[Fortunately enough, Emet-Selch is perfectly willing to wait for an answer. One of the side effects of living as long as he has. (That and it's perfectly understandable, given that the other man is rather in the middle of something when he asks.]

No doubt because they are deceptively difficult to create. Though I imagine even the natives her have access to steel and flint if naught else.

[True, there may be some use to the skill they are intended to learn the basics of. But they have often been few and far between, in Emet-Selch's experience. Still, there's a shrug at the question of his own luck.]

I have rarely needed to learn such a skill, prior.