all right guys congratulations you both made it to round three of the
competition where we will send you to your home forges for four days
to make this iconic weapon from u.s military history and that weapon is
the springfield 1905 bayonet we will be providing a springfield 1903 replica rifle to you
your bayonets must fit snugly and securely on your rifles
developed in the early 1900s the m1905 springfield bayonet was used by american infantry for nearly
70 years from world war one through the vietnam war these versatile weapons were designed with a
mechanical device in the pummel that attached securely to the rifle while also featuring a
comfortable handle making it a very effective weapon in hand-to-hand combat featuring a sharp
single edge a long fuller and a false edge this lightweight bayonet can quickly deliver
stabs and slashes to an opponent the bayonet is still used today during military ceremonies
and can be seen in several classic war films like 1998's the thin red line all right gentlemen when
you guys build your bayonets i want you to follow these parameters the blade needs to be between 15
and 16 inches with a fuller and a false edge at the tip as well as a muzzle ring guard i'm
a little nervous with it i've never done a guard on a knife before along with a keyhole and i know
with the bayonets they usually have a place in the back the handle where it locks into the rifle
there's a lot of first all right gentlemen good luck we'll see you in four days good luck man
my main plan is to get the whole blade forged out i guess i could grind it to shape
but then it's not forging fire
i have everything forged out pullers are in rough dimensions are there i'm happy so right
now i have my groove cut these are going to be the rest of my pommel they are going
to go like so and then be welded like that so i have to use my angle grinder very very very
carefully and scribe this line in thick enough that it fits on those rails line everything up
hey it works i got my scales all cut out they fit relatively nice now i'm working on getting my pen
but that's gonna look pretty cool when it's done i have my knife all glued up
now that it's dry i'm ready to take the clamps off and we'll start profiling the handle
at the end process it's probably one of the best things i've made i'm pretty proud of this
so i'm back in lancaster ohio at my home forge i've never made anything this big before
all right so i got the edges cleaned up fairly well overall my knife is pretty straight
it's got some little wobbles on there but that's from forging
a little less than an eighth of an inch to remove from this thing and we're good i'm
going to punch my knife there's a lot of things that can go wrong in this process let's do this
so i'm not hearing any weird noises or any pings so i think i'm in good shape the biggest challenge
of this build is getting that locking mechanism to work so now we're going to test fit this
there she is i try to really pride myself on my fit and finish and i'm pretty confident in my
knife i'm really happy with it i wouldn't want to be on the other end of this thing let's see
what it does yeah this thing is sweet let's see this thing is sharp dude that didn't make
any noise it just stabbed right through it bleed spits welcome to the kill test the first mission
today is to take your bayonet and affix it to the springfield rifle and deliver some killing blows
on this ballistics dummy then i will dismantle the blade from the rifle and let's see what
kind of lethal damage it will do on its own josh you're up first you ready let's raise the can be
that's pretty badass all right josh let's talk about your bayonet here
when i affixed this onto the rifle it had a very nice match with the railing in there and
your pin it was very secure now your edge is very sharp it definitely lacerates deep
into the bone on its own the handle construction matches nicely on my hand overall sir it will
keel awesome thank you all right brad your turn so you ready for this let's go for it
all right brad first up the handle construction it is a little bit on the smaller side but there
are no sharp edges and the flare you have here actually gives me good retention and
i can get all the way to the guard at first i was a little bit worried about your cutter pin
right here it looked flimsy but the minute i put it on it wasn't an issue at all it stayed
affixed to the bayonet quite tightly your weapon is straight every cut was very deep
into this ballistics dummy overall sir your weapon will kill thank you sir
bladesmiths welcome to the strength test the steel can stab and barricade chop this test is all
about what happens to your bayonets and not what happens to the targets joshua first you ready nope
nope
oh here's my finish hi josh well you survived really well there is sections on here that are now
not as sharp as they were but nothing rolled over nothing chipped out i mean your point is still
nice and sharp it performed really well on the strength test nice job awesome thank you
all right brad be ready for this well my nan said don't break it but go for it
oh brad what you got here your blade edge took some damage the blade's taking a bit
of a bend to one side here it's cheating to the right but your point didn't take
any damage it's all in one piece it's a nice sturdy blade nice job thank you
all right bladesmiths this is the sharpest test the military bag slice
to find out how sharp your edges end point of your balance are i'm going
to take a stab at these military bags josh you're up first you ready let's go for it
all right josh your bandit right here had no problems puncturing the bag and slicing it to
pieces it'll cut sweet thanks all right brad your turn sir should we do it of course how about you
all right brad let's talk about your blade here wicked sharp it's punctured easily in
the military bag at the same time the edges cut like hot steel on butter overall sir for this test
you will cut thank you sir gentlemen well you both brought us amazing work
only one of you will go home with the title and the fortune fire champion is
josh congratulations but unfortunately you're not going home with the wind today and doug's
going to tell you why i commend you on your work your knife performed very well on our
test but it was also the only knife that took a bend on the strength vest and for
that reason your blade did not make the cut brad unfortunately that means i'm gonna have to ask
you to please leave the forge four i understand have a good one guys what's your man thank you
when it comes to the judge's final decision i can't argue with it at all i'm extremely proud
of my work that was probably the best blade i've ever made so far this has just been a
dream come true and i'm just so grateful to be where i am right now even if i am going home
well josh that means you are the fortune fire champion you're going home with a
check for ten thousand dollars how does it feel bud i feel awesome congratulations
how do you know man i was still trying to think in the i i won this this i won
a little overwhelming i can't wait to tell my wife she had a lot of confidence in me from
the very start i'm excited to let her know that hey you you were right you know i won
you