- In the first round of today's competition
you'll have to combine the steel from that sprocket
with the steel of that chain to make a billet,
from which to forge a signature blade in your signature style.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
Your three hour forge time starts now.
Here we go.
Each of our bladesmiths has a sprocket
that is mild steel and a chain it is hardenable steel.
The chain's pretty obvious, but the sprocket I think
is going to be confusing them a little bit.
It looks like that would be a nice chunk of hardenable steel,
but it's mild.
My plan for this challenge, I'm
going to take that sprocket, forge out a billet,
and I'm going to take some of these damn chain links
and I'm going to forge weld them into the spine.
I don't think Liam realizes that sprocket
is mild, unhardenable steel, and he's making
a complete blade out of it.
Oh, [inaudible].
You got that sprocket Incorporated?
It's all sprocket.
I incorporated the chain.
I'm getting this blade pretty much where I want it.
It feels good in the hand.
You can tell where the links are.
I want to do a good thermal cycling,
and then give it a good quench.
Can you thermal cycle mild steel to make it harder?
- No. - No.
Liam's in the quench.
Moment of truth.
And the file doesn't skate.
It doesn't harden.
If the metal's not hard, it'll fold
when it hits the ice block.
Round two.
How do we get high carbon steel on the edge
of Liam's blade, Dave?
How?
You build a time machine.
You travel back three hours.
Liam, with a second quench.
Is it still biting?
It's still biting a little bit.
Mine is, too.
What's your edge steel?
The sprocket.
I just forge-welded in the links.
Chain is normally mild steel.
No, it's hard.
I ground every tooth off my sprocket.
I'm not too convinced that it's hardenable steel.
Well, that's what this all is, then.
Good luck.
Now I'm second guessing my steel selection,
using the sprocket for my edge.
I run over to the acid tank, give my blade a quick dip,
and that's when I notice it.
[bleep]
Liam forged an entire blade that is mild steel.
[bleep]
- Is that going to cut? - No.
It'd make a good butter knife.
I just wasted three hours making a really cool
looking knife that isn't going to hold an edge.
I could be going home.
But, you know what?
I've had bigger hurdles and bigger struggles in my life.
I've battled depression.
I've battled PTSD.
I've buried more friends to suicide than I have to combat.
At this point in time, I've got what I've got.
I just need to move forward.
It will have to do.
My biggest concern going into judging, it's my steel.
I potentially made a catastrophic mistake
by using the wrong metal to make a blade.
Bladesmiths, the first round of competition is over.
Now it's time for the judges to take
a closer look at your work.
Ethan, you're up first.
Please present your blade to the judges.
Well, Ethan, I really like to shape.
I like that you gave us a lean piece.
You've got a pretty good curve in the blade
there that needs to be addressed.
Liam, you're next.
First up, Liam, I love this design.
It's almost like a kukri.
Forward heavy, so that means you have to really take
care of that handle, that when I go forward with this,
something's got to stop it from flying out of my hand.
You file checked this?
File checked it the first time.
It skated in a couple of spots.
Do you have an idea what that sprocket material was?
I'm guessing it was a chromium alloy of some type.
Thank you.
Evan, you're up.
Evan, I like the profile overall.
You've got a swell on the top and bottom, in the midsection,
and a flare on the back.
And that's exactly what I like to see on a knife
that I'm going to be swinging around.
But I see chain all through this.
Where is the sprocket?
My plan with the sprocket was to weld on bolsters.
I wish I could have done a San Mai,
but I was fooling too much with the chain.
So just to be clear, there is only one
type of metal in this blade?
Yes, sir.
OK.
Thank you.
Evan, by failing to combine your two steels
together to form that signature blade,
you fail to meet parameters.
For that reason, I have to ask you to leave the forge.