John, Tommy, congratulations.
You fellas have made it into the final round
of this competition.
It's time to step up your games and make something worthy
of a "Forged in Fire" champion.
Now it's time to send you back to your home forges
to recreate an iconic weapon from history.
That weapon is the M 1832 foot artillery sword.
You'll have four days at your home
forge in which to complete this challenge.
At the end of your four days, you'll
return and present your weapons to our panel of expert judges.
And after they've tested the hell out of them,
you guys will graduate from child's play
to full-fledged "Forged in Fire" champion
who wins a check for $10,000.
Good luck, blade smiths.
We'll see you in four days.
Back here in my shop, here in Gainesville, Texas, and I'm
taking on the M 1832 foot artillery sword.
Today I want to get the basics forged out.
I'm using a car leaf spring because I
use the leaf spring a lot.
It makes a really good blade.
It hardens really well.
And it tempers really well.
My secret weapon for moving this metal, 8-pound hammer.
Why?
Everything's bigger in Texas.
That's why.
My cane's a little off center, so I had to fix it.
I'm going to throw it in the hydraulic press
to get it centered out.
A little lower.
She's a little ugly, but she moves metal.
That's all that matters.
Oh, perfect!
Woo-hoo!
Today I'm going to get working on the handle.
I'm going to be putting a lot of my own twist into this weapon.
So I'm making a cast bronze handle.
In order to cast this out of bronze,
I've got to make a positive, regardless.
So I could use any type of wood.
I can use clay.
This is just a really easy material to work with.
So the idea is that the metal is going to travel down this tube.
It's going to fill this handle up.
It's going to come down the bottom, fill these up.
And those will come out in the mold as cast bronze.
So this is a razor tip wood burner.
I'm going to use this to put the dragon scale texture.
This handle's going to take longer than the blade
when it's all said and done.
But I think it's going to be well worth it.
Love it.
Looks great.
Yesterday I put it in the forge and quenched.
So I'm going to start forging the garden pommel.
Get her done!
Using a piece of round stock mod steel--
nothing special, but it works.
Looks good.
So grinding is what I'm going to do next.
I'm here in round three.
So happy I'm in round three to begin with.
And build, so far, is going really good.
[BLEEP]
My blade goes through, and it catches on the belt.
It has happened to me in a similar situation,
where it's catastrophic.
This stupid thing.
I have a curl in my actual edge.
I have to match the rest of the edge to that lower point now.
If I don't, this could potentially be a weak spot.
Just going to grind it out.
Nothing I can do other than that.
Just gotta roll with adversity.
Today I have to finish getting the handle cast.
I've got the original build.
Now I need to make the mold for it.
So this is casting the sand that holds shape really well.
So what I'm going to do is us pack this down
into the bottom of my flask, lay my positive in there,
and then pack it in nice and tight.
That's awesome.
So I've got my two halves now.
Now I'm ready to put them back together
and get them out to the foundry.
I've got some bronze that I'm going to start melting down.
Once those get into a molten state,
then we'll be ready to pour.
The first time you're casting any design,
there's always a lot of issues that can come out.
You know, the metal could cool down too much before it
gets down to the bottom.
The mold could collapse on itself.
It could just wreck inside, and I don't know it.
All right, if this doesn't work, I'm screwed.
A bad pour is going to set me back at least half a day.
I really don't have that time to spend.
Whoa!
That was 3,000 degrees of metal hitting 60-degree water.
Here she is.
Hoo!
The cool thing about bronze is that there's no carbon in it.
So you don't have to worry about cracking or anything like that.
I came here to prove that I can deliver more than I
did in the first two rounds.
And I'm really excited to show the judges what I've done.
A $10,000 sword, if I've ever seen one.
To find out what kind of deadly force
your artillery swords can supply,
I will take your weapon, deliver killing slashes
on this ballistics dummy.
John, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Ready.
[IMPACT SOUNDS]
I like the beauty of an all-metal construction.
And the Damascus pattern you have here is gorgeous.
The weight-- it's all the way in the handle--
allows for a good recovery and forward delivery of strikes.
Your edges are very sharp.
Every cut cuts deep, cuts to the bone and into the organs.
And most importantly, sir, it'll kill.
Thank you.
All right, Tom, your turn.
You ready?
Get her done.
[IMPACT SOUNDS]
The weight of your weapon is all forward,
that it actually takes a lot to pull
it away for a second strike.
But the thing that your beast does have is a very sharp edge.
Every cut is very deep.
But it takes a lot of work to control this beast.
More importantly, though, sir, it will kill.
All right, gentlemen, it's time for the strength test.
Now, why bring swords to a gun range?
Well, so you two can join one of our two clubs,
the "oh, my god, they broke my blade with a bullet"
club or the bulletproof sword club.
So to test your blades, we've got
our firearm locked in a vise.
We've got your blade locked in another vise down range.
We're gonna fire one round at that thing.
It should split that bullet clean or, worst of all,
see that blade shatter.
John, you're up first.
You ready for this? - Yep.
OK.
Fire.
[GUNSHOT]
Four holes.
[GUNSHOT]
You can actually see top and bottom where that bullet
went across your blade.
And you can see there's four holes in the thing over there.
That's the lead core and the jacket
going in different directions.
So you split that bullet nicely.
I don't see any damage to your blade.
Well done.
Good job.
Thank you.
All right, Tommy, are you ready for this?
Let's do it.
Fire.
There we go.
All right, Tommy, well, your blade took some damage
in that bullet test.
There's a chip in one spot.
And the other spot you can actually hear my fingernail
catching on that roll.
Having said that, it doesn't feel bad in my hand.
But it is very heavy for this type of sword.
But as far as the strength test goes, as you can clearly see,
it took some damage.
All right, blade smiths, now that we
know your blades can take a bullet,
it's time to find out if they can cut.
This is the sharpness test, the shot bag slice.
John, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Yep.
[IMPACT SOUNDS]
Good job, man.
[CHUCKLING]
It is fun to wield.
It is fun to move around.
It cuts with every slice.
It will cut.
Thank you.
All right, Tom, it's your turn, sir.
You ready?
Let's do it.
[IMPACT SOUNDS]
Awesome.
All right, Tommy, on the stationary cuts,
it cuts cleanly.
It's a sharp blade.
Now, when I'm moving around and changing my balance because
of the weight of the blade, it does
affect the way I'm cutting.
So some of the cuts are not clean all the way through.
There are some strands.
More importantly, your weapon here, though a beast,
it will cut.
John, Tommy, the judges have made their final decision.
Our new "Forged in Fire" champion is--
John, congratulations, you are the "Forged in Fire" champion.
And that is a title that comes with a check for $10,000.
Good job, brother.
Thank you.
It feels great to be the next "Forged in Fire" champion.
Good job, brother.
I'm super proud of all the work that I've done.
I've come here and done tasks that I never
would have expected from myself, put
myself into challenges that I never would have tried before.
And I've succeeded, so I feel awesome.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]