Source long handled spoon knife and sharpening

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TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,092
1,624
Vantaa, Finland
Copper can only be hardened by work hardening, peening the edge. Bronze is a different matter altogether.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Correct. I did a great deal of work hardening in order to get any sort of an edge at all on those copper blades.
Bronze is such an improvement, I can understand why the Chalcolithic Period was so brief.

I'm very happy for the ease with which I can make crooked steel knife edges "carving sharp."
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Was not prehistoric copper ‘dirty’ with other metals and thus naturally a bit harder than the modern pure copper?
The Copper age, it lasted what, one Millenium or so?

One day they will laugh at our ridiculously soft steel implements that even need to be sharpened.

I am still dreaming of a bronze blade to my design. Not easy living here.....
 

TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,092
1,624
Vantaa, Finland
Sometimes it was sometimes it wasn't. The dirty business really came with bronze when the idea of alloying something with copper came to be. A lot of the ancient "bronze" is actually brass or some other alloying element. The practise nowadays is to call any alloy of copper "bronze" with the main alloying element mentioned, some people still like to call alloy with zinc brass.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
In this day and time, there are many different alloys which are called "bronze" (Wikipedia info).
That wasn't what interested me at all.

I got lucky in a big junk yard. They had a dedicated copper recovery shed. Looked like Star Wars in there.
I bought 1/4" copper rod and 2" x 1/4" copper bar.

I managed very well to forge a crooked copper knife blade from the rod. 32 oz hammer.
Heated, I got to hit that rod exactly twice to see metal move. #3 and beyond did absolutely nothing = hardened and cooled.
Also, I learned that my striking accuracy was absolutely dreadful.

Our local farrier has a propane forge, shoes are yellow hot in 90 seconds.
He made the copper adze blades after I showed him a Kestrel steel blade as a model.
Impressive to watch his accuracy to shape metal.

On thread, it was -17C or colder when I got up.
I intend to spend the rest of the day with my newest 14" crooked knife, working on a pair of 64" story poles in western red cedar.
I already have a "gut sense" that the handle is at least 2" too long to be useful.
 

Thoughts?

www.onelifeoverland.com
 

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