Iron rivets
The strakes are held together by iron rivets. 7,000 hand-forged rivets are required for the longship, and these, along with the anchor and tools, will be made by the blacksmith. Nowadays, it takes about 1,000 man-hours to produce this number of rivets, and some 400 kg pure iron is required. In the Viking Age, some 30 tons of bog iron ore had to be mined in order to provide the necessary quantity of iron, and the blacksmith needed help to work the bellows.
