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[David]

Originally Posted by fearn

While I agree that one does not learn to forge good blades over night, I do think that every good smith learns to forge good blades within his working lifetime, or a decade or two. Given that window, I'm not surprised that the Tlingit were making good blades early on.
As another example, think of the plains Indians. They went from a culture that had never seen a horse to being some of the best horsemen in the world in a generation or two. Change can happen quite rapidly, even in traditional cultures.

ummm, yes Fearn, i think we agree. That's why i wrote:

Originally Posted by David

we need to look just a bit further back than that date for the introduction of this art form to the tribes.