Forged in Fire

Since the dawn of human civilization,

mankind has made weapons.

Whoa!

Bladesmiths have honed and perfected their craft

over thousands of years.

And now, for the first time ever,

these men will go head-to-head

and put their skills to the ultimate test.

Welcome to the forge.

It starts with a lump of raw steel

and a ticking clock,

and by the end of three rounds,

the bladesmiths must deliver handmade weapons

that are works of art

as well as deadly instruments of war.

These weapons must survive explosive tests

as well as the scrutiny of an expert panel of judges.

In the end, only one bladesmith will take home $10,000

and be crowned a Forged in Firechampion.

My name is JD Smith,

and I'm a professor at Massachusetts College of Art,

where I teach bladesmithing.

My name is Cowboy Szymanski.

I'm a classically trained bladesmith.

I studied traditionally as an apprentice,

worked for living history museums.

I'm Guy Harris.

I was an art major in school,

and bladesmithing has a lot of that in it.

You're sculpting a piece of steel

into something meaningful.

My name is Peter Martin.

I was a hunter.

Back in the '80s,

the factory knives were not the best,

and I decided to take on knife making

as a full-time career.

Gentlemen, welcome to the forge.

Ahead of you are three challenges

designed to test your craftsmanship

in a highly pressurized arena.

Each round is against the clock and each other.

At the end of each round,

you will hand your work over to our panel of expert judges,

and they will decide who ultimately has the opportunity

to compete for $10,000

and the title of Forged in Firechampion.

It's time to meet our judges.

First up, internationally known master bladesmith, J. Neilson,

Rare weapons recreation specialist, David Baker,

and finally, edged weapon specialist

and martial artist, Doug Marcaida.

It's time to get to work.

In front of you on your anvils is a cloth.

Go ahead and lift that up.

That is an empty canister.

Your challenge is to fill that canister

with the materials and metals

here on the tables in front of you.

You must use at least two of the metals

in addition to the powdered steel

and forge that together within your canister.

It is your option to either peel or grind the canister away

to reveal the Damascus steel within.

From that billet of Damascus,

you must forge a blade in your signature style.

The length of the blade, not including the tang,

must be between 9 and 13 inches.

And this week, because the challenge is

so technically demanding,

you will have four hours to forge your weapons.

And to make it a little more challenging,

this week there will be no design period.

After our first round, one of you will have to

hand in his weapon and leave the forge.

Good luck, gentlemen.

Your time starts now.

As a bladesmith, I'm a stylist

but without a real definable style, in my opinion.

But the bowie knife is an incredible weapon,

and that's what I do best.

Here we go.

Making blades for me is a process like no other.

I feel almost godlike doing it,

taking something from nothing, basically creating something

of incredible beauty and utility.

My specialty is making hunting knives.

What I'm gonna make is a tanto.

I like to make very simplistic, useful pieces of art.

I'm often inspired by history, but I'm not obligated to it.

My knife has a lot in common with the bowie knife--

just the basic profile.

Most of my blades have historical elements to them,

but more often than not, I focus on functionality.

I am ecstatic about the materials that they've put down:

pieces of chain saw chain,

the small ball bearings, band saw blades.

They all make good knives.

The type of blade that I'm making

is gonna be just a camp knife, just a general design.

My style of knives when I first started off in this

was very large, straight knives.

Nowadays, all my stuff is Damascus--

very sharp, very clean, and very pretty.

Where do you start with this canister Damascus?

Well, the first thing you got to do is,

you got to get that bottom cap on,

because once they have the bottom cap on,

they need that to start filling their can up.

So Peter's going for some of that chain saw chain.

When you're talking about Damascus,

there is a huge part of that is very artistic.

That pattern manipulation.

But the actual fusion of the two metals

is very mechanical.

The more material you pack in there,

the more pattern you'll get at the end.

This is a very unique challenge.

It's a very difficult challenge.

I know it's a very common process,

but it's not one I've done before.

Cowboy just put in some chain saw chain

along with some saw blade steel,

and now he's putting his powder in.

And what's that powder he's throwing in there?

It's basically steel talcum powder.

I'm trying to set my canister as tight as I can.

Snug fit, pack it in tight.

I've never done canister Damascus.

I've seen an Internet video,

and that's about my experience with it.

Guy, he grabbed some chain saw chains,

ball bearings,

a little of this, a little of that,

so we're gonna see some cool stuff here.

I'm going for what they call dragon skin

with the ball bearings.

When it's done properly, it can, you know,

it can be a very beautiful pattern.

We said you have to use

at least two pieces.

Two types of metal aside from the powdered steel.

Well, so far JD is only putting in

ball bearing and powdered steel.

If JD has only used the powder and the ball bearings,

will you be able to look at that blade and tell that?

Yes.

That's gonna be a problem in the judging.

- Absolutely. - Oh, yeah.

Pete's got his canister in the fire.

Oh, wow.

He's in the forge.

Heating it up. Get it hot.

All right, Cowboy is going in the fire.

- Cowboy is in. - Here we go.

All right, two in the fire.

Is there any way for these guys

to be able to absolutely determine

that the center of that billet that they're creating

is at a temperature where it's gonna weld effectively?

For a can like this,

when the outside shell of the can,

actually looks like it's starting to turn liquid

and about to start dripping off,

that's the perfect time to grab it and set your weld.

Okay.

After I filled up my canister and I waited for it

in the forge, keep flipping it

until I'm confident that the interior temperature

is that of the exterior temperature.

I walk over to the press; I start squeezing it down,

little bit by little bit, constantly turning the bar

until it's solid or loses temperature.

Then I'm back into the forge for another round.

Setting the weld on the Damascus,

is that a make-or-break moment for these guys?

Oh, absolutely.

If you think you've got it all done,

you peel it apart, and you go to grind it

or cut into it,

the whole center could just collapse.

You think JD doesn't realize that that's not his forge?

Look at Cowboy right now.

Cowboy is like, "What the hell is going on?"

Thank you for holding my spot for me.

Oh, Jesus.

Sorry.

Gentlemen, you have two hours remaining to finish your work.

So it looks like Cowboy, Guy, and Peter

are grinding their cans off instead of peeling them off.

Right now, we've got dueling grinders, it looks like.

How beautiful is that?

It's like a water cannon fight with fire.

I'm starting to get worried that Peter has a blade

that's over 13 inches.

Looks pretty big, yeah.

You can't lose sight of the parameters.

I'm ready for grinding.

I really don't want to make a shorter blade,

because I'm making