gabe clarence congratulations you've made it to the final round of this competition
now we're sending you back to your home forges where you will recreate an iconic weapon from
history make no mistake gentlemen this is a tough sword to make the last time this was issued as
a final challenge one of our competitors did not meet the parameters that weapon is
the viking sword
from the 8th to 11th century the vikings were the scourge of the northern european coast
one of their most effective tools for raiding and pillaging was a viking sword
a straight edged iron sword with rounded tip and double edge
the viking sword was built to break through an opponent's defenses using big slashing blows
since the blade was heavy and usually swung with one hand a large palm one hilt were used
to balance the weight of the blade viking swords were often highly prized by their owners and given
names such as battlesnake and dog of the helmet one was featured in the 2007 epic film beowulf
this is your redemption this could be your last chance to show the world what you're
truly capable of good luck blade smiths we'll see you in five days best of luck to you guys look man
it's day one at my home forge i suppose gives me advantages
i've never made a viking sword before but i'm feeling confident
it's a cold forge i made it years ago this is gonna be something by the end of the day i'd
like to have the sword at least partially forged my point established the bevels forged into place
if i'm halfway down the sword blade and i can finish forging tomorrow that would be ideal
we're here at dragonfly forge today we'll be making the billet out of two pieces of forge
welded cable which will cut twist weld the cable has about 200 strands each so when the two are
combined is going to be about 400 wires comprising the billet it'll make a very very strong blade
hopefully i can get those two put together
that didn't quite go how we wanted because i was forging the two pieces of cable together
the first heat i couldn't get the forge weld to stick i just can't get the sweet spot i need
it to be hot enough it's not getting a full combustion that's why it's like so much gas
that it can't all burn the next one i got a little hotter and she's stuck the welds look great
today i just want to draw out this bar i rethought some of the things from yesterday and i think i
was a little rushed today i'm going to take my time make sure i draw out that bar and get the
metal kind of slimmed down thinner longer and that way it'll also be easier to heat
it's hot i'm tired not used to being tired from forging a little bit worried
about running out of time so it's hard to work when you don't have the energy
i'm really worn out i hope i can get through this
it's now the start of day three really looking pretty darn good at this stage
the quench is really the make or break point of the blade it's about ready for the moment of truth
i cannot afford a failure the absolute worst thing that can happen during a quench is to
have a fatal crack there's no choice but to start over at that point pretty damn straight looks good
we're over the largest hump of the whole project now
day five the plan is to finish everything
grind put the guard and the handle on and coins the blade working is sort of like this
by hand especially it being the first of these that i've done a lot of difficulties
the punch went all right we've got quite a bit of bend in here and i of course don't
want to snap it this is really frightening got a lot of it out ready to finish initially i had
a different type of pummel setup that i wanted to do i'm not gonna have time so i have to improvise
well we made it work feels good
it's now the final day and i have all the assembly to do although there's still a lot to do today
i'm confident i can pull it off the handle is a two-piece hardwood core over the tang and that's
going to be wrapped in leather it's a very simple and utilitarian handle design okay i think that
did the trick we only have a few hours left so i'm engraving the roman numerals 13 on here 13 is a
lucky number in my family wouldn't hurt to have a little extra luck it's time to pack this thing up
gentlemen to test the sharpness of your blade i'll be cutting into our cargo net here
matt gabe you're up first are you ready for this definitely all right gave that
blade made pretty short work of that rope net the weight overall is a nice feel definitely
did a good job definitely a sharp weapon it felt good cutting nicely done gabe thank you
all right clarence your turn you ready i'm ready okay
all right so clarence a couple of things i really like about this blade the weight
is very nice in the balance it's very well done um this this big lip in the handle though
is really not very comfortable on the hand but your blade did well cut nicely
well done bladesmiths the viking sword wielded by the hands of the feared viking
warriors forged for one purpose kill the enemy to see how lethal your weapons are i will take
your viking sword and deliver killing blows in this ballistic stunning let's see what kind of
damage your weapon can do gabe you're up first you ready i'm ready let's do this
okay gabe the handle is comfortable with the wrapping that you did there feels good as you
can see it lacerated into the chest the chest cavity here even took out some bones of the ribs
it is sharp on both edges and penetrated easily on this ballistics dummy and most importantly
it will kill good job thank you clarence you're up next are you ready i'm ready
okay clarence it feels good to wield it's got great balance to it the one thing that
it didn't do was cut cleanly through the ballistics dummy it felt like it was
bouncing off and i wonder if that's your edge geometry here being thick in the sharpness of
your blade but in the cuts that it did do the weight did penetrate broke some bones
it penetrated on a deep thrust coming out and that would be a very lethal wound and your weapon
will kill now the viking sword was commonly used in conjunction with a shield
so to test the strength of your sword i'm going to take four blows into these wooden shield edges
two with either edge of your blade gabe you're up first you ready yes sir all right
all right so gabe still in the same shape it was in it's good it's kept its straightness feels
like your edge held up really nicely definitely cut into the shield good
good job thank you all right clarence you're up you ready i'm ready okay
well clarence your edge held up nicely that handle still uh and my hand is still a bit of an issue
but swinging it the weight and the balance is really nice all in all well done thank you
gabe clarence your road to redemption was a gauntlet the judges have deliberated
they've made a final decision the forged and fire champion is
gabe congratulations clarence please surrender your weapon
the first time i competed i wound up out in round one this time i've made it through to the finale
so i may not be a forage and fire champion but i have proven to myself that i can go much further
than i thought so there'll be definitely lots more to look forward to gabe congratulations
you are the forged and fire champion and will be receiving that check for 10 grand
that's not redemption i don't know what is brother feels so sweet after all that i love
the dimensions of that blade it's a great cutter when i was going through that rope it just went
right through you definitely know how to put an edge on something
i feel like i've completely redeemed myself feels incredible like i never thought that
the title portion fire champion would mean as much as it does to me right now
you