Forged weapons

[Rusvul]

Yeah, but it says that a lot of vermin have crude spears with metal or stone tips.

Metal tips. Meaning you'd still have to have all of those things, except perhaps the alloying. And, one vermin mining and making weapons would not be enough. To make weapons at any reasonable rate, you'd need at least thirty peaceful vermin living in a colony that stats put. Not ever mentioned, and suggested against. And as for stone spears, you'd need to have suitable flint and a few good flintknappers. Unless you're suggesting the majority of vermin in Redwall are armed with unshaped rocks tied to stick? There is only a few mentions of stone weapons in Redwall. The gorge foxes, stonefleck's horde from Mattimeo, they are all that spring to mind.

[Romsca]

Well maybe most of their weapons were made out of iron, hence the poor quality

[Rusvul]

In which case you'd still need a mine, a foundary, and a forge. Still three large, practically impossible to move structures, even if you're leaving out the alloying.

[Romsca]

There's enough mountains for that. Just because the book doesn't mention the mines doesn't mean that they aren't there

[Rusvul]

Fair enough. It's just that a significantly large amount of work would have to go into making enough weapons to supply entire hordes. Do you think there might be a giant industrial city in the mountains somewhere that all vermin frequently visit? MAYBE THERE'S A SECRET STEAMPUNK CITY IN REDWALL!!!!!

[Shadowed One]

I don't think that BJ was thinking about how hard it would be to make the weapons. Also, all you need for a spear is a stick and a pointy piece of rock.

[Rusvul]

For an extremely crude spear useless against proper weaponry. And you also need rope, but that's not a problem . I don't mean to seem rude to anyone, I'm just not really bothering to cushion my words, for the sake of ease of explaining. *

[The Shade]

Er, I don't wanna be rude, but have you tryed making a spear? Its harder that it looks.

[Romsca]

@rusvulthesaber: Would you mind explaining how you make weapons? I haven't seen a single satisfactory Sgian Dubh on Amazon, and I've been looking to have one for a while now. I think it would be awesome to make one

[Rusvul]

Er, I don't wanna be rude, but have you tryed making a spear? Its harder that it looks.

I have, in fact, made a spear, a short, leaf-bladed, double-headed one at that. But I was responding to Shadowed One's comment,

All you need for a spear is a stick and a pointy piece of rock.

And saying that for a rock-on-a-stick it's that simple, but for a spear you need flint and a flintknapper.

@rusvulthesaber: Would you mind explaining how you make weapons? I haven't seen a single satisfactory Sgian Dubh on Amazon, and I've been looking to have one for a while now. I think it would be awesome to make one

Sure! I will gladly yammer on about something I love to do. But, it won't help you make one. You have to have all the proper equipement and instruction, something that is hard to find. It actually took me like six years to find a blacksmithing instructor, from when I gained the interest.

1: Get a bit of old metal that's the right kind, (High carbon tool steel, usually. I made a pair of shortswords from a section of tierod from a car once, my blacksmithing instructor is awesome) and heat it up in a forge until it's red hot. Take it out, hammer it into a bladelike shape, leaving a long handle, and anneal it by making it cool very slowly. This will make the next step easier.

2: Get an angle grinder, and shape the blade more finely, taking out all snags and such. Polish the sides if you wish, this is not completely necessary. (I have a knife where one side is polished, and the other I did nothing to. Actually, if you don't polish it, it looks almost like stone.) You can polish it more finely with a belt sander.

3: sharpen it. Use the angle grinder and the belt sander to give it an edge.

4: Heat it to red-hot, then dip it in used motor oil, and swish it around until cooled. Dry the motor oil off.

5: Polish again. Apply oil to prevent it from rusting. Add handle, pommelstone, all that fun stuff.

If you want to use medeval methods, replace the gas-powered forge with a giant coal powered one, and replace every single power tool used with hours and hours of tedious, boring, difficult, filing. Ugh, I hate filing.


And Romsca, I could possibly make you a Sghain Dubh, but it would be expensive, take a while, I'd need to know where you live, it'd take a long time, and I wouldn't be able to even start for several months.

[Romsca]

How do you have access to a forge?

[Rusvul]

By sheer luck. And an awesome friend. And a really weird bead store. Long story short, my friend found a blacksmithing class, I was like O:, he showed me where, and I started.

[The Shade]

Oh, thats awsome, you forge blades from scratch. Whe I've made my knifes, I have started off with sheets of carbon steel. The way you do it is harder, its the proper way. I admire you for that.

[Rusvul]

Oh, thats awsome, you forge blades from scratch. Whe I've made my knifes, I have started off with sheets of carbon steel. The way you do it is harder, its the proper way. I admire you for that.

Thank you. I've made them both ways, forging is a lot of fun. Though, it's more fun when using something lighter than an 8-pound sledgehammer, which is most efficient.

[The Shade]

I wish I could have a go at that.....