Swords, Daggers, Arrows, Spears, and Blacksmithing in the 23rd Century
Drawing of the sword used by The Tribe. I hope to get a real one made. If I do, I'll substitute a photo of it.
Blacksmith? Isn't that a guy who puts shoes on horses? Well, no, a farrier is a guy who puts shoes on horses, a kind of limited, specialized blacksmith. A blacksmith is a person who forges iron (including steel etc.). What is forging? Forging is the process of hammering metal to shape. Blacksmiths normally heat the metal in a forge (a kind of furnace) to soften it before hammering it. Blacksmithing predated nearly every other technology. About the only technologies that predate blacksmithing are stone tools and bronze tools (the Stone Age and the Bronze Age).
How do I happen to know about blacksmithing? Well, I studied every technology I could find out about, and I tended to study them in historical order. This gave me an understanding of why technologies developed as they did. I had the very great good fortune to have a friend, Eric Clausen, who became a blacksmith and has made a lifelong career out of it. He is not only a general blacksmith, he is what is known as an artist blacksmith. He is undoubtedly one of the most skilled people in this field alive today. At one point in my spotty career I worked with him in his shop for a time, so I got a first hand taste of what this art is all about. A taste, mind you, I'm no blacksmith. Here's a picture of him, but check out his site too.
Picture courtesy Eric Clausen.
Why is blacksmithing important? Because it requires only things that you can get without making them in a factory. It starts with iron ore and coal or charcoal. With these two materials, plus clay to line the furnaces with, you can begin (or resume) the Industrial Revolution all on your own. In the book, they don't even need iron ore, there's tons and tons of good steel lying around everywhere. It's just not in the shape they need.
So, when the survivors of the volcanic disaster ran out of ready guns and ammunition, they were faced with the need to make their own weapons, both to hunt and to defend themselves. Why would they run out of guns and ammunition when the world would be littered with both? Time. Everything is affected by time. Guns would rust unless they were carefully maintained. Ammunition would also corrode. Plus, ammunition uses chemically unstable compounds in the form of gunpowder and whatever is in the primer. These compounds have to be chemically unstable or they wouldn't explode. In time, ammunition becomes unreliable, even dangerous to handle. By the end of two hundred years, none of it would work. Now, the Federals took steps to continue making new guns and ammunition, but The Tribe didn't have enough people or the resources to do this.
So, the Tribe fell back on simpler weapons. But why swords and such, why not something more sophisticated? Swords and such are what people all over the world who never knew about each other all developed independently. That should tell us that there's something about these weapons that suits the human environment. During my life I have always sought to invent at any opportunity. One thing this has taught me is that with millions of people seeking to invent over millennia of time, there's not much they missed. It's only logical that people discovered that certain things work well and others don't. Well why not crossbows? Crossbows require very strong durable strings. Yes, they did make successful crossbows in the old days, but they never replaced the longbow. They are just not as convenient, not nearly as reliable, much heavier, and they really don't provide much of an advantage for most purposes. It's just not worthwhile.
But blacksmithing isn't limited to weapons. They could also make tools like axes, pickaxes, shovels, saws, etc. They could also make iron wheels for wheelbarrows, plows, earth scrapers to be drawn by horses, and you name it. In the old days, blacksmiths even made firearms, although these craftsmen were called gunsmiths. But if you look at an old gun, an antique flintlock for example, you will discover that each part has been hand forged. If there are screws, they have been hand filed and no two screws will interchange. Only the bore of the gun might have been machined, but it might not. Many older guns had rather rough unrifled bores.
So the people of The Tribe wind up very much like our ancestors. They are armed with a sword, a dagger, a bow and arrows with forged steel broad heads, and maybe a big broad bladed spear if they are going out to hunt large game.