User blog comment:Withersoul/How would man have fought against the grim before using dust?/@comment-10390252-20130902144144/@comment-3146930-20130902150752

This is a different world so the odds are that our Periodic Table of Elements and their Periodic Table of Elements aren't the same. Sure there may be a few that are the same or similar, not for the most part they may be different.

As far as the war before the discovery of Dust, humans in this world seem much more...creative then people in our world. The war with the Grimm supposedly ended about 5 generations ago, which could be something like 100-150 years. Now in that time there are airships, large schools the size of small towns, and teenagers that design their own weapons as part of their curriculum (and these weapons are very advanced). It wouldn't be unthinkable that early humans found ways to forge steel or other metallic weapons to fight the Grimm.