Owing to all of these factors, “Forged in Fire” is a competition that anyone with any level of experience can win, lending it an air of unpredictability that’s exciting. I say this as a lifelong baker, one whose husband has been known to open boxes of cake flour with a spring-assist blade that looks like something the Predator would use. Baking under a time constraint looks much easier, frankly. A craftsman might be doing everything correctly as far as he can tell, only to have everything fall apart on him. A blade may look flawless but chip easily. Eventually it gets down to two, with one person taking home the day’s prize of $10,000.īut metal is a tricky devil in ways that other mediums are not, which somewhat evens the playing field. Like all competition series, “Forged in Fire” has a time-pressure element, starting with four bladesmiths competing in three elimination rounds. The main fascination, of course, is observing the process itself. He’s right at home on a show that welcomes many impressively bearded contestants, as well as its share of hipsters.
David Baker is another favorite you can’t help but love a man who unironically sculpts his mustache into an old-timey style. Marcaida is one of several judges on the series, but he’s basically the Tim Gunn of “Forged in Fire,” in that he’s the man contestants need to impress not only with the look of the blade but its utility. And what he does is handle edged metal with an appreciative smile before he impressively slices and jams it into things. Marcaida is a polite guy who loves what he does. That’s the true goal of this goofy but fascinating series, to watch Marcaida take one’s handmade blade and go at some very tough object with it, whether that's a dummy, a heavy bag filled with sand, some wood or a piece of meat. The medium is white hot metal, and the goal is to produce a piece that makes edged weapon combat specialist Doug Marcaida declare, “It will kill.” It’s an artistic competition hosted by handsome former Army Ranger Wil Willis, a guy who also probably keeps a blade handy to open birthday presents, because that makes perfect sense.
You’d simply like your art to slice through frozen ham.Īll of this is to say the appeal of “Forged in Fire” is easy to understand. But as someone married to a former “Cutlery Corner” addict, a gentle guy who slices open his utility bills using any number of hand-forged blades, I have some knowledge of your kind. “Forged in Fire,” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m., History ChannelĬalm down, blade aficionados - this is not to insinuate that you are all weird LARPers or would-be Hannibal Lecters, tamping down an urge to flense and flay. That, and she probably would like to cut you. One enjoys a precise oven, and the other is fascinated by the dangerous and mercurial nature of flame. The two may co-exist - and at many renaissance faires, they often do! - but they might not watch the same shows.
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That’s why there are so many reality competition series featuring home cooks and bakers going head-to-head with their skills, a natural off-shoot of the artistic competition genre kicked off so many years ago by “Project Runway.”īut there are Etsy and bake sale people, and there are folks who interpret the phrase “get medieval on your ass” as a lifestyle choice. We may order takeout multiple times per week, but the maker impulse remains strong in many of us. We might be an exhausted people, but we are also frustrated.
On the other hand, axe throwing is thing. Tech-enabled convenience, rampant consumerism and a culture-wide exhaustion would appear to indicate that Americans have abandoned any desire to make anything harder than a sandwich.
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