Rita, Justin, congratulations.
You guys have made it to the final round
of this competition.
Now it's time to send you back to your home forges
to recreate an iconic weapon from history.
And that weapon is--
the sodegarami.
Holy.
Jeez.
Oh my god.
MAN: Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in four days.
I've never made a sodegarami in my life.
First time I've ever heard of it was when they unveiled it.
It's going to be a learning experience for everybody.
I'm going to make Damascus.
My goal today is just to get a few billets welded up.
So we're going to do a 15 and 20.
We'll clean that first, and then we'll move on to our 1084
and clean that up.
I'm not going to go crazy with it.
I don't want to do anything super elaborate.
The next process is going to be just
welding these bad boys together and getting a billet together.
Day one in the books.
Things went pretty well.
We got a couple of billets welded up.
Tomorrow we'll be making spikes and doing
all kinds of fun stuff.
Day three, yesterday, I was able to finish up my spikes.
I got all of my tines started.
Today I am going to start with my entangler.
Super awesome.
For this sodegarami, I'm going to have
the theme of the octopus.
The octopus is an animal that entangles its prey,
and I think that's a fitting theme for this weapon.
So I want my entangler to emote octopus tentacles.
Ah.
It's time for me to quench.
Woo-hoo.
My quench went well.
The head of the sodegarami looks pretty good.
At the end of day three, everything is built,
and I can start putting this together tomorrow.
Day three, we're going to try to do some heat treat,
make sure this thing's ready to put together and test.
I cut the billet into four pieces.
I'm going to forge these out into the four spikes
in the front of the sodegarami.
Hoping I'm going to start shaping
these and pulling little leaves off them
to do some backwards barbs.
Coming together.
For the handle, I'm using a curly ambrosia maple.
Feels pretty solid.
Feel like a Ninja Turtle.
It's time to quench.
Go ahead and harden just the blade.
Leave the rest soft so that when they smack it
into whatever they're going to smack it in, hopefully
it won't break.
Just quenched five blades.
My back hurts.
My legs hurt, but you got one more day.
Got to knock it out.
Halfway through the last day, I
plan to have this sodegarami built.
I'm feeling pretty good after getting to spend
this time on the weapon.
I'm excited to see that I could do it,
and I'm excited for my daughter and my scouts to see, too.
[non-english speech]
Done pretty much everything I wanted to do,
but I have time to do one more thing.
Stab.
So I test my sodegarami one more time.
Yoink.
And I hear a little noise.
Ah!
Oh, [bleep].
I got to fix this.
Son of a [bleep].
I spent a lot of time on this weapon,
and I've broken this thing.
So I'm just going to run back and put whatever kind of crappy
weld I can get on it.
If this doesn't work, I'm screwed.
Day four, ready to get this thing assembled.
Got about 1,000 different processes
to get through today--
sharpening spikes, welding spikes,
blade sharpening and shaping.
Got about 1,000 tasks.
A little Mongolian horse hair.
That is a blood guard.
[bleep]
Putting the head in, and it seems like it wanted to split
on me, so we're going to throw a little bit of epoxy and leather
around this thing and call it what it is.
If something goes wrong with my weapon,
it's going to be that I wasn't able to pin the head.
Just didn't have the time to do it.
Hopefully it stays together.
Sodegarami build is done.
She might not be pretty, but she will KEAL.
All right, bladesmiths.
Welcome to the KEAL test.
To find out what kind of lethal damage your sodegarami will do,
I will take your weapons and stab
and try to snag this ballistics dummy.
Rita, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Aye.
[laughs]
All right, Rita.
Let's talk about your sodegarami.
The tines you have here penetrates.
The hook you have here will rip this person apart,
and, more importantly, your weapon will KEAL.
All right, Justin. Your turn.
You ready to have fun?
Yes, sir.
All right, Justin.
The tines you have here, it's more of a stabbing tine
rather than a grabbing.
And this is a grabbing weapon, but
that hook does grab on to that.
Overall, sir, your weapon will KEAL.
All right, bladesmiths.
It's time for the strength test, the dreaded ice block chop.
Remember, this is not about what these weapons
do to the ice blocks.
It's about what those ice blocks do to your weapons.
And, Rita, you're up first.
You get points for theme.
I mean-- [laughs]
You ready?
It doesn't matter, right?
No, it doesn't matter.
[grunting]
All, right, Rita.
You a little bit more of a bend in this one tine here.
But everything else is pretty much the way it was going in.
Definitely held up. Did its job.
Good job.
Thank you.
All right, Justin.
Your turn. You ready?
Yes, I am.
All right, so you survived the strength test.
This is a very strong, well-built head for this,
but it's built more like a spear than it is for catching.
I mean, I'm not sure how effective
it would be at snagging the opponent,
but it's a devastator.
It certainly did the job.
Good job.
All right, bladesmiths.
Welcome to the sharpness test, the sandman pierce and capture.
To test the sharpness, I will take your weapon,
pierce, and try to control this sandman.
Rita, you're first.
You ready for this?
Yeah.
All right, Rita.
The points you have on your tines here
definitely penetrate when you thrust into that,
but doesn't slice on the way out or capture
as well as it should.
Your hook over here did its job.
Overall, it will cut and control.
All right, Justin. Your turn, sir.
Are you ready?
Yes, I am.
That's not good.
(WHISPERING) He pulled it out of the socket.
Well, Justin, we have a problem.
Yes, sir.
This wasn't pinned, was it?
No.
The impact from all these tests loosened it up,
and, of course, it came off.
Justin, you brought in a beautifully-crafted weapon.
However, you've suffered a catastrophic failure
in our final test.
And, unfortunately, you cannot be
our "Forged in Fire" champion.
Congratulations, Rita.
Thank you.
It was beautiful.
Coming on "Forged in Fire," I proved what I wanted to do,
that people with physical limitations
can do as well as anybody.
I put my all into it, and I feel like I made a good weapon.
But just came up short on a little bit
of the fit and finish, and other than that, I'm happy with it.
Rita, congratulations.
You are the "Forged in Fire" champion,
and that is a title that comes with a check for $10,000.
Congratulations.
How do you feel right now?
I'm just--
Come on forward and shake our hands.
Good job.
It's been a very positive and uplifting
experience to be able to do something amazing like this.
I hope this will help me become an inspiration to kids
because I can say, look, if you see something
and you want to try it, give it a try.
Hey, Weeblos, your scout leader is the new "Forged
in Fire" champion.
I'm bringing it home.
Can I have a group hug, please?
[laughter]
Thank you, you guys.
Oh my god.