WIL WILLIS: Theo.
Joe.
Congratulations.
The strength of your blades has earned you
a spot in the final round of our competition.
When you came here, you used our forge and our tools
and our equipment to forge signature
blades in your own style.
Now we're sending you back to your home forges,
where you will recreate an iconic blade from history.
Are you ready to see what that weapon is?
Absolutely.
Yes.
That weapon is the naginata.
[bleep].
All right.
WIL WILLIS (VOICEOVER): The naginata emerged around
1,000 years ago in Japan as a powerful pole weapon
used by samurai warriors.
Featuring a single-edged, slightly curved blade mounted
on a wooden shaft, this 7- to 8-foot weapon
was ideal for warding off attacks
from enemies on horseback.
Because it relied on momentum rather than
upper body strength, it was an ideal weapon
for female warriors.
The naginata was the weapon of choice for samurai wives
defending their homes, and it was
even wielded by Seong Mina in the video game
series "Soulcaliber."
The traditions of the naginata continue
to be preserved through the teaching of
the martial atarashii naginata.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in five days.
[intense rock music]
JOE: Today is day one.
The first step I'm going to do is draw out our lay design.
Process of making this is going to be outside of my ballpark.
I am not a Japanese swordmaker.
I'm an American knifemaker.
But we're going to give it our best shot.
We're going to do a Damascus billet.
So we're going to let this saw blade hopefully do
some wonderful things for me.
Doing Damascus is essentially tougher to do,
just because there's a lot of failure points.
So then, 300 to 400 layers, that's 300
to 400 times that I could fail.
But we're going to turn that into, hopefully, a form today.
Going to put it in here, heat it up, put some flux on it,
and then this thing's going to be glowing.
I've never made a Damascus billet
or blade this large before.
Most stuff I make is about 9 inches long.
So I have a billet that is going to be drawn to about 40 inches
in overall length, which is ridiculous.
So yeah, it's going to be a challenge.
[intense rock music]
THEO: So the very first thing I have to do
is start cutting the sections that I need.
Here, I'm in a forge I'm comfortable with
and I have more time.
This being the first day, I would really
love to just go ahead and start tackling
forge welding all the pieces of the blade together.
I'm going to do a three-layer laminate.
So here I have my core material, and then here's my shell
material on the outside.
The benefit of the three-layer laminate
is that the outside shell absorbs
the shock, whereas the hard core or edge
material will stay very sharp.
I definitely have the advantage over Joe when it comes to this,
simply because I've made large blades many times before,
and this will be his first.
Well, I can see that the outer layer
is starting to bow outwards.
This is a big piece of metal.
I may have bitten off more than I could chew.
It's starting to look like the layers
are separating from each other.
They're expanding at such a great rate
that even some of the tack welds may be busted.
This is a problem, because it means
I'm going to be constantly chasing the material to get it
to re-weld to the other steels.
It's delaminating already.
I have a decision to make.
Do I continue to pursue?
It's going to be a headache if I continue down this path.
No.
I can't.
Ultimately, it's going to require too much time.
I'm going to have to strip off the outer shell
and just do a pure W2.
It's going to be a mono steel blade.
I trusted my gut, and my gut lied to me.
[bleep]
JOE: Today is the morning of day two.
And the plan for today is to go ahead and draw the blade out,
grind it, and heat treat it.
So we've got a lot of work ahead of us today.
Hopefully everything goes according to plan.
But it's got a diet.
We want SlimFast or GrindFast.
So I have a blade.
It's pretty square.
There's a lot of little finishing to do,
but it's actually ready for a heat treat.
I am scared out of my mind.
[intense musical buildup]
[bleep]
I have to get down.
Trying to move some of the equipment,
move the propane tank out of the way,
because I really don't want to burn the building down.
When you change a variable, you get different results.
I've never worked with that particular oil before,
and we'll heat treat again.
[bleep]
THEO: I have no regrets in dropping the lamination at all.
Today, I need to create an integral guard.
I'm continuing with a process that I'm familiar with
and I know I'll do a good job on.
I decided to go with just a simple, low-count twist,
but it'll give it the additional wrought iron
feel that I've been going for.
Integral guards are very European, in general.
But I really think it will work for this piece.
It looks nice.
Are guards important on a knife?
Well, they can be integral.
[drum roll]
Never done anything with a handle
this long, so brand spanking new for me.
Ash is historically a very nice, flexible wood.
So this will be great because it'll
be able to take the shock of hitting something really
hard, like bone or armor.
Oh, yeah.
JOE: Morning of day four.
We're just going to do a hack test.
It's more than sharp enough to hack through a tree.
Sweet.
Worked all right.
The plan for today is to trim down the half
and then just fit everything together
and work on the finishing.
This is my piece of ash.
It's supposed to be vertical grain.
It's a little off-center, but it's not horrible.
I've never really hafted a sword to a long pole.
If one little part of the hafting fails,
then the whole thing fails.
And so there's a lot of little working parts.
I'm really interested to see what Theo brings, because I
feel like I'm going to give him a really
good product to compete with.
THEO: The heat treat went very well.
Ultimately, it's about little details.
This is same, manta ray skin.
It's a traditional wrapping material for handles.
That's beautiful.
I have no intention of doing any testing on the weapon myself,
because the last thing I want to do
is push the weapon to its limit and break it.
No, thank you.
This is a damn good blade.
And that's what I came here to do,
is to forge a weapon that's going to knock their socks off.
DOUG MARCAIDA: The naginata was a Japanese weapon known for
its long-range cutting ability.
To see how sharp your naginata is, I will take your weapon,
and I'll attempt to cut through these tatami mats
and a side of beef.
Theo, you're up first. You ready?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think so.
Let's do this.
THEO: Oh, jeez.
All right.
I'm nervous.
The area where the guard meets the tang
is a little narrow, which could result
in bending, maybe a snapping.
[suspenseful percussive music]
I'll take it.
Yeah, all right.
DOUG MARCAIDA: I just want to point
out that, after that test, your blade has a slight bend to it.
It almost cut all the way through one of the tatami mats.
When it came to the side of beef, it cut cleanly through.
Your blade feels good.
It's got a nice weight to it, a nice balance.
Overall, your naginata will cut.
Good job.
Thank you.
Joe, you're up next. You ready?
Oh, yeah.
DOUG MARCAIDA: Let's do this.
Let's do it.
I feel like Theo did really good in the tatami mat slice
and exceptionally well through the beef slice.
I'm pretty nervous, at this point,
on how my blade is going to perform.
[intense musical buildup]
Nice.
Oh, well done, man.
Yeah.
I would say I'm ahead in the game, performed a little bit
better than what Theo's did.
DOUG MARCAIDA: Well, Joe, you have a very sharp blade.
But we now have an issue.
When I cut through the tatami mat,
your handle, at the seams here, came apart.
Your handle seam has opened up.
And not only that, it picked up some cracks on this side that
runs all the way down here.
And on the other side, hairline fracture
that goes down this way.
The seams are big enough to where I can actually
put my fingernail through them.
That is a critical failure.
And for purposes of safety, we cannot
continue to test your weapon.
There's nothing?
We can't do nothing?
WIL WILLIS: Bladesmiths, the judges
have determined that there's no reason to deliberate.
Joe, due to the catastrophic failure
of your weapon's handle, you may now leave the arena.
THEO: It's not the way I wanted to win.
JOE: I wouldn't say I have regrets.
I'd say if I could go back and change some of the things I
did, I would have gone with a different wood,
something that was less likely to open up in a crack.
I feel like I'm in a round room and I'm looking for a corner
to cry in.
It's a pretty tough loss.
WIL WILLIS: Theo, congratulations.
You are the "Forged in Fire" champion
and will be receiving that $10,000 prize.
Good job.
[applause]
You know what I like about your blade?
The way you reinforced your handle.
Because the power you generate with that saved it.
Congratulations.
THEO: Thank you, sir.
I am elated to be the "Forged in Fire" champion.
Not the way I wanted to win, but I'll take it.
I came here the youngest, smallest person.
And I won.
For the shortest guy, I certainly came out on top.