Thoughts on Forged in fire

[ctaylorjr]

I think that Jeff's hammer looked spectacular. With 5 days to finish it, you can't fault him for adding the rams head flourish. It also looked like it performed well in the tests.

If he had fastened his langets with screws and epoxy, I'm sure they would not have fallen off. Also, if the handle was a little smaller I'm sure it could have been wielded with 1 hand. I think that would've given him a better chance at winning the competition.

That said, Craig's knife and hammer were spectacular. A great start to season 2!

My wife has been out in the shop with me on and off over the years messing with welding and grinding, but last night after seeing the lady smith on there, she decided that she too could forge. I may be in for trouble when the shop is finally rebuilt!

 

[Tom Lewis]

I thought last nights show was better than last years. They seemed to have more equipment for the Smiths to work with like the air hammer. One of the Smiths was disqualified in the first round because they tested his blade with a file and found it to be soft. Did they test all the other blades with a file also?
I thought the best Smith won.

 

[john april]

i think they tested his particular blade because it looked like it was not up to temprature when he quenched it. it was a good show !

 

[Jesse Latham]

I liked that the testing parameters were given at the start of the design time.

 

[12345678910]

I thought last nights show was better than last years. They seemed to have more equipment for the Smiths to work with like the air hammer. One of the Smiths was disqualified in the first round because they tested his blade with a file and found it to be soft. Did they test all the other blades with a file also?
I thought the best Smith won.

I saw a Bridgeport type mill hiding in the shadows.
It's a good sign that either they are investing $ in a better setup, or able to attract advertizing sponsers.

 

[12345678910]

I think that Jeff's hammer looked spectacular. With 5 days to finish it, you can't fault him for adding the rams head flourish. It also looked like it performed well in the tests.

If he had fastened his langets with screws and epoxy, I'm sure they would not have fallen off. Also, if the handle was a little smaller I'm sure it could have been wielded with 1 hand. I think that would've given him a better chance at winning the competition.

I saw thowe crappy wood screws and wondered how that would work out.
I was thinking through holes and peened pins might have help up better and matched the overall look better than a couple of slot head screws.

 

[jdm61]

Tell that to the Brits. You can't list a knife for sale as a "fighter" on British Blades forum for fear of running afoul of the law or the press. The owner of the forum did not institute that rule out of some personal sense of political correctness.

Sounds like you and jdm are both part of the crowd creating the problem. Who gives a damn about PC? only sissy's

 

[S.Alexander]

I saw thowe crappy wood screws and wondered how that would work out.
I was thinking through holes and peened pins might have help up better and matched the overall look better than a couple of slot head screws.

You're right of course. Peened pins would have looked great. Didnt he use nails? I can't remember now.

 

[aarongb]

You're right of course. Peened pins would have looked great. Didnt he use nails? I can't remember now.

Upholstery tacks. Both of the hammers were beautiful, but Jeff lost me with the cosmetic langets. All of that thought and work that went into that piece, and he lamed out probably to fit the appearance parameters.

 

[JTknives]

Watched it last night, was funny becaus just a few weeks ago wife and I where talking about if a girl will ever be on the show.
I wanted to see someone whip out a magnet. When he pulled the blade out of the forge to quench I was yelling no not yet it's not hot enough. But lighting plays tricks on actual heat color so without a magnet I think your scrued. Did thy do any tempering, if so he could have tempered it to much.

Other then that I though it was good. I loved the Rams head but I think jeffs hammer was VERY clean on fit and finish.

 

[bodog]

I think the right guy won. They should have tried skating a file on all the knives instead of just one. I was yelling at the TV that the ice cutting challenge is inherently unfair as the knife can skip off with a better blade screwing the edge up while the worse knife didn't. The rope after the first cut with the first knife looked far slacker than the other two knives.

Even with the screwed up tests which made me think the guy was going to lose, the woman's knife passed all the tests and the guy's didn't but she still failed and he won.

I like the produced pieces but I couldn't stop thinking about how the tests were set up for failure and even then, a person completing each test still failed while someone who failed a test won the final. It left me scratching my head as to who should've been the winner.

Having said all that, the winning hammer was beautiful and compared to the other one seemed to perform better. I just wonder if it should've been made to begin with.

 

[Drew Riley]

Watched it last night, was funny becaus just a few weeks ago wife and I where talking about if a girl will ever be on the show.
I wanted to see someone whip out a magnet. When he pulled the blade out of the forge to quench I was yelling no not yet it's not hot enough. But lighting plays tricks on actual heat color so without a magnet I think your scrued. Did thy do any tempering, if so he could have tempered it to much.

Other then that I though it was good. I loved the Rams head but I think jeffs hammer was VERY clean on fit and finish.

IIRC from some discussion of last season, the tempering and final heat treat steps are basically done off camera, and not included within the time limit.

 

[Spucknit]

Watched it last night, was funny becaus just a few weeks ago wife and I where talking about if a girl will ever be on the show.
I wanted to see someone whip out a magnet. When he pulled the blade out of the forge to quench I was yelling no not yet it's not hot enough. But lighting plays tricks on actual heat color so without a magnet I think your scrued. Did thy do any tempering, if so he could have tempered it to much.

Other then that I though it was good. I loved the Rams head but I think jeffs hammer was VERY clean on fit and finish.

I was thinking the same thing. My knowledge of heat treatment is limited at best, but one thing that I thought every one on the show would be using would be a magnet. With no other way to measure temp of the steel coming out of the forge why wouldn't they all be using magnets? Especially with those bright lights. Even if someone was confident that they knew the temp based on the color, wouldn't those studio lights throw that off? Maybe they just are not showing some of the steps that I would expect to see, because they think they arent necessary in limited number of minutes of air time. In any case I love the show. I paticuallry like the mistakes. Now I feel a bit better about my mine.

 

[JTknives]

I watched it agian today while eating lunch and don't know if I agree with eliminating him just because the file did not skate. I loved seeing the girl on the show and hope more join the craft but I bet his knife would have done well. I think if thy are going to do a hardness test then it should be an actual test with a RC tester. It could be 55rc and file easily but chopped nicly. I would think skating a file on a big chopper would actualy be a negitave in turns of being brittle.
I think she did well but was out of her comfort zone and her fit and finish was lacking.

 

[VaughnT]

Watched it and was glad with how things panned out. The theatrics of the show really annoy me and I find they take away from the overall quality of the program. I don't mind testing the products, but do it in a manner that's consistent and understandable.

As was noted earlier, I would have sworn the rope used for the first knife was significantly more slack than the ropes used for the second two. And because there's a guy in the mix, none of the tests could be said to have been fair and even. The judge even mentioned that the chic's knife had "no edge" for a significant portion of the blade, yet it was somehow able to slice through that rope when a fully-sharpened blade didn't? Seems like a frickin' miracle to me.

The best part was watching the hammer fly apart. I realize the little plates were just ornamental, but I thought it was a great teaching moment. Just like last year, you had a guy opt for cheap ornamentation that wasn't historically correct, and it cost him ten thousand dollars. The winner didn't need to use damascus, but he also didn't do it to the detriment of the overall piece. Even though he had a slight delamination after the block wall, the fact that the overall piece was done to such a high standard of fit and finish really sealed his victory. All that time spent making silly horns when he could have been focusing on the parts that make it function, then slapping on some chintzy langlets with upholstery tacks.... ugh!

 

[bodog]

I think the judges shouldn't know whose knife they're judging until after they're done with the tests. Obviously the judges shouldn't watch the knives being made. All knives get tested the same way. I see them pull punches with certain people's knives, like Murray Carter, for instance. Or at least they tiptoe around issues.

Maybe have a person watching the contestants making the knives for obvious safety issues but that person cannot report to the judges about who made what, only that a certain knife may not be safe to use. Let the judges figure out which knife that is.

And if they're going to cut ice, maybe they should use a new block of ice for each cut and use something mechanical with a predetermined amount of force for each cut like they did in season 1 with the swords.

And the ropes should be pulled taut using some kind of force gauge so they know that the ropes aren't slacker for one person than another.

And they definitely should not let a person grab a mostly made billet from someone else after the time has started.

I still wish they'd show some finished pieces that the smiths made outside of the competition.

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

My wife just watched it with me and my son, Graham. She couldn't understand how the hammer that won all the tests ended up losing. I tried to explain it to her, and he tried also, but we both failed miserably.

Uh, yeah, those were the most scientifically controlled rope cutting and ice chopping tests I've ever seen. Still, after arguably losing every test, the right maker won the money. Hard to explain to my wife, but I was happy.

 

[AVigil]

Uh, yeah, those were the most scientifically controlled rope cutting and ice chopping tests I've ever seen. Still, after arguably losing every test, the right maker won the money. Hard to explain to my wife, but I was happy.

My wife also thought it was a bit shady in the judging and she was surprised the hammer with a delamination won but they told the guy the little strips that fell off was one of the reasons he lost...lol

 

[bodog]

Is it a good thing to let the smiths work on a piece at their home forges? Not everyone has the right equipment to make some of the crazy pieces they call for. The ones with the proper equipment have a leg up. It'd be nice to see what would happen if the two finalists had access to all the equipment they could need to make the piece. It'd be hard to find people with all the equipment necessary to make a 5 foot long broadsword.

Or, for instance, the dude running out of oxygen for his welder. I wonder what how much more he could've done had he not had to wait a day or two for more. Or Murray Carter not having a forge long enough for a sword. Or that dude who forged pieces in a satellite dish. He would've been severely screwed had they asked for a fine rapier. Instead he got lucky and made a tiny axe head and stuck a handle on it and won.

I'd like to see them focus a little more on the tool aspect instead of just making weapons. Hell, I'd like to see them give the smiths a full day to work on more complicated pieces instead of three hours to make something crude.

Make some integral bolsters. Start calling for different damascus patterns. Make some fine kitchen knives. Forge some known high alloy steels. Forge some scalpels to extremely tight tolerances. Make some different pocket knives. Do some rope cutting competitions instead of the regular brute force testing. Break some blades and examine grain structure.

There's a lot they can do aside showing what people can do with junkyard steel. That seems to be the bulk of the episodes so far and probably casts an unfair light on some of these smiths who work with good, known steel.

 

[Adavis]

While the show isn't teaching anyone how to make a proper blade, it has piqued my interest in the craft and I'm joining a local club to learn how to do the work properly and have some fun.