Tripp, Gene, congratulations.
You fellas have made it into the next evolution
of this competition.
Now, we're sending you back to your home forges
to recreate this.
GENE: Dang.
[laughter]
Your final challenge is to forge
a Marine Corps officer's sword, also known as a Mameluke.
You'll have four days at your home forges
in which to complete this challenge.
And at the end of those four days,
you'll return and present your swords
to our panel of expert judges.
And after they've thoroughly tested them,
they'll move one of you forward to represent the Marine Corps
at the Battle of the Branches final competition
and give you that opportunity to win a check for 50 grand.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in four days.
- Bro. - Bro.
Good luck.
GENE: So it's day one.
I'm back at my home forge in Springfield, Virginia.
So I think the more difficult aspects of the
build are the parameters that I have to build it to.
It's very specific and very tight.
So we'll see what happens.
Because the parameters are so tight on the bend of the blade,
my crazy idea is to take a 6-by-6 log.
And then I'm going to remove all the excess wood.
And it's going to leave me with the blade shape that I want.
Wow.
That went better than I thought.
I plan on heating up the metal and whacking it on this log.
And it's going to bend and conform to it.
I've seen a lot of the smiths straighten out their blade
with a slap on the anvil.
So why not try to do it on a big old log and put an arch in it?
It seemed to work pretty well.
I, like, just jumped four hours ahead of my whole schedule.
I'm getting ready to heat treat it.
I want to keep it thick because I'm worried about a warp.
Quenching.
[rock music playing]
I am exhausted.
The quench went great.
I'm ready to hit the rack.
All right.
So it's day two.
I'm getting ready to jump right into some forging.
Hammer time.
Well, this is a very thin, long blade.
So what's difficult about a thin and long blade
is just the pure fact that it's going to warp.
I'm constantly having to hammer the big curves back out
and try to keep it straight as possible, all while trying
to draw it out and get the width and the thickness that I want.
It finally meets parameters.
I'm finally able to move on to quenching.
If I was to pick up a crack, I'd start overtiming.
Man, this thing can do anything in the quench here.
If this thing snaps, we're going to be close to being screwed,
man.
I don't see any warps.
It looks like it's pretty straight.
Super stoked about that.
After today, I feel pretty damn awesome.
Day 3, and I'm ready to get going on sand casting
a guard for my Mameluke sword.
I've never done any stand casting before.
Go big or go home.
The consistency of the sand is the big thing.
I went with playbox sand, mixed it with some kitty litter
and some water, got to the right consistency,
and took a shot at it.
I molded some clay in the rough shape of a guard,
and I used that to mold the sand around.
I pulled out the clay, and now I'm ready to heat up my brass.
Let's go cast some metal.
My mold is ready.
My brass is a big pool of molten hot brass.
I'm ready to pour it in, so I'm going to go for it.
I'm really hoping this sand cast goes well because I've
used a lot of time.
And if it doesn't, I don't know how I'm going to recover.
Moment of truth coming up.
[rock music playing]
Holy cow, it worked.
I can't believe it.
I've just got to knock the sand off, clean it
up a little bit on the grinder.
That's a guard.
We've got a guard.
TRIPP: Day 4, man.
Today, I've got to sharpen this blade and get it out of here.
My Ka-Bar didn't do so well in the rope-cutting test,
so I want this blade to cut through whatever
those guys are going to put this thing through.
I want that Marine Corps anvil pretty damn bad just because I
want to be able to represent the Marines
in the Battle of the Branches.
I believe I can come home with that 50 grand
and represent the Marine Corps very well.
[rock music playing]
Damn.
[laughs]
So this is the start of day 4.
So today, I've got to start out with getting
it all fit together.
When Doug Marcaida swings this thing,
it is going to slice whatever it goes into.
I realized I had a little bit more time left,
and I wanted to try to put the names of my competitors
on the blade with some gun glue.
Rick. Garrett.
Tripp.
Gene.
I'm pretty happy with it.
I know it's going to cut.
I am done.
DOUG: All right, Marines.
Welcome to the kill test.
To find out what lethal damage your weapon will do,
I'll take your weapon and deliver killing
blows to this ballistics dummy.
Tripp, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Get it, killer.
Hurrah.
[rock music playing]
Yikes.
Whoa.
Holy moly.
All right, Tripp.
First up, the handle construction.
It is comfortable.
Your edge here is sharp.
Even cutting through the skull, no issues at all.
No chipping.
No blunting.
And when you thrust with this, it penetrates.
It cuts all the way out.
Overall, sir, your weapon will kill.
All right.
Hurrah.
All right, Gene. You're next.
You ready?
Let's do this.
[rock music playing]
Oh, no.
It bent it.
DOUG: All right, Gene.
Your weapon picked up a warp right here, OK?
Your handle, coupled with blood all over it,
made it very slippery and hard to hold
onto because it's blocky and smooth,
and I lost my grip on it.
That's a very dangerous thing to happen when you're
trying to wield the weapon.
But your edge is still sharp.
Your tip is still thrustable.
And more importantly, it will kill.
[laughs] That'll work.
[laughs]
All right, gentlemen.
It's time for the strength test.
So to test the overall construction of your blade
and see if they're going to hold an edge,
I'll be smashing them into these pots.
Now, remember, this test is not about what
your swords do to those pots, but those pots to your swords.
Tripp, you're up. You ready?
Ready.
DAVID: OK.
[clanging]
Oh, my gosh.
TRIPP: Yep.
Holy moly.
God, no.
Well, Tripp, a few things before we get to the obvious.
Your handle construction-- very comfortable.
It felt really good in my hand.
It felt like I could do a lot with it.
But right there at the edge, there's that little brown spot.
You had a micro crack on that edge.
Oh.
Yeah.
So as soon as I hit that pot, it cut loose.
I loved its feel, its shape, and its look, but obvious problem.
All right, Tripp.
While I know any Marine could take that blade
and still continue to fight, in this competition,
your blade suffered a catastrophic failure
after one strike on that base.
Gene, your blade only has to survive
one strike on these pots.
The entire Marine championship for "Forged in Fire"
lies on one swing.
And I've got a big old warp in my blade, so it's not over yet.
[rock music playing]
[thud]
Nice job.
Gene, first off, you're in one piece.
You picked up that bend earlier on,
but you didn't pick up anymore in this test.
Strong blade. Held up.
Good job.
Thank you.
All right, Tripp.
Looks like Gene's blade held up.
That means that you cannot move forward to represent the Marine
Corps in our next challenge.
Please leave the forge.
Super disappointed.
There's really no way to tell that you
have, like, any minor cracks or anything like that.
So you just-- hey, you find out when you test them.
That's how we found out today.
Get it, brother.
Gene's going to freaking bring home
that Battle of the Branches Marine Corps anvil.
He's winning it for the Marine Corps.
Gene, congratulations.
You've won this competition.
And that means that you're going to be moving forward
into our Battle of the Branches final competition
to represent the Marine Corps at the Marine Corps anvil.
And that's going to give you an opportunity
to win a check for $50,000.
Good job, brother.
Thank you.
[applause]
Holy cow.
I did not see this coming.
It's been a fun ride up until now.
But now, I've got to represent the Marines.
So now, it's game on, and it's about to get real.
Those other branch service members better look out.
[yelling]