Dinadan wrote:hellize wrote:
Btw, the fairly small knowledge I have would surely survive till I survive, and believe me, you absolutely don't need fancy tools to make something like this. For example my tool park is medieval at best
I realize that no fancy tools are required, but a forge of some kind with some sort of anvil and hammer is needed, and in a world where folks are scavenging any scrap of metal those things have to be created. Referring to the knowledge, I bet that not one person in one thousand in the United States knows that iron or steel can be welded by heating it and hammering. Heck, I went through a welding school (U S Navy) and no such primitive techniques were ever even mentioned. If my father, who was son of a blacksmith, had not shown me how to do it I would not have a clue that a chain can be welded solid by heating and hammering and to be honest I would have been puzzled by your reference to using a chain in the blade. I realize that essentially the same technology is used in making Damascus steel, and in the old Norse swords with the twisted steel centers and the iron edges, but I do not think it is common knowledge today.
I could not do it, by the way, and I do have a lot of respect for folks like you who can!
Thanks a lot for the appreciation!
If you ever watched a film of african natives smelt iron and forge it to a spear for example, you know that every tool can be substituted with rocks, twigs, rags and mud, which will be always readily available no matter what happens. Rocks for anvil and hammers, twigs instead of tongs, rags instead of a blower and heaps of mud for building a giant termite fortress-like structure to concentrate heat. Any previously charred wood is good for fuel. It needs lots of people, tons of effort and unparalleled teamwork, but it is quite possible.
You do have a point of course
Around here where I live not even real blacksmiths know how to do this, most of the ones that I met are archetypical smiths shoeing horses and such for a living. I estimate that maybe a 1000 people from the whole population which is around 20 million have a clue about forge welding in Romania. And even less, maybe 20-30 can actually do it. Now I don't say that it is hard to make, because it isn't, relatively speaking here, if you know how to, but it is simply forgotten because it has no use in modern life.
Anyway, this lack of general knowledge would only elevate the value of folks who are proficient to some degree in the craft
