Why do Boltons even need Forresters to get good ironwood?
Rodrik or any of Forresters don't have any secrets regarding the ironwood. It's their blacksmiths who are experts at making ironwoods; all Boltons have to do it snatch experts and give them and their families to the Whitehills. They've already violated king's law feudal contract in multiple ways, so this isn't going over the line.
Why don't they just seize the blacksmiths and render forrester useless? This whole "you need forresters to make good ironwoods" thing never made any sense to me.
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Because the plot needs the Forresters to be alive.
Partly for the plot i agree and also because even as Warden of the north they really can't go purging entire Households even one as minor as Forrester. I believe it's mentioned in the books that Roose gets angry when he hears Ramsay is terrorizing minor houses in the north.
But the only thing i can think of is perhaps the Forresters do have intimate knowledge about Ironwood and many of the blacksmiths died during the Robb Stark's campaign as soldiers.
But they can take remaining blacksmiths and give them to Whitehills which will completely strip Forrester of their power. It's not like the Forresters hold a sacred and inviolable patent to ironwood forging... Considering the atrocities the Boltons have committed, other lords won't even notice this minor transgression.