Dustin and Weston, congratulations.
You fellas have made it to the third and final round
of this competition.
Now, when you came here, we had you make Japanese bushcraft
knives called natas.
Now we're sending you back to your home forges
to recreate this iconic weapon from history.
You ready to see what it is?
BOTH: Yes.
All right, that weapon is--
the Zulu war axe.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We'll see you in four days.
Good luck.
[music playing]
WESTON: Spent a little bit of time
in South Africa, so I've seen some small versions of this.
I'm planning on doing a Damascus exterior on both sides.
And then I'm going to leave a 80CRV2 internal core.
First weld on the billet, it looks
like it's going really well.
It's time to draw the billet out.
I'll cut it and reforge it.
That should give me 57 layers of Damascus.
I'm going to twist that to make a really cool pattern.
Now it's time to stack it with 80CRV2 so that if something
happens with one of my welds, the axe still
has a good strong solid core.
It was a good day of forging.
I'll have to definitely step it up tomorrow
to get back into it.
All right, that was fun.
[music playing]
DUSTIN: So my goals for today are to get the axe head roughly
shaped, hopefully get the tang drawn out to where I like it,
and get bevels hammered in.
I start by forging out the top of the axe.
As I'm drilling it out, I'm hammering bevels in.
Gotten about an inch and a half.
2 and 1/2 more to go.
DUSTIN: I've got the Zulu axe to where I would like it to be.
It's pretty well shaped.
And now it's time to address the oddly placed tang.
Unfortunately, my opening is just not big enough to allow
me to go back and forth.
So I've got to cut the whole front of the forge out.
And now, we have a nice big opening to come straight in.
The length of my tang is the biggest obstacle right now.
It's too skinny as well as short.
It's something I want to tackle first thing in the morning,
because if I can't fix it, I want
to start over as soon as possible
rather than wasting any time.
[music playing]
WESTON: It's the morning of day two.
I'm working on the billet.
Game plan is to split it and start forging out the tang.
I've noticed that there's a couple cracks.
I'm going to grind down through those areas
and see if they grind out as I get closer to my final shape.
My plan for getting the tang attached,
I'm going to cut a little notch to the length of my tang.
So we'll heat it up, chisel down, push that out, and draw
out our tang, finish our blade.
WESTON: Now it's just drawing it out to length to make sure
I meet parameters.
Going into the clinch, I'm feeling a little nervous.
Those cracks in the blade that I'd seen earlier,
I think I've got them ground down.
I think we dodged a bullet on this one.
I think it's looking really good.
DUSTIN: So I start today off with a problem with my tang.
My tang is just way too skinny as well as short.
I cut two pieces of high carbon steel,
fit them up next to my tang.
I weld them in to make it wider and longer.
But with so much going right, eventually
something's going to go wrong.
My breaker blew.
I'll be back in one second.
DUSTIN: I really hope this isn't a reoccurring issue today.
I have a lot of work to do when I build my quench tank,
and there's a lot of welding involved to do so.
My quench tank is going to be like a trough style.
I'm going to horizontally quench it.
So I'm getting ready to weld, and I'm thinking,
it's going to be fine.
As soon as it tries to start, poof, my breaker goes out.
[bleep]
DUSTIN: So back and forth and back and forth.
So, many, many trips to the breaker
later, I have a finished quench tank.
I feel good now.
I'm happy.
DUSTIN: What a pain in the ass that was, man.
Now I've got to get it quenched.
So I go into the oil, and I've got
this thing quenched straight.
It skates like glass, solid as an oak.
I couldn't be happier.
WESTON: Top of day four.
My game plan for today is put the final edge on the blade
and then try to get the wood section of this
build figured out.
I've got a section of Osage orange
that I've been working on, and I've got another section
of African ebony.
I'd really like to use the ebony.
I think the black would work great with the Damascus.
The best way to tell if this handle
will hold up to the judges' testing
is to test it here first.
[record scratch]
Well.
WESTON: Just what you don't want to have
happen to your expensive beautiful piece of ebony.
But better here than there.
Now it's back to the Osage orange handle.
Before I do the final glue-up and get my blade mounted
to the axe handle, I want to get the final edge
put on the blade.
The convex grind I put on this should have enough backing
behind it to keep the edge from having any damage
if it hits wood or bone.
It's looking sharp.
WESTON: Time's up, and there's nothing else I can do to it.
I feel like it's going to perform well.
It should be able to handle all the tests.
Liking it.
It's looking good.
DUSTIN: The plans for today are to do some more grinding
on my axe head, and I've got to do a little bit
more work to my handle.
I'm going to spend a little time on the grinder cleaning it up,
getting it to where I want it to be.
Now the blade is 90% done without an edge on it.
It's time to get back to my handle.
So now I'm going to do some burn work on this handle.
I've never done it before, so I hope
it really makes the grain pop.
It definitely came out really nice.
DUSTIN: So now to finish the blade,
I'm going to do an acid edge.
I'm really stoked right now.
It's just better than I could have imagined.
DUSTIN: So I put a convex edge on it, something
that can withstand smashing, but can
also be sharp enough to slice.
Awesome.
Your Zulu war axes look quite scary.
But it's time to find out what kind of lethal damage
they can do.
To find it out, I will take your weapon,
deliver some chops and slashes on this boar carcass.
Dustin, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Let's do it.
[music playing]
Knew it.
Well done, sir.
Thank you, sir.
All right, Dustin, let's talk about your Zulu war axe.
It's quite surprising that something
this light with not a lot of metal
can cut deep into this boar carcass.
Your blade stayed true.
The handle construction is ovoid enough
to where even though it tapers, I have a very good feel for it.
Overall, sir, it will kill.
Thank you.
All right, Weston, your turn. So you ready?
Yes, sir.
[music playing]
All right, Weston, let's talk about your Zulu war axe here.
What I find interesting here is that the design of this blade,
there's a sweet spot in here with a little bit of weight.
So that first swing alone cut in very deep.
There are no glints or rolls on it.
The handle construction is ovoid enough
to where I get a good grip and I can get a good feel on it.
And more importantly, sir, it will kill.
Thank you.
Bladesmiths, welcome to the strength test--
the ammo box chop.
I'm going to test the strength and durability of your axes
by smashing them into these ammo boxes.
Remember, this test is all about what
those boxes do to your axes and not the other way around.
Dustin, you're up first. You ready?
Let's do it.
[music playing]
[metal clangs]
[sighs] [clicks tongue] Damn it.
Well, Dustin, we've got an obvious issue here.
Now, I'm looking at your grain in here.
It's beautiful.
It's nice and velvety tight.
But right here, there's a little dark spot which was a crack.
It happened right where the join of your tang and your blade is.
And that little crack is a stress riser,
and it leads to big failure.
Sure.
All right, Dustin, your blade has
broke on the third strike against these ammo boxes
in our strength test.
Now, that doesn't mean that you're out of this competition.
Your competitor still has to endure the same rigors.
Weston, that means that your blade
must survive three strikes against these ammo boxes.
And if it does, you'll be the new "Forged in Fire"
champion taking home that check for 10 grand.
You guys ready for this?
- Let's do it. - Let's do it.
All right, Ben.
All right, Weston, how are you feeling?
Nervous.
[music playing]
Good job.
Thanks.
Well, Weston, it held up.
Nice job.
This is a nice light axe.
A lot of fun to swing.
With every swing, I could feel the reverberation, just it kind
of jiggling in my hands.
It was singing.
Really well done.
Thank you.
Weston, congratulations.
Your blade held up.
Dustin, that means that your blade doesn't make the cut.
I'd like to invite you to shake our hands,
shake your competitor's hand, and then exit the forge.
Great job, man.
Thank you, sir.
DUSTIN: I'm pretty bummed out.
I really wanted to win this whole thing.
Weston, congratulations, bud.
Thank you.
Good job.
DUSTIN: But this has been one of the greatest
experiences of my life.
This is not the result I wanted.
But at the end of the day, I'm here, I'm alive, I'm healthy,
so I'm happy.
Weston, congratulations.
You made a beautiful Zulu war axe,
and that makes you the "Forged in Fire" champion.
That's a title that comes with a check for $10,000.
Come forward and shake our hands, my friend.
WESTON: I am the "Forged in Fire" champion,
and I feel elated.
I came here to prove that I could
compete with some incredibly talented smiths,
and I came out on top.
It's been a blast.
[music playing]