[music playing]
[blades striking]
Brian, Deke, welcome back to the forge.
You guys have had five days your home
forges to work on your Austro-Hungarian Hussar Sabers.
We're gonna put your weapons through a series
of three tests.
There will be a strength test, a sharpness test, and up first--
This is the kill test.
To find out what kind of lethal damage your weapon will do,
I will take your weapon, deliver killing blows and slashes
on this pig carcass.
Brian, you're up first.
You ready?
Let's make some pork chops.
[music playing]
All right, Brian.
Let's talk about your saber here.
While the weight feels good, it's
got a very forward balance, making it more work
to have to recover with that.
But with every strike, it likes to dig in and cut deep.
More importantly, it will kill.
Thank you.
All right, Deke. Your turn.
You ready?
Let's do it.
[music playing]
All right, Deke, let's talk about you saber here.
What I like about this blade is the balance that you have here.
You made good use of a fuller all the way through.
That allows me to get more momentum
and velocity in the cuts.
And you have an edge that's sharp
when I'm slashing through.
And it will kill.
Good job.
Thank you.
All right, gentlemen.
To test the strength and overall construction of your blades,
I'll be attacking our lances here.
Brian, you're up first.
You ready?
Let's make some kindling.
[music playing]
OK, Brian, your blade held up really well.
It's a little on the heavy side for saber like this,
but not bad.
You know, the balance is pretty far forward.
The real problem I have, your [inaudible],,
though a really nice touch and very pretty,
are kind of deadly.
A blade that starts taking pieces of your hand
off is an issue.
All right, Deke, you're up.
Are you ready? - Let's do it.
OK.
Whew.
[music playing]
Nice.
[long exhale] It didn't snap.
Well, it's still in one piece.
That's a good thing.
I can see some glinting on the edge here,
but it's not really rolled or anything else.
It's just sort of crushed down, it's still sharp.
Other than that, there's no damage to this edge at all.
The handle's a little on the smooth side,
it's a great size I love the balance on your blade.
The nice thing about a well-balanced sword,
you can really deliver a lot of power and control
that, as opposed to having it roll in your hand.
Nicely done.
It's a good looking piece and it's comfortable in my hand.
Good job.
Thank you.
All right, gentlemen, I'm going to give you back to Doug.
All right, blade summits, this is the sharpness test--
the height slice.
All right, Brian, you're up first.
You ready?
Let's play hide and seek.
[music playing]
All right, Brian.
As you can see, your edge over here
easily cuts through the hide--
there's no hiding that fact.
And of course, it will cut.
Nice.
All right, Deke, your turn.
You're ready?
Let's do it.
Oof.
All right, the tip right here is really sharp.
As you can see, it did penetrate.
There are some slashes, but not very deep cuts with this edge.
But it did cut a little bit.
Blade smiths, the judges have made a final but very close
decision about which of you is our next Forged
in Fire Champion.
Are Forged in Fire Champion is--
Deke, congratulations, you're the new Forged
in Fire Champion, and that's a title that
comes with a check for $10,000.
Please present your blade to the judges.
It feels awesome to be the champion.
You know, if my dad wouldn't had thrown
my video games down the stairs, I probably
wouldn't be here today.