Welcome to the Forge. Look down at your anvils,
you'll notice that there's nothing there.
That's because there's a little twist.
You'll be making signature blades
using this.
[laughing]
A massive chunk
of twisted elevator cable.
I-I've worked on cable knives before,
but nothing of that size.
Your three-hour forge time starts... now.
My plan is to knock all the crud out of the cable
on the inside of it so that I can get a clean weld.
Get the grease out,
get the flux in.
Is that a pyrometer?
Paul, is that a pyrometer?
Yes, sir. I like to know what temperature my steel is
before I quench it.
Wow! That's smart.
A lot of guys judge temperatures by color,
but when you're forge-welding,
I really like to know exactly what the temperature is.
Wow, J., I've never seen you have a total man-crush
on somebody's answer.
[laughing]
Well, actually, I'm about to break that crush.
I applaud Paul for bringing the pyrometer,
but it also is a sign of somebody
who's probably really meticulous,
and I'm watching Paul trying to scrub this cable clean,
and that's time wasted.
It's easier to just heat it up a little bit,
tap it slightly open to get all that heat in there,
cook all of that out, and then twist it closed.
Stuff is dirty. It's gonna weld.
The hardest part about using cable to make steel
is making sure that welds will stick,
and I'm afraid it's just not clean enough.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!
-Oh! -Oh my goodness, man!
That didn't work.
It just falls all apart.
I should've waited to work on this.
To twist this cable, you have to get it up to heat.
-Oh, hell. -Yeah. This is done.
I can grab another piece of cable and start again,
but I don't... I don't like the cable to begin with
in terms of its cleanliness, you know?
I just decide it's gonna be a canister.
It's a workaround, but is it a legit workaround?
We didn't say they needed to make cable Damascus.
We said they needed to work with that cable.
Canister Damascus is something I've never done before.
But I just feel like the process is more foolproof
than taking a risk on the cable just not welding well.
Something that he's never done before. That's a ballsy move.
[Wil] Steven doesn't have the time
to make a mistake with a canister.
That is a lot of pressure.
That's my new plan.
Let's just look over here at Robert.
He's got a huge pipe wrench
on that cable, and he's twisting it up.
That's what we expect to see, is it not?
Right, and if you do the cable properly,
as you twist it, it'll actually start forge-welding.
Wow.
[J.] And see, Paul, everything's staying tight.
He put a lot of weld on the end.
See, there's the difference between Paul and Ryan there.
I might have to fold this. It's not wide enough.
It's getting a little longer and leaner than I really want.
I have to fold it and get it thick enough
so that I'd have something to work with.
[all exclaiming]
[laughing]
[Robert] Who designed that hammer?
That's a guy who hits metal hard.
[J.] What the heck is Steven doin'?
He's standing there watching everybody else.
[Steven]
because I want that thing to be hot enough to set the weld.
So for that 30 minutes, I'm standing here sweatin'.
It's not going to weld itself together.
I'm standing here stringing curse words together to myself.
Steven! You all right?
Yeah, I'm just waitin' for heat.
-Just making sure. -Yeah.
I... I'm not looking very smart right now.
-It's gotta be hot, right? -Got to be hot.
Here we go. Steven's on the move.
I can't really see if it's hot enough or not.
Well, that went... There went that.
-I hope it's nothing serious. -No!
Not welded. [bleep]
Steven's shaking his head, but, like, it looks pretty good.
-Yeah, I'd keep going. -He's got plenty of heat.
He's gotta be fast. He's gotta catch up to these other smiths.
I'm not out of the woods yet. Still need to harden this blade.
[Robert]
and I've gotta get this thing in the oil.
Pull it out, and I got a warp.
Fortunately, it's still warm. I can move it.
You don't very often see a smith smacking
on a blade with a hammer right after he quenched it.
Because there's a chance of shattering the blade, correct?
Paul, getting ready.
[intense music playing]
Blade's hard, I'm like, "Yeah, that's what I'm here to do."
[Doug] Steve just quenched his blade.
Steven has made up a lot of ground here.
Three, two, one!
Bladesmiths, shut down your machines
'cause this round is over!
Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test,
the wire cable chop.
I'm going to take each of your blades,
I'm gonna baton them three times
at three different points.
Keep in mind, it's not what your blade can do to this cable.
It's what the cable's gonna do to your blades.
Steven, what do you think?
I think we might be in trouble.
When I see the cable wire,
I'm even more worried than I was before
because it's so thick.
There's a good chance that my blade will just snap in half.
[hard rock music playing]
[music fades]
[laughs]
[J.] Well, Steven, it held up pretty well.
You do have some wrinkling,
especially on the first two strikes.
Third one, not as much.
But the handle's nice and tight.
Nice job.
So you saw that, Paul. What are you thinkin'? Ready?
Uh, I'm as ready as I can be.
[suspenseful music playing]
[intense music playing]
[music fades]
[tense music playing]
[J.] Well, Paul,
you definitely have some chipping out on the edge here,
especially on the last two strikes.
But stayed in alignment.
Everything's tight. Nice job.
What are you thinkin', Robert?
The steam hammer in my chest says, "Let's get her done."
Well, that's it. It's gonna break.
There's no way he can put that weak spot
on hardened cable
and it'll stay.
[intense music playing]
[music fades]
[suspenseful music playing]
[J.] Well, Robert, it survived.
But that crack at the edge has opened up now.
There's definitely separation damage
from the initial break.
Definitely had a chipping out on the three spots I struck.
That being said,
you made the best of a bad situation.
-Good job. -Thank you.
Doug?
Bladesmiths, this is the sharpness test.
To see how sharp your blade is,
I will take your weapon
and attempt to cut through this fire hose.
-Steven, you're up first. Ready? -Yes, sir.
In round one, the judges didn't really like
the little whoopty thing in the edge.
I was able to make a lot of improvement,
but there's always a chance
that something could go wrong.
[intense music playing]
[music fades]
Wow.
Okay, Steven. First of all, your handle.
It is wide.
Because of its wideness, it keeps wanting to turn over.
But barring that, your edge is very sharp.
Your blade will cut.
Thanks.
[Doug] Paul, you're up next.
[intense music playing]
Okay, Paul.
This feels very good in the hand.
Not only do I feel like I can cut forward,
but immediately I'm ready to do follow-up thrusting
or another slash.
Overall, your blade will cut.
-Thank you. Thank you. -Good job.
Robert, you're up next.
[Robert]
I'm really worried about the blade catching
and just halting mid-stroke.
[dramatic music playing]
Okay, Robert. Your design here
is a nice, clean arc that allows for a good slice.
You definitely gave us a chopper here.
Your weapon, sir, will cut.
Thank you.
[Wil] Bladesmiths, the judges
have made their final decision,
and it's time for one of you to leave the Forge.
[dramatic music playing]
Robert, your blade did not make the cut.
Robert, you did something we've never had happen
on this competition. You came back
from a catastrophic blade failure,
found a workaround, and actually made it
into the testing of that weapon.
But in the end, your blade took more damage
than the other blades, and we've gotta let you go.
Understand.
Robert, pleasure surrender your blade.
[Robert]
but my best lessons have been through failure.
So just being here is a win.
And my family, they'll be happy I didn't give up.
They'll just revert back to, "Oh, yeah, that's MacGyver.
He'll figure something out."