Lifelong Warren County resident Jason Bivens is hammering out a name for himself among the top blacksmiths in the country, having earned a spot in the finals of a nationally broadcast reality competition show. The History Channel’s “Forged in Fire” is a series which pits bladesmiths against each other to win and advance for a chance to win $20,000 as well as $10,000 for the shop the winner represents.
Bivens is no newcomer to the world of blacksmithing, having run the blacksmith shop at the Warren County A & L Fair for many years, but it’s not his primary profession. “It’s just a hobby. I’m a full-time mechanic, but I’ve been making knives and stuff like that since I was a kid. As a kid, I was turning everything into a weapon. I would take a piece of wood and whittle it into a knife. When ‘Conan the Barbarian’ came out in the 80s, I had to have a sword, so I found a piece of steel in the scrap pile at my dad’s shop and I wound up grinding on it for months and turned it into a sword. I also teach blacksmithing the first and third Saturday at the month here at my house. I’m part of the Appalachian Area Chapter of Blacksmiths (AACB) and we have a group that meets here at my shop,” Bivens said.
Bivens found himself on the show somewhat as a surprise. “Somebody sent out a text saying, ‘They’re having a Forged in Fire-style competition at John C. Campbell, do you want in?’ I said sure. I didn’t even think about it being affiliated with the real show. John C. Campbell Folk School is part of the AACB so I was familiar with it. The next thing you know I’m getting calls from people in New York City. I had to do a Skype interview last December and had to send pictures of my work,” Bivens said. His first episode was filmed over a period of a couple of weeks in both Brasstown, N.C. in the Clay Spencer Blacksmith Shop at the John C. Campbell Folk School and at his home shop in Warren County.
“Forged in Fire,” which began airing in 2015, is now in its 10th season. Bivens’ show, episode three of season 10, aired on Oct. 11 and saw Bivens emerge victorious against two other competitors following two rounds of competition where they built a traditional blacksmith’s knife and a pitchfork.
The victory propelled Bivens to the finals where he competed against three other competitors who won their respective shows. The final episode will air tonight at 9:03 p.m. on The History Channel. While the competition has already been filmed, Bivens isn’t talking when it comes to whether he comes out on top for the $20,000 prize and title of Forged in Fire On the Road American Champion.
“I can’t disclose anything that hasn’t already aired but we filmed it all over the course of a couple of months. In March we were at John C. Campbell. It’s not all done in one day and a lot of the things on the show don’t necessarily tell the whole story of everything we were doing. The show made a big deal about us struggling to get our fires started. The thing they didn’t show was it was wet coal and they gave us a little bitty piece of paper to start it with,” Bivens chuckled
Tune in tonight to The History Channel at 9:03 p.m. to see if Warren County is home to a Forged in Fire champion.
