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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 6064883" data-attributes="member: 57383">The other question is how much "stuff" your two smiths can produce in a year.A horseshoe or knifeblade only takes a few hours.Complicated stuff like swords, axes, or cauldrons-to-impress-the-chief-next-door take a lot longer.A swordsmith needs anywhere from a few days to several months to produce a sword - it depends a lot on the tools and techniques they use. Making pattern-welded swords takes at least a month, but it's possible to make a sword just as good in a week or two using alternative techniques. I've read traditional katana-makers can turn out something like 1-3 sword a month. A modern "factory forge" worker can make a sword in a few hours or days, but they'd be using qualities of steel and equipment that a Cimmerian hill village would not be able to dream of.So, if these two smiths are both expert swordmakers and work all-out I doubt they'd produce more than fifty swords a year working all-out, which wouldn't leave them time to make all the other ironware their village would need.These smiths would need multiple assistants. A single apprentice wouldn't be enough to blow the bellows of the forge for both of them. Maybe the "apprentice" is a junior smith skilled enough to make everyday items like axeheads or knives and leave the more difficult stuff to the two masters?Oh, and if they are making coats of mail for the warriors and to trade they'll need a lot more people - it's a very labour intensive process riveting all those links together. The smiths would be doing the tricky work of drawing out metal wire then cutting & coiling it to make links, but I imagine a lot of the tribe's women and children helping out by making pieces of mail over the long winter night.</blockquote>

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