"Forged In Fire" on TV: Any thoughts?

353 said:
Well my first thought was this; I’ve never even heard of a show called «Forged In Fier». 🧐
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How I imagine "Forged in Fieri"

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I made my first few knives via stock removal in ‘14 and my forge in ‘15 the same time the show began to air. It’s an entertaining enough competition show, especially if you don’t know a lot about knife making. You have got to be able to dismiss things or suspend belief enough for the sake of entertainment or you’ll be the “that guy” who has to point out, that’s not how you do that, fake, you can’t do that, he didn’t reload, etc.......
That’s not entertaining for anyone.

It’s a shame now the round 1 ( forging
portion) gets the least airtime of any segment.
I would love to see a standardized test modeled more after the ABS Juniorsmith or Mastersmith test, with the exception or the 90* flex.
Also I would love to see them exclusively use feral hogs and snake head carp in their animal test and make a mention that these are invasive feral species.
 
I have no interest in forging, but find the show entertaining. It is interesting to see some of the engineering done by the smiths with their finale weapons. The smith who won with his Wind & Fire blades really used some out of the box thinking in his design.
 
I enjoy watching the way people try to move metal, the results, and hearing the judges commentary one why what they're doing should work or not.
 
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I quit watching it years ago when Walter Sorrells' knife was broken on the log by hitting it with the side of the blade. I watched it in slow motion. But they didn't own up to it as far as I'm aware of and give him a chance to make a new knife or something. So, I never watched another episode.
 
It’s an OK show. I don’t watch it religiously every week like I use too. It was much better with Will, the host. And the wife gets annoyed beyond belief when I turn it on 🤣
 
I like the show. Some episodes are better than others, obviously.

I also like how now when I am on the balcony with an angle grinder, wearing a respirator grinding a big chunk of steel people say "Oh, you're making a knife like on Forged in Fire, neat! :) ", rather than thinking "Oh crap, psycho guy is making a weapon to kill us all!!!!!!!" Much better. :thumbsup:

As to what one person said here about it not teaching much, well, if you watch a single episode then yeah, you probably won't learn much.
However, over the years they HAVE shown a lot of different aspects of forging in the shows, and I have actually picked up a few tips. Mostly it was confirmation of things I was already doing, but a couple of times I saw something and it was like "Huh, that is a neat way of doing it. I'll try it out next time."
 
9:00 pm tonight on the History Channel.
Let's see what they come up with; for tonight's challenges...
 
I LOVE the show... It's logged into my DVR queue of shows to record. I'll also record random episodes I've already seen, just to re-watch or have on as background noise. :)

I liked Wil Willis a lot more than Grady Powell. Powell is growing on me, but I don't think he'll ever project the same energy.

Somebody mentioned the spin-off series, "FiF: Knife or Death." I enjoyed that also, but I haven't seen a new episode in ages, so am guessing it got the cancellation hammer? 🤔

Yeah -- these "reality shows" take the competition to a somewhat cartoonish level for broad commercial appeal and added "drama" -- but then, people have been watching pro wrestling for eons... 🙂
 
JFrameV2 said:
I LOVE the show... It's logged into my DVR queue of shows to record. I'll also record random episodes I've already seen, just to re-watch or have on as background noise. :)

I liked Wil Willis a lot more than Grady Powell. Powell is growing on me, but I don't think he'll ever project the same energy.

Somebody mentioned the spin-off series, "FiF: Knife or Death." I enjoyed that also, but I haven't seen a new episode in ages, so am guessing it got the cancellation hammer? 🤔

Yeah -- these "reality shows" take the competition to a somewhat cartoonish level for broad commercial appeal and added "drama" -- but then, people have been watching pro wrestling for eons... 🙂
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Folks kept showing up on KOD with titanium swords and wrecking the sets so yeah done for now. The Big Steel cartel was not amused.
 
Bob Denman said:
9:00 pm tonight on the History Channel.
Let's see what they come up with; for tonight's challenges...
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I believe it's the last of the current Ben Abbot "challenges."

He's won all of them and I'm impressed at the quality of work he can get done against competitors of varying talent in such a short time. If he wins again, it should make him an 8x "winner" on the show.
 
Ben is a good character on the show and I enjoy watching. He has been successful against the people brought in within the show's format.
What surprises me a little is the level of stuff shown on his website (gallery and new products). For those, he has as much time as he wants and settles for pretty modest fit and finish. I don't begrudge him cashing in on his name recognition from the show, but there are several custom makers on this forum that are tiers above that level at a similar price point.
 
I’ve been a farrier for 45 years.
About 4 years ago an apprentice of mine interviewed for the show, sent them pics of his work, and got chosen.
He’s extremely talented and handy.
They flew him out to NY, put him up in a hotel.
When he went on the show, they were to pick from a table of items to make their knife.
Unfortunately he drew last, and was left with a spud wrench.
Must have been a cheap imitation Chinese knock off.
Although he drew out a beautiful knife, no matter what he did, he couldn’t get it to harden.
The judges agreed it was “unhardenable”, but it didn’t matter, he was the first one gone.
He didn’t want to hang around in the bad part of NYC, so he flew himself home to CA.
I believe they are looking for drama. You should have seen all the different ways this kid was trying to harden that knife.
Maybe it was the most educational part of the show. Lol.
As mentioned previously, it has made old anvils scarce and expensive. I’ve got 15, all acquired before the craziness.
 
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