this is the strength test i'll be testing the strength and durability of your bayonets
by stabbing them into these fuel cans three times lyle you're up first i'm ready
i was wondering what the gas tanks were gonna be and now i see
these look like some tough gas tanks to
penetrate
well lyle your initial fit up was great and everything held together on this
there was no issue with reattaching it very solid
overall you made a bayonet well done thank you scott you're up next you ready don't break it
i had difficulty getting my bayonet attached to the rifle so hopefully it will be good enough
well scott you just barely have it fitting here
it is a design problem but it is attached enough i feel like it's still safe to test
scott i think your guard has loosened a little bit right here because of the way you had
designed it it didn't fit properly so there is a little bit of uh a little wiggle in it
overall it still functioned thank you matt you ready no we're gonna do it anyway all right
it was a big relief to see the blade snap through like it was supposed to do
well matt not too bad probably had the loosest
fit of all of the bayonets but your blade pierced into the can very easily well done thank you
next step is the sharpness test for that i'm going to turn you over to doug this is the sharpness
test to test the edge of your blade i will take your detached bayonet and i'll attempt to slice
across this fish if your blades are sharp it should cut through lily up first you ready
i'm ready i've never tried to cut a fish other than the filet one i'm so nervous right now
okay lyle the design of your guard did actually get in the way however parts of your edge over
here did make contact with the fish it just didn't lacerate scotch you're up next you ready
ready i'm extremely nervous about the slicing test i'm not sure if it's unquite do it
okay scott the one thing that i'm having an issue here is the lug that you have trying to get a good
comfortable feel it wants to turn the blade out what it did was it bruised it on the initial cut
and then lacerated over the end so that's telling me that this is not a very sharp blade
matt you're up next you ready let's do it there's still the issue of the handle even
though he's slicing fish you're still gonna put some good leverage on there i prayed it works out
okay matt very light blade so the mass is not there to lacerate all the way through but as
you can see you've definitely lacerated it's a sharp blade it'll cut thank you bladesmiths
the judges have made their final decision it's time for one of you to leave the forge
scott your blade did not make the cut dave we'll explain scott historically a bayonet
was a soldier's backup weapon it had to be fully functional both on and off the rifle due to the
positioning of the lug on your bayonet we couldn't get it to fully affixed to the rifle and when it
was in your hand it actually wound up digging into your palm scott please surrender your weapon
my experience here was a wonderful experience if i had to do it again i probably would have paid
attention to fitting the lug a little bit better but if i can give someone
encouragement to go out and try something even if they've never done it you know you can make it