Jason, Sam, congratulations.
You guys are moving on to the third round
of this competition, based solely
on the strength of your blades.
And that's going to play out very nicely, because, now we're
sending you back to your home forges
to recreate one of these, the spiked mace.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in four days.
My general game plan today is to forge
and heat treat the spikes.
So I got a half inch round of 4142 steel.
That needs to be forged down smaller
and then put the point on it.
I'm forging them really quick.
I can do them each in about one heat.
I'm heating up my two rods at the same time.
So while I'm working one, the other one can be heated up.
What'll happen next is I'll forge a little tail end
and that's what's going to go into the ball.
This was provided by the judges.
I drill the holes on the center line of the ball.
And I'm just getting so excited.
So I put some spikes in.
And this thing looks bad ass.
That's pretty damn cool.
It's day one.
We're at my home forge for OTH Forge and Foundry.
Today, I'm going to be forging out 25 spikes.
If I can get all 25 finished, then I'm going to be well
set up and ahead of the game.
We got one done.
First spike's ready.
I'm using the S7 steel, because it has an incredibly
high impact resistance, which lends
itself to a bludgeoning weapon.
There we go.
Mace spike's done.
So now, I'm going to mechanically
attach it to the ball.
Now I'm setting up my mill to attempt
to drill and tap the spikes.
I'm going to tap each one of the spikes out individually,
thread them on stock, and use that to attach
it to the ball head.
The most concerning point for me is just
how strong that connection is.
If something goes wrong, it's going
to be a spike breaking off.
Nope.
The spike is too hard for this drill bit to cut into.
I need to get each one of the 25 individual spikes
attached to the head.
One more time.
I'm gonna tap each one of the spikes
out individually to attach it to the ball head.
No.
Two bits down, not taking down a third one.
Weld them on.
Move on to plan B. Attach the threads
with just a basic bead weld.
Weld holds-- you actually have no idea
how happy that makes me.
So I'm starting off today mounting the rest of the spikes
to the other half of the ball.
The fit of these spikes, what I'm going to be doing
is putting them through half of my ball, heating up the end,
and actually riveting it over on the inside of the ball.
So these spikes are gonna go nowhere.
Making progress.
Only 20 hours left.
Doesn't feel like a ton of time.
Done with all the spikes.
But I think I'll be able to get done.
You could definitely do some damage with this.
Today, I need to attach the spikes head the mace.
After that, it's gonna be working
on the guard, the pommel.
Everything fits.
And I want to break a few things.
That passed the test really, really easy.
It was a long, very hard day, but I'm
very happy with the results.
I got a lot done yesterday.
Pretty much just got to do my handle.
What this project needs is a [inaudible] figure
8 guard and a knuckle bow.
That looks freaking awesome.
I'm really, really pleased with how that guard turned out.
Typically, I try to make whatever
I'm making aesthetically pleasing as possible.
So I decided to put some decorative little grooves
in my knuckle bow.
Time to rivet it all together.
I got my knuckle bow made out of mild steel.
And I'm attaching it with copper rivets, disk
pommel with a wrought iron cap.
It's as secure as I could've hoped for all.
I have left to do is put on a leather wrap
and this project is a wrap.
The first thing I'm gonna do today
is drill a hole through the head, through the shaft,
and out the other side of the head,
in order to pin this head into place against the shaft.
I've already welded the head to the shaft,
but I want to make sure this ball isn't going anywhere.
That's a spiky murderball.
All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the Kill Test.
To find out what kind of lethal damage your weapon will do,
I will take your spike mace and deliver
some killing blows on this unsuspecting ballistics dummy.
Jason, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Absolutely.
Let's do this.
[bleep].
All right, Jason, let's talk about your spiked mace here.
Your handle construction fits in my hand nicely.
It is a cylindrical handle, but it's nice enough
to where I can hold on to it.
There's a good grip to that.
Now, this thing, like you said, is a murder weapon.
It crushes with every strike.
But in so doing, some of the spikes came off.
There's about five pieces missing on this.
But overall, sir, without a doubt, and a big headache,
it'll kill.
All right, Sam. It's your turn.
You ready? - Yes.
Let's do this.
All right, Sam.
Let's talk about your spike mace here.
First up, it's a crusher.
It's a heavy forward weapon, that when
you're thrusting with it, it does penetrate easily.
Now, there's an issue here.
Your handle, it gets in the way, especially with a very
forward heavy weapon.
You could potentially hurt the person wielding it,
which unfortunately prevents it from being
a fully functional weapon.
But despite that, this is a sharp weapon.
This definitely is something that will crush and it'll kill.
Bladesmiths, welcome to our strength test.
I'm gonna take your weapons.
And I'm gonna play a little terracotta baseball.
Two things to remember, it's not what
your weapon does to the jars.
I want to see what the jars are gonna do to your weapons.
And number two, I'm gonna be swinging for the fences.
Jason, you're up.
You ready?
Let's do it.
Let's go.
You see, on your head, you've got
some of these nubs that have clay in them, some that don't.
The ones that don't, broke on the pots.
So you lost a few more spikes.
That being said though, it's comfortable.
I can keep swinging this weapon for quite a while.
Even if more spikes came off, this is still a deadly weapon,
because you got the ball on here with the nubs
and your main spike.
Overall, good job.
Hey, Sam.
- Hey. - You ready?
Oh, yeah.
OK.
I think my spikes are gonna hold up,
but I'm really concerned about my handle.
It's already hurt Doug.
I don't want any more of the judges to hurt themselves.
We'll see what happens.
Sam, in the world of weapons and warriors,
a weapon should be feared by your enemy,
not by the warrior who wields it.
Because that pommel is so out of scale
and inflicted so much harm to Doug in that first kill test,
that in the strength test we just can't take the risk
of injuring one of our judges.
And for that reason, I'd like to invite you to shake our hands,
shake your competitors hand, and then please leave the forge.
It looks fantastic, man.
I'm not surprised at the judge's ruling.
I totally agree with what they said.
I may not be the Forged in Fire Champion,
but I got to use the power hammer.
And I got to make an excellent blade and cool mace.
So I'm really happy.
Jason, your weapon has elevated you to the title
of Forged in Fire Champion.
And you'll be receiving a check for $10,000.
Good job, brother.
I'm absolutely astounded.
I won.
I feel very, very lucky and so very thankful.
Being the Forged in Fire Champion
means that it validates my skills.
And I'm able to look at my children
and I can say, follow your dreams.
Chase them.
You can achieve anything.