Forged in Fire Appearance

Our episode aired on April 20th 2022.  Myself, Andrew Slaughter, Brenden Bohannon and Ira Houseweart were called to Stamford Connecticut on Nov. 30th 2021 and filming began on Dec. 2nd.  The thing about the show is the parameters of the round force you to make quick decisions and then for the most part, if it's a bad decision, you don't have time to back up and take another approach.  You are also using unfamiliar tools and unfamiliar supplies and all of those issues come into play.  I didn't use enough material to make the knife I wanted to make even though I weighed it and started with twice as much, should have been 3-4 times as much under the conditions.  Andrew decided to use a canister method which caused him to burn too much time on peeling it and Brenden had a good plan but a bit too hard of a squish on the press put him in a bind to recover.  As far as I know Ira breezed through the first and second round with no real issues.  You can watch the rest for yourself but it was an amazing adventure and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  The four of us talk daily and share work and ideas.  Doug Marcaida asked me what was your biggest takeaway from Forged in Fire and it was "I have 3 new good friends"  it's a common sentiment among competitors. Please check out their work:

Mark Smith - @MarkSmithKnives 

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Interview with Doug Marcaida

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This whiteboard had all the parameters for the final build as well as a few notes to remember. The family wrote a few words of encouragement on it and it was awesome to reflect on those during the build.