Bringing the Heat! Exclusive Interview with Firefighting Bladesmith Jarred Irby

This week we caught up with Jarred Irby of 3IForge. Jarred appeared on both Forged in Fire and, more recently, season three of Last Blade Standing, where his beautifully crafted sword landed him in second place.

He talked to us about his appearances in both competitions, his desire to give back to the community through charitable donations, and the meaning behind his forge’s name.

BRUTE de FORGE: How did you get into bladesmithing?

Jarred Irby: I've always been a tinkerer. I've always had projects and enjoyed working with my hands. It looked like something that was fun and interesting, and I wanted to give it a try. So, my first shot at it was a charcoal forge in a hole in the backyard, and I enjoyed it! It progressed from there.

BDF: I assume your forge has expanded quite a bit since the hole in the yard.

JI: It has, yes. We have a shop on our property now. It's thirty by forty, so we've gotten quite a bit bigger from the hole in the backyard. It’s a shop dedicated entirely to blacksmithing and bladesmithing.

BDF: Your shop is called 3IForge. What's the story behind the name?

JI: Well, the idea was to make this business a family business and to teach the kids how to use their hands. We have two boys, one is fourteen, and the other is seven, and then we have a brand-new baby girl—she’s fifteen weeks.

The idea behind it was not necessarily to give them a career when they finish college but to give them some life skills to carry them forward. I want them to know what it feels like to earn a dollar by the time they're adults. So, the “3” symbol represents the past, present, and future and trying to build a legacy. The “I” is for my last name, Irby.

BDF: Do the kids enjoy it? Have they started learning?

JI: Yeah, they're involved as much as their attention will allow them at the moment—they are pretty easily distracted at this age. They enjoy the end product but not necessarily the making part.

BDF: What is it about forging that you enjoy so much?

JI: I enjoy the whole process, from start to finish. Since I started, I have put an emphasis on trying to use the hammer as much as possible. I wanted to be able to forge blades as close to finished as possible and then use power tools and grinders to make them refined and pretty. For me, the challenging part is figuring out the preform and how the metal moves with each strike.

“You really can’t do forging without stock removal, but you can do stock removal without forging. ”

There are two different kinds of bladesmithing. There’s stock removal, and then there’s a hot working forge. Some people do both. At the end of the day, you really can't do forging without stock removal, but you can do stock removal without forging. You're going to have to grind something regardless—It's important to be well-rounded. Being able to change the dimension of your stock without wasting any and hammering it into the shape that you want is a great feeling, but you have to stay ahead of it. You have to know how the steel is going to move as a result of the next step and the step after that. To do that, you have to set yourself up appropriately; otherwise, you'll be chasing your tail all the time. Being a problem solver and being creative feels good to me.

BDF: Are you primarily self-taught, or did you take classes?

JI: I didn't take any classes. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and joined some Facebook groups. Honestly, I failed a lot. I figured out the wrong way to do it until I figured out what worked for me.

BDF: Are you a full-time bladesmith? If not, how do you make your living?

JI: I’m a full-time firefighter. I think it's the greatest job in the world. I've been doing it for almost 18 years and was just promoted to captain. I really enjoy it.

BDF: Congratulations!

JI: Thank you! It's a fun job. You have your home family, and then you have your work family. It is genuinely like a real family because we live with each other for a third of our life, eat together, sleep in the same building, and all that kind of stuff.

BDF: For one of your interviews on Forged in Fire, you mentioned that your firefighting provides a living, so the money you make on your blades can be donated to children's cancer research. Is that what you do with the proceeds from your blades?

JI: Yes, for the most part. My wife is a NICU nurse, and I'm a fireman, so we're very fortunate that those jobs keep the lights on. So, we donate a lot of our time and income from the blade business back to causes that are meaningful to us.

The Cooper Max Foundation provides money and support to children and families affected by childhood cancer. They pay bills, provide music therapy for patients, give money for research, and even provide financial assistance to families burdened with funeral expenses as a result of pediatric cancer. They also provide “Cooper Care Baskets”—laundry baskets filled with items that families need during their stay at the hospital. When kids get admitted, you don't always have time to pack a bag because you think they’re going in for a cold, and the next thing you know, you’re getting admitted to oncology. These laundry baskets are filled with puzzles, coloring books, blankets, laundry detergent, and other items you need that you might not think about. So, we donate to the Cooper Max Foundation often. For the Last Blade Standing charity vote, I pushed the button as many times as possible for the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Unfortunately, pediatric cancer is not well-funded.

Additionally, firefighters are one hundred and ten times more likely to develop some type of cancer in their lifetime. I've lost several friends to it; it happens all the time. So, cancer is near and dear to this family, and we try to do what we can to help.

The other charity that we do work for is a group called Reforged, and they are out of San Antonio. It offers free knifemaking classes for veterans and first responders. It’s about creating a safe space for people with similar backgrounds and having fellowship. While they’re there, they can hit a piece of metal, have a cold beer, and talk to some like-minded people.

BDF: How did you get on Forged in Fire?

JI: They did a casting call and sent the information out on social media. My wife said, “Are you going to fill out the application, or am I going to do it?” So, I said, “You're going to do it.” I don't think that Forged in Fire is one of those things that anyone is ever ready for. I didn't think I was ready, but she filled out the application anyway. I got the call, and all I could think was, “Holy shit, now what do I do?”

Then there was a series of interviews and talking to executive producers. After that, I didn't hear from them for about ten months. Now, in their defense, right after I got the green light, COVID happened, which stopped everything.

But then, out of the blue, I got an email that said, “You're up. Let us know if you can be here in two weeks.” So, I had a two-week heads up that I needed to be on a plane heading to New York.

BDF: Were you worried about anything specific challenge-wise?

JI: No, not really. I hadn't had much time on a power hammer, so I was a bit nervous about that. That's why I didn't use it. I didn’t think that was the time to cut your teeth on a power hammer. The forge welding aspect is something that I do all the time. There was nothing that I was dreading. I wasn't really looking forward to using a coal forge if that was part of the challenge. I wasn’t too worried about having to do everything by hand because that's what I do most of the time anyway.

“I got an email that said, ‘You’re up. Let us know if you can be here in two weeks.’ ”

I think the biggest cause for apprehension was not knowing what I was walking into. You’re going in completely blind. They said to bring some tools, but we didn’t know what we would be doing.

BDF: How was it having the cameras at your home forge?

JI: That was pretty easy. We were in a two-car garage then, so there was not much room for the camera operators. They had to stay outside the garage while I was doing the work on the inside.

Having the cameras on the show was difficult because they were everywhere. You'd run into them, or they'd be right in your face. There were a couple of instances where I told them they needed to move because they were about to get really hot if they stayed where they were. But they did a good job of not slowing us down. I will say, if you're a little bit camera shy, Forged in Fire is probably not the place for you.

BDF: Was there anything about the show that surprised you while you were filming?

JI: Not really. Maybe just the realness of the show. You hear that banter from people sometimes, but it's real. You have no idea what you're walking into. When they say go, you go, and then they say stop, you're done. There is no “finish up what you’re working on.” You’re done when the clock stops. They don't pull any punches with testing, either. What you see is what you get.

Now it does make it look like everything is done in one day, but that's not the case. You're there for a couple of days. They have to temper the knife in between days of filming. So, there are definitely things that aren't quite as they appear, but overall, it's pretty cut and dry.

BDF: Let’s switch to Last Blade Standing. Was season three your first appearance on the show?

JI: Yes, this season was my first time.

BDF: How did you become a competitor?

JI: I have a couple of colleagues in the area that were on previous seasons. I remembered seeing them posting stuff, and I thought it looked pretty cool.

RELATED: LAST BLADE STANDING SEASON 3 PREVIEW

One thing that Doc does really, really, well is the videos and advertising. So, if you're unsure as to whether or not you want to compete, watch a couple of those videos. They will make you want to get involved. So, I threw my name out, and they said they would love to have me.

BDF: What was the inspiration behind your sword?

JI: Honestly, I had no idea what direction I was going in at first. We had a set of parameters to follow, but I wanted to make something that would perform well for the testing. I knew recurves cut well, and the more linear inches of cutting edge I could fit within the twenty-two inches of space, the better. Then I had to try to figure out how to make all that look good. The guard idea was something that I'd been kicking around in my head for a long time, integrating the upper guard into the spine of the knife, and that came out pretty cool. I was happy with it.

There was a lot of nickel. One of the parameters was that you had to use something nonferrous, so I used pure nickel in the blade, which was all the shiny white parts. Then I used nickel silver for the guard pins and sandwiched pieces into the handle. So, there was a lot of nonferrous mixed in with the whole thing.

BDF: Did you hit any snags during the build, or did it go pretty smoothly for you?

JI: So, my sword was Go Mai. It had an 80CRV2 core, then a thick layer of nickel, and a Damascus jacket that also incorporated thinner layers of nickel. Just the jacket was like seven thousand layers—the highest layer count Damascus I've ever made. To be quite honest, it was a complete waste of time because the pattern was so tight, you couldn’t see it. I could have stopped three or four folds earlier, and it would have looked the same. But the actual forging of the blade went pretty well.

The fit and finish of the handle was tricky. The whole handle, upper and lower guard, was a frame handle with nickel silver sandwiched all the way around. I think there were sixteen or eighteen pieces just in the handle, so making all that stick together and getting it pinned up was tricky.

It was like Forged in Fire in that we had one shot to bring our best stuff.

BDF: Were you pleased with your second-place finish?

JI: I was happy with it. I think when you agree to compete in any competition, it’s with the expectation that you want to win. But Colton is very talented, and his piece was clean and well done. So, I'm very pleased with where I finished and was fortunate enough to meet some great people along the way. It was a huge group of excellent blade makers, so it was an honor.

RELATED: INTERVIEW WITH LAST BLADE STANDING CHAMPION COLTON ARIAS

BDF: Would you do another season?

JI: Yeah, for sure. It was cool. The whole thing was cool. To have my sword at the last table with Colton, Ben Abbott, and Chris Smith was excellent. They’re good company to be in. It was a “Holy crap; maybe I know what I'm doing” moment.

BDF: Do you have any advice for aspiring bladesmiths?

JI: I've got a lot of advice. I don't know how much good advice I've got, but I have advice.

For starters, don't ever quit; find something you love, and you will never work a day in your life. I didn’t start doing this until I was in my thirties. I turn forty at the end of the month, so I’ve only been doing this for seven or eight years. But, from the time I tried it, I immediately found my passion for this. I enjoy it. It's therapeutic for me, which seems silly. Some people do hot yoga, and I stand in front of a forge and hit stuff with a hammer. Sometimes it takes time to find your passion, but don’t quit.

“Don’t ever quit; find something you love, and you will never work a day in your life.”

Don’t sell your blades too early, either. Get good at what you’re doing, do quality work, advertise your stuff, and then sell. Be patient so that what you’re selling is worth the price and you’re proud to stand behind your product.

Lastly, the bladesmithing community is one of a kind. It seems like we should all be in competition with one another, but we aren’t. So, find a class with experienced smiths and learn from others. Ask questions and figure out why people do things the way they do. It will help you in the long run.

To see more of Jarred’s work, follow him on Instagram @3iforge and visit his website at 3iforge.com. Additionally, if you’re interested in donating or learning more about the Cooper Max Foundation or Reforged, visit thecoopermaxfoundation.org and reforged.org.

Bringing the Heat! Exclusive Interview with Firefighting Bladesmith Jarred Irby

RELATED: LAST BLADE STANDING SEASON 3 PREVIEW

RELATED: INTERVIEW WITH LAST BLADE STANDING CHAMPION COLTON ARIAS

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