Forged in Fire

kamagong

kamagong

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Jan 13, 2001
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Anyone watch this show on the History Channel? Yesterday's episode involved the finalists having to make a khukuri. They had five days to design and craft a khukuri in their home forges. The knives submitted for the competition make the emphatic point that the kamis from BirGorkha do incredible work in fairly primitive conditions.
 
I watch it. My 6 year old was pretending to forge a sword yesterday. Both my boys were suddenly interested in the home make knife I made. Especially that I heat treated it in charcoal, and quenched it in oil!!!

I'm going to have to get some thinner steel and have them make text own. (My 5160 is 1/4 thick, which is a pretty hefty knife, and a lot of steel to remove with my very limited tools!
 
I watched the show. The sample khukuri that the producers showed to the contestants was a beauty, with two deep fullers on each side. However, the two khukuris that the contestants made were disappointing. They were both pretty rough and had no fullers. Neither one had a graceful curve to the spine and the losing blade was just a downward curved knife, hardly deserving to be called a khukuri. Needless to say they were not differentially hardened.

The contestants didn't pay enough attention to the distinctive shape of a khukuri, and their "fit and finish" were pretty poor. One of them kept referring to it as a "sword," which suggested to me that he didn't really understand the blade that he was making, and this showed in his results.

I've watched all episodes of this show and have seen competitors make some really nice blades, so this was not typical. Whether it reflected the skill level of these two individuals or their unfamiliarity with the khukuri, I don't know. They had five days for the challenge, and probably should have spent the first few hours studying photos of khukuris, rather than jumping right in to working with the steel (at least that's all we saw on the show).
 
I watched it, it was a great episode. Unfortunately, I don't believe they'd find gainful employment at HI, at least not for long. Bura would burst and cool, calm and collected Pala might have a thing or two unpleasantries to share about the quality. They gave it a go, certainly better than anything I could produce so, I guess I've got no room to talk. The ended up rather large. To me, the one looked similar to a Sirupati and the other a Hanshee. I called the winner of the cutting test right off the bat.
 
I watch the series, have not seen that particular show yet. Will have to "catch up" this weekend. Making a good Khuk isn't as easy as the "fairly primitive conditions" at BirGorkha make it seem. There is a reason there are a LOT of Nepali kamis who make stuff that doesn't meet Pala or Auntie's standards. We are kind of spoiled by the talent we have access to through HI.
 
The female competitor should have gone on to the final challenge. The very tip of her knife broke during the penetration challenge, but it still worked. The handle was bad, but it was still a handle. She fulfilled the technical requirements of the challenge and both tests.

One of the guys had a knife that completely failed the cut test. It didn't work at all. His knife was nicer, but he didn't pass one of the tests. He should have been sent home.

Though I usually agree with them, they really screwed up on this one. It made me lose some respect for them.
 
pickin_grinnin said:
The female competitor should have gone on to the final challenge. The very tip of her knife broke during the penetration challenge, but it still worked. The handle was bad, but it was still a handle. She fulfilled the technical requirements of the challenge and both tests.

One of the guys had a knife that completely failed the cut test. It didn't work at all. His knife was nicer, but he didn't pass one of the tests. He should have been sent home.

Though I usually agree with them, they really screwed up on this one. It made me lose some respect for them.
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I thought the same thing. Also, the guy whose knife failed the cut test went on to produce a terrible "khukuri" which also failed its cut test.

In my opinion both of the final khukuris not only would not meet HI standards, but would not meet the standards of any Nepali kami. That's a shame because in other episodes the blademakers have produced some really fine Viking swords, war hammers and other weaponry, including some pretty exotic items. Like this Egyptian Kopesh:

View attachment 624168

There's a lot of interesting commentary by the show's expert judges, about how to work steel, etc. There's also "commercialism" that seems to be appealing to the blood-and-guts viewer segment of the audience. Like when the "edged weapons expert" tests the cutting ability of a blade and says with a leer, "This knife will keel." Big deal. A person could be "keeled" with a crowbar, or by falling down the stairs or crossing the street without looking both ways.

Added later: In the first half of each weekly episode the competitors are given 3 hours to make a knife "of your own signature design," subject to size constraints. Then the knives are put to various tests of strength, hardness, sharpness, etc. It's not clear whether the competitors are told ahead of time what the tests will be. Sometimes I get the impression that they are told but don't always listen. In two examples from different weeks the tests included chopping and slashing. One competitor made a dagger that looked very nice but obviously couldn't chop well at all. Another competitor made a push dagger that wouldn't be much good for chopping or slashing, especially with the crude handle that he put on it. Both were eliminated. Even a layman could see ahead of time that these blades were designed almost exclusively for stabbing and would be at an enormous disadvantage in any other kind of test.
 
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I was disappointed with the Khukuri episode, was funny to see the one guy keep trying to do a 3 piece construction.
 
I just got to watch this episode. If interested, you can watch it on the History Channel’s website if you miss it on TV.

Here is the model they were shown on which to base their entries:

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And here are the two “kukris” that they were able to pound and grind out after five days’ work in their respective shops:

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Neither one was differentially hardened, both grips are painful looking, and the weight of each must be quite considerable.
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The tests were a bit softer than I’ve come to expect from the series - cutting sugar cane instead of bamboo?

Spoiler alert - FWIW, Jason’s kukri was the winner.

Not the best episode of the series I’ve seen by any means, but still interesting if only for the subject matter.
 
It's an interesting show. They seem to have a mixed bag of experience/talent, but they match up the competitors pretty well. One show will have four folks who seem a little newer to the craft, and then a show that has four who are a little more seasoned. I imagine this will result in some less than impressive episodes, but at least the competition part of it will be a fairly level playing field...
 
Yeah, I have been enjoying most of the episodes. As was mentioned earlier, I think the gal in the Khuk episode should have been one of the finalists. her knife was at least a usable blade that passed all the tests. The guy who made the blade that couldn't cut...well a knife that can't cut is NOT a knife, it is a paper weight.
 
I say we nominate Bookie for an episode. I think we'd have an instant winner even if only by handsomeness alone.
 
i watched some of the episodes on youtube. painful.

not only were the contestants poor, but the judges were as well. if they were experts, i pity y'all. tests on cow-bone and car hood & armour penetration are sword/knife abuse not a valid test media. ballistic gel is not flesh, fine for testing firearms but doesn't cut realisticly. butted mail? it's nert to impossible to thrust thru riveted mail that was actually used, butted mail is a modern affectation use only for parades, and only slightly better than no armour. heck, it's hard to slice/poke thru a padded gambesons, always worn under mail, without mail.chopping butted or even riveted mail on a hard unyeilding surface is a lso invalid. pig bone is a better approximation of humans...and on and on...

if the kamis took 5 days to make a poor khukri HI would be out of business in 5 days. rapiers did not have to cut, some early ones did, but failing to cut while penetrating well are not valid tests to fail a blade on. and rapiers WERE heavy, heavy as any other sword. they had long blades and the pommels were heavy to compensate. hacking dry seasoned brush and branches with a knife/sword also abuse. in general all their tests were abuse. they seemed to not mind cracks from poor heat treatment or abuse as long as they were hidden (fixed as they commented a few times) in the next round, some broke therefore... gack! the gladii turned out fairly well, then they abused them. their 'history' of the swords/knives they had 5 days to duplicate was also laughable as were the size limits they set.

they failed some that should have passed and passed some that should have failed.

all in all a badly designed & set up show that could have been much better.

bookie could beat all of them, contestants AND judges. heck, i possibly could and i've never been near a forge...
 
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J W Bensinger said:
I got an invite-I guess I should probably watch the darn show before I make any decisions.
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see https://www.youtube.com/results?q=forged+in+fire

youtube ones are a pain because they split the episodes up into sections that may not be in order & you have to find the bits to see the whole thing. but they ARE free. if you have the history channel on tv. or over the interweb you may be able to see the whole episodes.

this looks like a better link: http://www.history.com/shows/forged-in-fire if you are on cable
 
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