Tyler, congratulations on making it this far.
But for the rest of this final level,
we're going to change things up.
The judges are in charge.
It's our turn to make some noise.
We're going to pick everything from the weapon you
have to build, the materials you have to build it with,
the tests.
It's all on us.
But our first decision is which judge
you'll be going up against.
That judge is--
Ben Abbott.
Ha, ha.
Ben.
'Sup, Tyler?
All right, gentlemen, you've got your work cut out for you.
You're going to have eight hours to finish
a blade that I picked from our "Forged in Fire" vault.
That weapon is--
the cinquedea.
[LAUGHS]
And, smiths, to make your weapon,
you're going to be using this, stacks of 1095 15
and 20 high carbon steel.
Your job's going to be alternate these stacks
and make a pattern for me, but not just a random pattern.
You're going to do a twist and stack method.
You're going to take a minimum of three of these bars,
twist them, restack them, and use that material
to forge your blade.
All right, gentlemen, time starts now.
Part of me showing my best work is bringing
my A-game with the Damascus.
I'm known for making Damascus.
That's all I do.
I cut steel, I stick it, and I forge it.
Look at that Damascus pattern.
It's beautiful.
It looks good.
Beautiful work.
I'm going to have one longer piece in the center,
three pieces on each side of that,
and then a nice little short a piece for my pommel.
And I still have a nice piece left over for my guard.
I know we need only three billets for the sword,
but I'm here to beat Ben, so I'm going
to bring my A-game and my style, and we're going to have
to see who comes out on top.
The more twists the better.
And as long as I get a nice tight pattern,
I feel good about it.
I'm going to twist half of the bars clockwise, half of them
counterclockwise.
That'll give that star pattern, as opposed
to three twists going the same direction.
That's good.
I've been on both sides of this.
I've been the man swinging the sword,
and I've been the man making the sword.
And making the sword is a lot harder.
Eight hours, in this forge, doing this kind of competition
is at the limits of my abilities, for sure.
I hope you guys like swinging bone anchors.
[LAUGHS]
There we go.
Ben quenched.
And we got a good color.
Nice color, yeah.
I'm hoping that my sword doesn't blow
into pieces when I pull it out.
It's sticking together, and she's rock hard.
The fullers are going to open that pattern
up, change it a bit.
But also, I hope they really use the fullers wisely
and make that cinquedea light.
It doesn't have to be heavy.
[SIGHS]
We've got Ben over here finishing up.
He's got to sharpen his blade and form the handle.
I'm competing for a charity called Black Horse Forge,
which is a small non-profit that gives free
blacksmithing classes to military and first
responders and their families.
So I'm going to try my best to win this thing.
Ben is in the panic mode right there.
Yeah.
Yeah, everybody's moving fast.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Good job, guys.
Woo.
Way to go, guys.
Way to go.
[LAUGHS]
And they both lean on each other.
[LAUGHS]
All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the KEAL test.
It's time to make some noise with your weapons.
To find out what kind of lethal damage your cinquedeas will do,
I'm going to deliver slashes and thrust
on this ballistics dummy.
Ben, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Yes, I am.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[LAUGHS]
I don't think he's got much to say now.
No.
All right, Ben, let's talk about your weapon here.
The fullers you have there are wide enough to be
able to lighten the blade.
The tip here is acute enough for deep thrust
into this ballistics dummy.
And at the same time, in chopping that jaw off,
it shows that it is a sharp and strong blade.
Overall, beautiful KEAL.
Nice, brother.
All right, Tyler, your turn, sir.
Are you ready?
Let's do this.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
All right, Tyler, let's talk about your cinquedea here.
The chops go into the ballistics dummy and into the bone
and breaks the bone in there.
At the same time, each cut and the thrust in there is deep.
It penetrates nice and cuts on the way out.
More importantly, sir, your weapon here will KEAL.
Thank you.
All right, gentlemen.
It's time for the strength test.
Now I am going to take your weapons and smash them again
and again into these steel wind chimes.
Well, let's ring a bell.
What do you say, Ben?
I was ready for wooden wind chimes.
[LAUGHS]
[METAL MUSIC]
Ben, this blade is still razor sharp.
The only blade issue is the teeniest of deformation
right there where my finger is.
Other than that, the blade is intact,
solid as when I started.
Well done.
Thank you very much.
Tyler, your turn.
Let's do it.
[METAL MUSIC]
Damn.
[LAUGHS] Awesome, man.
This is a tough test.
Banging a sword against metal wind chimes
is not easy on a sword, and yours held up beautifully.
Nicely done.
But it's heavy.
I would love to see these fullers be a lot deeper.
There's so much mass that's still in this blade,
but it's definitely a strong weapon.
Well done.
Thank you.
All right, bladesmiths, now it's
time for the sharpness test.
Ben, you're up first.
You ready to go?
Cut some stuff, J.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Nice job, Ben.
Thank you.
Balance is very nice.
You know, for something that looks this huge,
it's got a good feel to it.
And it cut fine.
Good job.
Thank you very much.
All right, Tyler, you're up. You ready to go?
Yeah, let's do this.
[METAL MUSIC]
[LAUGHS]
You got to let me break something to make me happy.
[LAUGHS]
Tyler, nice job.
Thank you.
This sucker is sharp.
There's no drags, no stutters at all.
Overall, good job.
Thank you.
Nice.
Thanks, man.
Bladesmiths, or should I say two-time "Forged in Fire"
champions, congratulations.
That was a well-fought round, and you guys
did an amazing job.
But there can only be one winner.
Ben Abbott.
Ben, congratulations for winning this Beat
the Judges competition.
This also comes with a check for $10,000
to your favorite charity, which is?
Black Horse Forge.
Great cause right there.
Tyler, you did a great job putting
that steel together and making a sword
that's a devastating cutter.
It's just the extreme weight and the lack of finish
that came along with your blade really
just put it into second place.
That's why we're letting you go.
Understandable.
I didn't lose this competition to Ben.
He just out-smithed me.
But for me, it wasn't a loss.
I kicked ass, and I made awesome blades
throughout this whole challenge.
In the end, Ben just made a better blade than mine.
I'm proud of myself.
Pleasure, man.
Competing against Tyler was very difficult,
but I'm still undefeated, and it's incredible.
So anybody out there that feels like they
want to come up and compete against us judges,
we're ready for you.
Bring it on.
[METAL MUSIC]