Josh Foran and his wife Ashley joined Hanceville mayor Kenneth Nail, left, and other local leaders this week to celebrate his recent top finish on the History Channel’s ‘Forged in Fire’ TV series. The Hanceville City Council held a reception in Josh’s honor at its regular meeting Thursday.

HANCEVILLE — For more than a year, Josh Foran and his wife Ashley found themselves sitting on some pretty exciting news. It came with a catch, though: Until the time was right, they weren’t allowed to tell a soul.

Now everyone beyond his wife and parents knows the big secret: Josh, an accomplished blacksmith who operates his home-grown Josh of All Trades smithing shop at Hanceville, had taken home the top prize on Forged in Fire, the History Channel’s competitive blade smithing series. Beating out a pair of competitors in a timed assortment of high-pressure smithing challenges, Josh and his big win finally aired on June 22 — more than a year after he’d had taped his portion of the show and learned he’d been declared the victor.

Forged in Fire may be reality TV, but Josh can attest that the high-stakes drama viewers see onscreen is completely real. “Nothing on the show is scripted; none of the drama you see was pre-planned or anything like that,” he says.

“The thing that surprised me — and I think you can see it pretty clearly in the show — is when they tested the knife I had made, and the reaction on my face when they cut with it. It was so aggressive; I could think of no reason why you’d ever swing a knife that hard unless you were being attacked by a bear. I was thinking, ‘Man, this guy swinging this thing doesn’t know me from Adam. He doesn’t know if I really know what I’m doing or not!’”

Knowing your accomplishments can’t be shared — even with most of your closest friends and relatives — comes with pressures of its own. “Oh, absolutely — that was the hardest thing, because you’re so excited about it,” says Josh. “Honestly, I think it was even harder on my mom. She was super proud and she wanted to tell everybody — and not being able to was driving her nuts!”

For his efforts, Josh received a $10,000 prize, along with the kind of notoriety that can keep the fires at his home forge burning hot. “Within 30 minutes after the show had aired, he already had, like, 12 orders from people online,” says Ashley.

“It’s definitely helped out a lot,” adds Josh. “After the show aired, for the next 23 days, I couldn’t keep up with all the people saying ‘Congratulations — and hey, would you be able to make “this” kind of knife for me?’ It was overwhelming in a good way.

“Especially here in the Cullman and Hanceville area, I’m very blessed and grateful at all the people here who have been so congratulatory. I’ve gotten messages from people who don’t even know me, telling me ‘Hey — you represented Cullman County very well.’ The community outreach after the show aired has just been astounding.”

You can check out Josh’s award-winning creations online at his shop website at www.joshofalltradesblacksmithing.com. Follow along with his current projects on Facebook @JoshofAllTradesBlacksmithing, as well as on Instagram @joshofall_trades.