- Bladesmiths, this
The wooden ramrod chop.
To test the strength and durability of your edge,
as well as the overall construction of your knives,
I'll be chopping into this ramrod 10 times.
Bob, you're up first, you ready?
No, but let's do it.
BEN ABBOTT: All right.
BOB: Naturally I'm nervous.
My concern on the wooden ramrod chop
is that the edge rolls or maybe the blade breaks.
Steel is a finicky little critter.
Sometimes it works real good, sometimes
it just snaps in your face.
You'll never know until you test it.
[chops ramrod] [music playing]
There she goes.
Feel like a punch in the gut.
BEN ABBOTT: Well, Bob, quite obviously your plane broke.
Whoops.
BEN ABBOTT: And looking at your grain,
I would like to have seen thermal cycling
done to your blade.
The grain that I'm seeing in here
is a lot more coarse than I would like to see.
And that blends to a more brittle blade.
WIL WILLIS: Bob, your blade suffered
a critical failure in the very first
strike of the very first test.
However, in order to proceed, two more bladesmith's still
have to make it through this test.
Bob, you're not out yet.
Gentlemen, your blades are made out of the exact same steel.
Let's see if they hold up.
Ben?
BEN ABBOTT: Daniel, you're up next.
Feeling lucky? - I reckon so.
BEN ABBOTT: All right.
[music playing]
DANIEL: Everything about the steel in my blade
and in Bob's blade is identical.
The thing that scares me right now is if I got this thing too
hard, the first time he hits that ramrod it's
going to shatter like glass. [chops ramrod]
[music playing]
BEN ABBOTT: Well, Daniel, it held up very well.
The edge is just not quite as sharp as it was before.
But there's no rolls, there's no chipping.
This was impressive to watch you do.
This is your second blade.
DANIEL: Thank you sir. - Collin, you're up.
You ready?
I'm jealous.
I want to swing it.
And I'm just like, oh.
[beep] You can't look away.
It's like a car wreck.
You just lock in. [chops ramrod]
[music playing]
[beep] Well, we're in the same camp now.
[slow intense music playing]
BEN ABBOTT: Well Collin, your knife broke, obviously.
The grain structure in here is sort of in between.
It's not quite as coarse as I've seen,
but it's certainly not the finest grain I've ever seen.
The thing that's really telling is
there was a Mig weld that went across here to hold this piece
of mild steel on the side.
Right next to it there is this bronze line, and what that
tells me is that that was a surface crack
there before the heat treat.
That's why it broke, where it broke.
WIL WILLIS: Daniel, you'll be moving on to the final round.
Congratulations.
Collin, Bob, both of your blades suffered catastrophic failures
in our strength test.
Collin, your blade lasted longer than Bob.
Bob, your blade suffered that catastrophic failure
in one stroke.
And for that reason I have to ask
you to please leave the forge.
[music playing]
BOB: If you've never broken a blade as a bladesmith,
you have a bladesmith.
I have no regrets.
This is merely a stumbling block when
you're walking down the street.
You get up, you dust yourself off, and you move on.
I came here to prove that I can make
a knife under strenuous conditions in three hours.
I did that.
Win or lose.
I did it.