my name is kevin adams and i am a technical instructor for the united states army and
i'm a part-time blakesmith my grandfather and my father worked in the same steel mill together so
their influence enabled me to be able to pick up the trade fairly quickly my name
is eric fontaine and i have been bladesmithing now for almost 10 years i stay with it because
it's a comfort place for me and just being able to create something it's a really cool experience
well kevin eric congratulations you guys are both moving forward into round three of our competition
where we will be sending you home to work on an iconic weapon from history and that weapon is
the serrated taga sword the lord have mercy originating in india in the 18th century this
intimidating curved sword was known to be a great executioner its unique design features a
nearly three foot long blade with a split tip and serrated edges that could easily be head of man
its two prong tip is a powerful symbol throughout the islamic world and is
inspired by the legendary sword zalfikar which is believed to be descended from the prophet muhammad
you guys have a lot of parameters to follow so pay attention you guys need to make a blade
that is between 24 and 26 inches that curve depth needs to be no less than three and a half inches
you need to have a split at the tip that goes down between 10 and 11 inches followed by a puncture
hole at the end of that split the curved edge and the back edge of the split need to be serrated
and sharpened now you guys need to have a conda style hilt with a tailed pommel i have never
seen anything like this in my life it's got these crazy curves it's serrated everywhere
it just combines so many different skill sets it's going to be a challenge to create
you have four days at your home forges we'll see you then good luck good luck to you as well
i'm back in my home forge and i'm ready to start working on this serrated taga the length and the
curvature of the blade is something i've never had to deal with before start getting my blade forged
to shape looks like a hockey stick so now i gotta shape the tip that's concerning for me because
the only thing i have to cut metal with is a grinder you don't have a lot of control
not pretty but to start getting ready to quench the blade
she's hard the heat treat went good it's a lot of work to do yet but it's a good start
plan for today is make that cut from the hole to the tip this is a butt puckering moment for me
if this doesn't work i'm in deep trouble oh man that is way too thin up there what can you do now
my biggest challenge is the handle handling guard there's a lot of moving parts with it
even though it's a lot of hard work and there's frustration i had fun that's why we do this craft
it's gonna be back here in my own domain i'm going to be building a serrated tega sword i've
never done anything even remotely close to it so it's going to be an exciting build i got the
rough shape on my tip i'm going to take it over to the vise and i'm going to start splitting it down
while my steel is heating i might as well be doing something else this is going to be the
guard i grab the metal that i'm going to be using for my pommel and the guard i start forging those
into the proper dimensions right now i feel like i'm in pretty good shape time to quench
it's actually not bad it's time to assemble this thing anyway that's more better less worse
now that i have a finished plate i have a piece of roast beef that is a nice clean cut right there
ladies bits welcome to the keel test let's find out what kind of lethal damage you're
a serrated tega will do kevin you're up first you ready where those will ever be
let's do this as doug is getting ready to do the kill test i can feel my heart rate is increasing
is there a flaw in there anywhere did a heat treat correct so i'm feeling not that confident
all right kevin let's talk about your serrated tiger here first up the serrations you have here
are indeed very sharp you can feel every cut now your handle construction is smooth
a little bit on the wider side of this handle but it was an issue in controlling your weapon
overall sir your weapon it will kill all right eric ready to take a look i'm ready let's do it
all right kevin's blade performed absolutely phenomenal i mean he cut the dummy's head off
i've got to perform at least at that level to even have a chance at winning this thing
all right eric the serrations on your sword are sharp when i rip through the shoulder it
cut easily now your sword is much lighter it tapers before it gets to the bend making the
sword easy to swing one-handed overall sir your weapon it will keel awesome
all right gentlemen time for the strength test now to test the strength and overall
construction of your blades i will be taking them and smashing these pots now remember this is not
about how well your blades hold up through this punishment kevin you're up first you ready yes sir
kevin your handle it's kind of fat but your distance your scale with your guard
is great for me as far as your blade goes i mean you've taken some pretty
big hits and lost a lot of the tips of your serrations the blade is in one piece it's
still solid nothing loosened up well done thank you all right eric ready to get ugly tear it up
i wasn't expecting sparks so eric right off
up here on your blade you've taken some damage on these serrations you've lost a bit of those edge
it's still in one piece you did a good job congratulations thank you all right bladesmiths
it's time to find out how sharp your blades are this is the sharpness test the jackfruit slice
to find out how sharp your weapons are i'm gonna take your weapon to cut the rope and release this
jackfruit then i'm gonna slice through it now unlike the strength test this is all about what
the edge of your blade does to the jackfruit kevin here up first you ready yes sir let's do this
all right guys talk about your edge here so the sweet spot that we have right here for this sword
took a lot of damage during the strength test so in the initial cut on the rope didn't cut
now on the second cut we use a little bit other parts of the blade where it is sharp
it cut the rope and it cut the jackfruit so overall sir your weapon
you will cut good all right eric your turn so you ready let's do it
all right eric so it's the same thing the sweet spot on this blade took some dulling on the
strength desk and it did affect cutting the rope in the first attempt on the second attempt cut
that rope and it also cut the jackfruit in half overall sir your weapon you will cut excellent
well gentlemen we gave you an extremely difficult blade to build in the take a sword
and you both performed exceptionally well in our tests but the judges have made the decision
and there can only be one champion and the fortune fire champion today is
eric congratulations kevin unfortunately didn't make the cut and dave's gonna tell you why
kevin what this came down to was the heat treat in that blade not getting it hard enough and so
many of those teeth just got pounded back into that blade that's why we're letting you go oh
yeah well kevin you did exceptionally well but unfortunately your time in the forge has ended
i'm gonna have to ask you to please step out that was probably the most challenging thing
that i've ever done it had about half a dozen things that i'd never done before i gave it
my all so i'm pleased with what i've brought to the table and i'm ready to get back at it again
eric congratulations you are today's fortune fire champion feel pretty good i'm feeling
amazing you're definitely impressed this good job man without further ado there is a check for ten
thousand dollars waiting for you out that door go grab it thank you i don't even know how it oh man
that is it's a surreal feeling it still hasn't even kicked in i recently got engaged so i will
be putting the ten thousand dollars towards my wedding and my honeymoon afterwards love you baby
you