Forged In Fire

DevinT said:
I was disappointed that the smiths were expected to re-make a knife from a flawed blade. A couple of good makers lost through no fault of their own.

Hoss
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Yep, I would have liked those two first sent home to be the ones in the end.
 
CUTS LIKE A KRIS said:
Or just use somebody with better blade control. Doug has horrible form for cutting, and despite his FMA background, I feel that he is very lacking in practical cutting experience. Hitting pigs sideways with blades, flopping blades, using them as axes not edges..... Can cut a 1" hemp rope but not a fish- that's operator error!!

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Of course the cloth won't be cut if the side of the blade is contacting clothing....

Doug looks like a cool guy to hang out with and grab a beer, but IMO he is horrible on the show, and how the tests are performed seems to disrespect the edged tools produced. This episode and the claymore one show him attacking like a 5 year old would. If Jay was the one doing all of the testing, I'm sure the results would be much better. Love the show, hate when Doug gets on.
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Yeah I have to agree with that. I don't know what background he has but I notice in the show he was referred to as "locally renowned" once and then "internationally know" the next. For a minute I actually thought "Wow I guess these moves don't look as graceful in real-life" but now I am thinking he's not as much an expert as they would like to believe.

I also think that the way they change the cutting tests serves no purpose. Cutting through jumper cables? I was happy in one episode to see them following American bladesmiths tests, and then in another they used tatami mats. Each tests different aspects and should be the standard tests, especially if their expert isn't up to performing the cutting tasks they want.
 
Doug runs some big self defense school.

Teaches people to fit with a baseball cap...

[video=youtube;koapz15Jo0Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koapz15Jo0Y[/video]

or a magazine Bourne style haha

[video=youtube;clNsmqHE8p8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clNsmqHE8p8[/video]
 
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Don't forget that television is spectacle, it's a show, and none of it is real. No disrespect intended toward the participants but that's why they are hired as actors and sign a NDA. I enjoy watching the struggle of making something useful from less than optimum steel and I don't doubt the sweat is real but the tests are showmanship.
 
Amateur is spelled wrong in the screen cap, lol.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I have noticed through out this threads complaints about the way the show is run, is there a way to contact the show and tell them, they can't think of everything. I was in a group one time about a popular challenge show and some people tried to pass on ideas to the show but they could not be contacted. is there a facebook page
 
rustyboy said:
[video]https://youtu.be/MCWMNhzVSyU[/video]
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I hadn't seen these deliberations before, they should be part of the show. If they didn't repeat what happened before the commercial break, after the commercial break, they would have enough time.



kokoek9 said:
I have noticed through out this threads complaints about the way the show is run, is there a way to contact the show and tell them, they can't think of everything. I was in a group one time about a popular challenge show and some people tried to pass on ideas to the show but they could not be contacted. is there a facebook page
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Your best bet these days is probably twitter.
 
hardingknives said:
The lighting on set is so bright, those of us that work in purposely dim lit shops have a hard time judging heat color, also the tv color spectrum makes everything look a few shades off . Yes its very real
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I'm sure that's true, but I have to wonder what happened with the spiked shield episode. You had two professional armorers who made it to the final, and by sheer coincidence, the challenge piece happened to be armor.

Wouldn't everyone here be irritated beyond belief if Burt went up against Illya and had to forge a spiked shield?
 
Just watched last night the latest FIF and after having seen all before and now two after Burt, the others are disappointing. I don't think that Burt would have any difficulty in winning a combat among anyone so are in any genre he would be asked to make. It would be interesting to see more ABS MS makers join the contest and battle one another. Would be nice to see the "at home" portion to be to create a knife that would be offered at Blade as an "art" quality piece and then put that knife through some of the same tests as for sure we "art knife" collectors would never use something we would hope to sell in the future when our time of enjoying the piece as passed its "best before date".
 
I must have missed their names as often the full name is not clear when spoken and I don't recognize everyone and unfortunately, the surnames are not printed and no reference is made. I don't recall all the winners but did note that some of the makers I am familiar with did not make it thru to the final round while a couple who I am familiar with were winners. Would love to see the Van Helsing test out as I love that piece. I just think it would be neat to see that quality of knife be what is done in the 5 days and then tested as those of us that love to collect works of art never get to see what the capabilities of the piece is as a tool. I sure would not be hacking with the VH if I were to own it so I just have to enjoy the photo of it.
 
It is EXTREMELY annoying that they only reference the surnames at the beginning of the show..
 
Watched an episode of Iron and Fire about making the Bowie, don't bother with it. Long on scripted and fake, short on making stuff.
 
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AGREED! It has bothered pretty much every maker who has participated in the show that our last names aren't included, or if they would have showed examples of our previous work in the opener to give the public a better idea of what the knives and tools we make can truly be. My hope is that as the show goes on it will continue to improve, I did hear they just started casting for the third season though so perhaps they will make some of those changes.
 
That bungee cord test looked pretty bad. I didn't bother rewinding but the first sword looked like it bounced back and hit Doug's arm.

If so, he's lucky he didn't test the sharper sword first. I noticed he changed his swing motion the second time around so he wouldn't chop his own arm off on the rebound. :eek:
 
I think they try to down play the JS and MS people on the show so it doesn't steal any of Jay's thunder.
 
There are a few guys at my work who watch the show, they know nothing about knife making except what I've told them. I am constantly hearing how the people on the show "suck" on account of the editing of the show. I keep trying to explain that a number of these "sucky" smiths actually have as much or more experience as the judges but they just won't listen. They see a mistake and think "well a pro wouldn't do that", without considering the thousand other factors involved, like the lighting, or the fact that they are being filmed, or not knowing what steel they have, they fit 6 hours into 30 minutes, Doug's sloppy cutting, or a million other things. It's rather annoying and I'd rather not talk about the show with them.
 
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