BEN ABBOTT: This is our second chance tournament.
Up first, the runner-up duel.
Both of you guys came this close to winning
your rounds last time, but you didn't quite seal the deal.
The duels start now.
My name is Rick Rabjohn.
I'm 58 years old.
The last time I was here, it was the balance of my sword
that did me in.
I wish I would have won.
And that's why I'm back here again today.
Give it another go.
I'm Michael Seronde.
I'm from Tucson, Arizona.
Last time I was here, It was so close.
It would mean so much to me if I make it through this duel
to the final round.
I'd really love a second shot.
Since you guys both came in second place
last time you were here, we've decided
to make this competition all about twos.
Today, we do not want you to make a blade,
we want you to make two different blades, a Damascus
dagger and a Damascus chopper.
Your duel starts now.
RICK RABJOHN: They're two very different blade.
One built for, you know, stabbing and slicing,
and the other one, built for chopping.
Dagger is a little more complicated than the chopper.
I got the chopper to length and pretty much to width.
Ooh.
As the clock is ticking, I wish I was a little
bit further with these blades.
But as I'm grinding, I'm realizing
that, hey, you know what, the forge walls went well,
I'm feeling pretty good.
I'm going to move on to the quench.
All right, well, he's got one in there.
Yay.
I'm delighted I've got to hardened blades.
Now I got to temper it.
All right, Rick is working on his handle.
That's good.
I'm going to do full tang, so, in this way,
I just put scales on both sides of the tang
and leave it at that.
I've got that done.
Now, we work on this one.
He's got a handle on his dagger,
and now, he's putting a handle onto his chopper.
RICK RABJOHN: As the clock is ticking,
I still have a lot of work to do to shape the handles
and put the final sharpening.
It's going to come right down to the wire,
but I'm confident I'm going to make it.
We got Rick etching.
Oh, good.
Right on.
You can color me impressed.
Told him to make two blades.
That is one hell of a feat.
Biggest concern is making two knives
out of Damascus in five hours.
That's out of control.
I've never done that before.
Instead of just sitting looking at the steel heat up,
I have time to get my handle materials ready.
Look how much Mike has already accomplished.
[inaudible] drawn out to almost being blade size.
At this point, my knives are really taking shape.
They look solid.
Now, it's time to quench.
The time constraints are a little bit
challenging, heat treating two blades back to back.
I need to nail my heat treat.
Boom.
After quenching my chopper, I don't think it's hard enough.
This file doesn't skate quite as easily as I wanted to.
HOST: Second quench.
Put some bunch of stress on his blade.
I have to do it again.
This time, it works.
I don't have any more time to waste.
It's time to move on to the dagger.
It's a little bit thinner.
It has two cutting edges.
So I have to make sure that heat is even more
even than it was in my chopper.
All right, dagger is quenched.
It's straight.
I've got a chunk of mesquite wood from earlier.
And I have to attach handles to two knives.
There is a lot of work to do in not very much time.
I've got to get going.
I have a dagger on a 2 inch square block handle.
That is not going to fly.
I blast through the block trying to get that handle to something
that is comfortable enough.
Key is enough.
I'm trying to dribble a little bit of glue
because I'm afraid I don't have enough epoxy to make everything
stick together right.
I'm at the grinder with both my dagger and my chopper.
At this stage, I feel like I'm sprinting between tasks,
and I keep bouncing between these two knives.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Gentlemen, turn off the machines.
Put down your tools.
This duel is over.
[claps]
Good job.
[exhales]
All right, runners up, it's time for our doubled up
strength test, stab and chop.
I'm going to take your daggers, stab them into a stump here.
And then I'll take your choppers and attack
both the post and the skulls.
Michael, you're up first on this.
Are you ready?
Ah, yes.
OK.
[whispers] It didn't break.
It did not break.
All right, Mike, start with your dagger.
Right off, the weight and feel of this blade, I mean,
this is super comfortable.
I could play with this all day.
It's got a wicked edge and a wicked point
on it, which I really like.
I poked it in there.
It dug in deep and held up fine.
What I don't like is that leather spacer you put in here,
you then covered it with Krazy Glue.
That turned it into some sharp edges.
When you're thrusting into something,
it's not really a good thing.
As far as your chopper goes, again, nice weight on this.
You didn't take really any damage.
This is still a wicked sharp blade.
So all in all, nice set.
Well done.
Thank you.
All right, Rick, you're up next.
You good?
Yeah.
All right, let's do it.
[music playing]
[claps] That's great.
So right off the bat, this is a heavy dagger.
There's a lot of metal there.
Um, what really got me was all this right around here,
there are kind of sharp jagged edges.
And since the handle doesn't really have any contouring,
there's no way to keep off that guard.
Now, on your chopper, again, that's a lot of material there.
But it does have an edge, and that edge didn't take damage.
So that's great.
They held up very, very well.
So good job.
Thank you.
All right, bladesmiths, we know your weapons are strong,
but are they sharp?
This is the water tube slice and the canvas bag stab and slice.
To find out how sharp your weapons are,
we'll take your weapons and slash across these water
tubes and canvas bag.
Double your weapons, double the slice, double the nice.
[laughter]
Mike, you're up first. Are you ready for this?
Oh, yeah.
All right, let's do this.
[music playing]
Ooh.
Beautiful.
[laughs] [claps]
All right, Michael, off the bat, these feel really good.
Even though they are two different designs,
they feel equally balanced on both hands,
and they are wicked sharp.
On the slash on the water tubes, very clean slice.
You have a sharp edge here, sir.
Also, on the stabbing and slashing with your dagger,
those are very clean cuts.
Overall, sir, both your weapons, they will cut.
[laughs] Sweet.
HOST: All right, Rick, are you ready, sir?
No.
[laughter]
Well, we're going to do it anyways.
We're going to do it. [laughter]
[music playing]
[laughs]
[exhales]
All right, Rick, let's talk about your weapons here.
First up, these are heavy beasts.
And even for a dagger, it's very forward heavy weight.
Same with your chopper, as a chopper is expected.
For a dagger, it's very heavy, but I
was still able to cut cleanly.
You have a sharp edge on your chopper here.
Overall, sir, they will cut.
Thank you.
HOST: Good job.
Thank you.
Very well done, gentlemen.
[laughter]
But only one of you guys can leave here
with a check for $2,000 and a spot
in the final leg of this second chance tournament.
The bladesmith who won this duel is Michael.
Congratulations.
You're moving forward into the final round
of the second shot tournament.
Unfortunately, Rick, that means you're
not going to be moving forward.
I'm going to have to ask you to please leave.
OK, take care, man.
I'll see you.
Good job.
Last time my competitors blade was
just better balanced than mine.
I still can't get it right.
I agree with the judge's decision,
but I'm also proud of what I accomplished in getting
through this tough challenge.
It was fun and always good to meet other bladesmiths.
And once again, it's been a great experience.
And if there's a third chance tournament, I'm in.
Michael, congratulations, man.
That means you broke the second place curse,
and you came out on top of your duel, which also
means you're moving forward into the final round
of our tournament.
And you are leaving here with a check for $2,000,
so congratulations, man, very well done.
Thank you.
We will see you for the second round of this tournament.
Winning feels incredible.
This challenge was the hardest smithing
challenge I've ever done.
Knowing that, I can't even begin to imagine what's next.
The next stage of this competition
is going to be that much harder.
Every one of the smiths in the next round have already won.
So I know they're going to bring their best.
I have to bring my best.
It's going to be brutal.