Forged in Fire: Zulu War Axe ANNIHILATES the FINAL ROUND (Season 7) | History

Dustin & Westing congratulations you fellas admitted to the third and final round of this competition and when you came here we had to make Japanese bushcraft knives called not us now we're sending you back to your home for just to recreate this iconic weapon from history you ready to see what it is yes all right that weapon is the Zulu war axe good luck bladesmiths we'll see you in four days good luck a look it's been a little bit of time in South Africa so I've seen some small versions of this I'm planning on doing a Damascus exterior on both sides and then I'm gonna leave a ad crv - internal core first weld on the billet looks like it's going really well it's time to draw the fill it out I'll cut it in reforge it that should get me 57 layers of Damascus I'm gonna twist that to make a really cool pattern now it's time to stack it with AD crv - so that if something happens with one of my welds the AK still has a good strong solid core it was a good day of forging I'll have to definitely step it up tomorrow to get back into it alright that was fun so my goals for today for her to get the ax head roughly shape hopefully get the tank drawn out to where I like it and get bevels hammered in I start by forging out the top of the axe as I'm drawing it out I'm hammering bevels in about an inch and a half two and a half four to go I've got the Zulu eggs to where I would like it to be it's pretty well in shape and now it's time to address the oddly placed tang unfortunately my openings just not big enough to allow me to go back and forth so I've got to cut the whole front of the Forge out and now we have a nice big opening to come straight in the length of my Tang is the biggest obstacle right now it's too skinny as well as short it's something I want to tackle the first thing in the morning because if I can't fix it I want to start over as soon as possible rather than wasting any time it's the morning of day two I'm working on the billet game plan is to split it and start forging out the tang I've noticed that there's a couple cracks I'm gonna grind down through those areas and see if they've grind out as I get closer to my final shape my plan for getting the Tang to attach I'm gonna cut a little notch to the length of my Tang so I'll heat it up chisel down push that out and draw it our Tang finish our blade now it's just drawing it out to length to make sure I meet parameters going into the clinch I'm feeling a little nervous those cracks in the blade that I'd seen earlier I think I've got them ground down I think we dodged a bullet on this one I think it's looking really good so I start the day off with a problem with my tank my tang is just way too skinny as well as short I cut two pieces of high carbon steel fit them up next to my tang I welded them to make it wider and longer but with so much going right eventually something's gonna go wrong my breaker blew I'll be back in one second I really hope this isn't a reoccurring issue today I have a lot of work to do when I build my quench tank there's a lot of Walden involved to do so my quench tank is gonna be like a trough style I'm gonna horizontally crunch it so I'm getting ready to weld and I'm thinking it's gonna be fine as soon as it tries to start poof my breaker goes out so back and forth and back and forth so many many trips to the breaker later I have a finished quench dang I feel good now I'm happy what a pain in the ass that was man now I've got to get it quenched so I go into the oil and I've got this thing quenched straight speaks like glass solid isn't oh I couldn't be happier top of day for the game plan for today is put the final edge on the blade and then try to get the wood section of this build figured out I've got a section of Osage orange that I've been working on and I've got another section of African Heba D I'd really like to use the ebony I think the black would work great with the Damascus the best way to tell if this handle will hold up to the judges testing is to test it here first yep just what you don't want to have happen to your expensive beautiful piece of ebony but better here than there and now it's back to the Osage orange handle before I do the final glue up and get my blade mounted to the axe handle I want to get the final edge put on the blade the convex grind I've put on this I should have enough backing behind it to keep the edge from having any damage if it hits wood or bone it's looking sharp time's up and there's nothing else I can do to it I feel like it's gonna perform well it should be able to handle all the tests liking it it's looking good the plans for today are do some more grinding on my accent and I've got to do a little bit more work my handle little time on the grinder cleaning it up getting it to where I want it to be now the blade is 90% done without an edge on it it's time to get back to my handle so now I'm gonna do some burn work on this handle I've never done it before so I hope it really makes the grain pop it definitely came out really nice so now to finish the blade I'm gonna do an acid etching I'm really stoked right now it's just better than I could have imagined so I put a convex edge on it something that can withstand smashing but can also be sharp enough to slice awesome your zoo de loire ax looked quite scary but it's time to find out what kind of lethal damage they can do to find it out I will take your weapon delivery some shops and slashes on this war carcass fasten your perks you ready for this let's do it [Music] [Music] well that sir thank you see all right doesn't stalk about your zulu war axe it's quite surprising that's something this light with not a lot of metal can cut deep into this boar carcass your blade stayed true the handle construction is ovoid enough to wear even though with tapers I have a very good feel for it overall sir it will kill thank you all right lesson your turn sir you ready yes sir [Music] all right let's talk about your Zulu war axe here what I find interesting here is that the design of this blade there's a sweet spot in here with a little bit of weight so that first swing alone cut in very deep there are no glints or rolls on it the handle construction is avoid enough to where I get a good grip and I can get a good feel on it and more importantly sir it will kill thank you bladesmiths welcome to the strength test the ammo box chop I'm gonna test the strength and durability of your axes by smashing them into these ammo boxes remember this test is all about what those boxes do to your axes and not the other way around Dustin you're up first you ready let's do it [Music] well Dustin got an obvious issue here I'm looking at your brain in here it's beautiful it's nice and velvety tight but right here there's a little dark spots which was a crack it happened right where the joint of your tang and your blade is and that little crack is a stress riser and it leads to big failure sure all right Dustin your blade has broke on the third strike against these ammo boxes in our strength tests now that doesn't mean that you're out of this competition your competitor still has to endure the same rigors Westen that means that your blade must survive three strikes against these ammo boxes and if it does you'll be the new forged in fire champion taking home that check for 10 grand you guys ready for this let's do it let's do it all right Ben Weston how you feeling nervous [Music] I Oh Weston it held up nice job this is a nice light axe a lot of fun to swaying with every swing I could feel that the reverberation just it kind of jiggling in my hands it was singing really well done thank you thank you Weston congratulations your blade held up Dustin that means that your blade doesn't make the cut I'd like to invite you to shake our hands shake your competitors hand and then exit the forge great job thank you sir I'm pretty bummed out I really wanted to win this whole thing Weston congratulations but thank you good job but this has been one of the greatest experiences of my life this is not the result I wanted but at the end of the day I'm here I'm alive I'm healthy so I'm happy Weston congratulations you made a beautiful Zulu war axe and that makes you the forged in fire champion that's a title that comes with a check for $10,000 come forward shake our hands my friend I have the forged in fire champion and I feel elated I came here to prove that I could compete with some incredibly talented Smiths and I came out on top it's been a blast you you

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 1,495,985

Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, full episodes, episodes, clips, original series, sneak peeks, forged in fire, forged in fire clips, forged in fire full episodes, metal, sword making, sword makers, knife makers, blade competition, edged weapons, marine corps, marines, branch battle, ben abbott, medusa, forged in fire s7, forged in fire se07, forged in fire season 7, forged in fire s7 clips, forged in fire se07 clip, Zulu War Axe, FINAL ROUND

Id: REf5XRkU1Yk

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 28 2020