PITTSFORD, N.Y.-- Doug Marcaida, a former respiratory specialist, knows his way around a knife. He teaches combat weapon classes at RIT and Eastern Sky in Pittsford.

"I've been an underground martial arts instructor in Rochester for the last 17 years," said Marcaida. "It's just the movement of the whole thing and that's the beauty of what we do."

He's about to be seen on more than just the local news. Marcaida is part of a new History Channel series called 'Forged in Fire.'

"They wanted somebody to represent the combative use of the weapons and also the end user," Marcaida said.

As shown in the series' trailer, world-class bladesmiths go head-to-head creating edged weaponry. 

"They're forging it just like the movies and they put their soul into it," Marcaida explained. "They come in with four and at the end there's a champion. There's no script so it's what you see is what you get!"

Marcaida's job is to test each finished product out.

"Meaning I pick up something and I go, 'Oh it's sharp', or I go 'oh its brittle,'" Marcaida said with a laugh.

For those who've spent years training with Marcaida, his new celebrity status has them star struck.

"I would have never thought in a million years I would start going to his hours and training with him and learning all these things, then all of a sudden he's a judge on the History Channel," Jesse Landes, of Leroy, said.

"Wow, it's incredible," Steven Pickett, of Greece said.

"He's definitely going to bring that spark and enthusiasm he always brings," Christopher Manns, of Rochester said.

Marcaida said the whole experience has been humbling, bringing him back to where it all began.

"I call it the cycle of knife," Marcaida said. "I've learned how to use the knife, defend the knife, create the knife, train with it, design knives now; I know how it is created from scratch and it's just amazing."

'Forged in Fire' premieres Monday, June 22 on the History Channel at 10 p.m.