TV programme on forging blades

[Paul_B]

On quiet nights I flick through the TV channels. A few weeks I landed on an American TV channel which had a blade forging competition programme. Forged in fire. Anyone watched it?

As someone who isn't a knife maker I've always had a passing interest in forging blades. It's TV entertainment and built up for drama but there's some interesting work too. Makes me want to get into it

Anyone else watch it occasionally too?

One show the final test was to make a claymore, another a kopek and there's been other blade / sword types in their final challenge at their home forge.

If there's a knife maker on here who has seen it, how realistic is the forging aspect? Is it pure entertainment??

 

[Alan De Enfield]

Yes - its on every week on channel 63 and repeats at weekends.

 

[Janne]

It is on Youtube too.

As with all tv shows, specially coming from the other side of the Atlantic as seen from Eurasia, I take them with a pinch of salt.
Fun to watch though.

 

[Paul_B]

Does it do justice to the actual process of forging a blade?

I must admit to liking the idea of one day trying to forge a blade it even get into it. Studied a fair bit of metallurgy over the years at university but that's all theory kit practise. Then again going around Redcar when it was booming is metallurgy on a huge scale. Stepping over channels of tapped off slag like hot lava and past the blast furnace close to shower of molten metal as the guys were doing something with long metal bars. Long time ago. Early 90s meant H&S wasn't as strict.

Just curious as to whether any bladesmiths on here ever try to copy what they do on that programme? I mean they use all sorts of improbable steel source materials to make the blades in the studio workshop

 

[spandit]

Love this programme. From reading up on several American blade forums, it's carefully edited, of course and what they don't show is that the hardened blades are tempered overnight before they film the handling sequence. It's accessible and entertaining, not a documentary in craftsmanship, but there are some very skilled people on there (and some less so).