I enjoy it. There is not much on TV worth watching lately.

It can keeel.

I really like it.

lol I fucking love it.

Been looking at forges and anvils on ebay for the last month

It's my favorite show.

Almost bought a $220 axe from Liam Hoffman because of that show. I still follow him on instagram.

I love that show.

drama free "realit tv"
It's about blades being made, not about the personalities making the blades
I dig it

I like and watch it.  It's a pretty good show, better than most of the crap on the tube.

I'm entertained by it.  It seems that Wil Willis's job is to yell out how much time is left on the clock.  I could do that...

I like it. I dont understand the whole quenching the metal in oil thing. I get that it hardens it, but doesnt that also make it brittle unless it's tempered after that?

Even if I like the subject matter I can't fucking stand reality TV.

One of my favorites. Reality TV that (for the most part) isn't overly manufactured.

It's always interesting to see the mistakes that are made, largely due to pressure from lack of time, and how people recover (or not).

Painful to watch when a blade breaks, yet also interesting because you can often point back to a certain part of the show where the mistake was made that caused that to occur.

I enjoy the show

I like it, there's a new show out with Danny Trejo that looks good but I haven't seen it yet.

Quenching in oil is the temper, quenching in water makes it brittle. 

Everytime I see some guy try to quench in oil and they pull it out too soon so it flashes I yell at them to get the steel in there and keep it there...

I really like it. I have little metalworking skill, so it amazes me to see what some of the guys can create.

Good show.......

I can watch every second and not get bored.   That's really good for me.

On one of the other blacksmith shows the guy said he figured out that you have to quench with the blade held parallel to magnetic north in order to keep it from warping.

I don't think anybody on FiF knows about that trick because they warp every one of them.

Favorite show and even wife got interested and we've watched every episode.

Some steel is oil hardening and some is water hardening. I believe it has to do with how fast the two mediums cool the material and how that effects grain structure. Any metal straight out of the quench whether it's water or oil quenched will be brittle, the metal has to be annealed to whatever hardness the smith desires after the quench, which restores the toughness.

Even my gf can watch it all the way thru. After recently discovering that top shot season 5 is uploaded on history as well, those two shows will keep me occupied this weekend

Judges almost ALWAYS make the right decision. Great show. J. Neilson seems like a real smart dude when it comes to bladesmithing. Love all the judges though.

That's what I thought too because I know guys who oil quench flintlock frizzens and then they get really hard and brittle and can sometimes just snap off if you bump them a little too hard.

Sounds like an old wive's tale. Is that legit?

Seems like if that were true it'd be knifesmithing 101 and common knowledge.

Great show, but I'm hoping it's growing popularity isn't its demise. Keep it like it is and it works. I do wonder how much their liability insurance is to take on a show like that.

LULZ ya thats the tag line around the farm
It will mow , It will dig , it will spray etc

Quenching hardens, but brittle. It must be tempered in an oven typically for two cycles at 350-400*. Annealing softens hardened metal to make it workable.

Oil cools the metal but no so fast that it hurts it.

Iron and Fire. That's how he was taught and it makes sense. When the metal gets it magnetic properties back being pointed Mag North would help it not warp. I have no clue about metalworking but it sounds right.

Love it and i know fuck all about metalworking. Every dinner I now 'entertain' my wife with "It can keel" banter about the dinner knives


I always wondered why the show isnt mentioned here that often

Do they just leave that part out of the show or do you think they skip it?

My son and I love it. My little dude is seven, he asked me yesterday if he could save his allowance for forge

From what I heard, the blades are annealed overnight between rounds 1 and 2, but the smiths are not told the temperature and duration of the annealing cycles.

Love the show!!

I like it.  I hope to be on it next season.  They called me about this season, but didn't feel I had enough experience forging yet for the groups they were trying to fill, as they do try to balance the skill level of each group.


Lots of misinformation in this thread about heat treating

So fill us in.

I like it.

Enjoyed that show, too.  Seems like a very knowledgeable smith for his age.

Came here to post this. I also like iron and fire but they only did one season.

I guess that answers my question.   I thought they did it all in one day except for the part where they get sent home to their own forge.

I like the show and watch it once in a while.
Even wife likes the show and is looking out for a guy who makes kitchen knives.

This. I'm new to it but like it. Much respect to those who forge their own.

Quenching north south - wives tale.  Many things can induce warp in the quench, but forging in particular.  Especially when under the clock.  Those guys are moving metal as fast as they can often using methods they wouldn't normally utilize that would keep things more even in a less time sensitive situation, it's not surprising there's a lot of warping on the show.  Not to mention the production lights make it very difficult to see how hot or how evenly heated their blades are.  Most of us do it in almost dark, at home when using a forge.  -I'm cutting this short for brevity, there is more to it but I'm never sure when I'm going overboard.

Quenching in oil vs water.  All steels want to be quenched at a particular rate to convert from austenite to martensite.  Shallow hardening steels (like most used on the show, when they know the alloy) need to be quenched very quickly.  Some, like 1095, W1, W2, and the Hitachi steels, are technically water hardening steels, however there are one or two quench oils out there that will quench them fast enough (and though we don't know, I believe they're using one of those oils on the shows quench tanks, as they're also very light and will vaporize/flame up if you're pulling out too fast).  Water is a violent quench.  The judges make a bigger deal of it sometimes than is necessary IMO for drama (dipping the blade that's now 500 degrees in water isn't going to hurt anything) it really is a 50-50 chance of inducing cracks for people who are experienced using it as a medium.  (There are some valid reasons to use it even if oil is available, but not on the show IMO)

All the blades are tempered overnight by the production team between round 1/2 and the testing day.

And no one has said it yet but no, motor oil is a terrible quenchant.  It doesn't carburize the steel because of all the soot in it from being in an engine.  No edge packing isn't a thing.  You can't make metal more dense with a hammer and anvil.

Oh, and @Nightdriver has a good point, about leaving it in there.  Especially knowing his background in industry.  There are valid reasons to pull a blade out early.  Namely you only need to get below 900F for hardening to take place, and as it's cooling from 900 to 400 in the air, it's very pliable and easy to be straightened.  Since they're not tempering themselves, this is really their best option to fix warp.  And it's hard to judge whether your blade will be at 900 at a 3 count, or a 5 count, and then miss your window to straighten.