"Have you seen that show? I forget what it's called..."
You mean Forged in Fire?
"Yeah! That's the one!"
That is about how 95% of the conversations start when I tell someone that I make knives. So when I was asked to be on the show, I was pumped! A History Channel producer contacted me a little over a year ago about the possibility of competing. After a lot of back and forth, interviews and examples of my work, I was in! Unfortunately, the approval came too late for Season 6, and after a few months passed, I largely forgot about it. Figured it didn't work out.
Then one day in spring, I received an email asking if I would still like to be on the show! Duh. I was definitely still interested and it would be perfect because summer break was coming up and I would have a big window of time to film an episode.
Fast forward to late July. I, along with the other contestants were flown to the East Coast. I meet Justin at the airport and we hopped into a car with Nic and Matt. Everyone was super down to earth and we just shot the breeze and talked knives on our way to the hotel. We all went into town to grab some food then headed back to try and get some sleep before our morning filming.
We arrived on set in the morning and got a walkthrough of the facilities and equipment. I have to say, it was pretty damn cool. The production crew was super efficient and made everything for us smiths as easy as possible. After doing a lot of hurry up and wait, , we finally got down to business to do what we came to do: make some sharp shit!
The most nerve wracking part of the entire ordeal was waiting to find out what the first challenge was going to be. I just wanted to know so I could begin to figure out in my head how to beat it! But finally, we found out...A pit barbeque. A camp knife. Three hours. Should have been easy! I was actually hoping for a camp knife! I love making them and I thought that I would do well on a challenge with a big chopper like that. I already had in my head the design I wanted. So when they announced that as the challenge, I felt really good about it!
Upon seeing the BBQ, my first thought was, "Damn I really hope that spit bar is high carbon, I could easily take that 1/2" round and make a great knife out of it." Of course it wasn't. That would have been too easy! So, canister damascus seemed to be the best route. I began filling my can with whiteout and harvesting steel from the BBQ. I didn’t know what was high carbon (good steel) and what was mild (shitty steel). But I did know that the powdered steel I was using in my canister was good steel. So I put the BBQ steel in the "back" of the canister, knowing that I would use that end as the handle of my knife and keep it away from the cutting edge. After welding the canister closed, I stuck it in the forge and waited for it to get up to heat. After what felt like forever (20-25 min) I pulled it out and pressed it, but unbeknownst to me, the press had two stages: a a preliminary press, then a primary press of the material. I only pressed it into the preliminary stage, never really getting a good compress. So, I did that twice, two welding heats. I then popped my canister open and was feeling pretty good! It looked great on the inside. Buuuuut....
I forgot which was the front and which was the back! So I took it to the grinder with the intention of grinding the ends in order to etch in acid to reveal where the two types of steel were. Seemed like a great idea at the time. However, I was holding it in a weird position with tongs that weren't sized for the work. Anyway, you saw what happened next, my billet was ripped from my grip and split when it hit the floor. Shit. This is bad. I thought I might be able to use the large end of the split billet to forge out into a knife, I stuck it back in the forge and brought it up to heat, after a single press on the hydraulic press, it crumbled to pieces. So, it was back to square one. Had to start from scratch with literally half the time to do it. I was in full blown panic mode. Rather than taking 5 minutes to think about another solution, I just made another canister.
I ran into the same damn problem! I didn't compress the can enough and my billet came out with cracks in it! For the last 45 minutes, all I was doing was trying to grind out cracks and slowly forge something vaguely knife-shaped. I knew that I had to at least turn something in that fit the parameters, so I made sure there was a clear start to the edge and a clear tip. Other than that I was just focused on not breaking the steel I had. I also stupidly thought that I had to have a bottle opener forged in the first round (which was part of the parameters of the finished knife)!
30 minutes to go. My billet was just a cracked lump of steel in what could only generously be called a knife shape. But as I'm working on my piece, I look up and see Justin just turning around in circles. He looked lost! I walked up to him and he is mumbling to himself about how he can’t get his knife to harden! His canister failed so he just made his second attempt out of the spit bar (which was mild steel!) So we walk over to the BBQ and I tell him, use some of this high carbon steel and forge weld it onto the edge of your knife! That would give him a soft blade, but a hard edge! He is an excellent smith and had a hardened edge forged out of carbon steel in no time. He then struggled with forge welding it, so he just decided to mig weld it on there! A bit unconventional, but it worked! I have been explaining to those who ask about the show that I never felt like I was competing against the other smiths, I felt like I was only competing against the clock. So the thought didn't even cross my mind that I was helping a competitor. I’m a teacher. It’s just what I do. I was happy that I was able to help Justin, but wished I had thought of that for myself sooner!!
As time expired, I was positive that I was going to be sent home. I was so disappointed in myself. I was turning in an actual piece of garbage. Had I been working at home, I would have thrown the steel into the scrap pile. But, that's all I had to work with, so work with it I did.
When it came time to make the first-round eliminations, my knife was examined first. The judges very kindly told me that it was terrible and that should I make it to the next round, I had a lot of work to do. I remember thinking, "Yeah right, not a chance I make it to the next round, but thanks for the optimism." Justin and Nic's blades were both examined. Justin's while, not quite as finished as Nic's, was definitely orders of magnitude better than mine. Nic's blade was phenomenal. He even had enough time to etch the pattern on his knife! It was awesome. He was a shoe-in to the second round. When they got to Matt's knife, I thought I was done for. It was a good lookin' knife. But then Ben pulled out that file and asked Matt what part of the BBQ he made his knife out of. When Matt responded that he made it out of the spit, I knew that it was mild steel! I was going to move to the next round on a technicality! But that is way better than being sent home!
The Second Round
Going into the second round, I knew that I had A LOT of work to do. I also thought that I was getting 3 hours...not 2...Guess I haven't watched the show in a while! I knew that if the blade wasn't cracked the whole way through I had a puncher's chance of making it to the finals. I started crushing through 36grit ceramic belts. I was eating through that steel like a hot knife through butter. I had to find out how deep the cracks went, luckily for me, the cracks didn’t run all the way through the steel! Damn but was I happy to see that. I struggled with grinding the warps out of my knife before finally deciding to correct the warps with a torch. I was hesitant to do this, because I knew that there was a medium to high probability that I would snap the blade when trying to forcibly bend it back to straight. My plan was to spend the first hour grinding and the second hour affixing my handle and finishing up the blade. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men...Anyway, my timing was off, I needed about an hour and 40 minutes to grind and I had about 20 minutes left to attach a handle and finish the knife. With about 15 minutes to go I drilled my holes and attached the handle with 5 minute epoxy. While the epoxy was still drying I began to sand down the scales. I was working so quickly and furiously that with two minutes to go I still hadn’t sharpened my knife. I used the last 60 seconds of time to try and put an edge on the blade by using the slack of the grinder belt. I thought I was able to establish an edge, but apparently I was only able to establish a burr along the edge and I never fully knocked off that burr to create a fully sharpened edge.
As time expired and I was walking back to my anvil gripping my knife, I felt a rock drop into the pit of my stomach...I forgot to break the corners on the underside of my handle near the index finger grip. DAMN! That is the most important part of a knife handle and I left it boxy because I ran out of time! I knew right then and there that mistake was probably going to send me home. But I still felt much better after the second round than I did after the first.
Testing:
Man, I'll tell ya, nothin' makes you clench your butt cheeks tighter than watching someone abuse the crap out of your knife. So when Ben went to swing my knife into that hardwood, I could’a gripped a dime, if you know what I mean. I was just thinking, "Please survive the first hit, if it survives the first hit, it’s going to be fine!"
WHACK. *cringe* "Holy shit, it didn't break!" WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK...Woooooooo! It survived! Aaaaaaand now for the critique I knew was coming...Ben told me that it was hard to grip because of the corners on the underside. I knew it! Damn! Oh well, nothing I could do about it now, at least it didn't break!
The sharpness test was a bit of a surprise for me. When Doug said that it didn't have an edge, I was taken aback. I thought I had sharpened my edge, but of course in reality, 60 seconds to fully sharpen a knife isn't quite enough! So after watching mine perform and then Justin's and Nic's, I was pretty sure I was going home. Sure enough, when they did the eliminations, it was my name they called. Just like that, my time on Forged in Fire came to an end.
The entire experience felt like a series of unrealities. First it was: “I can't believe they want me on the show!” Then it was: “Holy, crap this is actually happening!” Followed by “Wow, I feel fancy AF because they are flying me out there! Then being on set was an almost out of body experience; it gave me the full body chills. Then before I knew it, it was just business as usual, time to make a knife. Or attempt to! Ha!
Overall, it was a great experience. The judges were super chill and incredibly complimentary, especially because I stopped what I was doing to help another smith who was in need. As I said, it never truly felt that I was competing against the other guys, I felt like we were collaboratively trying to overcome a challenge. Something that I preach in my own classroom. I am constantly telling my athletes and my students that they are more capable than they know.Being on this show reminded me of what it means to be truly resilient. To never give up, even when you only have the slimmest possibility of success. There's no reason to hang your head when you know that you gave it literally everything you have. So, while I would have preferred to advance to the finals (obviously), I take great pride in knowing that I never once even entertained the idea of throwing in the towel. This experience has made me a better smith knowing that everything I do in my own shop will NEVER be as stressful as it was on Forged in Fire.
Thanks for reading!
