Forged in Fire (2015) s01e08 Episode Script
The Moro Kris
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 judges.
In the end, only one bladesmith
will take home $10,000
and be crowned
a Forged in Firechampion.
My name's Murray Carter.
I'm a bladesmith.
I've always been fascinated
with knives
and martial weapons growing up.
My name is Jason Morrissey.
My mom had a roommate,
and she was an art teacher,
and she kind of inspired me
to start making things
with my hands.
My name is Mace Vitale.
I run a blacksmithing program
at a local art center.
I'm also a stay-at-home dad
part of the week.
My name is Ray Kirk.
I'm 70 years old,
and I love making metal.
Welcome.
Ahead of you are three rounds,
specifically designed
to test every aspect
of the weapon-making process.
After each round,
you will hand your work over
to our panel of expert judges.
They will decide
who will be crowned
the Forged In Firechampion
and receive a check for $10,000.
Now it's time
to meet our judges.
American Bladesmith Society
master smith, J. Neilson,
historic weapons re-creation
specialist, David Baker,
and internationally known
edged weapons specialist,
Doug Marcaida.
It's time to get to work.
In front of you on these tables
are a range of materials.
Your challenge is to take
one or more of these items
and reshape and forge that
into a brand-new blade
of your own design.
There's not going
to be anything easy
about forging a blade
with the materials
that are on the table.
Something creative is going
to have to be done in order
to accomplish this task.
This week, the length
of the cutting edge
of your blade
must be at least 9 inches,
and the overall length
of your blade
must be less than 22 inches.
You will have three hours
to forge your blades,
and at the end
of the first round,
one of you will be asked
to surrender his weapon
and dismissed from the forge.
Good luck, gentlemen.
Your time starts now.
All right.
The clock is a-ticking.
It looked like Murray
grabbed a ball bearing just now.
- Mace did too.
- And Jason grabbed a blade.
And it looked like he also
grabbed a ball bearing.
Ray also grabbed ball bearing.
Every single one of them
snatched up those ball bearings.
I think part
of the reasoning being
is 'cause they could take a few
of those and put them together,
forge weld them, and get
enough steel to knock it out.
One just rolled out
the back side of the oven.
Ball bearings are falling out
of the back of his forge there.
Yeah. It's gonna happen.
Look at that glowing hot
just orb of steel.
- That's beautiful.
- Looks magical.
That's great.
I love that.
I took two ball bearings,
and I flattened it out,
and I'm sandwiching them
between some mild steel,
and I'm just gonna
forge out a bar
and make my knife from that.
Everybody seems to have a plan
that they're executing.
My specialty is fighters
and bowies,
and today, I'm gonna
make a big, bad-ass bowie knife.
I'm gonna make a nice point.
I'm gonna make a
nice, fat, wide, long blade.
A big knife
in your hand feels really good.
You can chop down a tree
with it.
You could whittle a stick
with it.
You can lop an arm off with it
if you needed to.
How you doing, Ray?
Yeah.
Me too.
As a 70-year-old, this is
a little bit taxing on me
but I think my experience
and years will enable
me to kick their ass.
The blade I'm going to make
is a good camp knife.
It will cut wood, cut steaks.
This is what I love to make.
I really want to win
this competition.
The money will go into a fund
for my children
and my grandchildren.
Jason's doing some nice work,
drawing out that mower blade.
I'm choosing
the lawnmower blade
because I knew I wanted
to make a nice, thick blade.
I know that I can size it
to a 2-inch thick bar stock.
I plan on making
a full tang chopper
with a little
Persian fighting tip,
and I decided,
just as a backup,
that I would make
two different blades.
I feel good about my decision.
- What do you got going on?
- You'll see.
It look--really looks like
he's making two separate blades,
and he's gonna pick from one.
Seems like a waste of time.
Seems like a lot--
a great waste of time.
Whoo! I'm not used
to working this fast.
Me neither.
Now you can see that Murray's
starting to use a grinder now.
Do you think
he's just cleaning it up
so he could put another one,
to forge weld it?
Yeah.
That's what I'm hoping.
I forged the ball bearing
to a size
that I thought was gonna work
for forge welding.
I measured the mild steel
to that size
and cut the mild steel.
So now I have three
essentially matching wafers.
The plan is to make
a three-layer laminate,
also known as a San Mai billet.
The outer sides
will be nice and soft.
It'll have that solid,
good steel pour.
That's a smart move.
I'm thinking I will make kind
of a cross between a short sword
and a machete.
There's Murray. He's setting
a weld, it looks like.
I'm highly specialized.
Of the 22,000-plus blades
I've made,
about 50%
of those are kitchen knives.
It's recently come
to my attention
that some of President Obama's
executive chefs
prefer to use my knives
above all others.
This doesn't have to be
the best blade I've ever made.
It just has to be better than
the other competitors' knives.
Bladesmiths,
you have two hours remaining.
You have two hours remaining.
Murray doesn't look
like he's really
got much of a shape on there.
I mean, he's got a basic point,
but he's--
he's left a lot on there.
Kind of got a long,
lean knife.
Yeah.
I always pay attention
to detail,
because all
of the little details,
if they're not taken care of,
will send you home.
This knife--I want to be
the best that I can make
for whatever
they want to put it through.
I want to win.
His blade looks small.
That's worrying me.
It's starting to look small.
Yeah. It is looking small.
Mace is using his baseball bat,
and this is an old trick.
If you hit it with the hammer,
it'll mushroom that edge down.
You can get the same effect
with a baseball bat,
so you can straighten
out that back spine
without deforming your edge
very much.
It looks to me like Jason's
still making two blades.
So he's got to decide
which one he wants to keep
and which one
he wants to abandon.
At this point,
I'm super-fatigued.
I had already started
drawing out my guard
on my lawn mower blade,
so I decide just to ditch
my multi-bar construction.
I hope I made the right choice.
One hour--
you have one hour remaining.
Now the pressure kicks in.
We've still got one smith
who is in his forge.
I can't believe
he wasted as much time
as he did on a second blade.
He'd be on a grinder.
He would be on a grinder
by now
or maybe about 20 minutes ago.
Everybody's getting ready
for heat treat,
and I'm still forging.
I know I need to make a move.
Yeah, I was worried
that Mace's tang
might be
a little on the thin side.
Because we've seen very thin
tangs fail before in the test.
- Correct?
- Oh, absolutely.
We've got Jason over here,
on the grinder.
He's really throwing
some sparks.
That's good. He needs to.
He's got to make up some time.
Murray's getting ready. Watch.
I like the fact that he's
moving the blade in and out.
He's got, like,
a nice, even heat.
Whoo.
What was that?
That's where you transfer
your spirit into the blade.
I don't know what comes out
of my mouth when that happens,
but it's just a verbal
expression of my emotion
at the time.
I'm not even conscious of it
when it happens.
It's been two years since I've
quenched any blade in oil,
and I pull it out,
and my blade is flaming.
This isn't something
that ever happens to a blade
when you pull it
out of a bucket of water.
That is a nice-looking blade.
I got a big concern right now,
right here, with Jason.
He's got that blade
almost ready to quench.
He does not have a glove on,
and he's got a big blade.
He's gonna burn his hand.
- Oh, .
- No.
I got a big concern right now,
right here, with Jason.
He's got that blade
almost ready to quench.
He does not have a glove on,
and he's got a big blade.
He's gonna burn his hand.
- Right there, see?
- Yeah.
He just burned the heck
out of his hands.
It's not gonna
be a comfortable situation.
Saw that--
saw that coming.
Yeah, you did.
I'm more concerned
about my blade
than I am burning myself.
Working with fire,
you get burned.
Sharp-looking blade,
mister.
- Thanks, bro.
- Looks nice.
- A lot of character.
- Thanks.
Even though I'm worried
about Mace's tang,
I love the blade shape.
Well, if he's heat
treating it properly right now,
that thing should hold up.
So Murray is over here.
Any idea what he's doing?
Do you think he's actually done?
- I mean, he could--
- I have no idea.
He could actually be
continuing to work on his blade.
There's always a time
when it's just wise
to set your project down,
and I felt I was at that point.
I've done my best.
I'll let the chips
fall where they may.
Now comes the part where,
"What makes
mine better than yours?"
I'd start working on it.
All right.
You've got Ray.
He's quenching.
Light them up.
Got to love it.
I feel very good
about the blade.
I'm going to lay it on the anvil
and go back and sit
and watch the rest of them
for the last 16 minutes.
- Awesome.
- Oh, look at that.
When I'm 70 years old,
I hope I'm still working
as hard as he is at the forge
and producing as good
a quality stuff as he is.
There we go.
In the oil--Mace is in the oil.
I like he put it
all the way in.
He's got a glove on.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four,
three,
two, one.
Gentlemen, stop working.
Stop working.
I just really feel good
about it.
These other guys ought
to be scared,
'cause the old man
put it on them.
As I look at my blade,
I'm pretty happy with the shape
of my final product.
I hope the judges will notice
that I put a little extra time
into doing something
a little different,
like a full tang construction.
Gentlemen,
your challenge is to use one
of the materials provided to you
and reforge and shape
that into a blade
whose cutting edge
was at least 9 inches.
Murray, you're up first.
Please, present your blade
to the judges.
Murray, I like the overall
look of this blade.
That's a nice style.
I was enjoying watching
you do the San Mai setup.
- Thank you.
- Very nice job.
I like the design
of your weapon here.
Very, very clean lines.
It's got a good weight to it.
It feels like a thruster,
but we'll definitely see if
it's gonna do the chopping test
quite well.
Okay, Jason,
you're up next.
Please, present your blade
to the judges.
Well, Jason,
I like the mower blade steel.
You seemed to lose your focus
a bit when
you had to decide which blade
you were gonna go with.
I was super stressed out.
And you burned your hands.
How are you?
- I'm good. I'm good.
- Okay.
I mean, I just--
I was fatigued at that point.
I like this shape.
Overall,
this is gonna be a nice shape,
and your hammer work
was really neat to watch.
You know, I can't help
but wonder again that working
on those two pieces kind
of took away
from where this could've gone.
I agree.
- Thank you.
- Okay.
Mace, you're up next.
Please present your blade
to the judges.
Well, Mace, I got to say,
I love the shape of this blade.
Thank you.
There's enough meat back here
to hold up to the chopping.
Thank you.
It's got a good width to it.
It's got a good spine
to support the chop.
You've got a little curve there,
but that can be fixed.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Ray, you're up next.
Ray, I got to say,
it was an absolute pleasure
watching you work out there.
All of those years of experience
definitely showed.
You paced yourself
beautifully
Thank you.
And the shape
of this blade is beautiful.
Very clean lines.
Got a point there for thrusting.
I hope you continue
to share your wisdom, sir.
One of my goals.
This has been one
of our toughest challenges yet.
If you don't mind,
we're going to deliberate.
Thank you.
What do you think, Jason?
I'm nervous.
So let's start
with Murray's blade.
Well, Murray did a great job.
I was worried
that he used so little steel,
but he's got enough length
on there that I think it's gonna
make a very nice chopper.
Working that ball
bearing material as cold
as he did really gives me
some huge pause
on whether we do have
a hard center in here
or if this is just full
of cracks and being covered.
Let's go ahead
and move onto Jason's blade.
There's a lot of work
that still needs to be done
with this blade.
I understand, you know,
building a backup plan,
but I think it cost
him work time on this.
Crocodile Dundee would've
been proud of you.
Thanks, man.
As a weapon, it is,
among all the blades--
it's really taken
to consideration
what the challenge would be,
and that is to chop
and do a slice test.
The handle alone lets
you grab onto there
and get a very good,
secure feel.
Let's talk about Mace's blade.
It's light as air.
It's got a good taper to it.
Design-wise--
clean lines, good spine,
good width--
the width for a chopping test.
I like the fact
that he shaped this almost
exclusively with the hammer.
I mean, he did grind the edge,
here, to get it all nice
and cleaned up.
Though there is a little bit
of a warp in his edge
and in his tang.
Let's talk about Ray's blade.
It looks like they're talking
about yours now, Ray.
That's as big a knife as
I could make out of two balls.
I thought you had
a bigger set than that.
They used to be,
when I was young.
Being a smaller blade,
it's still got some heft to it.
But at the same time,
I'm really interested to see,
if he goes forward,
what he's gonna
do with this handle.
It would be nice to see
him put a little bit of a swell
so there's something
to hold onto here.
That's a concern.
Judges, have you made
your decision?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- All right.
Let's go tell our smiths.
Welcome back.
The judges
have been deliberating,
and they've made a decision.
Now one of you must go home.
Jason
You did not make the cut.
Jason, we all loved where you
were going with that blade,
but with all the time
you spent on another blade
and having a split focus,
I think it cost you in the end.
Jason,
please surrender your weapon.
I'm super disappointed.
I could've spent a little more
time finishing my blade.
I've really learned that
I need to make solid decisions
and stick to them.
You know,
I can't be wishy-washy.
Gentlemen, you've made it
through to round two.
Your second challenge
is to finish your work
by turning it
into a fully operational weapon.
You must craft
and attach a handle
using the range of materials
on the tables in front of you.
You can also use that time
to address any flaws or issues
in your blade from round one.
You will have three hours
to do this.
After your work is complete,
we will be testing your weapons
for strength and durability
in the coconut chop,
as well as its ability
to hold an edge
in a specially-designed
sharpness test.
At the end of this round,
one of you will be asked
to surrender his weapon
and leave the forge.
Your time starts now.
We all run up to the table,
and I'm grabbing
for the baseball bat.
How much
of that you gonna use?
Ray gets there before me,
which is fine and dandy.
You know, elders first.
I let him cut off what he needs,
and then I grab the rest.
Much obliged.
My blade is meant for chopping,
and so it needs to be able to
withstand a little bit of shock,
so I wanted to go
with the hickory.
Because of the size of my tang,
there is no way
to drill straight down
into a piece of hickory.
My only option
was three slabs of wood,
the middle slab being cut out to
the perfect shape of the tang,
and then all three pieces
of wood sandwiched together.
Basically, he's making
a hidden tang knife with slabs.
That's well thought-out
and well-planned
on Murray's part, I think.
Absolutely.
I think we're seeing a lot of
his craftsmanship
starting to come forward.
I have a slight bend
in the blade,
so I wanted to straighten
that out right away.
By holding his blade while
heating his tang, he'll know--
He'll know what--
at that temperature's
moving up,
into the blade,
'cause he doesn't want to lose
the temper on that blade.
That'd be terrible.
It looks like, not only
is Ray gluing his handle on,
he's actually
pinning it in place as well.
Whoa, he set that up quick.
As soon as I am satisfied
with the glue setting,
I sat down to draw
the profile of the handle
that I'm going to put on it,
and I go to the band saw first
to cut off a large piece of it,
then I used the belt sander
to finish shaping the profile
of my handle.
Ray, it looks like,
is really moving on that handle.
I have about an hour left,
and I know I'm almost completed,
so I go to the buffer
and use the buffer
to polish the blade
so that it'll be smoother
for the performance test,
and I use it also
to sharpen my blade.
Ray's putting a mirror finish
on his blade at this point.
Yeah.
It's--
He's got the handle
dialed in and stained.
Okay.
So it looks like Ray's finished.
He's laid his handle
on the anvil
with 56 minutes left to go.
Waiting for the glue
to dry or something?
- I'm done.
- Oh, you're all done?
I know he's fast,
but I think he should've just
used every last minute
of the three hours we had.
He's obviously
very confident.
For $10,000,
I hope he's really confident.
Ray is really moving
on that handle.
Rays' putting a mirror finish
on his blade at this point.
Yeah.
It's--
He's got the handle
dialed in and stained.
Okay.
So it looks like Ray's finished.
He's laid his handle
on the anvil
with 56 minutes left to go.
I feel good. I feel
that I've done all I can do.
Is anybody gonna make coffee?
Ray put in an order
for coffee.
And now
I got a cup of coffee.
I'm relaxing.
I'm enjoying life.
Making a guard for my knife,
and I'm gonna make a wood handle
out of a piece
of the sledgehammer handle.
I get the guard fit up
pretty close to where I want it,
and now I take my wood
and start to remove material
from the inside of the handle
so I can fit my tang
nice and snug inside.
Mace just looked at the clock.
He doesn't seem to be happy with
where he is in the progress.
I've got to finish
grinding my blade
and sharpen it and glue
this whole thing together.
Am I gonna have a knife
by the end of the time is up?
Yup. It's not gonna be pretty.
Yeah.
With only a few minutes
remaining,
after I sharpened the knife
on the sharpening stone,
I decide to etch the blade
in the chloride.
And I remove the blade
from the acid,
and I'm just elated.
It looks so beautiful.
Now Murray looks satisfied
with the etch
that he got from the acid.
And my moment of glory
and elation was dashed
when I looked at the handle.
I had all this blue paint
from the cap on the acid jar
all over my hands, and now
it's all over the handle,
and I just know
it's not gonna just brush off.
So I was kind of back to square
one on refinishing the handle.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one.
Time is up.
I'm happy
I have a knife completed.
The other guys looked like they
had some pretty good knives.
I think it's gonna be
a tough decision for the judges.
It's been a wonderful day.
The other knives look very good,
but I believe I can beat them.
Gentlemen,
this is the weapons test.
First, J. is gonna test
your weapon's strength
and durability
in the coconut chop.
J.
All right.
Bladesmiths, I'm gonna
take each of your blades
and attempt to split
three coconuts with them.
And this is gonna test the
strength of your forged weapon
as well as its ability
to hold onto its edge.
Murray, you're up first.
Don't break it.
That's up to you, not me.
My heart is racing,
and I'm trying
to will myself to calm down.
Well, Murray,
it cut really well.
Got through the three coconuts
with no issues at all,
no deformation in the edge,
but we did get a bit
of a bend in the blade.
But overall,
performed very nicely.
Mace, what do you think?
- You're ready?
- Hell, yeah.
Let's go for it.
I'm a little nervous
right now.
I'm just hoping it's gonna get
through the coconuts well
and not chip out
or break or anything like that.
Well, it went
through coconuts, no problem.
Not only went
through the coconuts cleanly,
it bit deeply into the tubes
below it.
Got a little rushed on
the handle at the end, I think,
but overall, very nice.
Thank you.
Ray, you're up next.
You ready?
You betcha.
Let's go.
I am tense about the testing.
The other blades
did exceptionally well,
and I don't know
how my knife will perform.
Ray, you're up next.
You ready?
You betcha.
I am very disappointed
that my blade
did not cut through the second
and third coconut.
Well, Ray, unfortunately,
we had a little trouble
with the coconuts.
We got some deformation
on the edge here,
and I could see some creases
where your two ball bearings
were welded together.
Maybe that left a little bit
of a weak spot
right in that seam, there.
But overall,
it's a beautiful knife,
and it was a pleasure to swing.
I'm gonna pass it off to Doug
now for the sharpness test.
Okay, Murray, what I'm gonna
do with the sharpness test
is I'm gonna take the blade
and simply do a nice, simple
slice right across a sandbag
to see if it's held its edge.
That's a very sharp blade.
Very clean lines right there.
I'm impressed.
Mace, you ready?
Yes, sir.
Like hot metal through butter.
- That is sharp.
- Thank you.
Good job.
Okay, Ray.
Let me just check it out.
I'm ready.
Nice.
It's a good slicer.
It's got good feel to it.
Well done.
It was still sharp enough
to slice through the bag
and the sand,
but when we cut the coconuts,
it failed on two of them.
That could send me home,
and I didn't come up here
to go home.
The time has come for one
of you to leave the forge.
Ray, you did not make the cut.
Ray, you gave us a beautiful
piece of craftsmanship there,
but I think
you ran into a problem
with having two ball bearings,
and you had the seam
of that weld
running down the center
of the blade,
and that caused a weakness
in your edge,
and you weren't able to cut
through two
of our three coconuts.
Ray,
please surrender your weapon.
I feel the judges
made the correct decision.
Thank you, Ray.
It just happened
that this particular blade
that I made
did not stand up this time.
Congratulations.
You have both made it
through the second round
and are now
one round closer to the title
of Forged In Firechampion
and a check for $10,000.
Now we're asking you
to forge a weapon
whose origins go back thousands
of years
The Moro kris.
The kris came into existence
around 1361 A.D. in the kingdom
of Majapahit, East Java.
Believed
to be the primary weapons
wielded by Asian warriors,
its distinctive wavy blade
creates a wider wound
during combat,
causing the victim
to quickly bleed to death.
The hilt is viewed
as a work of art
and is often carved
in meticulous detail
from precious wood,
gold, or ivory.
In popular culture,
the kris can be seen
in the video game Mortal Kombat.
Your challenge is to forge
an effective,
fully-functional version
of that ancient
and beautiful weapon.
The waves in the blade
and the shape
of it is gonna be a challenge.
I've never made
a Moro kris before,
but I feel very confident
that I can turn out a truly
high-performance weapon.
You will have five days
at your home forge
to complete this challenge.
After those five days,
you will come back
and present your kris
to our panel of judges.
They will subject them
to a series
of rigorous and dynamic tests.
When the tests are complete,
our judges will decide
who will be crowned
the Forged In Firechampion
and receive a check
for $10,000.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We will see you in five days.
I've never made a Moro kris
before,
but size-wise, I'm comfortable
with the project,
but there's a lot of details
that I need to learn about.
So I'm sanding
the cardboard version
so that I can develop
muscle memory.
So by the time
I get to the real blade,
I'll be a little bit
familiar with the grinding.
To fuller or not to fuller?
That definitely is the question,
and I've never done a fullering
in blades before.
Even if I lose the competition,
I've learned a new skill.
If this fullering
doesn't go right,
or if I get it too thin
or inconsistent,
I'm gonna
have to forge a new blade,
and that's gonna
be a major setback.
When I first started
bladesmithing,
I took an intro
to bladesmithing class,
and in that class, I actually
made a couple of kris blades.
I plan on constructing
a 23-layer.
Little of the Damascus
to make the sword from.
Seven layers
for each of my competitors
and a layer for my daughter,
a layer for my wife.
I'm gonna put a little magic
into that blade.
So my fear today is that I
won't get a perfect heat treat.
It could get too hot
in some places
or not hot enough
in other places.
It's kind of difficult
in my little
forge to heat up
such a large blade.
It's all done
with the human senses,
so anything can happen.
No. It's got to be--it's got
to be heated higher.
Damn it.
Now I've got to go back
and quench it again.
Today should be
a little bit easier.
I don't have to do
all the hot work.
My plan is to go
to my other shop
and get it heat treated.
Shazam!
Quenching seemed to go good.
I didn't hear any tings,
so hopefully,
we've got a good, viable blade.
The second quench went okay,
and now I'm gonna
assemble the handle,
and I'm gonna get
it all finished up.
I decided to go
with a multipiece construction
for the handle that doesn't
require any drilling
through the tang, which would
potentially weaken it.
I know I've done my absolute
best with this project.
I'm all ready
for this competition.
Cut through this one too.
Throughout my work,
I've been trying to harness
the spirit of the tiger
and put that in my sword.
The blade's gonna
have some stripes.
The handle's gonna
have some stripes,
tiger claws,
a little tiger tooth.
I'm gonna win.
Tigers are winners,
and I am the tiger.
Murray, Mace,
welcome back to the forge.
You had five days at your home
forge to work on your krises.
Mace, tell us a little bit
about your weapon.
I did a 23-layer blade.
I made the steel
with my power hammer,
but forged the entire blade
by hand.
I forged in all the waves,
and I forged in all the bevels.
I forged the point.
I tried to put magic
into that blade.
Murray, can you tell us
a little bit about your blade?
I've never made a blade
like this before,
but from having made
over 22,000 blades,
it seemed to me obvious
that this was definitely
a thrusting weapon,
also for some slicing
and chopping.
That being the case, I
chose a laminate of spring steel
on the outside and a Hitachi
blue super steel core.
It was a journey making this,
and I hope that my spirit
is in the blade.
Gentlemen,
they certainly look great,
but beauty is secondary
to performance.
All that matters now is how they
perform in our weapons test.
Each of your blades will be put
through three trials.
This is the slice test.
Doug.
The unique design of a Moro
kris is even made more distinct
by its fluid, wavelike edges.
It can thrust,
but its primary purpose
is slashing and chopping.
To test your kris' ability
to perform according
to its ancient design,
I will use it to chop and slice
against these moving targets.
Mace, you're up first.
Are you ready?
Sure.
Nice.
Nice balance.
Nice recovery.
Allows you to just move
with the blade.
Good job.
Thank you.
Murray, you're next.
You ready?
I certainly am.
Well, Murray,
the balance of this blade
allows me to chase an attack,
and it will come with me.
On the recovery
to go to another attack,
it will stay with me.
It doesn't go away from me.
It will slice.
Good job.
Thank you.
The quality of the cut
is obvious to the human eye.
My blade was the sharper
and more cleanly cutting blade.
To test the lethality
of your kris,
I will take your weapon,
and I'm gonna strike
into this animal carcass.
Mace, you're up first.
Are you ready?
Yes, sir.
Well, it cut cleanly
through the spine,
all the way through the meat
in one big, sweeping slash.
It will kill.
Good job.
Thank you very much.
Murray, you're up next.
You ready?
Yeah.
When cutting through,
there was a slight drag
in the cut,
but it did cut very cleanly,
through.
It's a very, very sharp blade.
It will kill.
Doug's not giving me positive
feedback about the way it cut,
but I know that often,
it can just be the angle of
the blade edge in relationship
to the motion of the arm.
Bamboo is
a very durable material.
Ounce for ounce, it is stronger
than concrete, brick, or wood.
To test the strength
of your kris,
I will delivery four strikes
into the bamboo
to see how well
your weapon stands up.
Mace, you're up.
I'm confident
in my construction methods,
but there's always that fear
that your blade will come apart.
I'm a bit nervous.
Well, no damage
to the blade, sir.
It chopped nicely,
but of the couple
of times over there,
it did want to fall
out of my hand,
just because it's so heavy
on the bde.
But none the less, it looks
like your edge did hold up.
- Excellent.
- Murray, you're up next.
- You ready?
- Yes, I am.
I tested my kris
on some tree branches,
and it cut very well,
but there's a big difference
between cutting live wood
and dead bamboo.
Murray, you're up.
- You ready?
- Yes, I am.
Okay, Murray,
it looks like your blade edge
held up with the chops.
It almost clearly
sliced all the way through.
But there is now an issue
that we're looking
at with your blade.
I think there might be
a little bend here,
caused from chopping
into the bamboo,
but other than that,
it still has a very sharp edge.
The strength of the blade
held up.
Good job.
Thank you.
I'm pleased with
the performance of my blade,
but I think Murray's blade
did well, too,
and I think it's gonna be
a tough decision for the judges.
Gentlemen, both of you have
been outstanding competitors
through three rounds
of competition.
In five days,
you have fabricated
fully functioning Moro krises
that you
should both be proud of,
but there can only
be one champion.
Well, Mace,
I love the overall construction
of your blade.
The steel came out
beautifully.
You've got a nice pattern.
You did deliver the blade
with a bit of a slight twist
in there,
and that worried me about the
overall integrity of the blade.
I really like the shape
of your handle.
I think it's very comfortable
in the hand.
I'm not really fond of the way
it transitions into the guard,
and I do find the blade
a little bit heavy at the tip.
But in the kill test,
it passed through that meat
as if it wasn't there.
Thank you.
Murray, you're next.
Murray, the balance
in your blade is phenomenal,
but the problem I had
was doing the cuts on the bamboo
during the strength test.
Because you designed it as a
thruster rather than a chopper,
the alignment of your handle
made it move around.
Murray, your sword--
it's a work of art.
The transition from the pommel
to the handle
to the guard to the blade--
it's all smooth, flawless,
but that bend in the blade
is telling me that somewhere
in that blade is a soft spot.
Gentlemen, you
have both done immaculate work.
However, in this forge,
there can only be one winner
of $10,000.
Mace
You are
the Forged In Firechampion.
- Yes!
- Congratulations.
- Thank you, Murray.
- Nice job, man.
- Thanks very much.
- I'm happy for you.
Murray, unfortunately,
your kris did not make the cut.
Murray, I find that weapon
absolutely beautiful
and comfortable,
but the fact that there's
a soft core in there somewhere
and that it picked up a bend
where your opponent's blade
did not--
that was the deciding factor,
and that's
why we had to let you go.
Murray, please,
surrender your weapon.
While there's always
a disappointment
when one puts their best effort
forward and doesn't win
Thank you, gentlemen.
- Thank you, Murray.
- Thank you.
I do feel an overwhelming
sense of gratitude
for having been
able to participate.
Mace made the better blade,
and I'm proud of him.
Mace, congratulations.
Whoo!
Mace, fantastic.
I mean, the steel's beautiful.
I like how you did the file work
on the blade.
The blade held up beautifully.
The edge is razor sharp.
You should be exceptionally
proud of that piece.
You did a great job.
I'm the Forged In Firechampion.
I feel good,
and I'm glad I came out on top.
I'm the tiger.
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 judges.
In the end, only one bladesmith
will take home $10,000
and be crowned
a Forged in Firechampion.
My name's Murray Carter.
I'm a bladesmith.
I've always been fascinated
with knives
and martial weapons growing up.
My name is Jason Morrissey.
My mom had a roommate,
and she was an art teacher,
and she kind of inspired me
to start making things
with my hands.
My name is Mace Vitale.
I run a blacksmithing program
at a local art center.
I'm also a stay-at-home dad
part of the week.
My name is Ray Kirk.
I'm 70 years old,
and I love making metal.
Welcome.
Ahead of you are three rounds,
specifically designed
to test every aspect
of the weapon-making process.
After each round,
you will hand your work over
to our panel of expert judges.
They will decide
who will be crowned
the Forged In Firechampion
and receive a check for $10,000.
Now it's time
to meet our judges.
American Bladesmith Society
master smith, J. Neilson,
historic weapons re-creation
specialist, David Baker,
and internationally known
edged weapons specialist,
Doug Marcaida.
It's time to get to work.
In front of you on these tables
are a range of materials.
Your challenge is to take
one or more of these items
and reshape and forge that
into a brand-new blade
of your own design.
There's not going
to be anything easy
about forging a blade
with the materials
that are on the table.
Something creative is going
to have to be done in order
to accomplish this task.
This week, the length
of the cutting edge
of your blade
must be at least 9 inches,
and the overall length
of your blade
must be less than 22 inches.
You will have three hours
to forge your blades,
and at the end
of the first round,
one of you will be asked
to surrender his weapon
and dismissed from the forge.
Good luck, gentlemen.
Your time starts now.
All right.
The clock is a-ticking.
It looked like Murray
grabbed a ball bearing just now.
- Mace did too.
- And Jason grabbed a blade.
And it looked like he also
grabbed a ball bearing.
Ray also grabbed ball bearing.
Every single one of them
snatched up those ball bearings.
I think part
of the reasoning being
is 'cause they could take a few
of those and put them together,
forge weld them, and get
enough steel to knock it out.
One just rolled out
the back side of the oven.
Ball bearings are falling out
of the back of his forge there.
Yeah. It's gonna happen.
Look at that glowing hot
just orb of steel.
- That's beautiful.
- Looks magical.
That's great.
I love that.
I took two ball bearings,
and I flattened it out,
and I'm sandwiching them
between some mild steel,
and I'm just gonna
forge out a bar
and make my knife from that.
Everybody seems to have a plan
that they're executing.
My specialty is fighters
and bowies,
and today, I'm gonna
make a big, bad-ass bowie knife.
I'm gonna make a nice point.
I'm gonna make a
nice, fat, wide, long blade.
A big knife
in your hand feels really good.
You can chop down a tree
with it.
You could whittle a stick
with it.
You can lop an arm off with it
if you needed to.
How you doing, Ray?
Yeah.
Me too.
As a 70-year-old, this is
a little bit taxing on me
but I think my experience
and years will enable
me to kick their ass.
The blade I'm going to make
is a good camp knife.
It will cut wood, cut steaks.
This is what I love to make.
I really want to win
this competition.
The money will go into a fund
for my children
and my grandchildren.
Jason's doing some nice work,
drawing out that mower blade.
I'm choosing
the lawnmower blade
because I knew I wanted
to make a nice, thick blade.
I know that I can size it
to a 2-inch thick bar stock.
I plan on making
a full tang chopper
with a little
Persian fighting tip,
and I decided,
just as a backup,
that I would make
two different blades.
I feel good about my decision.
- What do you got going on?
- You'll see.
It look--really looks like
he's making two separate blades,
and he's gonna pick from one.
Seems like a waste of time.
Seems like a lot--
a great waste of time.
Whoo! I'm not used
to working this fast.
Me neither.
Now you can see that Murray's
starting to use a grinder now.
Do you think
he's just cleaning it up
so he could put another one,
to forge weld it?
Yeah.
That's what I'm hoping.
I forged the ball bearing
to a size
that I thought was gonna work
for forge welding.
I measured the mild steel
to that size
and cut the mild steel.
So now I have three
essentially matching wafers.
The plan is to make
a three-layer laminate,
also known as a San Mai billet.
The outer sides
will be nice and soft.
It'll have that solid,
good steel pour.
That's a smart move.
I'm thinking I will make kind
of a cross between a short sword
and a machete.
There's Murray. He's setting
a weld, it looks like.
I'm highly specialized.
Of the 22,000-plus blades
I've made,
about 50%
of those are kitchen knives.
It's recently come
to my attention
that some of President Obama's
executive chefs
prefer to use my knives
above all others.
This doesn't have to be
the best blade I've ever made.
It just has to be better than
the other competitors' knives.
Bladesmiths,
you have two hours remaining.
You have two hours remaining.
Murray doesn't look
like he's really
got much of a shape on there.
I mean, he's got a basic point,
but he's--
he's left a lot on there.
Kind of got a long,
lean knife.
Yeah.
I always pay attention
to detail,
because all
of the little details,
if they're not taken care of,
will send you home.
This knife--I want to be
the best that I can make
for whatever
they want to put it through.
I want to win.
His blade looks small.
That's worrying me.
It's starting to look small.
Yeah. It is looking small.
Mace is using his baseball bat,
and this is an old trick.
If you hit it with the hammer,
it'll mushroom that edge down.
You can get the same effect
with a baseball bat,
so you can straighten
out that back spine
without deforming your edge
very much.
It looks to me like Jason's
still making two blades.
So he's got to decide
which one he wants to keep
and which one
he wants to abandon.
At this point,
I'm super-fatigued.
I had already started
drawing out my guard
on my lawn mower blade,
so I decide just to ditch
my multi-bar construction.
I hope I made the right choice.
One hour--
you have one hour remaining.
Now the pressure kicks in.
We've still got one smith
who is in his forge.
I can't believe
he wasted as much time
as he did on a second blade.
He'd be on a grinder.
He would be on a grinder
by now
or maybe about 20 minutes ago.
Everybody's getting ready
for heat treat,
and I'm still forging.
I know I need to make a move.
Yeah, I was worried
that Mace's tang
might be
a little on the thin side.
Because we've seen very thin
tangs fail before in the test.
- Correct?
- Oh, absolutely.
We've got Jason over here,
on the grinder.
He's really throwing
some sparks.
That's good. He needs to.
He's got to make up some time.
Murray's getting ready. Watch.
I like the fact that he's
moving the blade in and out.
He's got, like,
a nice, even heat.
Whoo.
What was that?
That's where you transfer
your spirit into the blade.
I don't know what comes out
of my mouth when that happens,
but it's just a verbal
expression of my emotion
at the time.
I'm not even conscious of it
when it happens.
It's been two years since I've
quenched any blade in oil,
and I pull it out,
and my blade is flaming.
This isn't something
that ever happens to a blade
when you pull it
out of a bucket of water.
That is a nice-looking blade.
I got a big concern right now,
right here, with Jason.
He's got that blade
almost ready to quench.
He does not have a glove on,
and he's got a big blade.
He's gonna burn his hand.
- Oh, .
- No.
I got a big concern right now,
right here, with Jason.
He's got that blade
almost ready to quench.
He does not have a glove on,
and he's got a big blade.
He's gonna burn his hand.
- Right there, see?
- Yeah.
He just burned the heck
out of his hands.
It's not gonna
be a comfortable situation.
Saw that--
saw that coming.
Yeah, you did.
I'm more concerned
about my blade
than I am burning myself.
Working with fire,
you get burned.
Sharp-looking blade,
mister.
- Thanks, bro.
- Looks nice.
- A lot of character.
- Thanks.
Even though I'm worried
about Mace's tang,
I love the blade shape.
Well, if he's heat
treating it properly right now,
that thing should hold up.
So Murray is over here.
Any idea what he's doing?
Do you think he's actually done?
- I mean, he could--
- I have no idea.
He could actually be
continuing to work on his blade.
There's always a time
when it's just wise
to set your project down,
and I felt I was at that point.
I've done my best.
I'll let the chips
fall where they may.
Now comes the part where,
"What makes
mine better than yours?"
I'd start working on it.
All right.
You've got Ray.
He's quenching.
Light them up.
Got to love it.
I feel very good
about the blade.
I'm going to lay it on the anvil
and go back and sit
and watch the rest of them
for the last 16 minutes.
- Awesome.
- Oh, look at that.
When I'm 70 years old,
I hope I'm still working
as hard as he is at the forge
and producing as good
a quality stuff as he is.
There we go.
In the oil--Mace is in the oil.
I like he put it
all the way in.
He's got a glove on.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four,
three,
two, one.
Gentlemen, stop working.
Stop working.
I just really feel good
about it.
These other guys ought
to be scared,
'cause the old man
put it on them.
As I look at my blade,
I'm pretty happy with the shape
of my final product.
I hope the judges will notice
that I put a little extra time
into doing something
a little different,
like a full tang construction.
Gentlemen,
your challenge is to use one
of the materials provided to you
and reforge and shape
that into a blade
whose cutting edge
was at least 9 inches.
Murray, you're up first.
Please, present your blade
to the judges.
Murray, I like the overall
look of this blade.
That's a nice style.
I was enjoying watching
you do the San Mai setup.
- Thank you.
- Very nice job.
I like the design
of your weapon here.
Very, very clean lines.
It's got a good weight to it.
It feels like a thruster,
but we'll definitely see if
it's gonna do the chopping test
quite well.
Okay, Jason,
you're up next.
Please, present your blade
to the judges.
Well, Jason,
I like the mower blade steel.
You seemed to lose your focus
a bit when
you had to decide which blade
you were gonna go with.
I was super stressed out.
And you burned your hands.
How are you?
- I'm good. I'm good.
- Okay.
I mean, I just--
I was fatigued at that point.
I like this shape.
Overall,
this is gonna be a nice shape,
and your hammer work
was really neat to watch.
You know, I can't help
but wonder again that working
on those two pieces kind
of took away
from where this could've gone.
I agree.
- Thank you.
- Okay.
Mace, you're up next.
Please present your blade
to the judges.
Well, Mace, I got to say,
I love the shape of this blade.
Thank you.
There's enough meat back here
to hold up to the chopping.
Thank you.
It's got a good width to it.
It's got a good spine
to support the chop.
You've got a little curve there,
but that can be fixed.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Ray, you're up next.
Ray, I got to say,
it was an absolute pleasure
watching you work out there.
All of those years of experience
definitely showed.
You paced yourself
beautifully
Thank you.
And the shape
of this blade is beautiful.
Very clean lines.
Got a point there for thrusting.
I hope you continue
to share your wisdom, sir.
One of my goals.
This has been one
of our toughest challenges yet.
If you don't mind,
we're going to deliberate.
Thank you.
What do you think, Jason?
I'm nervous.
So let's start
with Murray's blade.
Well, Murray did a great job.
I was worried
that he used so little steel,
but he's got enough length
on there that I think it's gonna
make a very nice chopper.
Working that ball
bearing material as cold
as he did really gives me
some huge pause
on whether we do have
a hard center in here
or if this is just full
of cracks and being covered.
Let's go ahead
and move onto Jason's blade.
There's a lot of work
that still needs to be done
with this blade.
I understand, you know,
building a backup plan,
but I think it cost
him work time on this.
Crocodile Dundee would've
been proud of you.
Thanks, man.
As a weapon, it is,
among all the blades--
it's really taken
to consideration
what the challenge would be,
and that is to chop
and do a slice test.
The handle alone lets
you grab onto there
and get a very good,
secure feel.
Let's talk about Mace's blade.
It's light as air.
It's got a good taper to it.
Design-wise--
clean lines, good spine,
good width--
the width for a chopping test.
I like the fact
that he shaped this almost
exclusively with the hammer.
I mean, he did grind the edge,
here, to get it all nice
and cleaned up.
Though there is a little bit
of a warp in his edge
and in his tang.
Let's talk about Ray's blade.
It looks like they're talking
about yours now, Ray.
That's as big a knife as
I could make out of two balls.
I thought you had
a bigger set than that.
They used to be,
when I was young.
Being a smaller blade,
it's still got some heft to it.
But at the same time,
I'm really interested to see,
if he goes forward,
what he's gonna
do with this handle.
It would be nice to see
him put a little bit of a swell
so there's something
to hold onto here.
That's a concern.
Judges, have you made
your decision?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- All right.
Let's go tell our smiths.
Welcome back.
The judges
have been deliberating,
and they've made a decision.
Now one of you must go home.
Jason
You did not make the cut.
Jason, we all loved where you
were going with that blade,
but with all the time
you spent on another blade
and having a split focus,
I think it cost you in the end.
Jason,
please surrender your weapon.
I'm super disappointed.
I could've spent a little more
time finishing my blade.
I've really learned that
I need to make solid decisions
and stick to them.
You know,
I can't be wishy-washy.
Gentlemen, you've made it
through to round two.
Your second challenge
is to finish your work
by turning it
into a fully operational weapon.
You must craft
and attach a handle
using the range of materials
on the tables in front of you.
You can also use that time
to address any flaws or issues
in your blade from round one.
You will have three hours
to do this.
After your work is complete,
we will be testing your weapons
for strength and durability
in the coconut chop,
as well as its ability
to hold an edge
in a specially-designed
sharpness test.
At the end of this round,
one of you will be asked
to surrender his weapon
and leave the forge.
Your time starts now.
We all run up to the table,
and I'm grabbing
for the baseball bat.
How much
of that you gonna use?
Ray gets there before me,
which is fine and dandy.
You know, elders first.
I let him cut off what he needs,
and then I grab the rest.
Much obliged.
My blade is meant for chopping,
and so it needs to be able to
withstand a little bit of shock,
so I wanted to go
with the hickory.
Because of the size of my tang,
there is no way
to drill straight down
into a piece of hickory.
My only option
was three slabs of wood,
the middle slab being cut out to
the perfect shape of the tang,
and then all three pieces
of wood sandwiched together.
Basically, he's making
a hidden tang knife with slabs.
That's well thought-out
and well-planned
on Murray's part, I think.
Absolutely.
I think we're seeing a lot of
his craftsmanship
starting to come forward.
I have a slight bend
in the blade,
so I wanted to straighten
that out right away.
By holding his blade while
heating his tang, he'll know--
He'll know what--
at that temperature's
moving up,
into the blade,
'cause he doesn't want to lose
the temper on that blade.
That'd be terrible.
It looks like, not only
is Ray gluing his handle on,
he's actually
pinning it in place as well.
Whoa, he set that up quick.
As soon as I am satisfied
with the glue setting,
I sat down to draw
the profile of the handle
that I'm going to put on it,
and I go to the band saw first
to cut off a large piece of it,
then I used the belt sander
to finish shaping the profile
of my handle.
Ray, it looks like,
is really moving on that handle.
I have about an hour left,
and I know I'm almost completed,
so I go to the buffer
and use the buffer
to polish the blade
so that it'll be smoother
for the performance test,
and I use it also
to sharpen my blade.
Ray's putting a mirror finish
on his blade at this point.
Yeah.
It's--
He's got the handle
dialed in and stained.
Okay.
So it looks like Ray's finished.
He's laid his handle
on the anvil
with 56 minutes left to go.
Waiting for the glue
to dry or something?
- I'm done.
- Oh, you're all done?
I know he's fast,
but I think he should've just
used every last minute
of the three hours we had.
He's obviously
very confident.
For $10,000,
I hope he's really confident.
Ray is really moving
on that handle.
Rays' putting a mirror finish
on his blade at this point.
Yeah.
It's--
He's got the handle
dialed in and stained.
Okay.
So it looks like Ray's finished.
He's laid his handle
on the anvil
with 56 minutes left to go.
I feel good. I feel
that I've done all I can do.
Is anybody gonna make coffee?
Ray put in an order
for coffee.
And now
I got a cup of coffee.
I'm relaxing.
I'm enjoying life.
Making a guard for my knife,
and I'm gonna make a wood handle
out of a piece
of the sledgehammer handle.
I get the guard fit up
pretty close to where I want it,
and now I take my wood
and start to remove material
from the inside of the handle
so I can fit my tang
nice and snug inside.
Mace just looked at the clock.
He doesn't seem to be happy with
where he is in the progress.
I've got to finish
grinding my blade
and sharpen it and glue
this whole thing together.
Am I gonna have a knife
by the end of the time is up?
Yup. It's not gonna be pretty.
Yeah.
With only a few minutes
remaining,
after I sharpened the knife
on the sharpening stone,
I decide to etch the blade
in the chloride.
And I remove the blade
from the acid,
and I'm just elated.
It looks so beautiful.
Now Murray looks satisfied
with the etch
that he got from the acid.
And my moment of glory
and elation was dashed
when I looked at the handle.
I had all this blue paint
from the cap on the acid jar
all over my hands, and now
it's all over the handle,
and I just know
it's not gonna just brush off.
So I was kind of back to square
one on refinishing the handle.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one.
Time is up.
I'm happy
I have a knife completed.
The other guys looked like they
had some pretty good knives.
I think it's gonna be
a tough decision for the judges.
It's been a wonderful day.
The other knives look very good,
but I believe I can beat them.
Gentlemen,
this is the weapons test.
First, J. is gonna test
your weapon's strength
and durability
in the coconut chop.
J.
All right.
Bladesmiths, I'm gonna
take each of your blades
and attempt to split
three coconuts with them.
And this is gonna test the
strength of your forged weapon
as well as its ability
to hold onto its edge.
Murray, you're up first.
Don't break it.
That's up to you, not me.
My heart is racing,
and I'm trying
to will myself to calm down.
Well, Murray,
it cut really well.
Got through the three coconuts
with no issues at all,
no deformation in the edge,
but we did get a bit
of a bend in the blade.
But overall,
performed very nicely.
Mace, what do you think?
- You're ready?
- Hell, yeah.
Let's go for it.
I'm a little nervous
right now.
I'm just hoping it's gonna get
through the coconuts well
and not chip out
or break or anything like that.
Well, it went
through coconuts, no problem.
Not only went
through the coconuts cleanly,
it bit deeply into the tubes
below it.
Got a little rushed on
the handle at the end, I think,
but overall, very nice.
Thank you.
Ray, you're up next.
You ready?
You betcha.
Let's go.
I am tense about the testing.
The other blades
did exceptionally well,
and I don't know
how my knife will perform.
Ray, you're up next.
You ready?
You betcha.
I am very disappointed
that my blade
did not cut through the second
and third coconut.
Well, Ray, unfortunately,
we had a little trouble
with the coconuts.
We got some deformation
on the edge here,
and I could see some creases
where your two ball bearings
were welded together.
Maybe that left a little bit
of a weak spot
right in that seam, there.
But overall,
it's a beautiful knife,
and it was a pleasure to swing.
I'm gonna pass it off to Doug
now for the sharpness test.
Okay, Murray, what I'm gonna
do with the sharpness test
is I'm gonna take the blade
and simply do a nice, simple
slice right across a sandbag
to see if it's held its edge.
That's a very sharp blade.
Very clean lines right there.
I'm impressed.
Mace, you ready?
Yes, sir.
Like hot metal through butter.
- That is sharp.
- Thank you.
Good job.
Okay, Ray.
Let me just check it out.
I'm ready.
Nice.
It's a good slicer.
It's got good feel to it.
Well done.
It was still sharp enough
to slice through the bag
and the sand,
but when we cut the coconuts,
it failed on two of them.
That could send me home,
and I didn't come up here
to go home.
The time has come for one
of you to leave the forge.
Ray, you did not make the cut.
Ray, you gave us a beautiful
piece of craftsmanship there,
but I think
you ran into a problem
with having two ball bearings,
and you had the seam
of that weld
running down the center
of the blade,
and that caused a weakness
in your edge,
and you weren't able to cut
through two
of our three coconuts.
Ray,
please surrender your weapon.
I feel the judges
made the correct decision.
Thank you, Ray.
It just happened
that this particular blade
that I made
did not stand up this time.
Congratulations.
You have both made it
through the second round
and are now
one round closer to the title
of Forged In Firechampion
and a check for $10,000.
Now we're asking you
to forge a weapon
whose origins go back thousands
of years
The Moro kris.
The kris came into existence
around 1361 A.D. in the kingdom
of Majapahit, East Java.
Believed
to be the primary weapons
wielded by Asian warriors,
its distinctive wavy blade
creates a wider wound
during combat,
causing the victim
to quickly bleed to death.
The hilt is viewed
as a work of art
and is often carved
in meticulous detail
from precious wood,
gold, or ivory.
In popular culture,
the kris can be seen
in the video game Mortal Kombat.
Your challenge is to forge
an effective,
fully-functional version
of that ancient
and beautiful weapon.
The waves in the blade
and the shape
of it is gonna be a challenge.
I've never made
a Moro kris before,
but I feel very confident
that I can turn out a truly
high-performance weapon.
You will have five days
at your home forge
to complete this challenge.
After those five days,
you will come back
and present your kris
to our panel of judges.
They will subject them
to a series
of rigorous and dynamic tests.
When the tests are complete,
our judges will decide
who will be crowned
the Forged In Firechampion
and receive a check
for $10,000.
Good luck, bladesmiths.
We will see you in five days.
I've never made a Moro kris
before,
but size-wise, I'm comfortable
with the project,
but there's a lot of details
that I need to learn about.
So I'm sanding
the cardboard version
so that I can develop
muscle memory.
So by the time
I get to the real blade,
I'll be a little bit
familiar with the grinding.
To fuller or not to fuller?
That definitely is the question,
and I've never done a fullering
in blades before.
Even if I lose the competition,
I've learned a new skill.
If this fullering
doesn't go right,
or if I get it too thin
or inconsistent,
I'm gonna
have to forge a new blade,
and that's gonna
be a major setback.
When I first started
bladesmithing,
I took an intro
to bladesmithing class,
and in that class, I actually
made a couple of kris blades.
I plan on constructing
a 23-layer.
Little of the Damascus
to make the sword from.
Seven layers
for each of my competitors
and a layer for my daughter,
a layer for my wife.
I'm gonna put a little magic
into that blade.
So my fear today is that I
won't get a perfect heat treat.
It could get too hot
in some places
or not hot enough
in other places.
It's kind of difficult
in my little
forge to heat up
such a large blade.
It's all done
with the human senses,
so anything can happen.
No. It's got to be--it's got
to be heated higher.
Damn it.
Now I've got to go back
and quench it again.
Today should be
a little bit easier.
I don't have to do
all the hot work.
My plan is to go
to my other shop
and get it heat treated.
Shazam!
Quenching seemed to go good.
I didn't hear any tings,
so hopefully,
we've got a good, viable blade.
The second quench went okay,
and now I'm gonna
assemble the handle,
and I'm gonna get
it all finished up.
I decided to go
with a multipiece construction
for the handle that doesn't
require any drilling
through the tang, which would
potentially weaken it.
I know I've done my absolute
best with this project.
I'm all ready
for this competition.
Cut through this one too.
Throughout my work,
I've been trying to harness
the spirit of the tiger
and put that in my sword.
The blade's gonna
have some stripes.
The handle's gonna
have some stripes,
tiger claws,
a little tiger tooth.
I'm gonna win.
Tigers are winners,
and I am the tiger.
Murray, Mace,
welcome back to the forge.
You had five days at your home
forge to work on your krises.
Mace, tell us a little bit
about your weapon.
I did a 23-layer blade.
I made the steel
with my power hammer,
but forged the entire blade
by hand.
I forged in all the waves,
and I forged in all the bevels.
I forged the point.
I tried to put magic
into that blade.
Murray, can you tell us
a little bit about your blade?
I've never made a blade
like this before,
but from having made
over 22,000 blades,
it seemed to me obvious
that this was definitely
a thrusting weapon,
also for some slicing
and chopping.
That being the case, I
chose a laminate of spring steel
on the outside and a Hitachi
blue super steel core.
It was a journey making this,
and I hope that my spirit
is in the blade.
Gentlemen,
they certainly look great,
but beauty is secondary
to performance.
All that matters now is how they
perform in our weapons test.
Each of your blades will be put
through three trials.
This is the slice test.
Doug.
The unique design of a Moro
kris is even made more distinct
by its fluid, wavelike edges.
It can thrust,
but its primary purpose
is slashing and chopping.
To test your kris' ability
to perform according
to its ancient design,
I will use it to chop and slice
against these moving targets.
Mace, you're up first.
Are you ready?
Sure.
Nice.
Nice balance.
Nice recovery.
Allows you to just move
with the blade.
Good job.
Thank you.
Murray, you're next.
You ready?
I certainly am.
Well, Murray,
the balance of this blade
allows me to chase an attack,
and it will come with me.
On the recovery
to go to another attack,
it will stay with me.
It doesn't go away from me.
It will slice.
Good job.
Thank you.
The quality of the cut
is obvious to the human eye.
My blade was the sharper
and more cleanly cutting blade.
To test the lethality
of your kris,
I will take your weapon,
and I'm gonna strike
into this animal carcass.
Mace, you're up first.
Are you ready?
Yes, sir.
Well, it cut cleanly
through the spine,
all the way through the meat
in one big, sweeping slash.
It will kill.
Good job.
Thank you very much.
Murray, you're up next.
You ready?
Yeah.
When cutting through,
there was a slight drag
in the cut,
but it did cut very cleanly,
through.
It's a very, very sharp blade.
It will kill.
Doug's not giving me positive
feedback about the way it cut,
but I know that often,
it can just be the angle of
the blade edge in relationship
to the motion of the arm.
Bamboo is
a very durable material.
Ounce for ounce, it is stronger
than concrete, brick, or wood.
To test the strength
of your kris,
I will delivery four strikes
into the bamboo
to see how well
your weapon stands up.
Mace, you're up.
I'm confident
in my construction methods,
but there's always that fear
that your blade will come apart.
I'm a bit nervous.
Well, no damage
to the blade, sir.
It chopped nicely,
but of the couple
of times over there,
it did want to fall
out of my hand,
just because it's so heavy
on the bde.
But none the less, it looks
like your edge did hold up.
- Excellent.
- Murray, you're up next.
- You ready?
- Yes, I am.
I tested my kris
on some tree branches,
and it cut very well,
but there's a big difference
between cutting live wood
and dead bamboo.
Murray, you're up.
- You ready?
- Yes, I am.
Okay, Murray,
it looks like your blade edge
held up with the chops.
It almost clearly
sliced all the way through.
But there is now an issue
that we're looking
at with your blade.
I think there might be
a little bend here,
caused from chopping
into the bamboo,
but other than that,
it still has a very sharp edge.
The strength of the blade
held up.
Good job.
Thank you.
I'm pleased with
the performance of my blade,
but I think Murray's blade
did well, too,
and I think it's gonna be
a tough decision for the judges.
Gentlemen, both of you have
been outstanding competitors
through three rounds
of competition.
In five days,
you have fabricated
fully functioning Moro krises
that you
should both be proud of,
but there can only
be one champion.
Well, Mace,
I love the overall construction
of your blade.
The steel came out
beautifully.
You've got a nice pattern.
You did deliver the blade
with a bit of a slight twist
in there,
and that worried me about the
overall integrity of the blade.
I really like the shape
of your handle.
I think it's very comfortable
in the hand.
I'm not really fond of the way
it transitions into the guard,
and I do find the blade
a little bit heavy at the tip.
But in the kill test,
it passed through that meat
as if it wasn't there.
Thank you.
Murray, you're next.
Murray, the balance
in your blade is phenomenal,
but the problem I had
was doing the cuts on the bamboo
during the strength test.
Because you designed it as a
thruster rather than a chopper,
the alignment of your handle
made it move around.
Murray, your sword--
it's a work of art.
The transition from the pommel
to the handle
to the guard to the blade--
it's all smooth, flawless,
but that bend in the blade
is telling me that somewhere
in that blade is a soft spot.
Gentlemen, you
have both done immaculate work.
However, in this forge,
there can only be one winner
of $10,000.
Mace
You are
the Forged In Firechampion.
- Yes!
- Congratulations.
- Thank you, Murray.
- Nice job, man.
- Thanks very much.
- I'm happy for you.
Murray, unfortunately,
your kris did not make the cut.
Murray, I find that weapon
absolutely beautiful
and comfortable,
but the fact that there's
a soft core in there somewhere
and that it picked up a bend
where your opponent's blade
did not--
that was the deciding factor,
and that's
why we had to let you go.
Murray, please,
surrender your weapon.
While there's always
a disappointment
when one puts their best effort
forward and doesn't win
Thank you, gentlemen.
- Thank you, Murray.
- Thank you.
I do feel an overwhelming
sense of gratitude
for having been
able to participate.
Mace made the better blade,
and I'm proud of him.
Mace, congratulations.
Whoo!
Mace, fantastic.
I mean, the steel's beautiful.
I like how you did the file work
on the blade.
The blade held up beautifully.
The edge is razor sharp.
You should be exceptionally
proud of that piece.
You did a great job.
I'm the Forged In Firechampion.
I feel good,
and I'm glad I came out on top.
I'm the tiger.