While watching Season 9 of Forged in Fire, I was excited to see that one of the competitors, Eric Finch, was from a small town near mine! I knew I had to reach out and see if he would be open to an interview. After some back and forth, I was finally about to meet up with him at his home forge.

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When I arrived, Eric met me in his driveway and walked me to his forge, which is about the size of a single-stall garage. Inside was packed with knives in different states of completion, and tools covered the walls and floor space. It is exactly how I would have pictured a bladesmith shop, and it was clear he spends a lot of time there. After showing me around, we sat down and talked about all things Forged in Fire and bladesmithing.

Amanda w/ Brute de Forge: Eric, it is so great to meet you, and I am so excited you agreed to meet and chat with us at Brute de Forge!

Eric Finch: I’m excited you reached out! I was surprised when I heard that you were local. I thought that was pretty neat. And I like the website's name; I do a lot of brute de forge style in my work. You can see the forged texture here (showing one of the blades he has lying on his workbench). You can tell that it’s hand forged, which is why I like it.

Does this one look familiar? (Holds up the Mexican bowie knife he made in the competition rounds of his episode).

Yes! I was just going to ask about it. Is that the same one?

Eric Finch: No, they keep all the winner’s knives.  This one's cool, however. I made this one from the steel left over from the sword I made on the episode. I had some left over, so I made the same blades out of it as I made on the show. I also got a tattoo on my arm to commemorate it!

Tell me about how you became interested in forging and bladesmithing.

Eric Finch: It was about six or seven years ago; my mom signed my dad, brother, and me up for a blacksmithing class. Everyone always asks, ‘was your grandpa a blacksmith, or was your dad?’ because it is a random thing to get into, but the answer is no. Mom signed us up for a blacksmithing class at Camp Lutherlyn, just down the road. It was an eight-hour course, and we learned to make little S hooks, J hooks, little steak flippers, and some super basic blacksmithing skills. 

So I took that first.  Then, at the time, I was in my junior year of high school, and I took a welding shop class. It was toward the end of the year, and we had to complete a final project, and we could make whatever we wanted.  I decided to make a coal forge because that is what I had used at Lutherlyn. A coal forge is just made out of a steel pot and has a blower that comes up into it. I made that, and it sat around for about a year, and I never touched it.

Then, I got an anvil, one of those on the ground behind you (points behind me to the driveway where several anvils are now sitting). My Uncle Chuck gave that one to me.  That is how I got rolling. In my head, that was the tool I really needed to find, and they’re not cheap! So, once I got that one, it inspired me.  I was out in the driveway and started just banging on rebar and stuff and making those little hooks I had learned to make. Eventually, I started making some little knife-shaped things out of rebar and scrap steel.  I have a box of them somewhere; they are just like little butter knives, super basic.  

Slowly, I started looking into the whole knife-making thing; honestly, it's intimidating to look at! There are tons of YouTube videos out there showing how to make knives, and I watched some and was like, there's no way I can do that. It stressed me out for a while. I was afraid to get into it. But it was just kind of one thing at a time. I started taking old files like this (he holds up a file tool). It’s already very hard, so you can grind them as long as you want—as long as they don’t get too hot—and you can make a knife out of it. It's easy. You don’t need a forge right away, and you don’t need heat treating or any of that kind of stuff. I made knives out of files for a long time!

I just went tool by tool.  My Uncle Chuck got me my first forge, and then he got me the first little belt sander, which I don't even have anymore, but that was like the first little jump that got me just to do it. He bought me all these things to get me started and into it. The only thing he ever asked in return was that I go on the show someday. That was his one big request.  

So, you’ve only been doing this seriously for about three or four years?  That is very impressive! Other people you competed with had 10 to 20 years of experience.

Eric Finch: Yes, so, when I got the offer to go on the show, I didn’t really want to because I didn’t have a lot of experience. Then everyone kept asking me what I was going to do, but I was like, maybe ten years from now when I really know what I'm doing. But my uncle was getting older and was in pretty poor health at the time, so I just said, ‘well, I guess now’s the time.’

What was the process like to get on Forged in Fire? Can you walk us through it?

Eric Finch:  Yeah, it was kind of random for me. It was last semester, right around this time last year, and I woke up to an email with the subject “Forged in Fire.”  I put it on my story on Snapchat and was like, ‘hey you guys, I’m going on Forged in Fire!’ joking around. Then, it slowly unfolded. I emailed them back to see what it was about, and they asked if I could set up a phone call. At that point, I was like, this is legit. It’s real.  It got more exciting at that point. I had a couple of interviews, and they had me come out to compete!  Apparently, that is kind of unique. Usually, there's an application process that is pretty involved.

The Forged in Fire people found you, then?

Eric Finch: Yes. I don't use it anymore, but TikTok was really big for a while, and I had some of my work posted there. I had over half a million followers, so I guess they found me that way. But I remember the guy interviewing me asked how long I had been bladesmithing, and I told him three years. He said I must be doing something right because they asked him to find me! Apparently, that's just not a very common thing.

After they found you, were there any little side competitions you had to compete in to prove yourself, or did they just accept you based on your work?

Eric Finch: There was a small process. I sent in a couple of videos and filled out a couple of surveys. I sent some pictures of work I had done and some videos of me working, and stuff like that. I don't know what those really showed, honestly.  It's hard to look at a picture of a knife and assume someone can do that in three hours. It can take days or weeks to make those things. So the show is very, very different from what you would be doing at home.

Absolutely. My son is a big fan of the show, and he always reminds me that we only see 45 minutes in an episode, but the competition clock is set for several hours of work time.

Eric Finch: Exactly! The in-house competition is three hours for the first portion and two hours for the second portion. Then the home forge portion is 35 hours.

Do they hold you to strict rules when you come home to forge? Do you have to keep to certain hours or anything like that?

Eric Finch:  Not as strict as in the studio.  Our episode was a little different. Our in-studio clock counted up, not down. In-studio, you can be done with your blade early, but the maximum time is three hours, and when that’s done, you're done. You. Are. Done.  There's no saying, ‘I need to go back and change this.’ And so, the second challenge is two hours, and you have to finish the handle in that time. Once that timer goes off, again, you are done.  I mean, we were all still working, and we had to stop.  A lot of people always think the tension is just for show, but it’s not. You look stressed on there because you are! The stress is very real. 

I was kind of able to zone it all out—all the cameras and all the judges and stuff—but it's hard.  I still talk to all the guys I competed with, and they all had a hard time with that. It’s a mental challenge as much as anything. I said to myself, ‘just look at what you're doing, don’t look up, don’t look at the judges or anyone else. Just look at what's in my hands.’  At any given moment, there are cameras all around you, recording every single thing you do. If you mess up, they'll see it, so you just have to block it out.

Did you have any inkling about what you would be making in the first rounds?

Eric Finch: No. Anytime competitors walk into the studio forge area, and the host introduces a weapon, that is the first time the competitors have seen it. There is no hint from anyone or someone saying, ‘come prepared to make this.’ It's hard to be prepared for something like that, so it keeps competitors on an even playing field.

When did you film for the show? I’m sure it aired much later than the actual filming.

Eric Finch: Our scheduling was weird. Other people I know that were on it, and it was a two-week period; you go out, compete, and make it to the final two, camera crews come straight to your house and film the next part. It's usually a pretty quick process.  I flew there on November 11th, 2021, and filmed for four days doing the first two challenges. And then they didn't come here, to my forge, to film this segment until January 19th, 2022. So, there was a huge gap compared to other episodes.  I made the sword twice, and we both had some extra time to practice making the machete, which is probably why, in the final challenge, we were both able to turn in such great pieces! I mean, the only thing that set us apart was that his handle was a little bit bigger. But I think practicing and having more time made the episode that much better because both of our pieces were so comparable. It was intense.  

What was it like to film at your home forge and have them here?

Eric Finch: It was crazy! We filmed here for three days.  As I said, it’s 35 hours of working time, so the first day is five hours, then ten hours, ten hours, and another ten hours to film. And I only used five the first day, ten the second, and half the next day. The film crew actually got to go home a day early. And so, I think, I was kind of prepared to make it and prepared for the stress of feeling like your time pressed. The episode shows us working on day four, but there wasn't a day four. They added it to make you feel our stress.

But, I remember it was negative eleven degrees the first morning. It was brutal. I built a tent out over the top of this garage to cover the log splitter out there, the one I used to forge my blade on the show.  Everything is so temperature sensitive that I had to build a thing around it and heat it so the motor could start. I was out here that morning at 5:30 to get everything warmed up. That was before I had the actual press over there (points to a newer press along the wall). This is the kind they use on the show right there. Anyway, it was freezing, but we got it done! I kept furnaces running for the camera crew so they could stay warm.

Are there behind-the-scenes things that would surprise people?

Eric Finch: The sheer number of hours and work it takes to shoot a forty-minute episode. We were there for four days just for the first two challenges in the studio, filming about fourteen hours a day. It was a lot of sitting and waiting and filming…and sitting and waiting and filming, again.  They filmed you walking into the studio, and then we would leave for an hour. After an hour, we would come back and do the next part for an hour. It was a lot of back and forth before you moved on.  Once we were forging, though, it was continuous. There were no breaks from that part. 

And then for the back home portion. It's thirty hours, and the viewers see maybe, sixty seconds on the episode.  The show makes it all seem so fast-paced.

I flew back out there on February 8, 2022, and we filmed the testing of the final blades.  That part of the filming was painful! So stressful. It looks like the tests are back-to-back, but they were a whole day of filming. The first one was that hanging board and the chop. We went out on set, and they did his test, and then we went back to the trailer and waited while they reset everything. Then we came out and did my board test, then went back to the trailer for an hour until they reset. This happened for each of the tests. During that whole time, we couldn’t even talk to each other! We had a babysitter that didn’t let us say anything to anyone, which was weird because by then, we knew each other, and we are friends, but we couldn’t talk to each other. It was killing us. Wondering is my weapon going to break? Is something going to happen? Who’s going to win it?

And for all the challenges, you film them, and after they're filmed, you go do interviews.   You go in and talk to the camera, going over every single thing you did, step by step, but in the present tense.  So, you did it all a couple of hours ago, but we were talking like we were doing it at that moment. So, while you see me forging, you also see me talking about me forging.  There’s a producer that helps you talk through it and tries to help you stay in the present tense, which is really weird.  Then you have to say everything several times, so they have other clips to pull from.  It's the magic of TV, I guess. You just don't realize what all goes into making one episode.

Here’s a question on everyone’s mind: would you return for a champion's tournament?

Eric Finch: Well, if I was returning, I probably couldn’t say I was. It wouldn't shock me if they invited me back out. That seems like a pretty common thing for them to do. But I go back and forth with that answer. It is fun, but it consumes a lot of time and life. For those months, I felt like I couldn’t function.  It was the only thing on my mind, asking myself if I was ready. Luckily last time, it was filmed over winter break, so I didn't have to worry about school. I could focus on the show. But mentally, it was a lot. You just didn't know what was going to happen or what was coming.

I feel like since I've done it once, maybe this time it wouldn't be quite so bad. I kind of have an idea of what to expect. I think it just depends on when they asked me to come back out and at what point I’m at in life. If they asked me right now…probably not. But if they asked me over winter break again… it’s possible.

You mentioned that you didn’t know what you were going to be making in the studio. Was there anything you feared that they were going to throw at you?

Eric Finch: (Without hesitation) A canister Damascus. They do it on the show all the time!  It's so pointless to do, in my opinion. It's really just a challenge. I can't imagine ever doing it just to do it. Not even in my shop, on my own time. But I did it just to practice before I went out on the show. This is the practice knife right here (pulls down a knife hanging on his wall). You can see a bunch of random pieces of steel from the canister and chunks of steel. I practiced so that if I went in there, I would know how to do it at least. It turned out fine. But canister stuff is weird! If you don't do it just right, it will crumble on you like flour.

Do you have a unique signature or style? Something that makes your work yours?

Eric Finch: Something that makes me unique is that I put a lot of alloy metals inside my Damascus cores. This one has nickel silver running through the blade. I have a lot of copper-infused blades and stuff like that. I think it really has this cool look that sets it apart. You can never run out of things to do with Damascus, which is why I like working with it.

How long would a knife like that take you to produce?

Eric Finch: Well, I do multiple blades at one time, so it's always hard to tell how long a single piece might take. It's just hard to gauge. If I didn’t have any schoolwork to do and could just focus on forging, I could probably get a couple of knives a week finished.

How has business been since winning?

Eric Finch: (laughs) I keep telling my mom I have a million things to do, and cleaning is not one of them! She keeps giving me crap for it being dirty down here. The show's impact has been more than I expected, to say the least. It's hard to stay consistent with this and going to school. I have a decent schedule this semester, I only have classes three days a week, so I can come home every day and work, which helps a lot. But I’m pretty backed up. I’m working on a lot of custom stuff right now. The day after the episode aired, I finished a whole batch of knives, and they all sold within 24 hours.

I have a lot of crazy requests right now. A lot of guys want these Bowie knives I made on the show because they saw me make one. And the judges had such good things to say, and it was so surreal. They said it was one of the best-replicated weapons they’d ever seen. So, now I have guys that want me to replicate things. People have reached out and said they’ve watched the show for years but never reached out to anyone until they saw me on there, and they want to chat about it. It’s so crazy. Especially coming from just, again, a couple of years of experience.

You mentioned school. What are you studying?

Eric Finch: Safety management. I was in DC all summer working for a construction company out there as a safety intern. I got back just a few days before the episode aired, which was perfect timing because I did not want it to air while I was away. I wish I had a little more time before the episode aired so I could have had more opportunity to jump on that push to make more knives to sell and all that. But we'll see. I'm finishing the degree, and I’m in the middle of my senior year, so I only have a semester and a half now to figure out what I want to do.

And you always have bladesmithing, right?

Eric Finch: Yeah, so I'd say it's at least a backup plan. I wouldn’t mind doing this full time, but I might wait at least a couple of years and find a real job to get everything I need with health insurance and all that. I want to use my degree for a couple of years so I don’t get out of school and never use it. But I’ll keep doing this on the side. That said, I'm looking at the insurance industry in safety risk management. A lot of those guys work from home and set their own hours, so it would allow me to do both—have a job and continue bladesmithing. That is the plan right now!

Do you have any advice for other blade smiths or people who might be interested in taking up the hobby?

Eric Finch: Something I always say to people is don’t get caught up in starting to do it and then failing at it. I always tell people I have boxes full of scrap knives—like dozens and dozens of knives—and I learned way more from those failures than I did with any successful knives. Jump in there and just start making yourself a giant pile of failures! Learn as you go. I, personally, am not someone who likes to take classes or wants to watch tons of YouTube videos. I mean, sure, I can watch a guy make a knife 1,000 times, but I wouldn't really know how to do it myself. So, I say just do it—jump into it, fail at it, try it again. And it seems stressful and scary, especially just starting, but it's like anything else; once you learn how to do it, it's second nature. You just have to learn how to do it.

That is excellent advice, don’t be afraid of failure.

Eric Finch: And you don't need an entire forge immediately! You don't need a big belt sander or a 25-ton hydraulic press. You can buy a little propane forge for $70 and pick up a piece of railroad track somewhere and jump into it. You really don't need to invest a ton of money into it. When I started, I had a tiny fold-out table and a little bench grinder, and that was it! I built myself a workbench for my two tools until I needed another. Plus, you would be surprised at the people who will help you if you tell them what you are doing. A lot of the things you see here are from Facebook Market Place or were given to me by people who just wanted it out of their way. So, if you are interested in it, just go out there and start doing it! It’s one hobby that doesn’t need to be expensive.

Well, this has been amazing! Thanks so much, Eric, for allowing us to come down and check out your forge and hear your story!

Eric Finch: I’m glad you could make it! It is always great to talk to people interested in bladesmithing!

You can see more of Eric’s work on Instagram @finchs_forge or by visiting his website https://www.finchsforge.com.

If you want more forging news and interviews, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Were you or someone you know a contestant on Forged in Fire? If so, would love to hear from you! Please reach out to us at info@brutedeforge.com or send us a message on our social channels.

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