[Malankazooie]

I wonder if they keep bananas and other fruits available for contestants that are affected by the heat and cramping up.

The Hollywood episode last night was cheesy AF. I enjoyed watching Doug do his thing though. David Baker got to step up too, because J. wasn't there. Hopefully J. is back next week.

[acesn8s]

Agreed, total let down.

[paran falcon]

Briar King, on 04 October 2018 - 02:24 AM, said:

1st week of special was NICE! Quality fucking weapons turned in at the end for sure. I hope the next 3 weeks of special has the same quality and the $50K prize in 4 weeks is mind blowing. How disappointing it will be for me if the 3 other classes can't bring what we saw this week.

I agree, that was one of the better episodes of late. All the smiths had a good idea what they were doing it seemed. I like the way they're going about this tournament. Should be very interesting.

[paran falcon]

Briar King, on 11 October 2018 - 03:34 PM, said:

Ok I liked 2nd group but they were really Debbie Downers in round 1 saying how much of a disadvantage they were in. I love katars so I wish they had had to do the pair instead of just 1. Both were very pleasing to look at in the end but 1 of them most definitely didn't deliver on the action.

Yeah 2 out of the 4 of them didn't have their knife and katar sharp at the outset. I mean, if their edges had only minor rolling/damage after the strength test, all the unaffected parts should have been as sharp as before that test began. I'm not sure how that gets overlooked?

[acesn8s]

I've given up on Knife or Death.

I'm digging the tournament on Forged though.

[Malankazooie]

I watched a little bit of the first episode of Season 2 of Knife or Death. Boy was it a mistake. I was interested because they brought in former Forged in Fire champs (I recognized only one winner btw, which may be saying something about how forgettable the winners have been from FiF). Anyway, I had to turn the channel when this one doof gassed himself out on stabbing open a wooden box (I think they had to call in the medics). Then I saw the line up for the second episode (yikes, what a sad representation of the human race). I swear they are the kind of people who take a 'karate' class offered at a local strip mall. The kind of place where you get a 'purple' belt and think you are all bad ass, when in reality none of what you've learned would help in any way if you got into a legitimate fight with someone on the street.

About the Forged in Fire tourney. It's been pretty good so far, I suppose. The farriers did way better then the armorers so far, which doesn't surprise me. As I kid, I grew up on a farm and we had all kinds of animals (including horses). As a young lad, I watched a farrier do his thing. They have to think on their feet and problem solve without the comforts and amenities of of a home forge. They also have to roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty with the work before them (no luxury power hammers or anything like that). I expect the farrier still in the competition to do well. We'll see I suppose.

[Malankazooie]

The Blacksmiths round was meh. Beard Boy # 2 put all his eggs into the 'damage test' basket and didn't have an edge on his knife whatsoever (I wouldn't use it to spread room temperature butter on my toast). When I saw his knife crush through those bricks in the damage test, I knew it wasn't going to do jack shit when it came to the 'sharpness test'. Doug gave him the very rare critique - "it will not cut". That whole sharpness test round was like the Three Little Bears, but in a bad way. "This will cut, a little." "This will cut even less." "This will not cut."

Final build was a poleaxe. Doug did some pretty cool work during the 'kill test', but overall the weapon is just too unwieldy to really have a wow factor during the testing.

[paran falcon]

I liked what the winning blacksmith produced for the most part. I think he may have been the best of the group. I was pretty surprised he didn't lose his poleaxe spike in the blows on the door. And his weapon destroyed the ballistic dummy. The other guy's pulled the entire stomach or liver or something out.

Did anyone else notice the judges pull their knives when talking about what a drop point was in the 1st round? I've seen the sheathed knife on Ben Abbot's hip all these episodes and knew he must've made it and have been dying to see it. I was rather disappointed, I must say. I know functionality is the most important factor but if I could make knives well enough to win FiF twice, I'd make one that would function but also take my own breath away every time I unsheathed it. Not in any kind of decorative or frilly way but an impressive style, well developed. I thought his was a very bland looking design, myself. To each their own, I guess.

[Malankazooie]

I thought the the type of knives the judges pulled indicates that they carry them more for function then to "wow" people with elaborate designs and such. Doug's blade, for example, looked like the type of combat blade you have on your person that no one would ever know you are carrying, until it's pulled and you get all stabby stabby on an assailant (just simply designed for function). I imagine in their collections at home, the judges have their beautiful pieces on display, behind glass.

I wish J. Nelison would return. That boring Ben Abbot dude can only muster about 10% of the agro that J. brings when doing those damage tests.

[Malankazooie]

FYI, if any of you guys are interested: https://forum.malaza...ost__p__1352558

[Malankazooie]

Watched the latest episode. Obviously that was their 'Halloween' episode - 'slasher' blades, and then final challenge being the 'Grim Reaper's Scythe'.

'Slasher' blades put through strength test on hockey masks and sharpness test on leather skin mask. That was some serious makeup bullshit during the hockey mask tests. When that Ben Abbott dude cranked away on the hockey masks, fake blood started splattering out. When the camera shot to him he had fake blood splatters on his face, but if you look at his shirt, there was nary a drop. Yeah right.

Doug got all jiggy with it when swinging the scythes during the kill test on those ballistic gel dummies during the final challenge. But then during the strength fuckin' Ben Abbott and his bone baton (and his flippin' Hitler Youth haircut)

[acesn8s]

Is anyone watching Master of Arms? It's a blatant rip off, but I like it.

https://www.discover...r-of-arms/about

[Malankazooie]

acesn8s, on 12 November 2018 - 03:01 PM, said:

Is anyone watching Master of Arms? It's a blatant rip off, but I like it.

https://www.discover...r-of-arms/about

Haven't watched Masters at Arms. Saw it while flipping through the programming grid and read the description and thought to myself how forging shows must be getting popular enough that there are more shows that are replicating the formula.

I just wish the Discovery Channel would bring back Big Giant Swords. IMDB page - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4354996/

[acesn8s]

Horrible product driven episode. This is worse than the "...found in the game ..." placements.

[Malankazooie]

Probably the worst episode of the series. I mean shooting arrows to test, you kinda have to hit the target. That's sort of the idea, right?

I wish they would stop with these promotional tie-in episodes. The Vikings tie-in was the only one they did good. The rest have been shit.

[Malankazooie]

Fun final challenge. One of the better final challenges compared to the crap that has been in recent episodes.

I was LOLing when David Baker was trying to blow smoke rings, while Doug was coughing.

gotta cough to get off.

[paran falcon]

Malankazooie, on 14 December 2018 - 03:29 AM, said:

Fun final challenge. One of the better final challenges compared to the crap that has been in recent episodes.

I was LOLing when David Baker was trying to blow smoke rings, while Doug was coughing.

gotta cough to get off.

That was an interesting scene. Why did they edit out any mention of what they packed them with, I wonder? Good weapons and both did really well. I actually thought Cody was going to win as his blades seemingly had no flaws. I expected his tomahawks to not stick as well on the throwing test since it looked like he had less edge width but his may have stuck a little better. They knocked his pair harder than I expected for the handle lengths being off an inch or so. But then again, couldn't he have taken an inch off the end and re-capped it when he noticed they weren't of matching length?

[Malankazooie]

paran falcon, on 14 December 2018 - 02:26 PM, said:

Malankazooie, on 14 December 2018 - 03:29 AM, said:

Fun final challenge. One of the better final challenges compared to the crap that has been in recent episodes.

I was LOLing when David Baker was trying to blow smoke rings, while Doug was coughing.

gotta cough to get off.

That was an interesting scene. Why did they edit out any mention of what they packed them with, I wonder? Good weapons and both did really well. I actually thought Cody was going to win as his blades seemingly had no flaws. I expected his tomahawks to not stick as well on the throwing test since it looked like he had less edge width but his may have stuck a little better. They knocked his pair harder than I expected for the handle lengths being off an inch or so. But then again, couldn't he have taken an inch off the end and re-capped it when he noticed they weren't of matching length?

It being so close, I guess they had to find fault with one of them. Didn't the winner have some apparent delaminations in one of the axe heads though? Nothing that impacted the performance, but still. Also, they could have determined the winner based on which had the easier pull during the smoking challenge. I'd like to know what they packed into those bowls too.

measure twice, cut once.

[acesn8s]

I watched Knight Fight. It's interesting, but there are some issues with the show.

[Malankazooie]

I watched a little bit at the beginning. I think I'm out. A bunch of out of shape, fat dudes, kitted out in full armor getting all gassed out pretending to have sword fights just isn't my thing I guess. It's funny how adult men can't let go of their youthful days playing war in the woods, having 'stick fights' with their booger eating buddies. It's the same thing with the Airsoft craze (is that still a thing?). A bunch of wannabe army men running around shooting each other with glorified pellet guns, acting like they could have done the real thing. I dunno, maybe I'll try and watch again (if I remember), doubt it though.