Forged In Fire

I'm not sure how to feel about it. It felt exploitative almost. The only reason I gave it the time of day was because we were promised a legit show with an ABS mastersmith as a judge.

What I saw was 4 guys who were put in a no-win situation whereas three guys could have hurt their careers as knife makers by agreeing to those circumstances knowing they couldn't produce quality. It took about 5 minute of them working to know that the guy who won was going to win.

The other issue is knives were NOT portrayed in a positive light. Every test was a destructive test to show the knife off as a weapon, not as a tool. It was all about destroying, killing, slicing etc.

I'll continue watching and hope it gets better but right now it's just Chopped with knives.
 
It is way better than the Begg Brothers trying to be American Chopper.

It is not as good Man at Arms on Youtube:

[video=youtube;TEktwaAsv_Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEktwaAsv_Y[/video]
 
Scurvy092 said:
It is way better than the Begg Brothers trying to be American Chopper.

It is not as good Man at Arms on Youtube:

[video=youtube;TEktwaAsv_Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEktwaAsv_Y[/video]
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amen to that. I haven't seen forged in fire yet but man at arms is awesome. :D
 
Don, Mark is a friend and Bladesmith from Seattle. He has been to my shop. New maker you will hear about. Gary
 
Originally Posted by gthouse
Anyone ever heard of JD Smith or Markos Mamausi? They will be there.
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Originally Posted by Don Hanson III
It'll be fun watching JD Smith... Never heard of the other guy?
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I'm with Don,

I collect JD Smith knives. He makes great knives and he teaches Bladesmithing at Massachusetts College of Art. He will be worth watching.

I also never heard of Mareko Maumasi.

Hopefully this show will get better and expose more people to custom and forged knives.
 
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guys, it's MAREKO Maumasi, fyi.
this show almost makes me wish I had cable. And a tv. Almost :)
hopefully it'll show up on youtube one day
 
I met Mark and visited with him at the Blade Show. His chef knives are very fine. Nice young man.

It's for this, I hold my judgment till the end. With JD, Mareko, and several others on the show in upcoming weeks, I have hope that things will get better.

I've competed in "Battle of the Bladesmiths" with Matt Parkinson and he was my pick to win the first show just based on what I know of him. Nice guy with a varied set of knife making skills.

I was also notified about being on the show and declined. I'm still glad I declined due to the drama and circus that it promises to become, although I do not fault the ones who decided to participate. There is a chance that some with a discerning eye might see through the concocted drama and actually benefit from any historic or technical exposure, even though I think it will be only slight. I do applaud the participants efforts for trying to do good work under a very difficult, if not impossible, set of circumstances.

In my opinion, show promotion and drama should step aside in favor of enlightenment and education. ( and yes I know that's not going to happen ) Given the opportunity, i.e. working with their choice materials and equipment, any of the 4 participants could have done much better at representing their work and the craft. I like working in more CONTROLLED circumstances. It's hard to MASTER a skill without control.

I will be watching too. :)
 
Quite often my enjoyment of a show like this will dictated by the director's knowledge of the subject matter. Hopefully that knowledge will increase with the following episodes and they will continue to improve the content.


;)I too will watch and hope that overall it turns out to be a positive thing for the forged knife.

Gary
 
I am not a maker, but I feel the exposure will be good for knife making. TV is mostly about entertainment, not education. I would be fascinated to see a show about a person actually taking ore from the earth, turning it into 1095, 01 or the latest super steel, and making a spectacular slip joint, bowie or flipper. I fear most non knife knuts would change the channel after a couple of shovels of dirt were moved.

"You know what they say, 'You don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle.'"- Kramer, in "The Bizarro Jerry"

If an hour show tried to portray how much WORK and detail is involved in knife making, I think the audience size would contract swiftly. The information overload would detract from the "entertainment" aspect of the experience. As it is now, even my wife, who can't stand knives, overheard the show from another room and commented "That's pretty interesting.". (Never fear, she will not start making schlock blades.) By using a reality format to which people are accustomed, at least the craft gets a well deserved moment in the spotlight.
 
Very well stated Lin. The conditions didn't lend a hand to proper bladesmithing. I didn't envy the position of the contestants. I will be watching.

Chris
 
I haven't seen the show yet due to no cable. I'll have to watch them afterwards on-line. I know James Nielson and trust his judgement. One thing they did right was get a ABS Mastersmith as one on the judges.

I was also contacted and declined to participate, I wouldnt be able to handle the travel and high stress as it takes me weeks to months to make a knife.

In coming episodes I'm thinking there will be many subjects covered besides building a killer knife with serrations. Educational channels are interesting but I doubt this is the show for that although from what I've seen on the trailers they do try to tell what goes into a knife. I can see already some half information that will get some newbies in trouble right away, possibly a trip to the ER.

One of my apprentices David Roader made the trip to New York twice and the film crew flew to his shop for a few days for more footage. From what he was allowed to tell me is encouraging. If the show is picked up for another season it could turn out to be an interesting one as everybody settles down and is allowed more time to make better knives. Surely fit and finish will be covered at some point in the coming episodes.
 
The conditions sucked, four three burner forges running flat out with no fans, bright stadium lights, not enough to drink , no breaks. Its hard to adjust to that pace when youre laid back and used to certain conditons. I believe each show has a slightly different set up and is ran a little different, so each week it will be new
 
hardingknives said:
The conditions sucked, four three burner forges running flat out with no fans, bright stadium lights, not enough to drink , no breaks. Its hard to adjust to that pace when youre laid back and used to certain conditons. I believe each show has a slightly different set up and is ran a little different, so each week it will be new
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Maybe I would have been the hit of the show as they cart me off to the ER :)
 
Watched it and I'll continue to watch. I was contacted by a producer a while back and I've been looking forward to seeing who the contestants are...I knew only one of the four on the first episode. I really wonder how accurate the finished TV product was to reality. I know they have to make it TV worthy. I do hope it improves.

Tad
 
Bruce, go on line and look at the current programming line-up for the History Channel, The days of replaying war documentaries, etc are long past. It is no longer an educational channel because those showsdon't get ratings. Pawns Stars, on the other hand, apparently does. ;)
Bruce Bump said:
I haven't seen the show yet due to no cable. I'll have to watch them afterwards on-line. I know James Nielson and trust his judgement. One thing they did right was get a ABS Mastersmith as one on the judges.

I was also contacted and declined to participate, I wouldnt be able to handle the travel and high stress as it takes me weeks to months to make a knife.

In coming episodes I'm thinking there will be many subjects covered besides building a killer knife with serrations. Educational channels are interesting but I doubt this is the show for that although from what I've seen on the trailers they do try to tell what goes into a knife. I can see already some half information that will get some newbies in trouble right away, possibly a trip to the ER.

One of my apprentices David Roader made the trip to New York twice and the film crew flew to his shop for a few days for more footage. From what he was allowed to tell me is encouraging. If the show is picked up for another season it could turn out to be an interesting one as everybody settles down and is allowed more time to make better knives. Surely fit and finish will be covered at some point in the coming episodes.
Click to expand...
 
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