Forged in Fire , March 1 episode

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Pentlatch

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Toughest episode so far , coal fire forging , human powered to the rough out stage. Got to keep your fire going and work the steel at just the right temperature for the thickness , it is an art .

Then the final challenge , to make a Scottish Claymore and then the pig test , didn't see that coming .
 
The show was entertaining, but I fail to see how anyone could crank a blower and get no response for half an hour and not figure out something was wrong. This is another situation that I feel was filmed for the drama and not a real part of what happened. My guess is that his hose fell off and they decided to make it look more disastrous than it really was.

Watching them work those rounds in coal forges the way they did I expected blades with cracks in them and burned tips - and wasn't disappointed. Did you all see the amount of damage in the blades in the close up of them as-forged? The first rejected blade had more cracks than I have seen in a forged blade in a long time.

The winning blade was predictably going to bend. It was too thin for a claymore and he had HT problems. This turned out to be his saving grace, as the other smith made the opposite mistake and made a sword that was knife hard. It shattered immediately. A claymore is a long metal club with an edge .. it isn't a giant size rapier. They are softer than most swords, and pretty heavy. Swords are not long knives, either, and have to be designed and HTed differently.

The show judges and the winning smith did not understand the relationship between flex and hardness ... there isn't any. He re-did the HT because his blade had too much flex. Flex is a product of geometry - primarily thickness. Hardness has nothing to do with it. The hardness determines whether it bends or breaks, but not how it flexes.
 
The show did little to promote the art of knife making. It was more a reality show than something I see as instructional and promotional for knife makers.

The task of making a Claymore in 5 days and then hacking a hog in half would be daunting for the most experienced smith. I felt more embarrassment than anything.

Fred
 
If I heard right, these guys only got four days because of thanksgiving. That's a lot of sword in four days

Fred.Rowe said:
The show did little to promote the art of knife making. It was more a reality show than something I see as instructional and promotional for knife makers.

The task of making a Claymore in 5 days and then hacking a hog in half would be daunting for the most experienced smith. I felt more embarrassment than anything.

Fred
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The only way for either of these smiths to have accomplished the goal, the Claymore, would to have addressed the heat treat issue first off. Both needed a way to harden a 39 inch blade with a fire long enough to heat and then temper it which takes a BIG oven or a good deal of knowledge with a torch, not easy. Without this, for thought, failure was on the horizon for both men.
If the goal is for the show to both challenge the smiths and be successful as well, the show's directors should have seen this coming. Seeing the winner use his boot to straighten the soft blade and then slice the bag and hold his hand up in victory was painful to this smith. The bag could have been sliced with a soup can lid, no sword needed.
Most of us on hear had some idea of what was involved to pull this off; people just tuning in to the show to be inspired by blade smiths were, no doubt, disappointed or worse tended to view the show as a cruel comedy; which I don't want to happen.

Most smiths on here take great pride in what they do and the skills they have mastered. I could have had a masters degree along with a doctorate in the time I have invested in blade smithing. When someone apprentices at my shop they leave here with that same reverence for the art itself and they under stand what it takes to be successful.
Lets try to keep this at the top of the list when working at the forge. This is something you should take great pride in; it will show in your knives.

Fred Rowe - - Bethel Ridge Forge
 
I gotta say, this episode gave me a little bit of anxiety... hahaha

I'll give the first smith (to leave) some credit for keeping with it to the end, though I think some time around the 3rd time I drop a bar, I'm probably going to look for a new way to hold it. Weld some rebar on the end for crying out loud. Edit: oh yeah... No electricity. Still, grab a different pair of tongs.

I also had a good laugh when everybody started freaking out after the smith lit that torch. "What's he doing?! He's quenching again?!!!...... oh, he's charring the handle." :D

The last three smiths all had one thing in common: Poor heat treat. Now, I know it's hard to tell in daylight and on camera, but both times the winning smith quenched his claymore the steel didn't look quite hot enough. I'd say neither smith did any testing of their blades before the show, and that somewhat boggles my mind. There had to be some indication that the winning blade was gonna take a set.
I think just flexing each sword after heat treat would have told both makers quite a lot. I'm surprised that wasn't actually one of the tests on the show, although maybe it would have been had either sword passed the first test even remotely. I did notice that they didn't give an overview of the upcoming tests like they normally do, so chances are they changed a few things around given the initial test results.
 
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Seemed to me like the losing claymore was very rapier like, and probably not tempered properly. I had big hopes after Salem's episode, but this one really took a step backward.
 
I agree this episode took a step back for me, they pushed it to far. I liked the coal forge idea but don't give them a big round hunk of steel give them a bar of steel to help them out but Scott did do a heck of a job shaping his.
How would you temper a blade that long?
 
Totally agree. I was really looking forward to the Claymore, being of scottish descent, it has a special place in my heart. The entire show was a bit of a let down, there really isn't anything entertaining in throwing a blademaker who has never used coal into a coal only situation. There's been a billion pages of discussion on the merits of coal vs propane, etc. As far as the tests, the cutting of sandbags is getting kinda silly. I think they'd do better with the show to base the testing around the ACTUAL ABS tests. This is by far, more enjoyable to watch than last night's show. [video=youtube;nqlce5_NvCM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqlce5_NvCM[/video]
 
Fred.Rowe said:
Fred,

The goal of the show is to get ratings and sell advertisement. It just so happens to be a extreme contest for bladesmiths. This really is no different then when some of the top chefs do the cooking challenges. Even some of the best chefs in the world buckle under the contest.

The show is very popular, many people are talking about it who are not knife enthusiast, but they are fans of the show.

I think the show is great, best knifemaking competition show on TV!
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This was a prime example of what Ive mentioned before..A sword is not just a big knife, the heat treat and geometry are different. There were a couple accomplished sword makers on season one. They had salt pots and other equipment set up to heat treat swords..
These boys would have been better off making a fast and dirty sword length charcoal forge to heat treat in than using a regular gasser. It would have been better for the temper for sure..
Not knocking them at all because they wee clearly outside their wheelhouse on this one..It was painful to watch those heat treat failures. I felt bad for them..
 
With all the smoke they had going on in there, I would have coughed up a lung and died on the spot.


I was surprised by how fast they had to crank the blowers.
The one I have used was geared way high and turned slow.


I wonder if the winner just used stock he had.
It seems to me I would have wanted to start with thicker stock and taper it instead of being so thin and flexy.
 
12345678910 said:
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I was surprised by how fast they had to crank the blowers.
The one I have used was geared way high and turned slow.

.
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Im guessing those are a new import, all older blowers(and Ive used a bunch of them) are like you mentioned. Much lower geared, less work.
 
Splitting a nail?!? Maybe I'm using a knife wrong....but I typically don't use my knives to cut nails..
 
I felt a little bit disappointed with this episode... I think the challenge they gave them was a little too much, and the contestants weren't able to show their talent. Also neither of the finals weapons performed well... kind of disappointing
 
I really think they should give just a bit of bio on the smiths, maybe a small sampling of their work to show what they are capable of...Ive seen some I know for damn sure are capable of beautiful work but were only able to produce a pointed object on the show due to one thing or another..
 
Kentucky said:
I really think they should give just a bit of bio on the smiths, maybe a small sampling of their work to show what they are capable of...Ive seen some I know for damn sure are capable of beautiful work but were only able to produce a pointed object on the show due to one thing or another..
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At the very least they could print the last name on the TV, and maybe show it a couple more times throughout. Unfortunately, I don't think this show is really about the smiths as much as it is grabbing some ratings for the network and entertaining the masses with challenges and competition.
 
AVigil said:
Fred,

The goal of the show is to get ratings and sell advertisement. It just so happens to be a extreme contest for bladesmiths. This really is no different then when some of the top chefs do the cooking challenges. Even some of the best chefs in the world buckle under the contest.

The show is very popular, many people are talking about it who are not knife enthusiast, but they are fans of the show.

I think the show is great, best knifemaking competition show on TV!
Click to expand...

Hi Adam,

I never thought of that. Ratings and advertising. You don't think they would have been distressed, if one of the smiths set himself ablaze when the quenchant exceeded flash point and one of the judges, I figure the martial expert, had to extinguish him with a well thrown tarp, followed by copious quantities of water?

I swore off reality TV when I came across this show where a 30 something mother put her twelve year old daughter inside a glass cube and the cube was filled to the little girls neck with Madagascar cockroaches, those big 2 inch suckers. They did this for money, sadly.

I think I just have a jaded attitude is all.

Thanks for the post, Fred
 
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