Wayne, Mark, congratulations. You fellas have made
it into the final round of this competition. Now we're sending you
back to your home forges to recreate an iconic
weapon from history. And that weapon is-- Show me a falchion. WIL WILLIS: --a falchion. Yeah. Ah-ha-ha, yeah. Good luck. We'll see you in four days. We made it back. Welcome to Pirate Forge. I've done my research. And back in the day, the
armor was getting tougher, you know, thicker
leather, introduction of chainmail and whatnot. So they needed
something that was going to cut, and chop with
the strength of an ax but still be wielded
like a sword. And that's when the
falchion was born. My plan for the design
on this, I'm going to go with the Damascus pattern. What I want to do is make two
solid billets that we draw out, cut and restack to make the
one billet for the falchion. This is really
taking a long time. And this is a lot more work than
I thought it was going to be. Hammering out and setting forge
welds on such monster billets, I've definitely forgot
how difficult that was. I mean, if I would have
used a monostill billet, I could have already had
this falchion forged. MARK: We're here
back in my home forge in South Burlington, Vermont. Boom. I think that four days is tight. Man, 3/8 cinch is no joke. The falchion has this
swell that really gives a lot of
forward weight that makes it great for chopping. So I have to figure out where
I want to put in this swell and how to hammer it out. So thin. I finally get this
swell drawn out. And it is just way too thin. And I'm not even
close to three inches. I'm pretty nervous about
the structural stability of what I'm making. Ugh. So I am just going to
start on a second swell. I'm giving up on this flare,
because it's just too thin. And I still have enough metal
back here to make it work. What I realized is
that the first time, I wanted to move the metal
completely horizontally from spine to edge. And the way that I was doing
it was moving some of the metal lengthwise and enough
of the metal lengthwise that it just got too thin. I put into practice
what I learned in making the first swell. It's already going a lot
better, a lot faster, and getting a lot wider
without getting as thin as it did the first time. That's it for day one. WAYNE: It's day two. Best case scenario, we
get this sucker drawn out. We get it quenched. It comes out looking great. Never quenched a blade
this big, I don't know what's going to happen. About to make this thing
change into a real sword. This is a special
momentous occasion. I was so inspired by
this blade I was like, there should be a falchion song. [playing guitar] (SINGING) It was born
of blood and war. Half ax, yet have sword. You'll surely lop off your head. I just made me a falchion. There she is. A blade has been born. That blade came out super
straight as an arrow. Fantastic. Looks like those candles
and all the stuff we did, sure enough worked. MARK: The morning
of day two, and I'm going to start on
my cross guard. I only have one piece of brass
that I can try this with. So I'm hoping to get it
right on the first try. The fittings are a huge part
of this and getting all of that to just really fit tightly,
snugly, be comfortable in the hand is going to
be hopefully where I'm able to win this competition. Should be good enough. Let's do this. Feeling good about the
blade going in the last day. My only concern is
just getting the weight where it needs to be. It's a little bit heavy. I went ahead and decided,
we're going for fuller. I don't have a whole
lot of time left. I'm going to have to be
very strategic in everything I do today. I feel so accomplished. You know, for four
days, pulling off a blade this big with
the Damascus pattern, with the fit and
finish that I on it, I couldn't be any happier. It's the dawn
of the final day. I was able to get the blade
quenched and tempered. Perfect. Now it's time to
grind, shape, and glue. This has been a bunch of firsts
for me, first on length, first on a guard, first on a pommel. It's just non-stop firsts. I know that there are
some steps that I rushed. But for a four-day build,
I'm pretty happy with this. All right, bladesmiths,
this is the kill test. To find out what
kind of lethal damage your weapon will do according
to its historic design, I will try to cut this
big carcass in half. Wayne, you are first.
Are you ready for this. Absolutely. [metal music playing] Oh man. One and done. Whoa now. All right, Wayne. Your falchion is beautiful. It is sharp. And it cut through the spine
and all the way through the pig. It's a little bit heavier
for a one-handed weapon, but it is well balanced. Overall sir, it will kill. Awesome. All right, Mark. Your turn, sir. Are you ready? Let's give it a shot. [metal music playing] All right, Mark. Let's talk about
your falchion here. It's a nice, lighter blade. Your edges are sharp enough
to cut through spine. But the problem I have
here is your guard. Your edges here are not rounded. They dig in right here
where the thumb is. But your blade,
sir, it will kill. Thank you. All right gentlemen. To test the strength and overall
construction of your blades, I'll be attacking our
armored dummy here. This test is not about what
your swords do to that armor, it's about what that
armor does to your swords. Wayne, you're up. You ready? Let's do it. [metal music playing] Woo. First off, Wayne, your edge
has taken some small chips and small rolls. But it's very,
very minor damage. There's still a sharp edge here. All in all, it held
up beautifully. All right. Thank you. So Mark, I got to ask. What's with the shirt? I got married in
this shirt actually. It's, you know,
it's my formal wear. All right. Well, you ready for the test? I am. OK. [metal music playing] Not bad. All right. So first off, the
blade is still solid. You did get some minor rolling. But the blade still has an edge. Down here's the problem. Your guard, these edges are
not just square, they're sharp. But the blade held up. Good job. Thank you. All right,
bladesmiths, now it's time to find out if there's any
sharpness left to your weapons. To test the edge
of your weapon, I'm going to cut through this
gauntlet of sandbags. Wayne, you are first. You ready for this? Oh, yeah. [metal music playing] All right, Wayne. Your weapon is sharp. On every swing, it cuts
and slashes nicely. And most importantly, aside
from being smurfed, it will cut. Awesome. All right, Mark,
it's your turn. You ready?
- I am. MAN: Let's have fun. [metal music playing] All right, Mark. As you can see, on both of
these bags, it cut deeply. On the second bag, on the
swing back over there, it must have hit a dull spot. It did rip parts of the bag, but
it didn't cut all the way in. But overall, it is
sharp, and it will cut. Yeah. WIL WILLIS: Wayne, Mark,
it was a tight decision. Wayne, congratulations. You're the "Forged
in Fire" champion. Mark, unfortunately, your
blade didn't make the cut. Now, Mark, you made good
blades, no doubt about that. But the big problem
is mainly your guard. Not rounding off those
sections, those sharp corners will bite into the user's hand. And if a weapon's
going to hurt a user, they're not going to use it. Please surrender your
weapon and leave the forge. MARK: From start to
finish, this whole thing was a learning process
for me, and I honestly think I have gotten years worth
of experience and feedback in just a short time. - Great job, man.
- [inaudible] You, too. This experience
was life-changing. Wayne,
congratulations, you are one badass, everlasting
bladesmith and our new "Forged in Fire" champion. Good job, brother. Yeah! Yes! [chuckles] WAYNE: Yeah! Please, at this time, present
your blade to our judges. So I did it! Man, I wanted it! Next for me, I'm going to get
back on the same thing that's led me to this
point, which is just non-stop going full throttle. And I'm just going
to keep pushing. I'm going to keep [inaudible]
better and better. [music playing]
