Caleb.
Forrest.
Congratulations.
You guys have made it into the final round
of this competition.
Now we're sending you back to your home forges
to recreate this iconic weapon from history.
The sword of Goujian.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We will see you in four days.
Don't worry, man.
Congratulations.
We're going to take on the sword of Goujian today.
I'm gonna started at the tip, work back to the tang.
I'm keeping the blade rather thick, because I just
don't want to mess with any twisting
and bending once it quenches.
I am surprised how fast this is coming along.
So far, so good.
Now it's time to get the blade hot so I can quench it.
I'm happy.
I think we have a little work in it here and there,
but nothing the grinder won't take care of.
Today, I have to get started on my sword.
I'm bringing these new school vibes to this really old school
weapon.
Instead of bronze, I'm bringing Damascus to the table.
Hopefully, this will just give me
a really, really cool contrast with the pattern
whenever I'm done with it.
All the welds are set good.
I'm getting the metal drawn out good.
A nice, square bar.
And from there, I'm trying to go for a twist pattern.
I want quite a few good twists in there,
a pretty tight pattern.
All right.
That'll do.
The end of day one, it's still not a weapon.
But it's getting there.
Today, I'm hoping to have my guard fitted on.
Maybe even the handle.
For my guard, I'm going to use a piece of angle iron.
The guard's around it, over now.
I'm just going to put a hole through the bottom
just to go over the tang.
[groans]
The guard actually split.
Cracked.
All that fun for nothing.
So I have to start over.
I have a pile of railroad spikes.
That would be putting the new school into the bronze metal,
old school sword.
Fits on the tang really nice.
But there's more work to be done.
The plan for today is to get to work on actually
forging out the sword.
My goal for the end of the day is
definitely to get it quenched.
This thing's getting long.
Just trying to keep it where it's not too thin,
so that when I quench it, everything goes well.
We're about ready.
I'm really just hoping that nothing goes wrong here.
This is the most important step of the entire process.
It's pretty straight.
Excited with the quench.
It went well.
Morning of day 3, and I'm tired.
First thing today, I'm going to make my blade lighter.
Right now, the balance is about five
inches in front of the guard.
I would like it to be-- within an inch
or two would make me happy.
It's starting to feel lighter.
But I have a lot more grinding to go.
OK.
I start grinding on my edge, and my belt sander just quits.
Flip the breaker.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
I've decided to go grab two extension cords
and run power from the house to the shop.
We got-- we got power somewhere else we can use.
I plug the belt sander into the house power.
And it works.
Hopefully, now I can get the edge on the blade.
My blade's looking fine and just needs a little
more sharpening and polishing.
Finally starting to see that light at the end of the tunnel
now.
First thing, I'm going to start on my disc pommel.
I'm just going to take this piece of just normal,
mild steel, chop it off, and kind of try to forge
it into a bit of a disc shape.
I'm kind of at a square right now,
and I'm looking more or less for a circle.
I'm just going to kind of grind and polish off the top
and make it into a truer circle.
Time's running out.
I need to sharpen my blade, and then finally finish
and put together the sword.
It's a little twisted.
The handle on the blade is centered,
and it looks centered, but on the inside,
as you can see right here, it's not perfectly centered.
But of course, with a pin and epoxy
and a disc and scroll in the back,
it's going to be very, very strong.
Forrest really better bring it, because if not,
I'm going to chop him down.
Bladesmiths, welcome to the kill test.
To find out what kind of lethal damage
your weapon will do according to its historic design,
I will take your weapon and deliver
some killing thrusts and blows on this ballistics dummy.
Forrest, are you up for this?
Yes, sir.
Let's do this.
[dramatic music]
All right, Forrest.
Let's talk about your weapon here.
And it's very forward heavy.
What makes it hard to handle is the fact
that you have a very skinny handle right here.
A lot of these movements, your blade went up on contact
and was spinning in my hand.
I had to adjust several times to make sure that I
stayed on the edge over here.
Now, the edge is sharp.
Once it makes contact and you slash, it digs deep.
Overall, sir, it'll kill.
All right, Caleb. You're up.
You ready?
Let's see it.
[dramatic music]
All right, Caleb.
First up, the blade in itself, balance-wise, I
think you nailed it.
Now, your handle construction.
It's ovoid.
It's actually comfortable.
Because of the balance and a very sharp edge,
all the cuts are very, very deep.
Overall, sir, it'll kill.
Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test, the gong chop.
To test the strength and durability of your edges,
as well as the overall construction
of your swords of Goujian, I'm going to be
chopping them into these gongs.
Forrest, you're up first.
You ready?
Yes, sir.
[dramatic music]
Well, Forrest, your sword did take some damage on the edge.
There's some rolls sort of crushed in right here.
Your handle is really small.
A bigger handle would've helped me control this really well.
But all that being said, that much damage in a big strength
test like this?
Well done.
Thank you.
All right, Caleb. You're up.
You ready?
Heck yeah, man.
[dramatic music]
Well, Caleb.
You did a great job with the Damascus.
I love to see this kind of stuff.
It's beautiful.
Your blade is still straight, true, and the weight on this
is phenomenal.
There is one big issue, though.
Your handle.
It's loose now.
Your handle is coming apart.
I can move it.
And the pommel is also loose.
If these were right and tight and held in place,
then it tends to help everything else stay where it is.
But just a little bit of play in this guard
can send shockwaves right down the handle.
But I've got to say, that's one heck of a blade.
- Thank you. - It's just--
Thank you.
You know, this handle that's really causing the issue now.
Yes, sir.
So we've got a pretty mobile opening.
Then it has a corresponding split
on the back side of the handle.
Not only is it loose, but the material that's loose
has sharp edges.
OK.
Yeah.
I mean, this would require either taping
that up, or wearing a glove.
And now we're not testing the same as the other one.
OK.
Ben?
Dave?
That one kills me. Yeah.
Can't have it.
Doug?
I agree.
All right.
Now, we've continued with blades
that had loose parts before.
We've continued with blades that had split handles before.
Your handle has cracked.
However, the combination of the two things
has made your blade unsafe to continue with any testing.
And therefore, you cannot be our "Forged in Fire" champion.
I'd like to invite you to shake our hands,
shake your competitor's hand, and then I have to ask
you to please leave the forge.
I can't blame the judges' decision.
It's definitely unsafe to use at this point,
but that's a good call.
If I could have done it differently,
probably would have put a pin or two in my handle.
Might not have looked as good, but the use is
more important than the looks.
Thank you so much, Forrest.
I appreciate it.
I may not be the "Forged in Fire" champion,
but man, I'm walking out of here with my head held high,
and I'm proud.
Forrest, congratulations.
You are the "Forged in Fire" champion,
and that is a title that comes with a check
for $10,000, my friend.
Good job.
Come on forward.
I'm thrilled that I'm the champion.
Hasn't even soaked in yet.
In the next day or two, I'll really realize what's happened.
Being a "Forged in Fire" champion
means that I've succeeded in the goal that I wanted to reach.
This is for everyone at home, and I'm coming home
a "Forged in Fire" champion.
Yee haw.