For your Consideration: Redwall's Mines

[Hickory]

In Redwall it is mentioned that Cluny caved in a badger's mine when the badger didn't pay Cluny. This, and the quarry, got me thinking: where do the metals come from?

First of all, the sandstone quarry couldn't have been it because

1. Sandstone probably doesn't have iron in it
2. Many animals had metal weapons BEFORE the quarry
3. The snakes

Five weapon (possible two) was forged from "space metal" in the meteor, the first being Martin's Sword and three daggers, and the fifth possibly being Rawnblade's sword, Verminfate (I'll get to that later). Space rock is excluded because of it's rarity.

Most of the hare/badger weapons were probably made from the metal found within the mountain, it being a volcano. Salamandastron had easy forging circumstances, so they had it easy too.

What I really wonder about are the Gousim. Each warrior has a rapier, which requires a fair amount of steel to create, even in its small size. My theory is that after the events of Mossflower, the Gousim either foraged weapons from the Kotir soldiers and reforged the metal, or visited Salamandastron and had the hares there reforge it.

[The Skarzs]

  One often doesn't realize how much metal can be found, but since they have to know where to look, I'll just give some general examples of where metals might be found.

  First off, iron can be extracted from dirt. If one finds very iron-rich dirt, it is possible to get some metal from it. Sometimes sources can be found in flatter areas, but there are better places. Mountains often have deposits of iron and whatnot that was dragged up from the earth when they were formed. Salamandastron is the most obvious and convenient source, but let us look to the north, east, and south.
  The north is described as having mountains, if I'm not mistaken, so such creatures that ventured down from the north could have metals from the mountains there.
  To the east is that wall of rock that sprung from the ground when there was an earthquake. Inside the layers of rock is probably some iron, tin, copper, etc., and is a potential source for the metals.
  In the south, east of Salamandastron, are the mountains that Martin and his companions went under. Like the mountains in the north, they could be a good source of metals, though they may not be as obvious as, say, a gold or copper vein running through a rock.

[SoranMBane]

My assumption has always been that the Redwall world does have real mines, but we almost never see or hear mention of them because they've just never been important to the plot.

But I could imagine that a lot of the larger communities might have their own mines somewhere, or at least that there might be small mining communities across the land where the creatures extract the ore and then trade it to other groups. Salamandastron most likely has its own mine. The Guosim probably trade for their metal, or else I do believe that some of the shew tribes live on the river and stream banks rather than in boats, so some of them could have mines. Redwall Abbey might have its own small mine run by the moles living there, or else it could trade for the metal (or maybe a mix of both). The various castles and fortresses would almost certainly have mines.

But of course, all of that is just me speculating. There would have to be mines for there to be as many metal weapons and tools as there are, but I suppose it's fair if Brian didn't want to take time away from whatever he was most interested in to answer the question of where all these warriors get the metal for their swords; even if I personally would have preferred some more world-building there, I can concede that it's just not as important as what those warriors are doing with those swords, and it's not too hard to fill in the blanks ourselves.