[dramatic music]
Jesse, Teddy, congratulations.
You boys have made it into the final round
of this competition.
Now when you showed up here, we had you make fossil Damascus.
Now we're sending you back to your home forges
to recreate something with a little bit more recent history.
This.
[dramatic music]
This is a musketeer's rapier.
[sighing]
Oh, dear.
I told my wife before I left, the one weapon I did
not want to build was a rapier.
Yeah.
Good luck, gentlemen.
We'll see you in four days.
Oh, we're screwed.
I'm speechless.
Good luck.
Holy crap.
It's day one.
And I get to build the musketeer rapier.
So I'm using 5160.
It's tough.
It's springy.
Rapiers, since they're so thin, they
are meant to flex a little bit.
So that's what we're going.
So today, my game plan is to hopefully
get the blade roughed out.
That will allow me to spend a lot
of time working on the guard, making it elaborate.
But right now, I'm really glad I have long arms.
I'd love to give the judges something
that they want to stare at just so much they want to use.
I've got the entire blade shaped.
It's beveled.
I'm satisfied with where I'm at.
Day one, and I'm taking on the musketeer rapier.
I'm going to go with bar stock size of 80CrV2.
Super strong, should hold up very well to the testing.
That's going to be the hardest part because I don't
know what it has to survive.
Hey.
I'm about 40 and 1/2 inches total length, which gives
me plenty of room for error.
I think I'm going to start working on the fuller.
[rock music]
I can't complain about that, my first ever fuller.
With all the factors involved in this quench, the low roof
of the garage, the tall quench tank, a ladder just
to reach above it--
I'm hoping that I can get it right the first time.
[dramatic music]
God damn it.
Catastrophically, the sword drops out of my hands.
I hear the tip hit the bottom of the tank.
I pull the sword out of the quench.
I see this huge bow.
I gotta get this thing in my straightening jig.
I have no idea what's going to come out.
I'm really scared.
I'm really nervous.
I'm thinking I'm going to have to do this a second time.
So the sword's cooled off in the straightening jig.
Let's see if I just performed a miracle here.
It's time to open it up and see what's inside.
Holy crap.
There's a slight warpage on there, but nothing crazy that I
can't fix with a grinder.
She's hard.
I've never made a store before, so I'm ecstatic right now.
The plan for the day is I gotta get the blade and rough
ground and heat treated.
This thing is so freaking long.
And then it'll be onto all the fittings and furnishings.
[rock music]
It's not biting.
It's not skating quite right.
I realize I have to requench, I have to reharden this.
I just want to make sure that when it gets to the judges,
it's going to survive whatever they throw at it.
I haven't seen any warps.
So that is without a doubt hard.
It's still a little bit beefy compared
to what I wanted in the long run, but I'm satisfied with it.
For this handle, I'm going to go with a nice hardwood
and offset that with a different color micarta.
And then epoxy it together so I can shape it off of the sword.
Yeah.
That came together pretty nice.
With the time I got left, I'm going to started shaping all
these quillons, and knuckle-bows,
and all that frou frou stuff on the handles.
I'm really happy with where I'm at.
The elements I have to get finished are the knuckle-bow
with two sidebars and a pommel.
There's your knuckle-bow.
The fit and finish that I'm going to put on it--
it's going to look rugged but clean, pretty, and just a
overall well constructed piece.
$10,000 worthy, no doubt.
Dry fit up in place.
Looking good.
At the end of the cross guard, I have
two quillons, dragon fingers, claws that should
be clutching a gem or two.
They look dragonesque.
That's done.
It is a little bit heavy for what I was aiming for,
but it has good balance.
So overall, I'm really happy with how the sword turned out.
Today's going to be all about fit and finish,
and completing this sword.
The blade itself, I'm pretty much
happy with the geometry of it.
But I want to see if I can remove some weight at the tip.
I want Doug to be swinging that thing all over the place,
and having a good time with it.
[dramatic music]
Now that everything is permanently affixed,
just got to clean it up, sharpen up a little bit.
I can't wait to see the judges test this thing.
All right, bladesmiths.
Welcome to the kill test.
We're going to take your rapiers,
and deliver some killing slashes and thrusts
on this big carcass.
For these musketeer swords, it's time
to find out if you're all for one champion
or one for all the runner ups.
Jesse, you're up first.
Are you ready for this?
Let's cut some bacon.
All right.
Let's do this.
[rock music]
Dude.
He got a workout.
All right, Jesse.
This edge is sharp.
A rapier cut a pig in half?
That's very interesting.
For every slash, the edge lands exactly where I want it to be.
OK.
Overall, sir, for this test, it will kill.
Yes.
All right, ready, Teddy?
Let's do it.
Let's do this.
[rock music]
[sighs]
All right, Teddy, your edge.
When you're slashing with the razor's edge
that you have on your blade, it slices easily
and deeply on this pig carcass.
Your weapon, sir, will kill.
Awesome.
Nice.
All right, gentlemen, it's time for the strength test--
a little thing I like to call the wheel of pain.
Now a rapier it needs to be a fast, light, flexible weapon.
We're going to see how flexible yours are.
All right, Jesse, so I've got your blade
strapped into our wheel of pain right now.
Now I'm going to be flexing it in both directions.
I'll be taking it all the way to that far red peg,
holding it for about three seconds,
and we'll see if it comes back true.
And then we're going the other direction.
All right?
Go nuts.
That ship sailed.
[dramatic music]
That was back to true, dude.
[applause]
Are you kidding me?
OK, Jesse.
First off, remarkable.
I mean, there's a lot of weight in this blade, a lot of mass.
So to have it flex the way it did,
and come back virtually to true--
this blade is still straight enough to fight with,
which is excellent.
Thank you.
Good job.
Thank you.
Teddy, you ready for this?
Let's do it.
[dramatic music]
Oh, freak.
[dramatic music]
[inaudible]
Holy crap.
So, Teddy, you can see where it took the bends here
and here.
In the initial bend, it actually bent this way.
And then we bent it back, and then it went the other way.
So it leaves some question about the heat treat--
you know, how even it is through the blade.
You know, it's just--
I worry about that bend.
Teddy, unfortunately, a less than perfect heat treat
has led to your rapier taking a permanent bend.
Now this is going to affect accuracy
when it comes to the use of the weapon in our sharpness test.
And for that reason, this is a catastrophic failure,
and you cannot continue with this competition.
Come on forward, my friend.
Good job, brother.
I'm definitely not happy.
No one enjoys having anything they build not work properly.
I've had a blast.
I've made a few good friends.
I've been able to take time, and build something
I otherwise wouldn't have built. So
that experience has been great.
Jesse, congratulations.
You are the Forged in Fire champion,
and that is a title that comes with a check for 10 grand.
Good job, brother.
[applause]
I'm on cloud nine.
This is probably the most fun I've ever had doing hard labor.
I've proved to myself that I'm capable to do a whole lot
more than I thought I could.
[dramatic music]