Weslie, Kevin, congratulations.
You smiths are in the third and final round
of this competition.
Now, when you came here, we had you forge signature
blades to a nautical theme.
Now, we're sending you back to your home forges
to recreate this iconic weapon from history.
That is the pira.
And I can tell by the look of feara on your faces,
you're not looking forward to this one.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in four days.
Good luck, man.
Good luck on you too.
This day one and we're about to get started on this pira.
I'm going to be making a Damascus.
It looks pretty.
Shows a bit of skill.
And I'm hoping that this Damascus will
beat out a monosteel blade.
OK, and into the forge we go.
I'm using 10 84 and 15 and 20 for my billets.
As I'm forge loading it, I'm looking for the scale
to start coming off as big flakes,
because that means that they've all welded together.
I'm going back between the forge, the power hammer.
It's hot, very hot.
It's the end of day one.
I've got my build all forged out,
but it's still really rough.
Still got a lot of work to do.
[music playing]
So I'm back in Ozark, Missouri,
in the shop I share with other local knivesmiths here.
And I'm going to be making and working on the pira.
Most of the knives that I make stop at the longest,
like, eight inches.
So just the size of it is rather daunting.
The smell of propane.
I want to be able to bring something to the judges
that they will say, wow.
So I decide to go with a Damascus pattern.
I am going to use 10 84 and 15 and 20.
I'm going to make a handful of small billets
that I will eventually combine.
One giant billet would be really hard to work with.
So I want to make the smaller billets to make it manageable.
I need the clean up the faces that will be touching,
simply because it'll help for a cleaner weld.
At the end of day one, I have five tiny billets that I will
be able to start with day two.
Put those together, and that will be the basis for my sword.
It looked awesome.
Start of day three, I got my handle shaped.
And I've even gotten a chance to start carving on it.
Today's agenda is heat treats.
Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it straight.
I pulled out the quench.
There's a little bit of warp in it.
It's pulling off to the right.
Son of a gun.
I open up the oven.
I take out the blade.
And the entire blade's cracked.
[beep] me.
This blade's done.
It must have been under so much stress that it just snapped.
It's time to get forging again.
Plan B is to just go on the monosteel.
I don't have time to make another billet of Damascus.
Just adrenaline pumping through me right about now.
It's just go, go, go.
I would have liked to have not broken
the blade I've been kind of working
on for the past two days.
But got another blade forged out in record time.
Ended up taking me a lot longer
to draw out my Damascus billet.
I've spent two full days making the steel
I need to even make this pira.
Today, I'm just nervous about getting this blade done.
I need to get this thing shaped.
I start to work in my swell.
But as I continue to stretch my metal,
I'm noticing that it is getting dangerously thin.
I stick it back to kind of straighten everything out,
and I just watch it lean.
It won't survive the quench.
It just won't.
So two and 1/2 days in, I'm starting over with a monosteel.
I grab my bar of 51 60 and into the forge it goes.
Having to start over halfway through day three is--
it sucks.
It really sucks.
But I'm going to push as hard as I can to get this thing done.
This is our day four.
Still got a lot of work to do.
I gotta basically finish the entire knife.
I'm going to fit up the guard.
From there, I just go into my handle
and just, you know, sanding everything,
making it all nice and smooth.
There you are.
I get on my wire wrap.
I carve a little relief going from the hole
to the outside of the handle.
That way, the wire will actually lay flush.
I also do a little trick where I just stick
a little toothpick in there to kind of mechanically
lock the wire.
I do edge one final time.
And with that, I'm done.
I can't wait to see what Doug does with it.
Day four, and I have to make a pira in basically one day.
I got the profile of the blade forged out.
I need to finish grinding.
I need to quench.
And I have to put the handle together.
Pull it out, and it's warped just a little bit.
At this point, I'll take it.
I start to work on my handle.
This handle is hard to do it because the tail is coming
off at a really weird angle.
The fitting of it, everything takes time
that I do not have right now.
I don't have the luxury of add pins.
But I've got to get it stuck together.
So five minute epoxy it is.
I'm done.
There's nothing else I can do.
I'm out of time.
I'm not turning in exactly what I wanted to turn in,
but there's no quit in me.
And because of that, I have a finished pira.
Bladesmiths, welcome to the kill test.
Your piras look very interesting.
Now it's time to find out how lethal they are.
To find that out, I will take your piras
and deliver some slashes and hacks on this boar carcass.
Kevin, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Oh, yeah.
Let's do this.
This is a big hog.
You know, it's got hide.
It's got bones.
It's got meat.
And I'm going to have to go through all of it.
Chills down my spine.
Butterflies in my stomach.
Hopefully, everything I did will hold up.
[music playing]
All right, Kevin, let's talk about your pira here.
You, sir, have captured the spirit of what
this weapon is all about.
The flair that you have there actually really allows
me to really get a good grip.
You have a forward weight, but it's
perfectly placed right where the sweet spot is, making every cut
very deep.
Nothing wrong with the edge.
It's still razor sharp, and it will kill.
Thank you.
All right, Weslie, ready to chop some pork?
Ready as I'll ever be.
All right, let's do it.
I am quite literally shaking in my boots.
This is a big pig.
All I can think is, my handle is going to bust in two.
I don't see a pin here.
Is there any mechanical connection at all that's
holding this right in there?
I didn't have time.
I understand.
There's no mechanical connection here.
Usually, when they whisper, this is a really bad sign.
I don't want to hold back.
Holding back is not a fair way to test it.
Weslie, this is always tough for any smith.
We understand that the problems you had at home
kind of bit you when it came to finishing that blade.
Right now, the handle of your blade is held in place by glue.
There are no mechanical connections in the handle.
A "Forged in Fire" champion would make sure
that their weapon is made to withstand
pushing a blade to the absolute limits of what's possible.
And unfortunately, we can't engage your weapon like that.
For that reason, please exit the forge.
Come on forward.
Thank you.
To push as hard as I felt like I pushed,
and get here and not have it tested, it's a bummer.
Good job.
I understand why and I agree, but I mean,
kind of would have been cool to at least see it
bust halfway through a pig.
But I was still able to at least present something
to them to show them that I don't quit.
I don't give up.
And I am very proud of myself for that.
Kevin, congratulations.
You are the "Forged in Fire" champion.
And that it's a title that comes with a check for $10,000.
Good job, my friend.
You did fantastic work.
You deserve it.
Come over here and shake our hands.
To everybody who's ever dogged me, you know, here I am.
I'm standing champion of "Forged in Fire."
I would've liked to have gotten through all three tests.
But I've proven that not only do I make the stuff I make,
but I make it pretty damn good as well.
I just won "Forged in Fire."
[laughs] Oh, man.