James, Erich, congratulations.
You're both in the final.
Now you're both one step closer to redemption,
the title of "Forged in Fire" champion,
and a check for $10,000.
When you came here, you used our tools
and equipment to forge signature blades in your signature style.
Now we're sending you back to your home forges
to recreate an iconic weapon from history.
That weapon is-- a sword breaker.
Used by knights across 16th-century Europe,
the sword breaker is a unique dagger
designed to render enemies defenseless on the battlefield.
The weapon's sharp, comb-like teeth could entrap and snap
an opponent's sword in half, while its razor
sharp edge and tip were employed to deliver
fatal slashes or stabs.
The sword breaker was so versatile in its ability
to disarm and counterattack, it became the standard sidearm
of its day.
Today, it's immortalized in the PlayStation
game "Sword Art Online--
Hollow Fragment," where it's wielded
by the character Philia.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in five days.
ERICH: I'm back in my home forge.
Last time I was on, I was sent out first.
So to make it through to the finals, I'm elated.
I'm assuming we're going to try to break some swords,
and I'm all right with that.
I'm actually thinking of going with a club
design for my teeth.
It's giving them a lot more mass,
a lot more weight, and a lot more meat to bite into
and to dig.
So hopefully that will prove to be a good design.
Maybe someday it'll end up in a museum.
I'm going to establish my point and kind of narrow
that down, taking the corners in.
I'm making a lot more progress than I expected,
but the hard part's coming up.
The hard part's going to be the meticulous parts of this build.
Time for day two.
First thing I'm going to do is I'm
going to drill holes and then finish
cutting all of those teeth in before heat treat.
That looks pretty wicked right there.
I was originally going to cut these into the spade look,
but the triangular look is really badass.
It's going to save me a lot of file time.
Oh, so pretty.
I'm going to let this forge warm up a little bit.
I've got to get my quench tank.
Then I'll be ready for a hardening cycle.
I don't usually quench blades this big,
so it's going to be difficult.
All right.
I'm heating up some scrap material to heat the oil,
see if I can't get it about 120 degrees in there.
You need to heat up the oil because you don't want
to shock the steel while hardening,
because it will potentially crack.
Damn it.
What the [bleep] is going on?
I've got to--
I'm just fixing to waste about two gallons of [bleep] oil.
[bleep]
The steel punches a hole in the bottom of my PVC cap,
and that [bleep] sucks.
I don't know what the [bleep] to do now.
This is going to set me back a half day.
I need to find a quench tank, or I'm done.
ERICH: I'm ready to get going.
I'm ready to get the teeth on the blade today.
This is the most critical part of the build, period.
This is the very first time I've ever cut into a blade other
than a gut hook.
I'm going to hot chisel them out just to see how they look,
making sure that that's the right decision.
Of the designs I have for my teeth,
they could go drastically wrong.
Each one of these teeth are a potential spot for breaking,
so I have to be very meticulous on where each placement goes.
I think it's going to be mean.
With the heat treat, I don't know what to expect with it.
I truly don't.
If there's any stress left in the metal,
it's going to come out, and that is
usually in the shape of a warp.
That's got me a little concerned, I got to say.
If anything is going to make me throw up today,
it's going to be the heat treat.
That's really good.
They're nice and straight.
They look terrific.
I'm happy.
JAMES: I had to find a different tank,
and finally I've found a metal 5-gallon
can and quenched my blade.
It looks really good.
The details I'm working on today is
I'm going to be finishing the guard,
shape that up with some files, make it nice
and round, shape my handle, and do my test.
Ooh, that's nice.
Already have a piece of purpleheart
wood from my handles.
And my drift for making the hole for the guard,
it's going to now become my pommel.
Everything looks great.
Now I have to get that primary edge sharpened and then
do some cutting tests on it.
I got my daughters out there and my tortoise, Gio.
They want to see what this blade can do.
When I was out in the first round,
my daughters were both sad for me.
But having this second opportunity to go back
and shown that if you really put your mind to it,
you can achieve greatness, it feels good to me.
That was pretty awesome.
It almost killed Gio.
To see what lethal damage your blade can do,
I will deliver killing blows of slashes and thrusts
on this ballistics dummy.
The sword breaker comes from the style called main-gauche,
which means "left hand."
Therefore, I will see the offensive capabilities of
your knife with my left hand.
James, you're up first.
You ready?
Let's do it.
[music playing]
Well, James, as an offensive weapon,
it slashes nicely and punctures easily for a deep cut.
But at the same time, I know that sword breakers
have to be held this way.
It wants to go this way.
Nonetheless, it cuts, it stabs, and it will kill.
Good job.
Thank you.
Erich, your turn.
You ready?
Yes, sir.
[music playing]
Well, Erich, if I need to use it offensively,
it's easy to index and switch to that edge.
When I did thrust and slash out, we got to test the edge,
and it lacerations.
Your blade will kill.
Thank you.
Now to test the sharpness of the edge of your blade,
I'm going to cut the rope first with the fish
and then the meat, our "Forged in Fire" trifecta.
[laughter]
James, you're up first.
You ready?
Yes, sir.
[music playing]
Hell yeah.
All right, James, wicked sharp.
Going from there, the sword breaker in particular,
it's a left-handed weapon.
Now, that ring is to protect your knuckles.
Oops.
Yes, sir.
Other than that, this thing is a beast.
Thank you.
All right, Erich, let's do it.
OK.
[music playing]
[laughter]
All right, first off, that's sharp.
It just went right through the rope, right through the fish.
Didn't cut all the way.
That was me, not the knife.
You can see the cuts on that beef.
JAMES: Yeah, sure.
Just clean, straight through.
Knuckle guard above the knuckles.
Crenulations forward.
It can catch with that, stop things.
That's great.
All in all, I think it's a great-looking piece,
and it is definitely sharp.
Thank you.
All right, gentlemen, this is the strength test.
The sword breaker's teeth were designed
to grab onto an opponent's weapon and hold on fast.
Now, to test the strength and durability of your blades,
we've hooked them into our mechanical contraption here.
And what that piston is going to do,
it's going to pull your blade that way, bending that rapier,
putting a lot of torque on your blade.
Let's see if the teeth of your weapon
will hold on to that rapier.
James, you're up first. You ready for this?
I'm ready.
Let's do this.
3, 2, 1, pull.
[bleep] Damn it, man.
[laughter]
Oh.
OK.
You picked up an ever-so-slight bend.
I mean, there was a lot of pressure on that,
and you could actually see that weapon bending.
You can see what it did this rapier blade.
All in all, well done.
Thank you.
Erich, your turn.
Let's put it to the test.
In 3, 2, 1, pull.
[music playing]
All right, Erich, what happened in our test
here is the shape of your teeth, the way they
widen towards the outside--
ERICH: Yep.
--it allowed that rapier to twist and pop out,
as opposed to when you see these historically that they have
sort of a head on these teeth.
So once they go into that section, it's harder for them
to escape.
The fact that this opening here is so wide,
it just allows that to happen.
Sure.
Other than that, I mean, it held up.
You bent the rapier right until it popped.
Your blade stayed true, even after all that flexing,
but those wide teeth seem to be a bit of an issue.
My blade grabbed the rapier and torqued it better than his,
but his sword didn't warp.
Mine did slightly.
So we're still neck and neck.
James, Erich, this was your shot at redemption.
However, in this arena of competition,
there can only be one champion.
The "Forged in Fire" champion is--
James.
[bleep].
Damn it.
Congratulations.
Well, thank you very much.
Erich, please surrender your blade.
I agree with the judge's decision.
I had some aggressive choosing in the club pattern
for the blade.
But last episode I was on, I definitely did not
show what I'm capable of doing.
This time, I was able to put forward
a competition-worthy blade.
So that's redemption in itself.
James, congratulations.
You've redeemed yourself, and you're the "Forged in Fire"
champion who also receives that check for $10,000.
How do you feel?
Oh, man, it's been a long road.
I'll tell you what, I have redeemed myself.
All right, James, please present
your weapon to the judges.
It's much more fun to get to present
your weapon to the judges than having to surrender it.
Two years ago, being out in the first round,
then making it to the championship round
and then now even winning, and it's-- this
is truly redemption.
My daughters will be proud.
They can tell their friends, hey, my dad's
a "Forged in Fire" champion.
[music playing]