Forged in Fire

- For two seasons, America's most talented bladesmiths

have faced off in the ultimate competition...

- Getting pretty hot in the kitchen.

- Making some of history's deadliest weapons.

Now, with the stakes higher than ever,

a new batch of bladesmiths enter the Forge

to test their skills. - Whoa, whoa.

Watch out, watch out, watch out.

- Only one will take home $10,000...

- Whoo! - And be crowned

"Forged in Fire" champion.

- My name's Erich Ouellette. I am 45 years old.

I'm from Powell, Wyoming.

What's kept me hooked about making knives--

I love the heat. I love the hot metal.

I love the slag flying everywhere.

It's like therapy.

My name's Walter Sorrells.

I'm 53 years old.

I started out as a novelist.

I was writing a book about a bladesmith,

so I took this little teeny piece of steel,

smashed on it with a hammer,

and I've been doing it ever since.

- My name is Joseph Collett. I am 32 years old.

I'm a survival instructor for the Air Force.

My interest in making knives, it came out of necessity.

I broke a knife one day

and didn't wanna go buy a new one, so I made one.

- My name is Theo Nazz. I'm from New York City,

and I'm 26 years old.

I plan to win the competition simply by having the most fun.

Welcome to the Forge.

You've been hand-selected to demonstrate

your edged weapon-making capabilities to the world

in three rounds of bladesmithing competition.

At the end of each round, you will present your work

to our panel of expert judges.

First up,

world-renowned master bladesmith, Jason Knight.

Next, historic weapons re-creation specialist,

David Baker.

And last, Kali martial artist

and edged weapon specialist, Doug Marcaida.

Ultimately, they decide which of you

will be the next "Forged in Fire" champion,

who also receives a check for 10 grand.

All right, gentlemen. Let's get started.

I'm sure you're all wondering what's in front of you.

You will be randomly choosing one of these boxes.

Each box contains mystery steel and a specific technique

that you must use to forge your blade.

Walter, you're up first.

Please choose your box.

Walter, you've chosen canister Damascus.

- I've done canister Damascus in the past.

It's horrible.

As a smith, this is really one of the most

technically difficult things that you can do.

Theo, you're up next.

You have chosen the hada technique.

All right.

I see that it's steel that I've worked with before,

and it's just such a relief to know immediately,

"Okay, I can do this."

Joe, you're up next.

Please choose your box.

There are two boxes left, so it's 50/50.

- You got some good vibes from that one, right?

- Good vibes. - All right.

Joe, you've chosen Damascus.

- Damascus? All right, I can do this.

I know what the metal is. I know the process.

This is awesome.

Erich, you're last.

You have chosen the metal inlay technique.

Inlay technique?

That's a difficult job right there.

- All right, gents, keep in mind that in round two,

you'll be attaching handles to your blades

to turn them into fully-functional weapons

that will then be tested in a tatami mat slice

and a bone marrow chop.

You will have ten minutes to work on your design,

three hours to forge your blades.

Do your best work because when the time runs out,

one of you will have to surrender his blade

and leave the Forge.

Your ten-minute design window starts...now.

When cutting the tatami mats,

working on that edge shape, what kind of blade--

curve or flat blade, what do you want to see?

- I'm one that likes curves. - Mm-hmm.

- To cut through mat and the bone,

I'm gonna need the weight in my spine,

and I'm gonna need a good handle,

so I'm starting out with a hybrid

between a kukri and a bowie style.

I think that this is gonna be my best bet to get through.

The inlay technique is... difficult.

I'm gonna have to bring

two pieces of steel together,

leave my harder metal as my edge,

and the softer spine is gonna be the standard steel.

- It looks like Theo has designed a competition cleaver.

- I've seen the competition cleavers

do very well in just a straight laser edge.

I'm going to make a macheax,

which is a blend of a machete and sax.

It's meant to go through bone,

but it's also lightweight enough

to take with you into the forest.

With the hada technique, the first thing is

tack weld all these pieces together.

From there, I'm gonna draw it out

and start flattening it

to try and get a distinct pattern.

Okay, yeah. Exactly where I want it.

I gotta chop through a mat,

and I gotta chop through some bone,

and so I'm thinking kind of a chopper-style

for some sort of kukri-type design.

I have a really long blade, and I'm gonna hack through stuff,

so it's a drop-point hacker.

The easiest way to make Damascus

is weld all the pieces together,

and then you got to fold it,

cut it apart, fold it again,

cut it apart, fold it again,

and make a blade.

My experience as a bladesmith

is mostly in Japanese sword realms,

so I'm gonna make a Japanese-style wakizashi.

This kind of knife will cut cow bones

really effectively.

- Of all these techniques, the ones I've seen go wrong

most often is probably canister.

- With canister Damascus, you're making a billet,

but it's inside of this very thick-walled steel tube.

The steel tube is not part of your knife.

It just has to go away somehow.

Cut the canister off

and start just pulling that billet out.

- Bladesmiths, your ten-minute design window is closed.

Your three-hour forge time

starts...now.

- All right. - And they're off.

Time starts now.

Oh, no.

What just happened?

What am I doing? Where are we?

- Whoo... both: Let's do it.

- So Joe's got the standard Damascus.

Walter has the canister Damascus.

Erich has the inlay technique.

Theo's got the hada,

and to watch how each smith engages

his individual technique that he drew,

that's exciting stuff. - All righty then.

The hada doesn't require any immediate prep work,

so I'm gonna really start off fast and hard

and maybe psyche these guys out a little bit.

- Theo's already started to weld up his billet.

Walter has the liquid paper.

He's pouring on the inside of that canister.

- Liquid paper is great because it keeps the canister

from welding to the billet that you make.

Ah, what am I doing?

That makes it easier to knock that can off.

- The main thing with lining with the liquid paper

is to be consistent.

Get it nice and even and everything covered.

- There are just a lot of potential problems

in getting that tube off of there.

Going hot here.

So I know that I've gotta really stay focused

and not waste one second of time.

- Okay, I need to make Damascus.

I got to get as many layers in as possible.

The more layers I can put it in, the stronger, the sharper,

the harder it's gonna be.

I believe that those that excel in life

exceed what normal people refuse to do.

I don't think I'm normal.

I think I'm an exceptional person.

- This is gonna be my first time

doing this inlay technique on a long blade.

The inlay technique is difficult.

I'm gonna have to bring

two pieces of steel together.

Right now I'm splitting the billet down the middle

so I can open it up enough to get a good surface

to forge weld

my hardening edge onto.

- That's probably the most difficult way

to do this type of weld.

It'd be best

if he had stretched that piece of mild steel out,

cut it in half,

stuck his high carbon in the middle,