Forged in Fire Online

This is NOT one of those craft competition shows that wastes time on manufactured drama and tiresome sob stories. They make the craft itself the focus, and the competitors' skills and choices keep it interesting.

There is a different challenge each episode, with, four contestants and three elimination rounds. The first round: forge raw metal into a blade meeting specific size requirements. The second round: add a handle and finish the blade. The results are tested head-to-head. In the final leg, the two remaining contestants are presented with a specific type of blade and asked to make their best version of it over three days at their home forges.

Seeing the different forges and processes is interesting, but they don't waste time on back stories, family tragedies, false alliances, or snarky comments. The judges show respect for the good decisions, acknowledge costly choices, and don't get too personal. They focus entirely on the blademaking. Making the craft the focus is a refreshing change, and other shows should follow their format. Anyone who enjoys skilled crafting might enjoy this show.

As a knife aficionado, seeing these guys create knives, axes, swords, etc. is an awesome treat. I have always wanted to be a bladesmith, but so far never got the time. Watching this show really puts the fire back in my belly!

I like the design of the show, and I love seeing the different techniques used to achieve some of the same results. I also love learning about the different metals. It's great seeing the different equipment and knowing you can do a lot of the techniques with new machines like power hammers and grinders, yet you can achieve the same results, albeit with a lot more muscle and sweat, but it can be done the "old fashioned way".

Please keep this show going!

Seriously good production. Exciting and engaging for anyone that enjoys building something with your hands and seeing it perform. Unlike most other shows on TV these days, this competition has NO manufactured drama and actually shows the smiths bonding even during competition, this displays American values in almost every episode. Those that are eliminated show that not everyone can win, not everyone gets a trophy, even if they work hard, and most of them are very humble and accepting that they were out performed. Not only do you get a well produced and well written show, the set "design" rocks - it's a real, no BS forge! I think the most important thing though is that you ACTUALLY LEARN STUFF like SCIENCE and SKILLS. Highly, highly recommended and I anxiously await every new episode!!

Forged in Fire is an excellent show. I finally have a Masculine Game show/ Reality TV show I can watch and enjoy. I love the different Techniques used in the show and the rules. It really takes some special craftsman and craftsmanship to do this type of work. I really enjoyed it and hope they continue to do episodes and perhaps have an series that brings back the previous FiF champions for a Champion vs Champion episode or episodes to show who is the Forged in Fire Champion of Champions!!!

If you want to watch a good show this is a good one and very interesting!

This show is just amazing, from something I knew nothing about too something I love to watch this show has just taught me so much. The 3 judges are great at explaining what is wrong and right with the blades and having some humour in there as well. I have found a passion for blacksmithing that I didn't know I had. I really like the different types of challenges that they set to show the true skill of the contestants. The only downfall I have with the show is it should be judged a bit more on the creativity and style of the weapon then just how it performs pushing the contestants to make cool looking weapons. I can't wait for more of this show. I have told all my friends to watch it, unfortunately that isn't many people anyway hopefully they will enjoy it.

Forged in Fire is a good show. fun to watch and enjoyable, The judges are characters and their weapons expert Doug's signature "It willl keeelll." catchphrase is meme able. The challenge to forge against the clock is BS but adds drama and some reasonably talented craftsmen have appeared on the show. But don't be fooled, hard skill and science is glossed over on this show, Making a blade in the fashion shown on this show will not be a good idea, unless you like broken blades. That or massive sections of time are missing, essential techniques like annealing steel, tempering and thermocycleing are missing, and the common point down quench is frowned on by real smiths as it bends the blade, Key tools are missing and for a show with Forged in the title most of the blades are rough shaped and then stock removal to complete. The trash challenges are a bad idea. most real smiths wont make a knife out of steel they cant verify, real "junk" used by knifemakers; leaf springs, coil springs, disker disks, files, chisels, wrenches, cable, ball bearings. That is the kind of stuff most smiths forge into a knife that will last, not garden shed crap. The show puts a lot of glory on Damascus steel and folding, a process not needed with modern metals, its just looks cool, but it has the potential to fail in a heart beat with one open weld. The heat of the forged on set is at issue as the steel should never be heated yellow or white unless welding as it burns out the blade.

A great way to pass an hour on a Tuesday and see some skilled and semi skilled people work their craft, don't look at it if you are an actual smith unless you like yelling at the TV (I do so I watch..)

Nice to have history make a show that does not have Hitler or a pawnshop in it for once.

Never miss an episode.

It is a great show that demonstrates that sweat and hard work is still the best way to accomplish anything.

Besides, the winners are chosen based on the merit of their work and craftsmanship, as it should be, right?

As a bonus, we always learn something new.

Millenials could learn a thing or two from "Forged in Fire"...

Forged in Fire gives us an overall interesting insight into the ancient craft of blacksmithing. I would rate this 10 out of 10 on the educational scale and 5 out of 10 in the quality department. The reason quality's lacking is due to the judging process. I noticed too many variables when testing blades that lead to pore judgment calls. It would be great to see blades coming out of this show that demonstrate an equality between design and function. This could be achieved in the judging process by scoring 50% function and 50% design. They need to allow more then 3-4 hours and more breaks so the guy's aren't on the edge of passing out! I really enjoy watching this show and hope they keep coming out with programs in this genre.

It is an interesting show to watch. As a blacksmith myself, I often look out for any footage of blacksmithing, new techniques to learn or, in the case something goes wrong in the video, to help out. I was very pleased with seeing the renewed love for such a craft as blacksmithing, but I believe that this show still doesn't answer some of the crucial problems with modern blacksmithing. First off, a proper piece is a work of art and can take much longer than 6 hours to complete. I understand that it would be difficult to make a show about it were it to be longer than 6 hours, but that is the reality of the trade. It makes viewers think that there is no more than 6 hours in a knife, that's it's easy to make, and that they should expect a pattern-welded hand forged chef knife to cost under 200$-300$. Nonsense.

The second problem I have with the show is that a lot of the crucial steps are skipped over to make place to drama. Tempering your knife after quenching is a must in any knife that you may sell. A lot of techniques are skipped over and it results in either poorly made knives if they skipped tempering, or (if they simply removed the footage) poor informational material.

Third- The tests are HIGHLY inaccurate. They don't really measure anything. They are simply to -Wow- the audience. HRC scale tests could easily distinguish a good knife from a poor one without all this fluff. I understand that would be quite boring, but it actually diverts to the skill of the craftsmen who do create HRC64+ blades, from a blade that simply cuts coconuts.

Lastly, The show mainly presents smiths with a simple test: make a chopping knife, which is nowhere representative of most of the smith's abilities. If a smith specializes in kitchen cutlery, such a knife would never pass half of the tests out there, but could still be considered one of the most marvelous pieces of craftsmanship. I've seen historically accurate-ish of high skill (such as the rapier used as a slashing weapon, or the gladius' round handle) lose to more ergonomic designs. This isn't a representation of the best smithing skills, but of the production of a weapon in order to complete a test most efficiently.

The judges seem not to even know their crap. They should of hired a few true martial arms historians (as most of them specialize in a single field obviously) to distinguish western and eastern weapons. Promoting the Malaysian Kris as a slashing weapon is complete nonsense, as it's blade geometry would actually make it less efficient at slashing, but more efficient at thrusting (something that has been proved many times, however late productions of this weapon have indeed been wider and less curvy to allow for slashing use as well as thrusting). Another very obvious flaw is how The only blacksmith out of the 3 judges suggested etching over a hammon to make it more apparent, where traditionally it would never be done that way ( a etched hammon is simply not a hammon at all)

All-in all, a good show to watch for entertainment, but beware as this isn't reliable information to base off from for your blacksmithing techniques.

I'm disappointed that this authentic, high quality series has lent its name to another unrelated show for the idiot portion of the world: "Forged in Fire - Knife or Death".

I watched one episode, and it is a sleazy leech off this one. Out of shape contestants slash like animals at objects - pointless! Anyone could sharpen a lawn mower blade and participate.

That garbage show doesn't have its own listing here at IMDb, so I'm posting here hoping to save anyone tempted to peek, tricked because of the name.

I can only give my opinion here, so this is what I think of this show. It is Fantastic! Finally a reality show that doesn't have the competitors back-stabbing, sh@t-talking, bullying, manipulating, or sabotaging each other. It seems to be a real competition with real people doing their best to win, instead of relying on someone else's failure to advance them through to the finale. Still... that does happen. A competitor may not be familiar with the materials or the time limits, even so, it's a fun show to watch. Very entertaining for me and my family. Thank you for reading my humble review.

Is Jay or Jason coming back? Ben is ok but Jay Neil or Jason Knight is better????

Dwight should have been sent home in round one for failing to meet the parameters. If you need to test then he should be docked points in the test on round 2 because he shouldn't be there to begin with. He failed round one. Part of being a smith is following directions. I sure as hell would not purchase a knife if it wasn't what I ordered. Therefore he should not have been allowed to advance unless one of the other 2 blades suffered catastrophic failure or round 2 should be skipped entirely.

I love this show, I love it more when Ben Abbott isn't on it, he is so smug and contrived he ruins any episode he features.

Man at Arms: Art of War on ELREYHD channel has nothing on Forged in Fire. Men at Arms rarely rates at a 2. It teaches barely nothing about weapon manufacturing and the weapon testing is boring compared to Forged in Fire. Forged in Fire will kill. I recommend anyone with a engineering, mechanical design back should support this program.

So I'm not artistic and love seeing art created. This is like seeing equivalent of blown glass created, but for knives, swords, and weapons u don't know existed. I find myself drifting during a lot of the creation process after first dozen episodes (repeat of water vs oil quenching makes my ears cringe, as well as forced "as shown in *promoter*") but watching tests is truly enthralling. Outside my fear of damaging myself this show makes me wanna take up forging.

Love this show since i stumbled across it in the USA whilst there on business and have been hooked ever since

Great craftsmanship and skill

The tension and entertainment is fabulous and it brings out the fire and steel in everyone

BUT.....

But it seems in the UK at least that the nanny state liberals may have interfered with the show ... as i binge watched most of season 5 on Blaze recently it was obvious they had CUT out all the ballistic Dummy kill tests and a lot of the other flesh based testing

This is absolutley ridiculous as its an integral part of the show and the judging is based on that in part .... making a mockery of the decision & reviews at the end

Leave it alone ... folks know what they are getting into right up front

Just Saying !!!!!

Can't stop watching! Hilarious, sometimes a bit cringy (looking at you Doug), and overall informative. Because I started watching this show I've started forging knifes! How awesome right?

I really enjoy this programme and never miss an episode. My only criticism is the prize money seems too low. These guys and women practically kill themselves for ten grand while on other competitive programmes the winner gets much more for being stupid and doing nothing ie Ellen's Game of Games.

I absolutely LOVE this show! It's by far the best competition show on tv! I have also learned so much about blade smithing from this show! I now want to start blade smithing as a hobby lol!

Came home one night to my son watching this, and found it really interesting, I don't normally like reality shows featuring Joe public, but quickly became a fan and have learnt a lot just from watching.

One thing that bugs me though, the way every judge constantly asks "You ready?" before every single test!!

I give Forged in Fire tv show 10 stars because blacksmithing/knife/sword making has always been of interest to Me. I also have a question. What do they do with all the contestants surrendered weapons ?

It is ridiculous to have animal carcasses used for entertainment. It is almost 2019, it is so bad to have people still using animals for entertaining, it is not the Roman Empire where animals were sacrificed for fun. It is outrageous

Great show, and I have been watching for years, but I have a question about show SERIES 5 EPISODE 8, THE ZANDE SPEAR. When sending the two finalist off to their home forge you said the shaft of the spear must be AT LEAST one and one half inches at cross section. When the one contestant's spear started in the tube for being fired and it did not go the entire way in, he was disqualified. Were there more detailed instructions given about the spear overall dimensions? If not, I feel this craftsman should not have been disqualified. Can you elaborate on the way you give specs of projects to contestants.

Just wondering. Blackie

A very entertaining scripted show. it feels very scripted because the contestants have a side interview with a comment on things that happens as it happens. it feels fake. it's actually very irritating when a voice over repeats the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again. the downfall of a credible show. Forged in fire is fake but non the less still very entertaining. i would like to see Bushcraft knives. all the challenges involve making extremely limited useless knives in the real world. every knife requirement at the start of every show involves weapons and not hunting or camping knives.