HOST: Jon, Keith, congratulations.
When you came to this forge you used our tools
and our equipment to forge signature
blades in your signature style.
Now, we're sending you back to your home
forge where you will recreate an iconic weapon
from history, the xiphos.
The xiphos was a double-edged short sword
wielded in ancient Greece by the hoplites
around the 6th century BC.
The hoplites were armored soldiers
famed for battling in phalanx formation,
a virtually impenetrable wall of shields and spears.
If a hoplite's spear was broken or lost in battle,
his trusty xiphos served as backup.
Much like Frodo's iconic sword Sting
in "The Lord of the Rings", the xiphos
featured a leaf-shaped profile and short blade length.
Effective for thrusting and slashing
in close quarters combat.
It lives on in Greek literature as a classic weapon of warfare,
notably brandished by Achilles in Homer's
epic poem "The Iliad."
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in five days.
[music playing]
KEITH: This will be the first time
I've ever built a xiphos sword.
Forged in fire in Greek.
I'm going to try to put that right on the hilt. In the fire
we go.
I love working with steel because you're
watching your baby being born right before your eyes.
The sword's coming along real nice.
The metal is doing exactly what I wanted to do.
My wife and I are very active in the pirate reenactment
community.
And that's really where I got my start in making blades.
And that's why I have the pirate motif over there.
JON: Today I'm going to do my annealing.
I'm making a container to hold my vermiculite
in sand, which will allow me to anneal my blade overnight.
Vermiculite in sand is a good mixture
for containing that heat for long periods of time,
allowing me to quench my blade tomorrow without any weirdness
occurring.
Here we go.
Getting towards critical temperature.
[music playing]
[bleep]
Not even close.
Didn't even get like half of it in there.
My vermiculite and sand mixture was too dense,
so the blade fought me on the way down.
And now please don't be bent.
And now I have a bent blade.
My blade may not be as strong now.
If my annealing medium isn't going to work tonight,
I definitely don't want to anneal during my day tomorrow.
Way too much time.
I'll just have to straighten out, normalize
it, and quench it right now.
The blade is coming along real well.
The grip and the handle and the tang is starting to take shape.
Now cutting the umbilical cord, and we're
going to birth a baby.
There you go.
Now I have to heat treat it.
Fingers crossed and here we go.
I didn't hear any tings.
That's a great sign, I think we have a real good blade.
Baby just got baptized.
The quench went pretty well.
I think we have a good blade here.
Excellent.
I am a little bit behind schedule,
so I decided to not make the horse
guard that I wanted to do.
But last night it came to me in a dream.
I have a much simpler guard design.
It's going to be straight with some curly cues up.
A little Celtic-inspired, but much
more simple and traditional.
It's pretty good.
The blades got to be finished tomorrow,
so that's the game plan.
Finish of the blade.
KEITH: I did a little test and dropped the blade tip
first right into the cement.
To see how the blade would fare against something real hard.
Cracks the cement, nothing on the tip.
Nice work here.
Now, I'm going to attach the handle,
and then to all the etching.
There is a hidden tang.
The tang is no more.
I feel great.
Real happy with the blade.
I can't wait to chop something.
We're going to sacrifice a virgin pineapple.
Sweet.
JUDGE 1: Bladesmiths, this is the sharpness test.
I will take your weapon and test its edge
by cutting the rope which will release the sandbags
and then cut the sandbag.
Let's see how sharp your blades are.
Jon, you're up first.
You ready?
Ready to go.
[music playing]
JUDGE 1: OK Jon.
This side is very sharp.
And the other side is sharp, but to get through the rope
it took three cuts.
The balance overall of the sword feels good.
This sir, will cut.
Thanks.
JUDGE 1: Good job.
Keith you're up, you ready?
Yes, sir.
[music playing]
That was cool.
JUDGE 1: All right, Keith, your blade
required two slices to cut through the rope,
but it did cut through.
And then on the backhand slice, cut nicely on the sandbag.
Like the guard, I like the details
that you put into your blade.
This sir, will cut.
JUDGE 2: Gentlemen, to test the strength of your weapons
I'm going to take two blows on either side of this helmet.
See how your weapons hold up.
Jon you're up first.
Are you ready?
I guess so.
JUDGE 2: OK.
[music playing]
Not a mark on the blade.
Very nicely done with that.
One thing I did notice, we just got a little loose down here.
Right there in your guard and your pommel.
It's not terrible, but there's a little movement.
But you've got a very strong blade here.
Thank you.
JUDGE 2: Nicely done.
So Keith, you're up, you ready?
Aye.
JUDGE 2: All right.
[music playing]
JUDGE 2: It held up well.
I like your handle a lot, it's contoured to my hand.
All and all really nicely done.
HOST: Bladesmiths.
The judges have made a final decision.
Jon, Keith, in this final round of competition
you've both delivered exactly what we asked for.
But there can only be one "Forged in Fire" champion.
Keith, congratulations.
You are the "Forged in Fire" champion.
Jon, unfortunately your weapon did not make the cut.
Jon, your blade did very well on the strength test.
The issue we found was in the fit and finish
of your handle construction.
Your pommel, either it came loose or it was loose.
And there was some gapping that we could see through it.
And it's for this reason, we have to let you go.
Understood.
HOST: Jon, please surrender your weapon.
I've had a great time, and I've learned more about myself
and bladesmithing than I have at any other point in my life.
$10,000 would've been nice, but I can go earn that $10,000
grand with what I've learned.
I may not be the "Forged in Fire" champion,
but I definitely won best hair.
Well, Keith, at least you didn't
get all dressed up for nothing.
You're our new "Forged in Fire" champion, and will be
receiving a check for $10,000.
Oh my gosh.
I just want to jump up and down and scream, "yay, I did it!"
"Forged in Fire" champion, life doesn't
get much better than that.
[music playing]