortune fire champion decker your weapon did not make the cut congratulations
ted congratulations you are the forged fire champion and will be receiving a
check for ten thousand dollars good job thank you i joined this competition to see if i had
what it took to make a better weapon than three other guys and i did it and that makes me happy
props for putting fortune fire onto the blade and persian around here
says caution sharp edge nice touch when i'm working with a bunch of guys i really
respect they're gonna push the quality that i do it pushed me a lot that's what i enjoyed about it
you