All right, Tony, congratulations.
You've made it into the third level of
this multi-level competition.
Now, the judge you're competing against--
[tense music]
Oh, man, ABS master smith J. Neilson,
The Beast from the East.
You got your hands full with this one.
Tony.
Have fun.
WIL WILLIS: J., welcome back.
You know how this goes.
You guys have eight hours to do a custom blade build.
And at the end of that, we're going to award
one of you a $10,000 prize.
Now, in this third level of competition,
we're going to be asking you guys to make short swords.
They must measure between 20 and 22 inches in length.
They must have a functional guard,
a mechanically-attached handle, and a pommel.
That sounds easy enough, right?
But you'll be making them out of these.
[cloth flaps]
Saw blades.
From these saw blades, you must make
a canister Damascus billet, but not
any canister Damascus built--
a no-can canister Damascus billet.
Which means that once you're done forge-welding your can,
you must peel off the outer layer of mild steel,
and use only the high-carbon steel from inside your cans
to forge your blades.
All right, gents.
Your eight hours starts now.
TONY FETTERS: So I'm going to take the saw blades.
I'm going to stack them vertically,
but I want to leave about a 3/16" gap between each blade
so that I can fill it up with 1095.
And that's going to be a cushion.
It's all that band saw steel.
So I figured, hey, great, band saw blades make hard steel.
I've got these two billets in that I've tacked together
in the forge, and I'm waiting.
I get the right color.
[hammer tapping]
And I set the weld.
And then I start drawing out my billet.
Did I know that I was going to have almost twice as much
as I needed?
Yes.
But I'm thinking in my head, what if I have a little delam?
I can just cut that off and draw back to the length I need
and I'm golden.
[hard rock music]
[boom]
[thunk]
WIL WILLIS: Tony's in the quench.
And I pull it out, and yep, it's hard.
[chuckles]
WIL WILLIS: I think J.'s going to go for quench.
DOUG MARCAIDA: J just quenched.
MAN: All right, J quenched.
J. NEILSON: I pulled the blade out of the quench.
It's straight.
I'm happy.
I'll check it.
[scraping]
That sounds good.
And it sings like a bird.
WIL WILLIS: Bladesmiths, you have just three hours
remaining to finish your work.
J. NEILSON: You've got to keep moving.
You can't stop.
So while the blade is in the tempering oven,
I'm going to get back working on the handle and hardware.
[hammer tapping]
I picked a mild steel for the guard and pommel,
because I plan on blowing both of them them.
That's going to save me a little time
in doing a high finish on it.
TONY FETTERS: I'm getting all the hardware
and handle skills fitted up.
And then I'm going to get everything
profile down so everything fits right and tight.
J. NEILSON: I got, like, 10, 12 minutes
left, and I double-check.
[bleep] over.
And I'm like 1/8 of an inch over parameters.
Uh oh.
J. NEILSON: If I turn in a blade that was out of parameters,
you might as well just kick me off this show.
[bleep] beautiful.
WIL WILLIS: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bladesmiths, shut down your machines, drop your tools.
This level of the competition is over.
[clapping]
Good job on that, man.
All right, bladesmiths, welcome to the KEAL test.
Now it's time to find out what kind of lethal damage
your short swords will do.
To do that, I will take your weapons
and deliver some lethal blows on this pig carcass.
Tony, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Absolutely.
[slicing]
[tense music]
[slice, flesh ripping]
[heavy breathing]
Nice cuts, man.
Thanks.
I can tell it's heavy, though.
DOUG MARCAIDA: All right, Tony, let's talk
about your sword here.
It's a heavy beast.
Yes.
DOUG MARCAIDA: It's about four pounds on this.
Requires more work to wield multiple times.
But overall, it's a good chopper and slasher, and it will KEAL.
[chuckles]
All right, Jay.
You're up next.
Are you ready?
Do me a favor.
KEAL it.
Will do.
I love the pig test.
[music playing]
Tony's blade did great.
But after 20-plus years of making knives,
I'd better be confident going into this.
[slicing]
[flesh ripping]
[heavy breathing]
Good job.
Nice cuts.
All right, J., let's talk about your short sword.
First up, what I like about this, it's a lighter sword.
You can wield this single-handedly
and be able to do this all day because of its weight.
Your handle construction is smooth.
Everything's rounded.
And this is a sharp edge.
It cuts deeply into this pig carcass--
not very deep because the weight is not on the sword.
I can wield it cut accordingly.
More importantly, sir, your sword, it'll KEAL.
[tense music]
DAVID BAKER: All right, gentlemen,
it's time for the strength test, the pot shot.
Now, this test is all about what those pots can
do to the edge of your blades.
Tony, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Yes, I am.
[smashing]
[pot clatters]
Didn't break.
Nice.
All right, so Tony, everything's solid.
Still together perfectly.
You've lost a little bit of edge right through here.
Just sort of packed out, as opposed to chipped or rolled.
But it's a neat-looking design.
Think you did a great job.
Thank you.
All right, J., your turn.
You ready?
Go for it, man.
[chuckles] OK.
[smashing]
[pot clatters]
Good job, buddy.
Well, it didn't break.
[chuckles]
All right, so J., I like the balance of your blade.
It's forward, but it's a light blade, so it's
comfortable being up there.
You lost a little bit of edge.
Again, it's just kind of compacted.
The blade's solid.
It did great.
Feels good in the hand.
Nicely done.
[music playing]
Bladesmiths, to check out how much of your edge
is still left on your blades, I'm going to be
chopping at these sandmen.
Tony, you're up first.
You ready for this?
Don't hurt yourself.
[chuckles]
TONY FETTERS: At this point the competition,
we're neck and neck.
And it's going to come down to the sharpness test.
[thwacking]
[sighs]
Well, Tony, there is a sort of sweet spot to cut things.
And this is where all of the damage from the pots went.
And the first cut was probably a little further
down into this sharp region.
And it cut cleanly through the first arm.
But when I came around to start hitting
on those hips and the thighs, it was just
kind of bludgeoning the sandman instead of really
cutting in nice and deeply.
Other than that, it's a really interesting design.
But man, this is a heavy, heavy sword.
All in all, it will cut some stuff.
OK.
[chuckles]
All right, J., you're up next.
You ready?
All right, nonverbal communication.
[chuckles]
[tense music]
[thwacking]
Well, that sucked.
[chuckles]
All right, J. I love the weight of this weapon.
I think it's perfectly balanced.
And that weight is just a joy to swing.
It didn't cut very well on a lot of the strikes.
It did about halfway through on the wrist, and then mostly just
scratches on the body.
All in all, I think you made a light, fast, fun weapon.
So nice job.
All right, gents, the judges' deliberation is complete.
They've made their final decision.
The winner of this Beat the Judges competition is--
[tense music]
--J. Neilson.
Congratulations. $10,000 will be donated
to the charity of your choice.
What charity is that?
It's the Melanoma Foundation.
All right.
That is an excellent, excellent foundation.
Tony, unfortunately your blade didn't make the cut this time.
Tony, this came down to a matter of weight.
That short sword weighs more than really
a two-hander should. So--
Right.
--it did the job, but that weight is just extreme.
OK.
Tony, hey.
Hey, good job.
Good job, man.
Yeah.
Are you gonna hug? Was that--
- I was going to hug. - I was gonna hug him.
WIL WILLIS: Like, that was an awkward moment.
We're too--
[both chuckle]
All right, good job, man.
J. NEILSON: Tony is a great competitor.
He did a great piece.
But I squeaked ahead of him.
Got $10,000 going to the Melanoma Foundation.
I feel good.
TONY FETTERS: This time, I didn't beat the judge.
You know, it never feels good to not win when you really go
and bust ass.
But I've learned a lot--
don't make your blades too heavy.
[chuckles]
Good job, J., but watch out for next time.
I'm coming back.
[music playing]