Forged in Fire: on History Channel now. (Blade making competition.)

F

farmboy

Joined
Aug 31, 1999
Messages
731
It might be stupid, but I'm giving it a shot. Maybe it'll be worth the hour I give it.
 
If done as a documentary it might be interesting, but I have lost all faith in History Channel.
 
n9mu8.jpg


:D

I gave up on the History channel and television awhile ago.
 
It's really been pretty good so far. They've gone through design, forging, handle making, and now the steel barrel pierce and the manila rope slice.

It's given me a better understanding what true blade smiths have to go through to build a good blade from scratch.
 
It really wasn't bad. There was some cheesy "bullet test" stuff at the end, but overall, pretty informative.

Basically, they gave them 10 minutes for design, 2 hours for forge and grind, and, I believe it was 1 hour for to finish the handle.

The blade had to be from 9 to 11 1/2", with 4 inches of serration.

They then tested the blades by inspection, manila rope cut, steel barrel perf, and a final inspection. They were then given 5 days to go home to their own shop and build a sword, in this case, i believe it was a a katana.

I'll watch it again next week.
 
I just watched the first episode.

S8W9wkL.gif
 
Very disappointing to me as well. It was 10 minutes to design. 3 hours to forge/blade finish. 3 hours to handle finish and any time left over to more blade finish. The blade had to be between 9 and 11 inches. It had to have at least 4 inches of serrations. Serrations? Really? Anyway, one guy was tapping (fairly gently) the tip of his knife on the vice (or was it an anvil...don't remember), and it broke clean off like nothing. I don't know about you fellas, but my eyesight is VERY good, and even on TV I could see the grain in that blade. And it was very obvious the steel was WAY over heated, the grain was just HUGE, and the four or five cracks also visible along the tip.

My favorite was the guy who won. He seemed to understand thermal cycling and geometry more than the other guys, anyway.

(Don't get me started on the History channel and their alien crap. It used to be solid evolution nonsense. Now it's aliens. So which is it? Neither.)
 
I thought it was great. 10 minutes to design, 3 hours to forge, profile, heat treat then 3 hours to do handle/finish work. Tight on the heat treating time but do-able. Obviously it caters towards people that have experience blacksmithing/heat treating in a forge...probably tempering by torch. Honestly I wish I would have replied to those casting emails after seeing it.

One comment was made was that the cracked blade was salvageable by the guy that made the bowie with the corby bolt handle (one of the judges stated this). I'm not sure how to salvage a cracked blade... I've cracked many many blades from overheating and I never once tried to save them.

Anyway, it is set to record on my DVR for sure.
 
I saw the first episode and was a bit disappointed. I am not sure what I was expecting, but I know that a knife is not a sword and that testing of either should include flexibility and durability. Right from the start, they fail to tell us what the steel is, other than to describe it as "high carbon". What would be so hard about telling the contestants that it is 01 or 1095 or whatever it may have been, do these contestants have to figure out what metal they are working with in addition to making the blade within 3 hours? It is no wonder that the heat treat was hit or miss at best and that two of the four contestants ended up with broken blanks.

I can appreciate the knife content, but the hosts and writers need to step it up a bit to make it relevant and real.

n2s
 
I agree I was disappointed as well, the bullet test was silly, the judges were weak, not telling us the type of steel being used made it less interesting, and the constant reference to their making weapons instead of knives just seemed like they were trying to add some false excitement and drama. The concept is interesting the execution was poor
 
I'm a little happy they didn't spend too much time on details such as blade steel, etc. It would mean nothing to the average person that would be watching the show, and they do have to keep it to an hour. Getting too wrapped up in semantics would have lost viewers in a hurry, I believe. I'm sure they shared the important stuff with the blade smiths in order to allow them the proper physical parameters in design/build.

These blade makers obviously aren't rookies, and the time and design constraints really tend to make a contest out of it. I'm curious to see if any names come up on this show that I may have heard of. I'll be watching next week.
 
"Evolution nonsense?" Really? I don't think evolution and aliens belong in the same theoretical basket. But since this is one of those rare times when opening the door for science inevitably means religion will get a foot in the door and barge in, I'll stop there. To each their own crazy-ass idea.
 
Sikael said:
"Evolution nonsense?" Really? I don't think evolution and aliens belong in the same theoretical basket. But since this is one of those rare times when opening the door for science inevitably means religion will get a foot in the door and barge in, I'll stop there. To each their own crazy-ass idea.
Click to expand...

What?
 
Rappy said:
n9mu8.jpg


:D

I gave up on the History channel and television awhile ago.
Click to expand...
Ha! Good one Rappy:thumbup: That right there pretty much sums it up. Actually compared to the crap thats on tv nowadays it was mildly entertaining but being master smiths you would think they would know how to measure four inches of serrations and have the quench down well enough to prevent giant fractures and such. I dont doubt they had to etch them blades to be able to show them defects for the camera. I expected to see more on the quenching normalizing etc. Not saying I could do any better but obviously it wasnt done to please knife nuts like us. I think it was a spin off of the Big Giant Swords show which I found much more entertaining.
 
Kind of upset that its a competitive reality show, but it's okay. Kind of gives me a Deadliest Warrior vibe. Alone is pretty good, but I really like show The Woodsmen.
 
The steel I'd didn't bother me as I'm sure it happened off camera. I just assumed 1095.

My problem was how they were more focused on knives as weapons than knives as tools. Doesn't really paint knives in a positive light.

Also, I think some kind of disclaimer about how these are extreme conditions and shouldn't be considered representative of their actual skill level would be nice. I could see this show hurting some makers careers if they come across poorly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top