Wayne, Mark, congratulations.
You fellas have made it into the final round
of this competition.
Now we're sending you back to your home forges
to recreate an iconic weapon from history.
And that weapon is--
Show me a falchion.
WIL WILLIS: --a falchion.
Yeah.
Ah-ha-ha, yeah.
Good luck.
We'll see you in four days.
We made it back.
Welcome to Pirate Forge.
I've done my research.
And back in the day, the armor was getting tougher,
you know, thicker leather, introduction
of chainmail and whatnot.
So they needed something that was going
to cut, and chop with the strength of an ax
but still be wielded like a sword.
And that's when the falchion was born.
My plan for the design on this, I'm going to go
with the Damascus pattern.
What I want to do is make two solid billets that we draw out,
cut and restack to make the one billet for the falchion.
This is really taking a long time.
And this is a lot more work than I thought it was going to be.
Hammering out and setting forge welds on such monster billets,
I've definitely forgot how difficult that was.
I mean, if I would have used a monostill billet,
I could have already had this falchion forged.
MARK: We're here back in my home forge
in South Burlington, Vermont.
Boom.
I think that four days is tight.
Man, 3/8 cinch is no joke.
The falchion has this swell that really
gives a lot of forward weight that
makes it great for chopping.
So I have to figure out where I want to put in this swell
and how to hammer it out.
So thin.
I finally get this swell drawn out.
And it is just way too thin.
And I'm not even close to three inches.
I'm pretty nervous about the structural stability
of what I'm making.
Ugh.
So I am just going to start on a second swell.
I'm giving up on this flare, because it's just too thin.
And I still have enough metal back here to make it work.
What I realized is that the first time,
I wanted to move the metal completely horizontally
from spine to edge.
And the way that I was doing it was moving some of the metal
lengthwise and enough of the metal lengthwise
that it just got too thin.
I put into practice what I learned
in making the first swell.
It's already going a lot better, a lot faster,
and getting a lot wider without getting as
thin as it did the first time.
That's it for day one.
WAYNE: It's day two.
Best case scenario, we get this sucker drawn out.
We get it quenched.
It comes out looking great.
Never quenched a blade this big, I don't
know what's going to happen.
About to make this thing change into a real sword.
This is a special momentous occasion.
I was so inspired by this blade I was like,
there should be a falchion song.
[playing guitar]
(SINGING) It was born of blood and war.
Half ax, yet have sword.
You'll surely lop off your head.
I just made me a falchion.
There she is.
A blade has been born.
That blade came out super straight as an arrow.
Fantastic.
Looks like those candles and all the stuff we did,
sure enough worked.
MARK: The morning of day two, and I'm
going to start on my cross guard.
I only have one piece of brass that I can try this with.
So I'm hoping to get it right on the first try.
The fittings are a huge part of this and getting all of that
to just really fit tightly, snugly, be comfortable
in the hand is going to be hopefully where I'm
able to win this competition.
Should be good enough.
Let's do this.
Feeling good about the blade going in the last day.
My only concern is just getting the weight
where it needs to be.
It's a little bit heavy.
I went ahead and decided, we're going for fuller.
I don't have a whole lot of time left.
I'm going to have to be very strategic in everything
I do today.
I feel so accomplished.
You know, for four days, pulling off
a blade this big with the Damascus pattern,
with the fit and finish that I on it,
I couldn't be any happier.
It's the dawn of the final day.
I was able to get the blade quenched and tempered.
Perfect.
Now it's time to grind, shape, and glue.
This has been a bunch of firsts for me, first on length, first
on a guard, first on a pommel.
It's just non-stop firsts.
I know that there are some steps that I rushed.
But for a four-day build, I'm pretty happy with this.
All right, bladesmiths, this is the kill test.
To find out what kind of lethal damage
your weapon will do according to its historic design,
I will try to cut this big carcass in half.
Wayne, you are first. Are you ready for this.
Absolutely.
[metal music playing]
Oh man.
One and done.
Whoa now.
All right, Wayne.
Your falchion is beautiful.
It is sharp.
And it cut through the spine and all the way through the pig.
It's a little bit heavier for a one-handed weapon,
but it is well balanced.
Overall sir, it will kill.
Awesome.
All right, Mark.
Your turn, sir.
Are you ready?
Let's give it a shot.
[metal music playing]
All right, Mark.
Let's talk about your falchion here.
It's a nice, lighter blade.
Your edges are sharp enough to cut through spine.
But the problem I have here is your guard.
Your edges here are not rounded.
They dig in right here where the thumb is.
But your blade, sir, it will kill.
Thank you.
All right gentlemen.
To test the strength and overall construction of your blades,
I'll be attacking our armored dummy here.
This test is not about what your swords do to that armor,
it's about what that armor does to your swords.
Wayne, you're up.
You ready?
Let's do it.
[metal music playing]
Woo.
First off, Wayne, your edge has taken some small chips
and small rolls.
But it's very, very minor damage.
There's still a sharp edge here.
All in all, it held up beautifully.
All right.
Thank you.
So Mark, I got to ask.
What's with the shirt?
I got married in this shirt actually.
It's, you know, it's my formal wear.
All right.
Well, you ready for the test?
I am.
OK.
[metal music playing]
Not bad.
All right.
So first off, the blade is still solid.
You did get some minor rolling.
But the blade still has an edge.
Down here's the problem.
Your guard, these edges are not just square, they're sharp.
But the blade held up.
Good job.
Thank you.
All right, bladesmiths, now it's
time to find out if there's any sharpness left to your weapons.
To test the edge of your weapon, I'm
going to cut through this gauntlet of sandbags.
Wayne, you are first.
You ready for this?
Oh, yeah.
[metal music playing]
All right, Wayne.
Your weapon is sharp.
On every swing, it cuts and slashes nicely.
And most importantly, aside from being smurfed, it will cut.
Awesome.
All right, Mark, it's your turn.
You ready? - I am.
MAN: Let's have fun.
[metal music playing]
All right, Mark.
As you can see, on both of these bags, it cut deeply.
On the second bag, on the swing back over there,
it must have hit a dull spot.
It did rip parts of the bag, but it didn't cut all the way in.
But overall, it is sharp, and it will cut.
Yeah.
WIL WILLIS: Wayne, Mark, it was a tight decision.
Wayne, congratulations.
You're the "Forged in Fire" champion.
Mark, unfortunately, your blade didn't make the cut.
Now, Mark, you made good blades, no doubt about that.
But the big problem is mainly your guard.
Not rounding off those sections, those sharp corners
will bite into the user's hand.
And if a weapon's going to hurt a user,
they're not going to use it.
Please surrender your weapon and leave the forge.
MARK: From start to finish, this whole thing
was a learning process for me, and I honestly
think I have gotten years worth of experience and feedback
in just a short time.
- Great job, man. - [inaudible]
You, too.
This experience was life-changing.
Wayne, congratulations, you are
one badass, everlasting bladesmith and our new "Forged
in Fire" champion.
Good job, brother.
Yeah!
Yes!
[chuckles]
WAYNE: Yeah!
Please, at this time, present your blade to our judges.
So I did it!
Man, I wanted it!
Next for me, I'm going to get back on the same thing that's
led me to this point, which is just
non-stop going full throttle.
And I'm just going to keep pushing.
I'm going to keep [inaudible] better and better.
[music playing]