This series is a few episodes into its second season in the US market. I tend to feel sorry for the contestants each week as they are almost always required to make a blade from 'mystery' steel in a fairly short amount of time. If one does not know the steel going in, an optimal heat treatment is unlikely and the show proves that. This week they assigned a different steel to each contestant randomly. Four contestants start, one is eliminated after the forging phase and another after the hilting and finish phase. Two finalists return home to create their interpretation of a historic weapon. Another penchant the show has is that the products of smiths are then subjected to various and often absurd and abusive tests. They always say 'function over form, fit & finish' at the end and really give only a glimpse at how close the finalists got to the assignment in terms of design. Often the contestants whose work I would most like to see at the end are among those eliminated earlier. As often as not I must dissent from the judges' decisions.
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