Forged in Fire S7 E6: The Boa-Zande Sword Competition

Initial Blade Forging Challenge

• 💡 Four bladesmiths, Mike, Ben, Sawyer, and Justin, compete for the "Forged in Fire" championship and $10,000.
• 🛠️ The first round required forging a 12-14 inch signature blade from canister Damascus using drill bits.
• ⚠️ Contestants faced difficulties identifying hardenable steel from drill bits and experienced welding issues, delaminations, and warps.
• ❌ Mike was eliminated due to severe delaminations and structural integrity concerns in his blade.

Handle Construction & Durability Test

• 🌲 In round two, smiths had two hours to attach handles using two different woods and drill bit pins.
• ⚖️ Key tasks included reducing blade weight and fixing warps identified by judges.
• 🔥 Challenges arose with handle alignment, epoxy setting, and material splitting, leading to frantic re-starts for some.
• 💥 During the cinder block chop strength test, Sawyer's blade suffered a catastrophic failure and he was eliminated.

Crafting the Boa Zande Sword

• 🌍 The final challenge was to forge a Boa Zande sword, a historical weapon from Central Africa, known for its leaf shape and piercing ricasso.
• 📏 Specific parameters included a 19-21 inch length, a 2.75+ inch wide belly, and a pierced ricasso.
• ⚔️ Justin used 80CrV2 steel and focused on thinning the blade, while Ben opted for Damascus but struggled with achieving the required width and faced a crack scare.

Final Judgement & Champion

• 🐷 Swords underwent a KEAL test (pig carcass for thrusting/slashing), a strength test (chopping shields), and a sharpness test (African tapestry slice).
• ✅ Both Justin and Ben's Boa Zande swords performed exceptionally well across all tests.
• 🏆 Justin was crowned the "Forged in Fire" Champion and awarded $10,000, with Ben narrowly missing out due to minor design flaws.