Well, Dustin, Joshua, congratulations gentlemen.
The two of you have made it through the first two
rounds of this competition, and boy was it a nail biter.
In this third and final round, we're
going to send you back to your home forges for four days
to build an iconic weapon from history.
We want you to build this--
the Tuareg takoba.
The takoba is a type of broadsword
that has been used by the nomadic Tuareg people of North
Africa since the 14th century.
This double edged lightweight blade was carried
for self-defense on long journeys,
designed to deliver lethal slashes and stabs
against a rival warrior.
Due to the Tuareg's aversion to iron,
there is no exposed steel or iron on the hilt of the sword,
so it cannot touch the user's hand.
Measuring more than a meter long,
this deadly weapon was seen as a symbol of wealth.
Some members of the Takoba clan still carry this weapon today.
Good luck, gentlemen.
We'll see you in four days.
My name is Dustin Matheny I'm 36 years old.
I'm from Glasgow, Montana.
Growing up, I've always loved knives and swords.
Then I watched "Forged in Fire."
And you see it and you're like, I think I can maybe do that.
So I'm half an inch over.
I'm happy with that.
It'll be good.
I got my blade heat treated.
Here we go.
Move on to the pommel now.
I'm going to try to key out the bottom of this
so that fits straight, and then I'll
just have like a pommel nut that goes on top
and holds everything together.
Whether or not it works, we'll see.
So I got my handle all together.
I have the handle all the epoxied.
Everything is good.
The nut's tight.
Guards on these takobas, they have stars and all other types
of geometric shapes, and I had hat pins that I
put in some of my knives.
Definitely not a cowboy, but my brother passed away
10 years ago and he was, so I think I'll throw this in there
for him.
Start to Dremel them out to kind of recess them into the handle.
Not bad.
Fairly happy with it.
I am worried about the tang.
I do wish I would have made the tang a little bit thicker,
but I mean, it's out of my hands now.
My name is Joshua Kim.
I'm 22 years old.
I live in the Golden State California, San Pedro.
I started off bladesmithing in middle school.
It was something in its rawest form,
so simple, yet so abstract.
And all you have to limit yourself
as a bladesmith is your own imagination,
and that's what I love about it.
Now we're getting somewhere.
It's getting to the length.
Pretty darn big, so right now my main concern
is to make that skinny.
Never done a fuller before.
It was a little like your first love, almost.
Time for the fun part.
It's time to quench my blade.
I'm scared by the hardening process.
If that fails, I just have a giant, oversized butter knife.
Quench it, but I see bend in it.
Not happy with that.
I'll go for a second time.
I know a lot of people that go into the quench multiple times,
they have a lot of stress fractures and everything else.
If I mess up again, I don't know what I'm going to do.
Golly, it's a little warped on the side.
I'm not liking the bend in my blade,
so I'm going to be hardening it again.
Oh my gosh.
Yo, that is a good looking blade, my man-- shoot.
I got six hours left.
All I got to do is make a handle.
But what I'm going to use, some good brass
as the top and bottom then put some walnut, space of copper,
then a space of purple heartwood,
then another piece of brass.
That is a guard.
For the handle construction, I'll just use leather.
It's coming along quite nicely.
And at day four, I finished this blader.
Well, golly-gee-willikers, Someone
going to give me $10,000.
Wink wink, nudge, nudge, please, please?
Bladesmiths, welcome to the kill test.
Your Tuareg takobas look beautiful,
but the kind of beauty I'm looking for is the lethal kind.
I'm going to take your weapon, deliver some lethal blows
in this ballistics dummy.
Dustin, you're up first. You ready?
Yes, sir.
Let's do this.
[music playing]
[gooshing sound]
[hacking noise]
All right, Dustin, let's talk about your weapon here.
First up, your handle construction.
I like the ovoid feel of this.
The flare you have there in your pommel
actually gives great retention for this.
Your tip is sharp enough to penetrate.
Your edges are sharp when you're cutting out,
and you can wield this to do that kind of damage
on this ballistics dummy.
Overall, sir, a weapon like this, it will kill.
Awesome.
All right, Joshua, your turn.
You ready?
Keep everyone alive.
All right.
Let's do this.
[music playing]
[gooshing sound]
[hacking noise]
Dang.
All right.
Joshua, let's talk about your weapon here.
Your pommel right here could have used some weight to it.
But because it's forward weighted and the fact
that you have a very sharp edge, every slice, as you can see,
is very deep into the ballistic dummy.
And more importantly, sir, your weapon, it will kill.
Yeah!
All right, gentlemen, it's time for the strength test--
our desert well chop.
Now, to test the strength and overall construction
of your blades, I'll be chopping into our well
house, as well as the well.
Dustin, you're on deck.
You ready?
I guess so.
OK. (LAUGHING)
[music playing]
[sword striking]
[clatter]
Agh!
All right.
We were doing so well for a moment, there.
What actually happened was, with insetting your blade down
into this piece of wood, any of that leverage
was just too much for the wood itself, and it popped it loose.
Your tang is a little bit small.
But what I do like to see is that your blade
actually held up beautifully.
I mean, your grain structure looks fine.
This is an absolutely brutal test.
Very well done.
Thank you.
Now Dustin, you survived every one of the strikes
except for the last one.
Your guard gave way and your blade followed.
So we consider this a catastrophic failure and cannot
continue testing your blade, but you're not
out of the fight yet.
How are you feeling, Joshua?
Pressure's on.
All right.
So you need to survive five strikes in order to be named
"forged in Fire" champion.
Are you ready?
Yes, sir.
All right.
Let's do it.
[sword striking]
[inaudible]
Well, Joshua, your blade is strong.
It made it past all the strikes.
Congratulations.
Now Dustin, unfortunately for you, that means your time here
in this competition has ended because you did
have a catastrophic failure.
It was an honor watching you in our forge,
but unfortunately, man, at this time
I'm going to have to ask you to please
step off our forge floor.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you so much.
I'm definitely crushed.
I actually thought that recessing the sword
into the tang a little bit would make it stronger,
and that's kind of what bit me in the end.
So definitely, definitely, won't be doing that again.
I'm definitely proud of this blade.
I came here to challenge myself as much as I could,
and I definitely achieved that.
Well, Joshua, congratulations man.
That means you are the newest "Forged in Fire" champion.
You just got yourself a check for $10,000.
Congratulations.
[applause]
Oo-ee!
Yeah!
Oh my gosh.
I made a sword that didn't break.
Oh my gosh!
It was a hard competition, so this was unreal.
Ahh!
[music playing]