Yelling at the tv - forged in fire

JTknives said:
Well I was able to sit down and watch session 5 episode 1 and I have never yelled at the tv as much as I did tonight. I won’t spoil it for others that have not seen it yet but wow. Every time I yelled don’t do that becaus, ohhhh yeah that. My wife was very impressed with my 100% accurate predictions of the outcomes moments befor thy happened. This is a good epasode on what not to do. It includes all the the areas of things to watch out for. Like what materials you should not try and forge weld together. And VERY real safety violations I’m surprised where alowed to unfold. Then toss in some heat treating stupidity that is very easy to catch right befor things go down south.

So I recommend watching it and coming back here so we can have a chat. Don’t get me wrong I really do LOVE forged in fire.

PS don’t throw things at the tv, JT
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They should do back ground checks and IQ tests so they don't have to give out a Darwin Award.
 
Rick Marchand said:
I did some interviews in the beginning and then the closed it off to US Residents only. There was an International Episode but alas, no Canadians. There was talk of a Canadian Version called "Masters of the North". I did a couple online interviews for that one, too. I guess it never took off, eh?
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You might want to stop by the political Forum here and we can discuss this Canadian Discrimination, Eh?
 
I love Forged in Fire. I'm not a bladesmith, nor do I ever envision myself doing any forging. But I would like to assemble a few kits for fun. As a firearms manufacturer/ gunsmith, I see a LOT of safety violations that just make me cringe. Still, I think the show is brilliant.
 
Speaking of yelling at the TV, the latest episode hurt to watch. Watching him build off of that rake handle with grain 30 degrees out of alignment with the shaft killed me.
 
Yep, for all the really nice work he did on the blade that handle wasn't so good. I wondered about the rake handle, then figured he looked at grain closely but guess he didn't.
 
Since I watched that I've been thinking, what would I use ?

There's a lumber yard an hour + away that has some nice maple.

Bamboo would probably hold up, but no idea where I'd find it.
 
Yeah that really sucked for him. I think he would have won hands down if the POS rake handle had not failed. I was seriously questioning the heat treat of the other guys Thing-a-ma-bob.
 
12345678910 said:
Since I watched that I've been thinking, what would I use ?

There's a lumber yard an hour + away that has some nice maple.

Bamboo would probably hold up, but no idea where I'd find it.
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I would go to my local cabinet shop, get whatever piece of Oak, Hickory, Maple, or Ash that had the straightest grain. While there, I would have him turn it down on the lathe and I'd be set.
No matter what I used, I would TEST it before I left for filming the final segment.
 
The contrast on my TV was such that the grain pattern stood out like a sore thumb as he was saying how strong it was. The funny thing is that while the other competitors spear had a nice straight grained handle, his tang construction and lack of banding/ferrule created a failure point too. It is lucky that he didn't have a stress test with a major percussive load on the blade. Also his HT was sketchy as hell.

I would have gone with hickory as my 1st choice, ash as my 2nd, any other GRAIN ALIGNED tough hardwood as third. I thought it was funny as he mentioned being a machinist. I thought it was quite an appropriate mistake for a machinist to make, assuming that grain orientation wouldn't be a big deal (I say this with a couple of buddies who are machinists and neither have a great degree of knowledge of or respect for wood).
 
But if you look at how it snapped it did not snap along the grain. It looked like it snapped off 90° to the handle.
 
JTknives said:
But if you look at how it snapped it did not snap along the grain. It looked like it snapped off 90° to the handle.
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I will have to rewatch, but when i saw it, it looked like it broke with the grain to a large extent. But all the crack has to do is start from there, it may break with the grain or not. Either way, all of the stress gets concentrated in the (now) thinnest/weakest section.
 
Heck the way the guy was beating on it to get the rake head off of the handle probably cracked it to begin with. He should have just cut down a nice hickory sapling and used it. That's what the other guys handle looked like. It seemed like the guy with the broken handle was trying to cut corners to me and it cost him big time. Well hopefully the winner will be able to buy some much needed equipment/tools for a nice new forge.
 
I watched him pick the rake and beat off the end and was saying WTF? to myself. Too thin, too dry, too weak. Who hasn't broken a shovel/rake /hoe handle in use?

Years back, I ripped an 8' plank of 6/4 ash into 1.5X1.5 strips to have in the shop just for such tasks. It makes great high impact handles for pole arms and axes.
 
The only time I ever broke an ash handle was a broad axe with a 36" handle. I shaped it too curved and thin at the curve. It broke along the grain at the curve. We were wailing on a 2X4 when that happened.
 
Just watched the Jumonji Yari episode. Fuad definitely owned the friction folder build, and was obviously the better craftsman by a mile. I think the "cosmic lesson" he learned is that it doesn't pay to cut corners. He was looking for a quick and cheap fix, and it came back to bite him. Still, it was a very nice piece, minus the handle.
 
Geoff Flato said:
I'd have bought a plank of ash. Seems a bit more "springy" than hickory, if anything it might be better for this.
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Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
The only time I ever broke an ash handle was a broad axe with a 36" handle. I shaped it too curved and thin at the curve. It broke along the grain at the curve. We were wailing on a 2X4 when that happened.
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If I'm not mistaken, the rake handle was made of ash.

At any rate, these handles are milled by the thousands, and the grain in the final piece can be somewhat of a crap shoot. It was hard to tell by looking at the video, looks like the grain may have been oriented 90 degrees off from the blade, as opposed to parallel with it, where it may have stood a better chance.
 
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