Two Sacramento bladesmiths appear this week on the History Channel’s ‘Forged in Fire’

Matt Bingaman and Gary Bird are both part-time knife makers from the Sacramento area, but they first met in a New York airport.

“Are you here for a knife show?” Bingaman asked when he and Bird were the last two people standing in the shuttle pick-up area. It turned out that both had arrived from the West Coast for the same reason and Bird figures, at 6-foot-7, “maybe I look like I make knives.”

Both Bird, an IT specialist from Sacramento, and Bingaman, a union pile driver from Rancho Murieta, make custom knives in their spare time, and both were en route to film the History Channel show “Forged in Fire” when they bumped into each other. The show features bladesmiths who compete to recreate historical weapons like Samurai swords and Viking battle axes.

Bingaman and Bird appear in the Aug. 12 episode and will be on again Aug. 19 for the second half of the two-part elimination competition. The show airs locally at 9 p.m.

“Forged in Fire” premiered in June 2015. Bird had been watching the show for several years when he got a message from a casting agent on Instagram, where he runs an account for his custom knife and axe business, River City Blade Works.

Although he said he didn’t initially think he was good enough to be chosen — he assumed the message came from a fraternity brother playing a joke on him — he passed through a series of interviews and got invited to join season seven.

Bingaman was trained as a welder and said, “I’ve always had an artistic bug in me.”

He estimated that he’s made over 1,000 knives as well as swords, axes and hatchets when he’s not working in his primary job in construction. Friends suggested he check out “Forged in Fire” and although Bingaman said he doesn’t usually watch TV, he became such a fan of the show that he decided to apply.

On the show, competitors have a limited amount of time to fashion weapons and often must use unexpected materials like junked car parts. Judges then test their creations by chopping hunks of wood or meat.

The competitors signed non-disclosure agreements preventing them from discussing details of the filming process, but both local knife makers said it involved many long days.

“I didn’t know this because I’d never been in the film industry, but I guess it’s fairly normal to have 16-hour days,” Bingaman said.

“There’s no tricks on that show,” Bird said. “Minutes before we were going to go out to the forge they told us what we were going to make.”

In addition to attempting to make new items for the first time on camera, Bird had to adjust to new equipment. When he started making knives as a hobby three-and-a-half years ago, he filed the metal by hand. He eventually built his own forge in his garage, but hadn’t used some of the power tools available on the show before.

“Right before we went out for the first segment, they had a medic come in and take everyone’s blood pressure,” Bird said. “We all had high blood pressure. She said, ‘Do not drink any more coffee before you go on the forge floor.’”

Both Bingaman and Bird said all four of the competitors on their portion of the show became friends. The other two live in Tennessee and Texas. Since filming wrapped, they’ve stayed in touch via group text.

“We still talk almost every day,” Bird said. “We text each other, send videos to each other, show our knives and just talk about whatever.”

Despite the increased visibility the show may have given to their knife-making endeavors, both Bingaman and Bird plan to keep their day jobs.

Bird currently has a six-month waiting list for his knives, which take 10 to 15 hours each to make. He said people are willing to wait for the specialty wood handles and the “handmade factor.”

“It’s truly one-of-a-kind,” he said of blades he makes. Bird originally got into the craft because he had a knife his grandfather made, and he liked having a useful object that also carried sentimental value.

Likewise, Bingaman plans to keep crafting knives for art rather than income.

“Bladesmithing is something that I just adore, but it’s not my moneymaker right now,” he said.