Christopher Price

Cutting across won't hurt the carbon uptake at all, but will make re-welding it into Shear steel later that much harder.

For what it's worth, I live about 15 minutes from Dunlap, and if someone wants something specific that needs eyes-on before buying, I can be bribed/cajoled/asked to make a trip over there. Beautiful work, Alan, just the kind of thing I have been hoping you'd make one of these days after you got rid of the production work.

Thank you. I am happy with my work, I just shouldn't have been so certain of myself thinking they'd test it with the robo-arm... it just seemed inconceivable, having watched the show so much, that they'd grab the sharp ax side and swing the mace with a purpose. Thought for sure they'd put it in a rig for that. I didn't want the handle to be compromised, and the weight, once the momentum built up, would devastate whatever it hit without falling apart. Silly me and my proud assumptions.

All the round 1 & 2 weapons are held by the production company, as is the winning piece. Starting with season 4, they began giving the runner-up their final weapon back, so the Tabar-Shishpar hangs in a place of (dis)honor at home.

Ric, you guys answered the question that got me into smithing over 20 years ago with this program. How did they make armor back in the day, was what brought me to one of the original armorer forums back in the 90's, and when I started asking heat treating questions they pointed me at knifemakers where I found Tim Lively and Tai Goo making stuff with cheap hand tools and a whole lot of skill. Thank you for participating in the program, and putting an answer to the problem.

Damage to a blade is the reason people get voted off. Dave hated that it was heavy, and took the invisible, but detectable by touch, damage as the reason to kick me out. Doug disagreed, hence the stink-eye during the final feedback where Dave says "we agree..." I only reinforced the handle that heavy because I was convinced they'd use the robo-arm to test the mace, instead of holding it by the sharp ax-side and swinging it full power. I was afraid a pneumatic tool might deform the handle, so it was a choice. I stand by it, not knowing how they'd test it and only watching previous tests of similar weapons. If I'd known, I'd still have given it a little reinforcement but not nearly that much, making it easier to wield. And maybe tempered 50-100 degrees cooler to leave the edge a little harder. But that's the game - you don't know what the tests will be, so you have to make choices on how to put it together. Doesn't mean one is wholly better than the other, just better tuned to the tests they choose. That I got that far, and was that close, as a hobby-smith against a guy who's been eating off this for 20 years with a beautiful shop and serious skills, made me very happy. I validated myself as a competent maker, skilled craftsman, and flexible worker in strange environments. That's what I really wanted, even though I could have used the money and wanted to win the show.

History.com will stream it for free right now.

The only thing I'm really upset they didn't show, especially since Mark welded a flat-edged ax to the round handle, was me drifting that dang hole by hand. I had the 10 pound hand sledge shaking the shop off the gravel punching that thing in hot, while my competition just merrily machined his way along never breaking a sweat.

Rudimentary electro-etching. Same design, positive/negative space on each face. The bright lines are just polished briefly with a stone after hitting the surrounding area with super-blue. The graven side was just done with tape and an x-acto knife, the other was masked with asphaltum. Battery charger, Q-tip, and FC for etchant.

I will give full credit for the inspiration for the seax to Owen Bush. I was at a conference with him back in 2013, and his lecture and demo on the seax, with Kentish notch, stuck in my brain forever. Prior to going on the show, I was hoping against hope that I could make that knife - it slices, it stabs, and it chops as well as any other design, and has the advantage of letting me show off my historical reproduction skills within the constraints of the show. I got lucky with the challenge, in that there was enough steel in that wrench jaw for me to do what I wanted, and it just became a task of forming it out to shape quickly. I was very happy with what I ended up with.

Thank you!

My turn. 4 of us start out with pipe wrenches, and I'm one of the finalists to go home to build a Tabar-Shishpar, the goofiest combo weapon ever seen in history - an ax on one side, and a mace on the other end of a 3 foot metal pole. Tune if if you like, and let me know what you think after it's over.

There are several casting producers, while Heather is the prime POC there are many. Same with the follow-on production crew.

Not my photo, but I was doing the annual sausage-over-crucible cook when someone decided to get creative with their framing...

For me it's a hobby, but the most satisfying one I have. It's the act of evocation, taking an image from my grey matter and bringing it into the real world. That's powerful, possibly the most powerful thing I can do with my hands after being a father... but at least my knives usually turn out like I planned.