Ax(e) making

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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
Yes. Upper body strength and endurance will be a premium, I should think.
Let me cast a bronze in a Roman pattern first.
I don't know what questions to ask yet.
 

Dave Budd

Gold Trader
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Jan 8, 2006
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www.davebudd.com
Those are the starters only....

Fermented herring, thinly sliced ‘almond potatoes ( an arctic potato variety), sliced raw onion in a thin bread wrap.
Now we are talking food for Heroic Men and Long Suffering Women!
:)

Back to topic:
If anybody knows a Bronze smith ( correct name?) that can do a commisioned knife blade, then I would like to have his/her details.

Tin should be fairly easy to mine, it comes as tiny granules I think?
The Copper is more difficult I think.

In my treks in the Swedish wilderness, I have come upon granules of bog iron many times in the streams. Like blobs of very rusty rust. Rust red on the outside, black heavy rust (?) on the inside.

How they reduced to Iron it in the past I do not kmow.
Tin and Copper is much easier.
Important to get the alloy correct though.


Probably the best person for a bronze blade is the man who taught most of the others ;) Neil Burridge of Bronze Age Swords http://www.bronze-age-swords.com

Making your own metals from ore is a massive undertaking and not for the beginner but certainly rewarding when you eventually get it right. Iron smelting being the most difficult of course (aside from modern metals like aluminium!).

I run a lot of axe making courses and most of the people I teach have never done any forgework before. You could of course make a forge in the back garden and give it a go yourself, but you will definitely find a bit of tuition beneficial ;)
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
Exactly, Mr Budd. Thanks for the bronze link.
The early Bronze Age must have been the days of puzzle and experimentation.
Learning and smelting the ores.
What, in their society, validated all the time they spent with metallurgy? Wasn't everybody who did this.

Bog iron deposits on Canada's east coast were mined and smelted by the Vikings. Using satellite imagery, 2(?) sites have been excavated.
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
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Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Dave; thank you for the link!

Broch: The Sun Stones were in fact the receivers.......
:)

RV, that was interesting, I have not heard that. Where did you read that?
I do not know if they have analized the Iron remains from Greenland and Icelandic Viking sites to see the origin of the metal.
(if it can be done)
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
That's something I'd like to fool with = a real Sunstone.
I know that the theory is worked out, hard to grasp without one in my hand (easy to grasp, no?)

The report of the bog iron popped up in ScienceDaily.com. Several months ago.
Apparently, the sites have a really distinctive appearance in the image.
The Geologist(?) thinks she has 6-8 more sites to check out.

Trace element analysis of any metal and you can search the continents for the source.
Obsidian volcanic glass was traded all over North America and most of the exact source mines have been found.
Remember that before the Spanish showed up with horses ( mid 1500's), everybody walked.
The traders carrier big lumps of obsidian, not sharp flakes. Maybe dogs wiht travois for extra load.

Same with copper.
The arctic Canadian communities of Yellowknife and Coppermine didn't come by their names by accident.
A copper knife from there turned up in a bison midden north of Regina SK on the Canadian prairies.
There's copper metal scattered all over the country. Nobody pays much attention to it any more.
I can forge copper blades from 1/4" rod. Basically useless.
 

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