Local bladesmith wins $10,000 prize on Forged in Fire

By Sterling McGinn

Caleb Tranchita, owner of Raging Rooster Forge (formerly Superior Forge) near Halfway Lake, was recently featured in the TV series “Forged in Fire” and was the champion of Episode 2 of the 11th season.

“Forged in Fire” airs on the History Channel, where bladesmiths vie for cash prizes competing with each other in recreating iconic weapons from history. The champion receives a $10,000 prize. The series first aired on television in 2015.

Tranchita participated in the filming of the show in 2022 in Connecticut using his skills and talents. In this particular episode, the competitors crafted a San Mai blade, which is a Japanese technique.

“The whole process took around a month. They fly you in. They do the first two challenges in about two to three days,” he said. “You come back out to your home forge. They give you about a week to get that ready.”

Tranchita has a shop where his forges, anvils and other tools are located. He appreciates the heritage of blacksmithing and metalwork, as he has a good array of old-time tools and artifacts surrounding him. He uses both coal-fired and propane-powered forges.

But in the time after filming and before his episode aired, Tranchita was not allowed to say anything about his participation.

Tranchita, a native of Ohio, relocated to the Newberry area a number of years ago. His mother, Jo, owned and operated Seders Pizza for several years.

Tranchita, 30, has been forging since he was 14.

“My buddy and I got into it way back when—good old YouTube—we started seeing people making shields out of old street signs and mower blade machetes,” he explained. “We thought…we could do that, so we started off with a hammer and a stump flattening out whatever metal we could, making various stuff.”

Tranchita said his mother, Jo, had a connection with a blacksmith who taught him the basics of forging. When he was 18, he began working on higher quality works and took several classes; one down in Tennessee and another near the Ohio/Michigan border.

Today, when he is not working for Haskin Tree Service in Germfask, he spends his passion and hobby crafting knives, axes and hatchets. Tranchita works with Damascus and regular steel, but prefers using old metal from Model “T” spring slabs, mower blades, sawblades and other tools.

He creates traditional hunting knives, tactical military blades, hatchets, Renaissance era axes, and restores old axes from long ago. For his handles, he uses wood, bone, antlers and steel.
His hobby is continuing to grow, and he said that Tammy Henry from the Luce County EDC has been very helpful in assisting with a new website and getting his LLC.

“I got a Headwaters Grant for a new forge and welder,” Tranchita said.

He is hoping to someday turn his hobby into a full-time career and wants to offer classes on forging.

Tranchita says he enjoyed the challenge of participating in the show and since that time is growing his skill when he can.

“Don’t let anybody say that the challenges aren’t real, or they are staged,” he said. “Because the time is real, the challenges are real, and the judges are real.”