By Brooke Geery
Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 9 p.m.— In its eighth season, the History Channel show “Forged in Fire” challenges “world-class bladesmiths [to] re-create historical edged weapons in a cutthroat competition.” On Nov. 25 at 9 p.m., one of those bladesmiths will be Kyle Farace, originally from Windham, Vermont.
Farace, 34, now lives in Brattleboro, where he and wife Kaila Farace share a forge and create knives and other metal weapons together. Farace has always had a passion for art, but it wasn’t until meeting Kaila two years ago that he was introduced to bladesmithing. She has spent the past eight years as a blacksmith and showed him the ropes.
“After working with her in her little shop in New Hampshire for about five months, she noticed that I had an eye for the art. She encouraged me to try out for the show,” Farace said.
The audition process was a slow one, filled with many skype interviews and dozens of questions about himself and his skills as a bladesmith. About eight months after the initial application, Farace got the call to come to Connecticut to film for the episode the following week.
In each episode four contestants battle it out before a panel of weapons experts, who judge the creations on strength, sharpness and how well they fulfil the challenge requirements. There are three rounds and one smith is sent packing after each. The final challenge is completed at the artist’s home forge and the victor walks away with $10,000 in cash.
Each preliminary round lasts a few hours but is filmed over the course of an entire day. “It’s actually a lot of sitting around,” Farace laughed.
The challenges on the show are designed to be difficult. For example, “They’ll give you an old car and tell you that you have to use parts from the car to make a functional knife,” Farace explained. For him, though, the biggest challenge was not the construction.
“I think the biggest part of my challenge was having to work with a dozen cameras in my face,” he said. “I’m used to just working out in the shop with my wife and do things at my own pace.”
Farace asked us not to publish the final results, so readers will have to tune into the History Channel to find out how he did. Readers can also follow the couple’s smithing on instagram @kyle_farace, where they sell their knives.
“I actually quit my job a few months ago to do this full time and we got a much bigger shop and work together everyday!” Farace confessed.
