Question for anyone watching forged in fire

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
2,664
HEy guys, as you may know I have been supplying Forged in Fire with handle materials for a little over a month now, and they just put in a new order with me.

I dont watch the show anymore, simply dont have the time. Can anyone who does tell me if they have seen kingwood, cocobolo, African blackwood, or stabilzied wood that DOESNT break on the show?

If so, that was from me!
 
There isn't really a way to know what they are using. They usually say "I'm gonna this stuff. I think its wood"
 
You can watch it online somehow, i havent figured out how to yet, something about if you have cable you can watch it.
 
Honestly 99% of the time thy use micarta.
 
I've only seen a few episodes. From what I've seen wood is just named "wood" not the kind of wood. (Just like horn)
 
I also have noticed that some of the contestants don't seem to know what most handle material is called. They grab a piece of colorful acrylic swirl ( probably Krinite, which is just about the worst material for that competition) and say, "I'm gonna' use this Micarta to do my handle in."
 
I saw one smith use blackwood with rans horn ... but it surprises me how often they pick kirinite or an acrylic and then they break and they act shocked.
 
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Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I also have noticed that some of the contestants don't seem to know what most handle material is called. They grab a piece of colorful acrylic swirl ( probably Krinite, which is just about the worst material for that competition) and say, "I'm gonna' use this Micarta to do my handle in."
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I always wonder if the smoths have just never worked with kirinite and dont know what it is. I think a lot of guys are in the thought process of

Micarta = strong, Micarta = synthetic, therefore synthetic = strong
 
It seems like the ones that go for the micarta know that its a good tough material to used for their knives. Like some of the other posts, some contestants go for the flash look to impress the judges.
 
Often they use an acrylic and while they install it the rest of us are yelling "No, that shit it going to break". It then breaks and they have to use something else.

Sometimes they use some wood, but honestly in that competition the wisest choice is G10 or Micarta.

Label your blocks and they probably will get used more. I bet the staff goes shopping with the selection they have there LOL
 
I've always wondered, are there no corby bolts available on the show? I kinda remember seeing some on ONE knife, but everyone else is gluing and pinning, usually hammering their pins. Then it breaks.
 
Atlas Knife Company said:
I've always wondered, are there no corby bolts available on the show? I kinda remember seeing some on ONE knife, but everyone else is gluing and pinning, usually hammering their pins. Then it breaks.
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Drama. Simple as that. As much as We might like to see it, They dont want to depict professional craftsmen building stuff.
For non-sports competition TV shows to sell to the ignorant masses needs alot of ignorant nonsense content.
 
I don't think I have seen your wood used in an episode yet. Hard to say, but none of the wood used has looked like a nice piece of stabilized wood. It also irritates me when people use brittle, non stabilized wood. I have never seen someone get sent home for selecting a handle material that is more prone to denting/scratching. If I was gonna/forced to use unstabilized wood for the second stage, I may well use something like poplar. It is fast as hell to machine, won't split and if it gets scratched, WHOGAS. There is a lot of terrible material selection and even when it comes to wood selection, people seem to pick things that are the singlarly most likely to fail. I do remember someone picking what I believe to be an unstabilized burl. What?
 
Greenberg Woods said:
.....Can anyone who does tell me if they have seen kingwood, cocobolo, African blackwood, or stabilzied wood that DOESNT break on the show?

If so, that was from me!
Click to expand...

So just to be clear, if we see ANY kingwood, cocobolo, blackwood or stabilized wood that broke on the show, it wasn't from you. And if we see any of those same materials on the show that DON'T break, then they came from you.

Got it.

Glad to know FIF has found a source for handle materials guaranteed not to break. :rolleyes:
 
FWIW my episode was filmed last September and aired this week. I doubt you'll see any of your wood until later this year.
 
Atlas Knife Company said:
I've always wondered, are there no corby bolts available on the show? I kinda remember seeing some on ONE knife, but everyone else is gluing and pinning, usually hammering their pins. Then it breaks.
Click to expand...

They do at least have corby bolts in some shows one smith started to grab them and Wil the host mentioned them but the smith put them back and grabbed a big chunk of wood to burn in the tang.
 
I think the reason so many choose pins is to eliminate the requirement to counter bore.
 
I told my friend to grab micarta and Corby bolts, but he grabbed krinite and pins. Had trouble, broke the acrylic, and then went with wood.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I also have noticed that some of the contestants don't seem to know what most handle material is called. They grab a piece of colorful acrylic swirl ( probably Krinite, which is just about the worst material for that competition) and say, "I'm gonna' use this Micarta to do my handle in."
Click to expand...

I do not ever understand that choice myself. Micarta is such an obvious best- grinds easily, strong, stable. Kirinite is so awful for stress testing and the natural materials are kind of inherently unpredictable. I think the only time I've ever seen micarta fail is one time when someone tried to make a micarta guard for a dagger, which was admittedly not a great choice given the forces it would be exposed to in testing.
 
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