1 Sam. 13:20. How did they sharpen their tools before this.
In my limited knowledge synths were sharpened with any stone or the best for the job???
Well, this is interesting. You’re spot on! For everyday maintenance, ancient people sharpened their blades using whetstones, river stones, granite, or slate. Rubbing the edge against a hard abrasive rock restored a dull edge, and farmers maintained their tools themselves at home.
Here is the interesting part. The situation in 1 Samuel 13:19–21 was a special case of military and economic oppression: No Blacksmiths allowed. The Philistines had a monopoly on iron technology and forcibly removed all blacksmiths from Israel so the Hebrews couldn’t forge swords or spears (1 Sam 13:19).
While a farmer could use a stone to polish an edge, a rock cannot re-shape, re-point, or fix a bent, chipped, or heavily dulled iron plowshare. That required a forge and a blacksmith. By forcing the Israelites to come to Philistine garrisons for iron repairs, the Philistines charged exorbitant rates (a pim, or 2/3 shekel) to keep the Israelites broke, disarmed, and dependent. Hope this helps.
Be blessed, be a blessing, Jesus is LORD!
Peter
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If you slide a blade, then it is dull and can be sharpened, but if you plow or swing a blade there will be damage. The blacksmith will heat the blade, pound the damage back to a straight edge, then sharpen it.
This is a great question, and I think you have received some good replies. Allow me to add some historical context that should shed some additional light on your question.
The events of first Samuel take place about a thousand years before the advent of Jesus, the Messiah (1000 BC) at the close of the biblical period of Judges. The defining marks of this era is the cataclysmic collapse of the Bronze age. Most suggest the Bronze age collapsed between 1200 and 1150 BC, so what is called “the iron age” is in its infancy at about the time of this writing. Iron had actually been around for a while, mostly harvested from fallen meteors, if you can believe it. Mining, and smelting iron ore were new, and heavily protected technologies, especially in the Mideast. The invention of wrought iron was brought about because the supply of tin (for making bronze) was rapidly being depleted in the region. The major problem to overcome with iron was building a smelter that could achieve its melting point (over 1850 °f). The original technology, at least in the Mideast, is attributed to the Hittites giving them a strong military advantage in the region. I believe that through the Israel conquest of the region through Joshua, God subdued the Hittites, and their precious iron technology somehow fell into the greedy hands of the Philistines, a strong 5-city confederacy of the south. How and when this happened seems a bit murky, but it surely did happen. Since wrought iron gave any army a strong military advantage, the technology continued to be highly protected.
So, to answer your question directly, “How did they sharpen their tools before this?” Before this time, most Israeli farming “tools” would be made of wood or stone, and sharpened as each required. Maybe some knife tools had brass edges for cutting, but brass was fairly soft, does not hold an edge very well, and would not be suitable for things like plowshares, mattock, ax, or sickle. Those who could afford some wrought iron tools did not have the technology to maintain them, nor would the Philistines allow them the technology to secretly beat their plowshares into swords or pruning hooks into spears.
It is interesting that we still have this same technology protection strategy occurring on the world front today. It is in the news nearly every evening.
Hope this helps.
KP
Thank all for your reasoned suggestions. I found them of interest in particular as I have been involved in archaeology and have continued the interest.
