So how far back are we likely to go……………..

[bigpaul]

all of these systems the smelting and the forging are dependant on someone not only doing the hard and very physical manual labour-its not a job for the weak- but on someone who actually knows what to do. I cant see many of our population having the strength, the energy and the will to even start doing it. in an event where power is down, fuel pumps down and no food deliveries only the prepared are likely to survive, those who have not will start dying of starvation about 1 month after they run out of food.

---

this is of course "worst case scenario".