Forged in Fire 

Four custom knife makers compete to make the best usable knife through a series of challenges.

Stars:

Wil Willis, J. Neilson, David Lain Baker

Cast

Series cast summary:
Wil Willis	...	Himself - Host 13 episodes, 2015-2016
J. Neilson	...	Himself - Judge 13 episodes, 2015-2016
David Lain Baker	...	Himself - Judge 13 episodes, 2015-2016
Doug Marcaida	...	Himself - Judge 13 episodes, 2015-2016

Storyline

With a small variety of metal objects to choose their metal from, four new competitors attempt to forge a knife in their own style. In five days, the final pair must create in their own forge a Moro Kris sword, a blade with roots dating back to 300BC, in the season finale of this suspenseful and fiery History Channel series.

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Genres:

Game-Show

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 June 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Forjado a fuego

Company Credits

Production Co:

Outpost Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

42 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Canister damascus challenges are popular for the difficulty of the technique. When the clock is ticking and cameras are rolling contestants often do not or forget to let the white out dry all the way. (honestly cant blame them given the unique circumstances!) This often results in a poor quality surface layer on the new billet and difficulty removing the can. The time it takes to let the white out dry is much less than that of resurfacing a billet and or fighting a canister that is partially welded to your billet.

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Connections

Featured in Too Much TV: Episode #1.16 (2016)

User Reviews

A good show, but mistakes here and there.

It is an interesting show to watch. As a blacksmith myself, I often look out for any footage of blacksmithing, new techniques to learn or, in the case something goes wrong in the video, to help out. I was very pleased with seeing the renewed love for such a craft as blacksmithing, but I believe that this show still doesn't answer some of the crucial problems with modern blacksmithing. First off, a proper piece is a work of art and can take much longer than 6 hours to complete. I understand that it would be difficult to make a show about it were it to be longer than 6 hours, but that is the reality of the trade. It makes viewers think that there is no more than 6 hours in a knife, that's it's easy to make, and that they should expect a pattern-welded hand forged chef knife to cost under 200$-300$. Nonsense.

The second problem I have with the show is that a lot of the crucial steps are skipped over to make place to drama. Tempering your knife after quenching is a must in any knife that you may sell. A lot of techniques are skipped over and it results in either poorly made knives if they skipped tempering, or (if they simply removed the footage) poor informational material.

Third- The tests are HIGHLY inaccurate. They don't really measure anything. They are simply to -Wow- the audience. HRC scale tests could easily distinguish a good knife from a poor one without all this fluff. I understand that would be quite boring, but it actually diverts to the skill of the craftsmen who do create HRC64+ blades, from a blade that simply cuts coconuts.

Lastly, The show mainly presents smiths with a simple test: make a chopping knife, which is nowhere representative of most of the smith's abilities. If a smith specializes in kitchen cutlery, such a knife would never pass half of the tests out there, but could still be considered one of the most marvelous pieces of craftsmanship. I've seen historically accurate-ish of high skill (such as the rapier used as a slashing weapon, or the gladius' round handle) lose to more ergonomic designs. This isn't a representation of the best smithing skills, but of the production of a weapon in order to complete a test most efficiently.

The judges seem not to even know their crap. They should of hired a few true martial arms historians (as most of them specialize in a single field obviously) to distinguish western and eastern weapons. Promoting the Malaysian Kris as a slashing weapon is complete nonsense, as it's blade geometry would actually make it less efficient at slashing, but more efficient at thrusting (something that has been proved many times, however late productions of this weapon have indeed been wider and less curvy to allow for slashing use as well as thrusting). Another very obvious flaw is how The only blacksmith out of the 3 judges suggested etching over a hammon to make it more apparent, where traditionally it would never be done that way ( a etched hammon is simply not a hammon at all)

All-in all, a good show to watch for entertainment, but beware as this isn't reliable information to base off from for your blacksmithing techniques.