How many people could make them 3000 years ago? Im curious how many blacksmiths there were back then with the appropriate skill and resources to learn it and do it well. I feel as if there are still a surprising number of people that could make a sword today, although maybe not from raw resources.
I think it’s more accurate to say most communities had a blacksmith. “Farmer” was the most popular and widespread occultations. A community at that time didn’t require a ton of specialized labor, they needed more people using the output of a blacksmith.