Forged In Fire - General Discussion

[sourpickles]

As usual, I am confused.  Are both episodes airing tonight (9 and 10) new?  Or did I miss one earlier this year, in the shortened season?  Thanks!

[sourpickles]

Never mind.  I really need to wait before I post, JUST saw the promo for tonight, they are both new.  Dang.

[Maelstrom]

Thoughts for the first episode (judges pick) only, as I had to set the second ep to record later tonight. Because everything has to air Tuesday nights, apparently.

Cool idea to have the judges pick contestants to bring back, and it was fun to have all four judges around for once (see, Face Off, it can be done! Make Lois a permanent judge!) I was sorry to see Erin leave again, I remember rooting for him the last time around. That would suck to get kicked off for a technicality like blade length (though why don't the contestants keep an eye on their specs as they're working? I suppose it's an easy thing to overlook in the midst of the chaos of the competition, but still). The fellow who had the motorcycle accident (Dave? I'm having a tough time with names tonight) irked somewhat the first time around, and still sorta did tonight, but kudos for him recovering and getting back to bladesmithing. May his recovery continue.

Both of the final Idas were beautiful, and it was a hard decision to pick a winner between them, but I'm happy Mareko won. And I'm glad we once again get to watch Doug hack at ballistics dummies while smiling gleefully. It just makes my day.

[johntfs]

3 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

The fellow who had the motorcycle accident (Dave? I'm having a tough time with names tonight) irked somewhat the first time around, and still sorta did tonight, but kudos for him recovering and getting back to bladesmithing. May his recovery continue.

For me David felt like he was playing a character instead of just being a dude who was there to do good work as himself.  He's clearly an experienced, talented smith but I wish he'd leave the kimono and the "I am the reincarnation of Masamune come here to share my wisdom with the peons around me" at home and just forge stuff as himself.

[ZoloftBlob]

Phew I thought I was the only one who instinctively disliked any contestant that fits the "White man in Japanese garb" profile...

[sourpickles]

Yeah, I felt sorry for the dude when he was talking about his accident, but he bugged the crap out of me before.  Him, and there was one other kimono wearing guy as well, whose name escapes me at the moment.  And it wasn't even the zen reincarnation stuff, it was how damn smug he was about it all.  That said, I was so happy to see this episode, and the contestants.  WOW.  It could have gone much worse, and they all seemed bring it, ooops parameters excluded.  I really do enjoy, for the most part, seeing people come back for redemption or whatever. 

[johntfs]

As far as the second episode, I loved how gleeful Nicholas was about his weapon breaking the testing stick twice.

[Monty]

I'm 95% positive that Nicholas does forging demonstrations at renaissance faires. He's got a very performative style.

[Maelstrom]

I guess I'm just cranky this week, because I found Nick a bit on the annoying side, just like David in the previous episode. I don't mind oddballs, but when it feels like an act being put on it starts to bug me. But I did love watching the judges watch him (from Dave miming cutting his own head off and falling dead on the table to one of them asking if Nick had just tasted the apoxy, lol) so there's that at least. And Nick did create some beautiful Deerhorn Knives. Those things were pretty wicked looking.

I loved watching Doug go at those sandbags during the final testing - he's so quick and graceful, it's amazing to watch him do his thing.

I was right with the judges hiding behind my hands while Thor was pounding at that cold blade. Ack!! Even I know not to do that!

From the previews for next week, it looks like they try to kill all of the contestants off during the first round. Yikes!

[johntfs]

I admit I wouldn't want Nick and his antics every week, but once was cool.  He does demonstrations at shows, so he has a "performer" style and his voices/persona seemed to arise naturally out of who he is.  Hell, he even named his shop "Red Troll."  I admit that I was rooting against the medium guy because he was a medium guy.  My reaction to that was "Oh, you're a con artist who preys on the grieving and does some blacksmithing on the side.  Okay.  Yeah.  I pretty much hope your ass washes out in the first round."

Edited April 13, 2017 by johntfs

[qtpye]

I thought the Red Troll and the Medium were totally clowns going into the final challenge.  However, I was pleasantly surprised at the skill level of both and that was a great final round.  The Deer Horn knives were awesome and I was impressed with the smiths. 

I did not mind Kimono Dave that much and was impressed with his weapon the first time he came on.  The main contestants that got on my nerves was one that kept on screeching "I'mma cowboy, yeeeh haaaaw" every thirty seconds.  He was eliminated during the first round and thankfully I forgot his name and what season he was on.

[WildPlum]

Wow, J Neilsen is back! Well, for one episode only, apparently. I'm fine with having more judges, I really do like all of them. His wrist (hand?) surgery must have gone well, judging by the hacking away he did.

 

Deer horn thingies - hard thing to make, apparently. I think the first time we've seen someone in the final challenge have to completely remake his weapon on the last day (and of course it was a challenge where he had to make 2).

 

Lol at the contestant wearing tshirts and a sweatshirt with the name of his knife-making business on it (the guy from Montana, I think first episode this new season?). Someone has figured out to make appearances pay.

Also lol:

Will: He says he is a Medium.

Doug: Well, I'm a large.

[WildPlum]

Wow, for a minute there I thought that we were going to have a challenge where only one contestant satisfied the initial round, based on blade length and width. Hard to have a competition with only one competitor.

[Ciarrai]

Does Wil's face look different this season or am I seeing things? He looks waxier. And no more man bun!

[Maelstrom]

I've been thinking Wil's face looks a bit different this season, too. Granted the short, slicked-back hair makes him look different, but I can't figure if it's just that or something else.

[johntfs]

Was it just me or did the winner's sword only have one fuller when it was supposed to have two?  It was probably just me.

[Quilt Fairy]

6 hours ago, johntfs said:

Was it just me or did the winner's sword only have one fuller when it was supposed to have two?  It was probably just me.

I think the sample sword they displayed had two, but the requirements were only that it have "a fuller" on each side.

[johntfs]

Ah, that explains it.  This was an okay episode.  I liked the first one the best with Nicholas' weapon actually breaking the thing used to test it.

[GreyBunny]

Bummer about Paul's sword failing to cut, I thought it would be amusing to have a winning sword with a handle made out of walrus penis bone (oosik).

[sourpickles]

11 hours ago, GreyBunny said:

I thought it would be amusing to have a winning sword with a handle made out of walrus penis bone (oosik).

I as well.  If not for the sheer joy of remembering the Ink Master challenge that used the same.  I mean, how many shows/times can I see this used as a material?  And who would believe me if I said so?

[RedRockRosie]

His face seemed thinner maybe? Also from the other scenes of frozen faces & frosty breath I figure this was filmed in the winter...in NY? That's enough to make anyone look a little pale... Curious  what the next episode will bring.

Just love watching all the judges & their comments & expressions.

Cool show!

[Maelstrom]

So one contestant almost blinded and the other sent to the hospital with what sure looked like the symptoms of a heart attack. Yikes. Any internet savvy PTVers come across word on how that contestant is doing?

So this is my main bitch with these reality shows, when they make the competition so incredibly difficult or impose such unrealistic demands that there's no possible way the contestants could ever pull it off. So instead of seeing what these people are actually capable of, we see them struggling to play catch up, or outright hurting themselves trying. I'd much rather watch four people each make cool knives every week than see them, I dunno, have to make enough knives to outfit an entire army with only a few rusty lawnmower parts to work from. So my advice to you, Show, is stop trying to outdo yourself every week - just do what you do best. And while you're listening, lay off the pig carcasses, 'kay? My stomach thanks you.

Anyway, wow that final blade was not sharp at all! I don't think I've ever seen a sword bounce off the sandbag like that on this show before.

[johntfs]

I agree with most of that, but keep the pig carcasses.  The slice/kill tests on those things are awesome.

[johntfs]

Another somewhat "meh" episode for me, though I was glad that Craig won.  Probably my favorite part was Doug showing how the Karambit could easily be used to murder fellow judge, David Baker.

[Maelstrom]

^^ That appeared to be Dave Baker's least favorite part! But it was my favorite part too - I'll admit to rewinding and watching that sequence more than a couple times. A lesson to never get on Doug Marcaida's bad side. Piss him off and he'll kill you two different ways with a Karambit in five seconds. I had to laugh that Jason apparently thought it was pretty cool, and wanted to be fake killed by Doug.

Craig's makraka was pretty damn impressive, especially considering he made it in about two days. 

[Quilt Fairy]

It never ceases to amaze me that every week I am entertained by 4 people in a forge making knives.

[johntfs]

I have to say that I never felt a crying need to see any of these guys again.  But, I guess they were "fan favorites..."

[sourpickles]

Me either, but I'm always happy to see what contestants have learned.  I was bummed that old guy didn't win.......Ray, right?  I wanted him to win! He seems like such a peach.

[Machiabelly]

Man the Karambir and deer knives.  Two ways Doug could mess you in about 1 second.

 

Those small quick knives always seem more dangerous to me than a claymore or the like.

[johntfs]

3 hours ago, sourpickles said:

Me either, but I'm always happy to see what contestants have learned.  I was bummed that old guy didn't win.......Ray, right?  I wanted him to win! He seems like such a peach.

I expected Ray to win, especially after the "keel" test, but I'm glad Josh won.  I suspect the judges were quietly looking for a reason to give it to Josh over Ray as well.  Everybody laughed a bit at Ray's coffee break, but I think the "done in three days" really irritated the judges.  Like they probably wanted to say "So you finished the weapon in three days and had two full extra days to turn it into a full-on masterpiece but decided not to bother?  Screw you!"  Josh busted his ass all the way to the end, going the extra mile with the art stuff.

I really expected Ray's blade to win because it technically did better in the testing, going through the carcass in one chop where Josh's took two.  I've seen plenty of episodes where that would have been the determining factor.  I think if Ray had also taken the full five days it would have been the determining factor here as well.  While the judges weren't going to accept an inferior blade from Josh, it's clear to me that they were sending a message to future competitors that they'd better take the full allotted time and use it to do something other than kicking back and petting their dogs.

Edited May 3, 2017 by johntfs

[Monty]

Those swords looked silly, but everybody seemed to really enjoy swinging them. Even Doug seemed to have more glee than usual.

[sourpickles]

1 hour ago, johntfs said:

I expected Ray to win, especially after the "keel" test, but I'm glad Josh won.  I suspect the judges were quietly looking for a reason to give it to Josh over Ray as well.  Everybody laughed a bit at Ray's coffee break, but I think the "done in three days" really irritated the judges.  Like they probably wanted to say "So you finished the weapon in three days and had two full extra days to turn it into a full-on masterpiece but decided not to bother?  Screw you!"  Josh busted his ass all the way to the end, going the extra mile with the art stuff.

I do agree, for sure.  It did come off a little lax on his end.  There was just something about the other guy that bugged me, and as noted, I felt the tests were leaning towards Ray as the winner.  But what's done is done, though I've gotta say, if I had to vote fan fav I would have picked Ryo, that guy was so out there, but so talented!

3 hours ago, Machiabelly said:

Those small quick knives always seem more dangerous to me than a claymore or the like.

Difference in movement, how you have to wield them, and proximity.  Not that I wouldn't have the cheese scared out of me by all of them, but you can come up quick with the smaller weapons, and hide them better.  I don't think I would have made a good warrior (warrioress?).....I might have run!

[Maelstrom]

That's what I'm talking about! Finally, an ep where they didn't make the challenges so absurdly difficult or ridiculous (you have an hour to make a knife out of a chewing gum wrapper and popsicle sticks!). We finally got to see what everyone was really capable of, which is what I want to see. I thought it was a shame the first guy got kicked off for making his knife a quarter-inch too long, since I thought it was the best looking knife out there at that point. In my totally-expert opinion, of course. Ahem. I suppose someone's gotta go, though.

I remembered all of them vaguely, I think it's cool to see old faces come back and get another shot. Why not? And I have to admit I got a kick out of Josh apologizing to his aunt every time he swore. And thanking his daughter for the handle sketches was cute, too.

5 hours ago, johntfs said:

 I think the "done in three days" really irritated the judges.  Like they probably wanted to say "So you finished the weapon in three days and had two full extra days to turn it into a full-on masterpiece but decided not to bother?  Screw you!" 

My thoughts too. This is one of those times when it's worth going the extra mile. Both weapons were impressive but I was glad Josh won. I did think it was very cool to see everyone, contestants and judges both, clearly having so much fun during the final testing. It looked like they were having a party (with super-scary looking swords as party favors, lol) that we just happened to get to watch.

Seriously though, Show, enough with the pigs, OK? What's wrong with good ol' ballistics dummies? You can fill them with red dye for when Doug digs his fingers into their cleanly lacerated guts.

[Eliza422]

10 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

That's what I'm talking about! Finally, an ep where they didn't make the challenges so absurdly difficult or ridiculous (you have an hour to make a knife out of a chewing gum wrapper and popsicle sticks!). We finally got to see what everyone was really capable of, which is what I want to see. I thought it was a shame the first guy got kicked off for making his knife a quarter-inch too long, since I thought it was the best looking knife out there at that point. In my totally-expert opinion, of course. Ahem. I suppose someone's gotta go, though.

I remembered all of them vaguely, I think it's cool to see old faces come back and get another shot. Why not? And I have to admit I got a kick out of Josh apologizing to his aunt every time he swore. And thanking his daughter for the handle sketches was cute, too.

My thoughts too. This is one of those times when it's worth going the extra mile. Both weapons were impressive but I was glad Josh won. I did think it was very cool to see everyone, contestants and judges both, clearly having so much fun during the final testing. It looked like they were having a party (with super-scary looking swords as party favors, lol) that we just happened to get to watch.

Seriously though, Show, enough with the pigs, OK? What's wrong with good ol' ballistics dummies? You can fill them with red dye for when Doug digs his fingers into their cleanly lacerated guts.

I love when they slice through the pigs - especially when a knife is sharp enough for one go!

[johntfs]

14 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Seriously though, Show, enough with the pigs, OK? What's wrong with good ol' ballistics dummies? You can fill them with red dye for when Doug digs his fingers into their cleanly lacerated guts.

I get what you're saying but I'm with Eliza422.  There's something about watching a sword going FWOOOSH right through a pig carcass that makes me go "Yeah!"

[Biosynth]

I'm happy Josh got it.  One thing he said made me want to root for him was that losing on the last episode he did severely affected his business sales.  As in, sales dropped off to nothing.  It didn't look like Ray had anything to lose, but Josh sure did.  That and the whole not taking the full 5 days bugged me too.  Nevertheless I did enjoy both of them.

[Quilt Fairy]

16 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

What's wrong with good ol' ballistics dummies? You can fill them with red dye for when Doug digs his fingers into their cleanly lacerated guts.

I actually preferred it when they used blue dye instead. It wasn't quite so gruesome.

But I don't mind the pig carcasses.

[johntfs]

5 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

I actually preferred it when they used blue dye instead. It wasn't quite so gruesome.

But I don't mind the pig carcasses.

My thing with the ballistics dummies is that half the time I don't really see much of anything.  Doug's like "It lacerated here, broke bones here and gutted into here" while the gel has pretty much come back together and the yellow tinge makes it hard to see anything inside the dummy, so I'm pretty much, "Yeah, okay, Doug, if you say so."  With the pig carcass you clearly see the cuts (or lack of cuts) and when a weapon slices all the way through, leaving one half swinging and the other half on the ground, that's a very definitive way to show that "It will keeel!"

[Arynm]

I thought the watermelons were also very effective. I love to watch Doug slash up some meat, the ballistics dummy is ok, but the pigs are my favorite.

Glad Josh won

[sourpickles]

I like the fish.  And the coconuts, though for some reason they seem to tip/slide a lot.  I'm not a fan of the ice block, and the jury is out on the sandbag/rope test.

[johntfs]

I'm cool (pun intended) with the ice chop.  The rope is okay, but with the sandbag, I always feel a little bad for the poor bastard stagehand that has to sweep all that crap up.

[Quilt Fairy]

I liked the test where they had the ropes in that weird giant spider-webby configuration. (Spider webs are more symmetrical than that, but I don't know what else to call it.)  I find the bamboo chop boring, because apparently bamboo is damn hard to cut.

[Lugal]

On 5/3/2017 at 10:42 AM, Machiabelly said:

Those small quick knives always seem more dangerous to me than a claymore or the like.

Claymores, (the two-handed types) are big enough and weigh enough that you have to keep them moving.  Years ago at an SCA event a saw a guy wielding a claymore, spinning it over his head and whipping it around, it was damn impressive.

[johntfs]

I kind of prefer the old way of First and Second round: signature blade and signature style with the third being iconic weapon from history.  For my part the "aquafina" (I know I'm not spelling/hearing that right) looked kind of stupid.  What culture puts holes right in the metal of their blades?

[Quilt Fairy]

2 hours ago, johntfs said:

I kind of prefer the old way of First and Second round: signature blade and signature style with the third being iconic weapon from history. 

They're trying to mix it up. I think it was 2 episodes ago that Wil said "You guys have probably been practicing making a signature blade in 3 hours."

At first I was shocked when they continued to test Brock's blade when it bent, but by the end I was shocked when they didn't give him the win. And then said the reason was because it bent.  I wonder if they were trying to avoid a situation where one guy is obviously going to win by default and they don't continue the whole test. I hate it when they do that.

But Hey! Lamb chops!

Edited May 10, 2017 by Quilt Fairy

[sourpickles]

I don't think they should have kept on with testing.  I'm getting more and more squishy uncomfortable that the bigger this show gets, the more gimmicky or whatever it gets.  Let's not forget the core audience.  Bent blades are not cool, or safe, one would think.  On the other hand, I poked myself peeling a potato today, so maybe it's just me.

[Lugal]

14 hours ago, johntfs said:

What culture puts holes right in the metal of their blades?

The cutouts were used to make the sword lighter and faster, especially near the larger tip. Brock's problem was that he put the cutouts all down the blade, making a substantial weak point right where it bent.

1 hour ago, sourpickles said:

I don't think they should have kept on with testing...Bent blades are not cool, or safe, one would think.

Doug did say blades bend and didn't sound too concerned.  I think it's because Brock made his sword with iron they kept on, and no contestant has ever done that before.  There are records from ancient and even medieval battles of iron swords bending in combat, and the warrior just straightened it out underfoot.  A warrior was more likely to come out alive with a bent sword than a broken one.

[qtpye]

On ‎5‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 0:20 PM, sourpickles said:

On the other hand, I poked myself peeling a potato today, so maybe it's just me.

Eet will keeel.

I think the most unimpressive testing was bungee chords.  I forgot what episode it was, but the blades almost did nothing to the chords.  It is probably why we do not see that anymore.

[sourpickles]

Yeah, I remember that.  I was brassed I stayed up late Sunday for ............essentially nothing.  See ya'll tonight!

[johntfs]

I liked the Talwar and the two finalists, though I liked that Jordan won.  I didn't hate David or anything, but I kind of like when the money goes to somebody who looks like they could really use it.  Maybe that $10K will let Jordan get some electricity in his forge.  I admit I was a little glad that Carl got sent home simply because another 3 hours in the Forge probably would have killed him.  Rick on the other hand just seemed to make some bad decisions that bit him in the ass. 

Edited May 17, 2017 by johntfs