What a bronze knife can do....

 The other day I had that little itchy twitchy troll at the back of my mind wanting to know it again, and so, during our last hammer - In I just made another bronze knife. I wanted it primarily for harvesting herbs and elf-watching (they just hate iron, you know;-)). I wanted to know also why it might be that humans were so reluctant to adapt to iron (the European bronze age endured thousands of years, and some good thousand years after the first iron products were made, bronze tools were still widely used throughout all classes and castes and regions). Could it be that bronze makes for good backwoods tools after all?

 The blade is hot forged to a certain degree and then hammered out cold to work - harden it. I was able to get the blade shaving sharp, and it whittled fire sticks and delicate flower work well.

 The knife. I estimate the hardness in the ultimate edge about 50 HRC. It could easily be maintained using a sandstone for grinding and a quartz for finishing, a good thing in the wilderness. I then asked myself whether it would stand up to some abuse. Prying and digging with it bent the tip slightly, but with little effort the blade could be straightened.

 I batoned it through some dried birch wood, and did some chopping to twigs. Chopping dented the blade a bit in the hind part where I could not do as much cold-working due to lack of experience with the material. Also, this is a bearing bronze and not ideally suited for the task due to a high copper content. A traditional knife bronze (98% copper/2% tin or 1%/1% silver) would come out way harder

But even as is, you wouldn´t have any problem whatsoever surviving in the woods with this knife. I guess bronze tools simply were doing the job well enough so that humans simply did not feel the need to swap. This need only arose when weapons were concerned, for a steel weapon e.g. made from ferrum noricum (not iron, mind you!) will ultimately shear through a bronze  sword. Bello pater omniae seems to apply in this case.

Bronze as a foraging tool has its advantages, though. Herbs harvested with a bronze knife or sickle will not take to a metallic taste so easily and, according to hearsay, will be more effective in healing. So this one will see use for foraging herbs.

Another day in the smithy-Damascus mayhem;-) and something archaic

 On Saturday it was a bladesmithing day again. You know that kind.... you wake up, see that the weather´s foul, and then you sit there drinking your morning coffee, and start thinking. Might be you read a blade magazine or any such like, and out comes the sketchbook and  you start drawing, and thinking some more. One phone call later I was packing my pack with 40 kg of smithy and straddling my steed and off I was to Volker´s place. I virtually met noone on my way to the shop, weather was that foul, albeit quite warm. I had a nice chat with the old man;-) and before you could say "degasing" the forge was alit and the coal was coking, and I started some projects.

 Top to bottom: Zwissler damascus, 15N20 and 1.2842. Then I tried something out: An Andronovo / Sintashta replica out of silicon bronze, which amazed me a bit. It was the first time I forged bronze, and okay, I was one of those techno weenies always crying out "bronze is way too soft for blades". I used a combination technique of hot- and cold forging, and achieved quite a sensible hardness. If you work-harden bronze, you get a useable hardness, definitely on a par with a conventionally treated mild steel. It came in as a bit of a surprise. Of course, you won´t get the edge-holding capacity of highly tempered steel, but the knife got sharp enough to achieve a serviceable edge for woodcarving, making fuzz sticks and even batoning through a piece of dried ash with but minor damage. Plus, I find it really good looking. The next one in line is an own wire damascus. Next lies a piece of wire damascus that ultimately (hopefully) will become a Naalbindning-needle for the magic troll. Aaaand, something I am quite fond of, a folder blade out of Zwissler damascus, 1.2842 and 15N20, for some kind of friction folder. I plan on doing something with liners this time, maybe even with integral bolsters... we´ll see how it goes;-).

 Closeup of the bronze knife. I used it some, and already did some servicing. If the need arises, you can maintain the edge by polishing with a smooth piece of haematite, or by work-hardening some more, as it was done with scythes.

 I forged the spine somewhat thicker and finished the blade with a ball peen.

It was a bit of an eye-opener. I daresay bronze IS inferior to steel, of course it is, but bronze was in use for a long time, and by cultures whose individuals gave their tools quite a beating. But this led me to some thoughts about ultimate hardness. For use in the woods, the edge has to be harder than herbs, rope, hardwood, softwood, meat, and hide, i.e. the material you need to cut and process. You do not always need a harder knife. It´s good, but not absolutely necessary, to use the knife in one edge condition for more than one work. Many indigenous people use knives out of utter crap, as traffic signs (Papua).

This is not to say I will from now on only use bronze. Steel is definitely better suited for the task. But as a reality check, it was an eye - opener. Plus, bronze has the advantage of having an anti-diffusion effect when cutting herbs (no funny taste of iron carbide;-)) or vegetables. And, proverb says, you won´t see any elves when you carry out iron into the woods, "that old know-it-all"*ggg*.

I look forward to all those projects. Life´s too short to forge mono steel... it seems to me these days  *ggg*. Watch this place!