Robert and Jarred, congratulations.
You boys have made it into the final round of this Greek
mythology inspired competition.
Now when you came here, we had you make signature
blades in your signature style.
That's not going to happen at home.
Instead, you'll be making this weapon from Greek mythology--
the sword of Perseus.
All right.
And we'll see you in four days.
Good luck.
Go get it.
Hurry.
She's a camera hog right there.
So it's day 1.
I'm getting ready to start making the sword of Perseus.
I've never made a sword before.
And now the first one I'm making is a sword from a god
basically.
So I'm going to have to do my best to please the--
the Greek gods.
I'm going with the 80CRV2.
It's a good steel.
It's tough.
It holds a good edge.
My main goal today is to get this thing forged to shape.
For me, the most difficult part of forging the sword
is getting the curves and the hourglass shape to it.
I'm already getting kind of thin in the belly
up here where I need it.
So I'm kind of trying to avoid a pattern
to get the blade too thin.
It's taking a little longer than I--
I'm wanting.
But it's, uh-- it's still going--
going good.
ROBERT: It's day 1.
I'm back in my home forge in Middleburgh, New York.
I'm getting ready to start on the sword of Perseus.
It's going to be a tricky sword to forge out, for sure.
I'm going to try to make my blade out of Damascus.
I've got 1084.
I've got 15 and 20.
I want to do a twisted Damascus and then
cut that in half and sandwich it around some solid 1084.
And when I grind down my edge profile,
the edge will show the 1084 when it's etched.
And I think it will really, really look pretty neat.
The only time I have ever done twisted Damascus
was with two people.
And we'll see how this goes doing it with one person.
No, there's no way.
I'm not even going to bother with twisting.
I'm just going to go for a random pattern Damascus,
start working this billet and cut it, restack
it, and forge weld again.
JARRED: Go get it.
Today, I'd like to get the blade profiled a little better,
and heat treat it, and start working on the guard.
So I'm getting ready to quench it.
And as I heat the sword up for the quench--
I have never done one this big, especially in my forge
like this.
It's a lot smaller.
So I'm going to have to kind of go back and forth
and move it in and out and get an even heat.
I barely got the whole edge in there.
Yeah, that's good.
I'll take it.
The heat treat's done.
I'm going to start working on the guard.
I'm going to use a Damascus, just because I want to do
something a little different.
Here we go.
And I wanted to basically make things harder on myself.
ROBERT: It's day 2.
I got my billet with my 1084 core.
And we're heading in the forge.
The big thing today is going to be profiling my blade,
getting everything forged out.
I need to keep on schedule.
And I need to get the heat treat today.
I'm moving a ton of steel.
I'm going from the press.
I'm going to the anvil.
And then bam--
[beep]
My press is down.
It is going to put me really, really behind.
I don't know what I'm going to do.
[groans] Yeah, I got nothing.
It's all arm from here on out.
[hammering]
The tang took a bit of time to get drawn out.
And not having that press is costing me precious time.
It's going to be a fight to the finish.
It's the last day.
And we got to get this thing finished up.
I'm planning on starting off with the guard,
and getting that thing done, and then
starting working on that disk pommel and then the handle.
The pommel's attached now.
And the horseshoe guards are attached.
I got to fit the wood basically in between the two.
I wish I would've left the pommel off and done the wood
first and then welded it on.
But it's too late.
And I've just got to kind of squeeze the stuff in there.
It feels good to me.
It's-- it's light.
And it feels pretty balanced.
I feel good about my sword.
It's a home run.
Hopefully, it's enough to where I can win the game.
Girls, what do y'all think of daddy's sword?
It will kill.
You got to say it louder.
It will kill!
[laughs]
ROBERT: It's the start of day 4.
Yesterday, the heat treat came out perfect.
Yes.
But I got a mountain of work to do.
I'm exhausted.
My back is killing me.
My arm is sore.
And I'm really just wishing that my press was working.
I'm behind schedule.
And I got a lot of make-up to do today.
The handle assembly went great.
And I've got my pins in.
But it's a heavy sword.
So the rest of my time is going to be
hogging some more material off.
My arms feel like they're about ready to fall off.
The pattern looks amazing.
My only regret is that I couldn't
get more weight off of it.
All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the kill test.
Now, in Greek mythology, Perseus used his sword
to decapitate Medusa and remove her head from her body
to use it as a weapon.
To that end, I will take your weapon.
And it will help me deliver some killing
slashes and blows to liberate her head from her body.
Robert, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Yes, sir.
[dramatic music]
All right, Robert, let's talk about your sword here.
I like the design that you have of Damascus in there.
But it's so heavy.
It's about five pounds over here.
But the thing is it's so forward heavy.
Most of the weight's up here.
When I'm lifting this, I can feel
all the stress right there.
This is supposed to be meant to be a single-handed use weapon.
Now, your edge is plenty sharp.
It was easy to thrust and cut.
And it will kill.
All right, Jarred, your turn.
Are you ready, sir?
Yes, sir.
[dramatic music]
All right, Jarred, first up, you nailed the balance on this.
It's a one-handed sword.
And it's about three pounds lighter than your opponent's.
Your edge is razor sharp.
Every slash is deep.
The thrust, no issues at all.
And most importantly, sir, it will kill.
JAY: All right, bladesmiths, we took Medusa's head
during the kill test.
Now the Kraken's turned to stone.
So what I'm going to do is take your swords
and beat them mercilessly into these stone Kraken heads.
It's going to be brutal.
And, Rob, you're up first.
How are you feeling?
A little nervous, but I'm ready.
[dramatic music]
Are you OK?
Yeah, it bounced off the glove, didn't cut me.
Well, that's that.
My blade breaks.
My heart breaks.
But I am just so glad that it didn't hurt Jay.
Well, a little bit of a problem here, Rob.
On the tang, you can see a black spot.
So that means you had a stress fracture there.
And with the weight of this sword
hitting those stone Kraken skulls,
it was enough to allow that stress fracture to just
continue all the way across.
So the good part is that your edge held up--
so good job on the Damascus.
But it's kind of hard to swing a sword without a handle on it.
WIL: Jarred, your blade still has to survive four strikes.
Jay, let's get crack-a-lacking.
[rock music]
Jarred, your blade survived.
Robert, unfortunately, your blade cannot continue to be
tested in this competition.
And for that reason, I have to ask
you to please leave the forge.
Come on forward, my friend.
You killed the Medusa, though.
ROBERT: It really sucks that it broke.
But this whole experience has been great.
And I'm just going to keep moving forward.
I'm just going to keep getting better at what I do.
It's a heartbreaker.
But I'm really proud of what I did.
Jarred, congratulations.
The strength of your weapon has ensured
that you are the Forged in Fire champion leaving this
forge with a check for $10,000.
Good job, brother. [applause]
Awesome. Thank you.
Thank you.
How you feeling right now?
Good.
How about a smile or something?
Yeah.
All right, come on over and shake our hands, brother.
- Thank you. - Good job, man.
Good job.
JARRED: I am the new Forged in Fire champion.
That's something I never thought I'd say.
I can't wait to get home, give my daughters the news,
and take the $10,000 and take my family on a vacation somewhere.
[symphonic metal music]