All right, gentlemen, today you will be competing
in our san mai challenge.
So on your anvils, there's a cloth.
Go ahead and lift that up.
Those are high-carbon drill bits.
And there's a soft steel billet inside that box.
The san mai challenge is forging blades in your signature styled
by sandwiching soft steel around a hardenable steel
core and edge.
TIM: I am in so much trouble (LAUGHING) right now.
I have never, ever messed with the drill bits.
Just getting those straightened out
and getting them into a billet is
going to be a challenge enough.
I'm in trouble.
All right, bladesmiths, grab your steel.
Your 10-minute design window starts now.
I'm going to go to my standard go-to blade, which is a seax.
As far as chopping-- it's going to have some weight to it.
And as far as slicing--
if I put the right edge to it, the right angle on it,
she'll slice just great.
Bladesmiths, the design period is closed.
Your three-hour forge time starts now.
[music playing]
- Eeny-meeny-miney, right? - Yeah.
So there's Tim.
This is what I like to see.
He's cleaning up his steel.
He's going to get some very clean welds.
TIM: I'm cleaning up, simply because if you don't, then
you run the risk of getting some inclusions
in there when you actually go to heat it up and weld it.
Just one little spot's all it takes.
Just mig welded my first billet together
out of those drill bits.
That's honestly the first time I'd ever gotten
to play with a mig welder.
Those things are pretty cool.
If I can win it, I'm buying one.
This forge here has so much more than I
have (LAUGHING) at my own.
I don't have a hydraulic press.
I don't have a power hammer.
I'm used to doing everything by hand.
That could be my Achilles heel, I don't know.
(YELLING) Bladesmiths, you only have two hours remaining
to finish your blades.
We hit that hour mark, and I'm feeling like--
where did I slow down?
My billet is thicker than I thought it was going to be.
And so it's just taking its own sweet time
getting to that temperature where I can start moving it.
Come on!
Come on, come on, come on.
That clock on the wall--
it's like having a ton sitting on your head.
I'm behind the eight ball on this one.
Tim's working that seax tip into his blade now.
I got the bevels rough-forged, and the handle's in there.
Wish it was a little bit wider on the tip.
Thought I was going to have at least a half hour
to address anything that I wanted to.
I don't have that time anymore.
(YELLING) 10 minutes, bladesmiths.
TIM: I've got to get this blade heated up and quenched.
- Oh no! - Yes!
Look, Tim is in the oil.
Tim is our first smith to quench.
I'm really surprised by that.
So far, so good.
WIL WILLIS: (YELLING) 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bladesmiths, drop your tools.
This forging round is over.
[applause]
[interposing voices]
Damn!
WIL WILLIS: Bladesmiths, it's time for the judges
to take a closer look at your work.
Alan, you're up first.
Please present your work to the judges.
BEN ABBOTT: I really enjoyed watching
you do your forge welds.
Everything seemed to be going well,
and then something must have happened.
Because this is really thin.
For a coconut chop, I might have wanted it just
a little bit thicker than that.
All right, Ed, please present your work to the judges.
Well, Ed, I like where you're heading with this knife.
I like the shape.
But I mean, there's deep fissures on the top here.
And I'm not 100% sure that it's welded.
There's almost rattling in there.
(WHISPERING) Yeah, well.
WIL WILLIS: All right, Tim, you're up.
DAVID BAKER: I liked where you were going with this.
But I would have loved to have seen that peak being
up here another three-quarters of an inch to really give
it that brokeback seax look.
If you move forward, try not to lose too much mass.
One thing I'm not a huge fan of is this handle.
It's a little small for my hand.
Be interesting to see if there's anything
that can be done there.
But all in all, it's a solidly welded piece.
Well done.
Bladesmiths, the judges deliberation is complete,
and they've made their final decision.
It's time for one of you to leave the forge.
The bladesmith leaving the forge is Ed.
Your blade did not make the cut.
David Baker is going to tell you why.
Ed, I really appreciate all the work you
did to set up for that weld.
But with that material being so thin, some of those welds
are questionable.
And all four of our blades, yours is the least finished.
And that's why we're letting you go.
Ed, please surrender your blade.
This experience was the heat in my life
I needed to forge myself into a better
person and a better knifemaker.
It may have saved my life.
I'll never stop making knives.