Congratulations.

You fellas admitted to the third and final round of this competition than when you came here.

We had to make Japanese bush craft 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?

It's alright.

That weapon is the Zulu war axe.

Good luck, Blade Smiths.

We'll see you in four days.

Good luck.

Look, spent 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 80 CR V to Internal Core First World on the bill.

It looks like it's going really well.

It's time to drop.

Fill it out, Mile.

Cut it.

Reforge it that you give me 57 layers of Damascus.

I'm gonna twist that to make a really cool pattern.

Now it's time to stack it with 80 cr v two so that if something happens with one of my welds, the axe still has a good, strong solid core was a good day of forging.

I have toe definitely step it up tomorrow to get back into it.

All right, That was fun.

So my goals for today to get the axe head roughly shaped hopefully get the Tang drawn out to where I like it and get devils hammered in.

I start by forging out the top of the acts as I'm rolling it out on him and devils in.

I'm talking about an inch and 1/2.

2.5 more to go.

I've got the Zulu hags for where I would like to be.

It's pretty well 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 gotta cut the whole front of the forge out, and now we have a nice big opening.

Become straight in the length of my tang is the biggest obstacle right now.

It's too skinny as well.

A short That's something I want to tackle first thing in the morning because if I can't fix it, I wanna start over as soon as possible.

Rather than wasting any time.

The morning of Day two, I'm working on the billet game plan is toe split it and start forging out Tang.

I've noticed that there's a couple of tracks 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 attached I'm gonna cut a little notch to the length of my tang.

So heated up, chisel down.

Push that out.

Dr Tang.

Senator Blade.

That's just drawing out the length to make sure I mean 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 on ground down.

I think we dodged a bullet on this one.

I think it's looking really good.

So I start today off with a problem with my tank.

My tang is just way too skinny as well.

A short I cut to pieces of high carbon steel fit him up next to my tang.

I want women to make it wider and longer, but with so much going right, eventually something's gonna go wrong by Breaker blew.

I'll be back in one second.

I really hope this isn't a re occurring issue today.

Have a lot of work to do when I built my question.

Think there's a lot of water involved to do?

So my quench tank is gonna be like a trough style or is not Only quench it so I'm getting ready to weld in.

I'm thinking it's gonna be fine 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 quenched 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 skates like blast solid, isn't it?

I couldn't be happier.

Top of day four game plan for today is put the final edge on the blade and then try to get the woods section of this build figured out.

I've got a section of Oh, say George that I've been working on and I've got another section of African ebony I'd really like to use the ebony.

I think the black would work great with Damascus.

Best way to tell if this handle will hold up to the judges.

Testing is to test it here first.

Just what you don't want to have happen to your expensive, beautiful piece of ebony, but better here than there.

Now back to the George Handel before I do the final glue up, get my blade mounted to the ax handle.

I want to get the final edge put on the blade.

The convex grind I put on this should have enough backing behind it to keep the edge from having any damage.

If it hits would or bone, it's looking short.

Time's up.

There's nothing else I can do to it.

I feel like it's gonna perform well.

It should be able to handle the test.

It is looking good.

Plans for today are to do some more grinding on my accent, and I've got to do a little bit more work.

My handle.

Let's spend a little time on the grinder cleaning it up, getting it to where I wanted 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 green pop.

It definitely came out really nice.

So now to finish the blade, I'm gonna do an acid edging.

Really stoked right now, there'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.

You're Zuna War Axe Look 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, deliver some shops and slashes on this more carcass.

Justin, you're up for it.

You ready for this?

Let's do it.

Do it.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Doesn't talk about your Zulu war axe.

It's quite surprising that something this light with not a lot of metal can cut deep into this boar carcass.

Your blade stayed true.

The handle construction is avoid enoughto wear, even though with tapers, I have a very good feel for it.

Overall, sir, it will kill.

Thank you.

All right, listen.

Your turn.

So you ready?

Yes, sir.

All right, West.

Let's talk about your Zuna War axe here.

What?

I find interesting here.

Is that the design of this blade?

There's a sweet spot on you with a little bit of weight.

So that first swing alone cut in very deep.

There are no glints or rolls on it.

Handle construction is avoid enough to where I get a good grip.

And I could get a good feel on it.

And more importantly, sir, it will kill.

Thank you.

Blade Smiths.

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 did.

Your axes and not the other way around.

Dustin, you're up first.

You ready?

Let's do it.

Dustin got an obvious issue here.

Uh, I'm looking at your grain in here.

It's beautiful.

It's nice and velvety tight butt 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.

That little crack is there?

Stress riser.

And it leads to big failure.

Sure.

All right.

Dustin, your blade has broken the third strike against these ammo boxes in our strength tests.

Now, that doesn't mean that you're out of this competition.

Your competitors still has to endure the same rigors western.

That means that your blade must survive three strikes against these ammo boxes.

And if it does, you'll be the new force of 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.

How you feeling?

Nervous job.

Thanks, Western.

It held up.

Nice job.

This is a nice light.

Acts a lot of fun to swing with every swing I could feel the reverberation.

Just kind of giggling in my hands.

It was singing really well done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Western.

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.

Forge.

Great job.

Thank you, sir.

I'm pretty bummed out.

I really wanted to win this whole thing resting.

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 Western.

Congratulations.

You made a beautiful Zulu war axe and that makes you the force and fire your champion.

That's the title that comes with a check for $10,000.

Come forward.

Shake your hands, my friend.

I am 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.