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Do it with Titanium bronze, mixed manganese nickel and ıron composition... Strong like steel, and high level strenght with water, salt, atmospheric conditions...Also no sparkles and beautiful shining like a little greenish gold... Try it bro..
Funny to think that 3,000 years ago these were considered state of the art. One thing I should mention, Bronze wasn't replaced by iron overnight. Bronze and iron tools and weapons were made side by side with each other for centuries. early iron working took time to perfect, Bronze was considered superior for a long time, at first iron only really had the advantage of being mass-produceable and easier to work with. It took a long time for people to figure out how to make steel from iron, only then was bronze completely replaced.
I lost my father to a car crash when I was 18. I had very few rememberable moments with him, but I did get a few. I hope that you get some time with your son. I am glad that you are including him in your crafts even if only making an extra knife for him as well. He will appreciate every moment as an adult. You are Awesome. Thank you for what you do.
Metal is so awesome. Steel is awesome, but Bronze is beautiful baby.Those knives looked fantastic. And just knowing that you CAN make a tool in the wild using ancient techniques is amazing.
On bronze and brass blades you can also do what's called hammer hardening on the edge. That way it won't dent/bend inward when you use it, but the problem with hammer hardening is that, if you hammer it too much it can become too brittle and chip away, but if you learn to get it right, it should do just fine. Still not as strong as steel though. LoL.
I agree with this hammer work hardening. Interesting though to consider the effect of the hammer material. It shouldn't be steel to be authentic and it is possible that stone hammers could impart some minerals into the edge. Carburization is another interesting phenomenon that may be lost technology in terms of bronze and copper. Probably try and keep your edge real steep for strength too. Please corporal take a hammer to your blade.
It would be impossible for stone hammers to leave any materials into the blade, as the metal has already cooled and formed into a solid. Carburization is a process to make low-carbon iron/steel into a harder metal by adding carbon to the outside layers of the metal. Bronze and Copper metals do not use carbon, so they would not be carburized.
givemeanameman1, I have to disagree with you here. I'm not interested in starting a firestorm discussion on proper terminology and technique of blacksmithing, although I've been doing it for over 15yrs, but certainly in this case, peening would only move too much material, thinning the edge, causing further weaking along this section. Flat hammer the small bend, true up the edge along the length with a file and finish with a stone - same way it's been done since its inception. And effective for its purpose and limits.
You can bushcraft with a bronze knife and people will still swear that any knife under $300 made out of top of the line steel with snap in half if air touches it.
@@mathuselahtv4476 A friend of mine who is an expert metal basher got an old aerial off a buccaneer (which for some reason were steel) and used some of it to make a knife. He's still got it 30 years later and the only thing that has needed replacing is the bindings on the handle. It gets used in one way or another most days.
Haha! Actually.. hardness of bronze is 170-200 depending on the alloy (brinell scale). Mild steel is 120 and 18-8 stainless is 200. Compare this to 1.6 for soft woods, and 3-7 for hardwood - either option is more than good enough for bushcraft. Tell that to the gear junkies though... hehe
There's a Bronze Age hill fort and settlement where I live. Farmers occasionally plough up bronze socketed axes and stuff. Alway walk my dog over fields with hope of finding one.
@@SkengManNZ Unfortunately most sites like that are protected and yu are only allowed to metal detect in conjunction with an archeological study by a local university or museum or the land owners permission but anything you find will be his by right. Metal detecting without permission is considered to be theft and therefore illegal which is why those who do it usually do so at night and are called Night Hawks who are detested by everyone.
Wow the color of it. Really nice. Something interesting about that bronze knife. You could loose it in the forest, someone could find it in 3000 years. They could give it a polish and it would be perfectly usable.
This is great to see, because the tools and experience you need to make one of these home made, compared to a steel knife of any kind, is like comparing a pond and the ocean. Most anyone could make one of those, and get a decent knife, cheaply and with the pride of it being home made, within a few tries. And now people can see that owning such a knife still has value.
Good stuff! - Just my two cents worth but the actual percentage of tin to bronze makes a big difference to the hardness of the bronze. This was one of the main advantages of bronze. i.e. - you could tailor your "recipe" to match the implement being made - add more tin to make the bronze harder and sharper- typically a razor could be make with approx. 20% tin which makes for a very hard metal but of course more brittle whereas a bronze hand axe (the bronze age equivalent of the "swiss army knife" or "Bush Knife") consisted of 12% tin 88% copper (no lead). Research done by the University of Belfast suggests that Lead was added if the item being made needed to be more ductile i.e. a spoon - its thought that the lead prevents or reduces "hammer hardening" allowing shapes to be formed without breaking - Lead wasnt used in cutting implements hence the distortion seen in the knife blade when cutting green wood. In any event once the knife become dull or twisted into uselessness the whole could be re-melted and formed into a new knife - which is certainly a much easier process than repairing a steel knife. Thanks for the video and keep up the good work!
Also nicks and twists in the blade could be worked out and sharpened away making the blade usable for longer while still being re-meltable and re-castable at a later date.
Great video. One of the advantages of bronze over steel knife blades is that a damaged blade can be redressed by heating in a simple campfire and forging back into a clean edge repeatedly. Once the bronze is cold it is then work hardened to form the cutting edge and finished by stone grind and polish. Also, many ancient bronze weapons with the best edges were either straight Arsenical Bronze (all arsenic instead of tin for the alloy) or a tin bronze with arsenic additions on the surface and the cutting edge. Due to the fumes generated with this method, it's quite likely that the "lame smith" archetype orginated with bronze smiths that worked with arsenic. The downside of using arsenic was that quality control was extremely difficult. Ancient bronze smiths would add sand, powdered bone, and mineral powders to their crucible. These additives can also increase the hardness of the edge significantly. Another edge enhancement would be the use of vertical chalk molds which were carved into the required shape. The molten bronze would be poured with the sword tip down and the pommel being the pour and vent port. Certain chalk sources contain phosphorous which would enhance the surface and edge properties of the bronze. See ref showing how ancient bronze tool hardness could be increased by a factor of three over the as-cast: www.academia.edu/7132948/An_experimental_study_of_early_bronze_smithing_techniques
So far as the cutting and carving went, the knives seemed to perform well. I think that a bronze knife is not a good candidate for a scandi grind. Probably a convex would be best for this material. Also, I'm not disappointed at all over the damage that the edge took from batoning, it's a knife not an ax. Horace Kephart said to carry both an ax and a knife and to use them only for the purposes for which they were intended. Still, a great set of tests.
That's incredibly impressive. That roll in the edge isn't really worse than you'd get with a low-carbon steel, or one that wasn't heat treated properly. Bronze is a higher performance metal than I had thought!
you have learned the limits of bronze and also know that maintence is nonexsitant so the trade off balances out. You may now pass that blade 10 generations after your steel blade has become iron oxide.
bitnbrace Wy I've become really interested in bronze after learning a bit about it. It looks beautiful, doesn't really corrode, and even though it will bend instead of flex, you can also just bend it back into shape pretty easily, or melt it down and turn it into a new knife with almost no material lost. I want a bronze knife.
+Sir Goth Assuming you do not just keep it in a climate controlled display case, it will oxidize. Iron is one of the metals that has the quality of oxidizing when it comes into contact with moisture. If you take care of it well, and try to keep it dry when you can that will help, and it will last long, but it will still oxidize eventually. It is hard to cheat time. You can remove the rust when it appears, but the rust still would have occurred.
Just look at the Chinese bronze sword they found at the bottom of a river. The thing looks like they just made it. There would be nothing left of any iron or steel.
The biggest advantage of the early iron knives is they were cheaper to make because iron ore is common. A good iron sword isn't much if any better than a good bronze sword and iron is destroyed by rust much faster. Steel is another story. Some Chinese blades contain Chromium from somewhere. Some of those blades are still sharp after thousands of yrs in the ground. This would also make them harder. A further trick is they hammered the edges thin before sharpening them. This hardened the metal along the edges. By and large they would have avoided hitting anything too hard.
''Some Chinese blades contain Chromium from somewhere'' That's what interesting about old tools made before we had the knowledge we have today about metallurgy and alloys the quality of the tool didn't just depend on the skill of the craftsman but also the quality of the ore. If you where lucky you got a ore that was low of impurities that was otherwise hard to remove or even a ore that made a really suitable alloy. Don't know if that's what happened with the Chinese sword though. But it probably has something to do with the legendary Damascus swords, that and expert craftsmen.
"WITCHCRAFT!" I think most blade smiths would, through many years of experience, figure out exactly what they need, but they wouldn't understand it or be able (or willing) to explain what makes good munitions grade metals. There's a letter, I think written by Henry IV or V during the 100 Years War complaining that the arrowheads his archers had been issued hadn't been properly hardened which is exactly what you'd expect when every blacksmith in the country (who normally only make nails and horseshoes) tries to fill the medieval equivalent of a Govt Purchase Order despite all the same archers carrying perfectly serviceable swords.
At least in the mediterenean, the bronze age ended with the bronze age collapse: many civilizations fell apart simultaneously (for more information, there are great videos online). Tin is and was a rare metal and the tin trade was vital for the production of bronze. Without tin, there can be no bronze. With the collapse of major trade routes, the tin supply was cut off and the ability to make bronze was bottlenecked. Early iron tools were much worse than bronze: the art of bronze working has been perfected by that point. Iron is much harder to melt and smelt: the metal produced is full of slag and inclusions and when early metalworkers began to work with this unfamiliar metal (ironworking wasn't unknown in the bronze age, but because of the difficulty, skill in it was not pursued), the results were sub-par. Thousands of years of innovation resulted in a much higher quality iron or steel. Iron has higher potential than bronze but is much easier to get wrong as well.
Very interesting. As ever, I learn from your videos. I definitely appreciate seeing what you have to say. Thanks very much for sharing and thinking up these experiences.
Thank you this was fascinating. Very good work. Now we know when the end of times come we have a way to make bronze tools so as long as we have fire and some lead and copper piping around. Thank you for sharing this. You are awesome.
From my understanding the main reason why the iron age pushed out bronze is not because bronze was somehow inferiour, but because iron was easyer to produce and the ore was more common, while for bronze not only were the ores not as common, you had to have a source of 2 diferent ores. Chances are that you would have to import at least 1 of them, so why make the efort when you can just make iron? Of course then comes along steel and we have a diferent story altogether.
Yeah that was the main reason bronze went out. It was actually superior to a lot of early iron age stuff, and even today higher quality bronze alloys (aluminum bronze and phosphor bronze for instance) compare quite favorably and even outmatch some steel alloys in many applications. Mind, a good sharp and long-lasting edge is still best with good carbon steel.
Well not even just that. Every time large empires fell trade and shipping routes would go away. That was an issue, bronze is superior to just iron and most early low grade steels and they have more advantages and are more economical once made.
You can see an example with China, they used bronze weapons well into the European iron age, because they had much easier access to tin and copper (tin from Afghanistan iirc, which was a hell of a journey to the Mediterranean civilizations).
It was extremely interesting to see how well the bronze knives withstood the bush crafting tests. The kink in the blade from battening could also probably be worked out and then resharpened. As you would say Corp 'Outstanding!' Keep the faith.
Well, like has been already said, had you work hardened those knives, you'd have gotten even better results. Also there are even harder bronze alloys that you could have made. Still, your bronze knives did better than I've seen some steel knives do. LOL And those bronze knives will get a patina, but will never rust like steel will. Which goes to show, we didn't switch from bronze to steel because iron is inherently better. (I mean it is, but only at the top end of craftsmanship.) Bronze works! We ditched bronze for steel because copper and tin are both rare metals, but iron is plentiful everywhere. Once we figured out how to heat and treat cheap plentiful iron, there was no reason to use expensive bronze.
Alot of great comments, beautiful knife, any body use a knife knows that you didn't push hard when you slice. Nice knife and video great job again thank you for your service.
wow. you can use a stone or wood wedge for battoning. this was very cool. I watch all your newer stuff forever now but this came up recomended. very cool.
being able to cast is one step closer to becoming truly self reliant. I a thoroughly enjoying this series as I have alot of interest in this subject as well. So much versatility and simple.
It's nice that you gave it the best chance to perform well by having them professionally sharpened and polished. They look very pretty and I like the blade geometry too. I guess harder woodwork is reserved for axes in the bronze age. We're asking a lot from our modern steel blades.
Fun video. Someone might have already said it, but just to be sure it's mentioned. Bronzeage knives were often hammered along the edge to harden it. This makes the edge a bit tougher, and last for longer.
Awesome video, excellent instruction. it looked to me the edge wasnt chipped or broken, so may be easy to repair. overall fantastic job in this series. 👍👍🇺🇸
They work fine, and all you need to repair them are a hammer and a file just like steel and iron. Unless you really mess them up, then you can just recast em.
I think the one advantage of bronze is the quick ability to sharpen it. Because the material is softer, you can put an edge on quicker. It will also go dull quicker, but you can't have everything. Something like skinning an animal or what-not, a bronze knife would be superb.
Slamming a bronze edge into wood with huge percussive force tends to result in dinging and splitting, who woulda thought? Besides that, this thing seems to perform pretty well.
Cool experiment. Going from stone to bronze, our ancestor must have thought "I have it made in the shade". Nowadays a knife has to have CPM S30V or 154 CM steel or it is no good. I do not know what that says about us in general, but it says something. Finally, I think fatwood should be incorporated into every video (even video's about guns). LOL Thanks for taking the time to show us your cool blades.
great video tnx,this question interested me too to some larger time. Only minus to bronze, when sharpness will be not so long like to iron , but bronze is look more yellow similar like gold :))) For decorative use and practically use if is not iron knife its ideal..
Okay you had me at scraping the wood to make hay for fire 🔥. Totally subscribe and will play catch up on your videos. Love that you helped me with new ideas 💡 for camping or survival.
it's all been said in the comments already but I just had to chime in: that really was excellent from start to finish, very well done for seeing it through, and thanks for sharing! :0)
Beautiful knife; better. video!!!!! Thanks for sharing. Me and mine wish you and yours all things great and good; take care, be safe, all my best and God bless!!! Chuck Knight from Buffalo, Texas, USA. 🤠🐩🖖✝️👍
Excellent and interesting review. I for one was surprised that the bronze blade would throw sparks from a ferro rod. Bronze is not as hard as iron or steel, that's a given, but I bet it was very easily sharpened and that blade damage was easy to repair.
A tip of edge sharpness testing is turn the blade edge up and place the pommel on your belt buckle and stand under a light and look down at the edge, If you see a white line you will know the blade is dull and needs to be strapped. You can see the light reflecting off the parts of the edge that is bent over by use and when used on a steel the edge is restored without the lost of metal that using a stone would cost you.
Many Ancient battles were fought with bronze tools man, many people met their end at the edge of a bronze blade. And some of those blades survived all the way through history and are still on display at museums. Our old ancestors knew a thing or two, they got right what we still get wrong sometimes. Hell look at Roman concrete lol.
The only issue I see using a campfire is over heating the zinc and burning it off. Along with other medals with lower melting temps. Without using something like borax to stop it from happening. Amazing and fun content! Keep up the great job.
But either way, just add it last after the copper has melted completely, and move quickly. Zinc or tin will melt and blend right away at that point and you're pretty much ready to go.
I'm shocked at the performance, did better than I thought as well even batoning, yes it messed up the edge,but the spine didn't break on you or bend,grest review, thanks corpral
Great thought provoking series. For those of us who have good steel available to us for whatever we wish to make, this was an interesting train of thought. At least it was for me. If I were going to fix that blade, I'd make a hammer head out of a piece of tree limb. Not the mass of iron or steel, also not as hard, good for initial straitening. Then You could harden the bent blade by heating it red hot and letting it cool naturally in air. After that you could hammer harden (work harden) the blade with a ball peen. Good job, keep up the good work. Happy Independence Day.
Learn something new everyday. I was about to correct you on the melting point of copper. Then I double checked myself and learned I was the one that was wrong.
Really awesome... our bronze age buddies would have either put up with the edge damage or they would have fixed it in the field and sharpened on the spot. As you well know bronze age life was very different to ours .. If you had a knife like yours between 2300 BC and 1300 BC you had a real prize. Soldiers with a bronze sword that took care of the blade had a formidable weapon with the only danger to the edge would be hitting bone. A soldier on horse back with one of those swords was a force to be reckoned with. GREAT JOB ON THE KNIFE.. This was better than myth busters.
Interesting experiment. As you mentioned, Bronze will not replace today's high strength steel knives. But still, it's something one can make for themselves from raw materials, and keep as a decorative item. Much like decorative swords or decorative firearms. A definite item to proudly hang on the wall of any "Man Cave", especially if you made it yourself from scratch. Good video!
Amazing videos!!! Im a heli pilot and have started documenting my travel videos too. I like the way you make and present your videos. Any tips from you would be appreciated
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What can I use to sharpen a aluminium knife blade .
Do it with Titanium bronze, mixed manganese nickel and ıron composition... Strong like steel, and high level strenght with water, salt, atmospheric conditions...Also no sparkles and beautiful shining like a little greenish gold... Try it bro..
Try peening the edge it hardens copper
You should have hammer-hardened the edges, they'd really kick some butt then! Hammer-hardened bronze blades are nearly as good as steel!
Funny to think that 3,000 years ago these were considered state of the art. One thing I should mention, Bronze wasn't replaced by iron overnight. Bronze and iron tools and weapons were made side by side with each other for centuries. early iron working took time to perfect, Bronze was considered superior for a long time, at first iron only really had the advantage of being mass-produceable and easier to work with. It took a long time for people to figure out how to make steel from iron, only then was bronze completely replaced.
Still makes a damn fine bushing.
I lost my father to a car crash when I was 18. I had very few rememberable moments with him, but I did get a few. I hope that you get some time with your son. I am glad that you are including him in your crafts even if only making an extra knife for him as well. He will appreciate every moment as an adult. You are Awesome. Thank you for what you do.
Metal is so awesome. Steel is awesome, but Bronze is beautiful baby.Those knives looked fantastic. And just knowing that you CAN make a tool in the wild using ancient techniques is amazing.
On bronze and brass blades you can also do what's called hammer hardening on the edge. That way it won't dent/bend inward when you use it, but the problem with hammer hardening is that, if you hammer it too much it can become too brittle and chip away, but if you learn to get it right, it should do just fine. Still not as strong as steel though. LoL.
I agree with this hammer work hardening. Interesting though to consider the effect of the hammer material. It shouldn't be steel to be authentic and it is possible that stone hammers could impart some minerals into the edge. Carburization is another interesting phenomenon that may be lost technology in terms of bronze and copper. Probably try and keep your edge real steep for strength too. Please corporal take a hammer to your blade.
It would be impossible for stone hammers to leave any materials into the blade, as the metal has already cooled and formed into a solid. Carburization is a process to make low-carbon iron/steel into a harder metal by adding carbon to the outside layers of the metal. Bronze and Copper metals do not use carbon, so they would not be carburized.
the correct term is Peening.
Entire reason for the existence for the ball peen hammer.
givemeanameman1, I have to disagree with you here. I'm not interested in starting a firestorm discussion on proper terminology and technique of blacksmithing, although I've been doing it for over 15yrs, but certainly in this case, peening would only move too much material, thinning the edge, causing further weaking along this section. Flat hammer the small bend, true up the edge along the length with a file and finish with a stone - same way it's been done since its inception. And effective for its purpose and limits.
givemeanameman1 Pretty sure ball peen hammers' original and primary use was for peening rivets.
You can bushcraft with a bronze knife and people will still swear that any knife under $300 made out of top of the line steel with snap in half if air touches it.
This video proves clearly that you don't need an expensive knife to do field work. Just don't abuse the blade and it will last you for years
@@mathuselahtv4476 A friend of mine who is an expert metal basher got an old aerial off a buccaneer (which for some reason were steel) and used some of it to make a knife. He's still got it 30 years later and the only thing that has needed replacing is the bindings on the handle. It gets used in one way or another most days.
to be fair, this is a bushcraft form factor, there are very brittle blades with very thin backs that probably would shatter.
@@lusteraliaszero heat treatment has more to do with it then blade thickness.
Haha! Actually.. hardness of bronze is 170-200 depending on the alloy (brinell scale). Mild steel is 120 and 18-8 stainless is 200. Compare this to 1.6 for soft woods, and 3-7 for hardwood - either option is more than good enough for bushcraft. Tell that to the gear junkies though... hehe
There's a Bronze Age hill fort and settlement where I live. Farmers occasionally plough up bronze socketed axes and stuff. Alway walk my dog over fields with hope of finding one.
sounds like a metal detectorists dream! consider metal detecting as a hobby if you are fortunate to live in a place of such rich history.
@@SkengManNZ Unfortunately most sites like that are protected and yu are only allowed to metal detect in conjunction with an archeological study by a local university or museum or the land owners permission but anything you find will be his by right. Metal detecting without permission is considered to be theft and therefore illegal which is why those who do it usually do so at night and are called Night Hawks who are detested by everyone.
Works as designed, better than stone. Well done great video. People that make unrealistic comparisons will be disappointed.
My son is really liking the forging vids. Thank you!
Wow the color of it. Really nice. Something interesting about that bronze knife. You could loose it in the forest, someone could find it in 3000 years. They could give it a polish and it would be perfectly usable.
Zanzubaa1 i agree
Zanzubaa1 apart from the oxidisation, would probably need a little sanding cuz it would be green- possibly a little corroded too
This is great to see, because the tools and experience you need to make one of these home made, compared to a steel knife of any kind, is like comparing a pond and the ocean.
Most anyone could make one of those, and get a decent knife, cheaply and with the pride of it being home made, within a few tries.
And now people can see that owning such a knife still has value.
Good stuff! - Just my two cents worth but the actual percentage of tin to bronze makes a big difference to the hardness of the bronze. This was one of the main advantages of bronze. i.e. - you could tailor your "recipe" to match the implement being made - add more tin to make the bronze harder and sharper- typically a razor could be make with approx. 20% tin which makes for a very hard metal but of course more brittle whereas a bronze hand axe (the bronze age equivalent of the "swiss army knife" or "Bush Knife") consisted of 12% tin 88% copper (no lead). Research done by the University of Belfast suggests that Lead was added if the item being made needed to be more ductile i.e. a spoon - its thought that the lead prevents or reduces "hammer hardening" allowing shapes to be formed without breaking - Lead wasnt used in cutting implements hence the distortion seen in the knife blade when cutting green wood. In any event once the knife become dull or twisted into uselessness the whole could be re-melted and formed into a new knife - which is certainly a much easier process than repairing a steel knife. Thanks for the video and keep up the good work!
i was going to ask the same question ,lol , still a great piece ,,, either way ,
Also nicks and twists in the blade could be worked out and sharpened away making the blade usable for longer while still being re-meltable and re-castable at a later date.
Interesting, thanks for sharing! Lead in spoons.. mmm...
Great video.
One of the advantages of bronze over steel knife blades is that a damaged blade can be redressed by heating in a simple campfire and forging back into a clean edge repeatedly.
Once the bronze is cold it is then work hardened to form the cutting edge and finished by stone grind and polish.
Also, many ancient bronze weapons with the best edges were either straight Arsenical Bronze (all arsenic instead of tin for the alloy) or a tin bronze with arsenic additions on the surface and the cutting edge. Due to the fumes generated with this method, it's quite likely that the "lame smith" archetype orginated with bronze smiths that worked with arsenic. The downside of using arsenic was that quality control was extremely difficult.
Ancient bronze smiths would add sand, powdered bone, and mineral powders to their crucible. These additives can also increase the hardness of the edge significantly. Another edge enhancement would be the use of vertical chalk molds which were carved into the required shape. The molten bronze would be poured with the sword tip down and the pommel being the pour and vent port. Certain chalk sources contain phosphorous which would enhance the surface and edge properties of the bronze.
See ref showing how ancient bronze tool hardness could be increased by a factor of three over the as-cast: www.academia.edu/7132948/An_experimental_study_of_early_bronze_smithing_techniques
Thanks for the info and support
So far as the cutting and carving went, the knives seemed to perform well. I think that a bronze knife is not a good candidate for a scandi grind. Probably a convex would be best for this material. Also, I'm not disappointed at all over the damage that the edge took from batoning, it's a knife not an ax. Horace Kephart said to carry both an ax and a knife and to use them only for the purposes for which they were intended. Still, a great set of tests.
That's incredibly impressive. That roll in the edge isn't really worse than you'd get with a low-carbon steel, or one that wasn't heat treated properly. Bronze is a higher performance metal than I had thought!
you have learned the limits of bronze and also know that maintence is nonexsitant so the trade off balances out. You may now pass that blade 10 generations after your steel blade has become iron oxide.
bitnbrace Wy I've become really interested in bronze after learning a bit about it. It looks beautiful, doesn't really corrode, and even though it will bend instead of flex, you can also just bend it back into shape pretty easily, or melt it down and turn it into a new knife with almost no material lost. I want a bronze knife.
it won't become iron oxide if you look after it, steel can retain its edge better and is significantly more durable.
+Sir Goth Assuming you do not just keep it in a climate controlled display case, it will oxidize. Iron is one of the metals that has the quality of oxidizing when it comes into contact with moisture. If you take care of it well, and try to keep it dry when you can that will help, and it will last long, but it will still oxidize eventually. It is hard to cheat time. You can remove the rust when it appears, but the rust still would have occurred.
Just look at the Chinese bronze sword they found at the bottom of a river. The thing looks like they just made it. There would be nothing left of any iron or steel.
Nobody has tested C95500 Nickel Aluminum Bronze in knives though, that one is said to be 'the limit' as in as strong as bronze can get.
Beautiful knives...Great experience....Thanks for sharing!
Amazing! I never would have thought it would throw sparks! Very impressive and it would never rust
Bronze can rust too look at old bronze bells like the Philadelphia Liberty bell
The biggest advantage of the early iron knives is they were cheaper to make because iron ore is common. A good iron sword isn't much if any better than a good bronze sword and iron is destroyed by rust much faster. Steel is another story.
Some Chinese blades contain Chromium from somewhere. Some of those blades are still sharp after thousands of yrs in the ground. This would also make them harder.
A further trick is they hammered the edges thin before sharpening them. This hardened the metal along the edges. By and large they would have avoided hitting anything too hard.
''Some Chinese blades contain Chromium from somewhere''
That's what interesting about old tools made before we had the knowledge we have today about metallurgy and alloys the quality of the tool didn't just depend on the skill of the craftsman but also the quality of the ore. If you where lucky you got a ore that was low of impurities that was otherwise hard to remove or even a ore that made a really suitable alloy.
Don't know if that's what happened with the Chinese sword though. But it probably has something to do with the legendary Damascus swords, that and expert craftsmen.
"WITCHCRAFT!"
I think most blade smiths would, through many years of experience, figure out exactly what they need, but they wouldn't understand it or be able (or willing) to explain what makes good munitions grade metals. There's a letter, I think written by Henry IV or V during the 100 Years War complaining that the arrowheads his archers had been issued hadn't been properly hardened which is exactly what you'd expect when every blacksmith in the country (who normally only make nails and horseshoes) tries to fill the medieval equivalent of a Govt Purchase Order despite all the same archers carrying perfectly serviceable swords.
At least in the mediterenean, the bronze age ended with the bronze age collapse: many civilizations fell apart simultaneously (for more information, there are great videos online). Tin is and was a rare metal and the tin trade was vital for the production of bronze. Without tin, there can be no bronze. With the collapse of major trade routes, the tin supply was cut off and the ability to make bronze was bottlenecked. Early iron tools were much worse than bronze: the art of bronze working has been perfected by that point. Iron is much harder to melt and smelt: the metal produced is full of slag and inclusions and when early metalworkers began to work with this unfamiliar metal (ironworking wasn't unknown in the bronze age, but because of the difficulty, skill in it was not pursued), the results were sub-par. Thousands of years of innovation resulted in a much higher quality iron or steel. Iron has higher potential than bronze but is much easier to get wrong as well.
pounding on anvil removes carbon turning iron into steel. iron ore becomes steel iron age sword, not an "iron" sword.
chromium is the additive in stainless steel, and what keeps it from oxidizing.
Good emergency tool tip to have. Thanks Corporal. Love the choice of MRE!
Very interesting. As ever, I learn from your videos. I definitely appreciate seeing what you have to say. Thanks very much for sharing and thinking up these experiences.
Thank you this was fascinating. Very good work. Now we know when the end of times come we have a way to make bronze tools so as long as we have fire and some lead and copper piping around. Thank you for sharing this. You are awesome.
This is very impressive! As long as you don't baton it, it seems durable enough.
this series is the coolest i have seen in a long time, thank you.
This amazed me. With care in a terrible situation you could skin and harvest game with that blade with ease. Just amazing.
Great video. Seen a lot of videos making bronze blades, but never one where someone actually used one.
Skallagrim
From my understanding the main reason why the iron age pushed out bronze is not because bronze was somehow inferiour, but because iron was easyer to produce and the ore was more common, while for bronze not only were the ores not as common, you had to have a source of 2 diferent ores. Chances are that you would have to import at least 1 of them, so why make the efort when you can just make iron?
Of course then comes along steel and we have a diferent story altogether.
Yeah that was the main reason bronze went out. It was actually superior to a lot of early iron age stuff, and even today higher quality bronze alloys (aluminum bronze and phosphor bronze for instance) compare quite favorably and even outmatch some steel alloys in many applications. Mind, a good sharp and long-lasting edge is still best with good carbon steel.
Well not even just that. Every time large empires fell trade and shipping routes would go away. That was an issue, bronze is superior to just iron and most early low grade steels and they have more advantages and are more economical once made.
You can see an example with China, they used bronze weapons well into the European iron age, because they had much easier access to tin and copper (tin from Afghanistan iirc, which was a hell of a journey to the Mediterranean civilizations).
It was extremely interesting to see how well the bronze knives withstood the bush crafting tests. The kink in the blade from battening could also probably be worked out and then resharpened. As you would say Corp 'Outstanding!' Keep the faith.
Well, like has been already said, had you work hardened those knives, you'd have gotten even better results. Also there are even harder bronze alloys that you could have made. Still, your bronze knives did better than I've seen some steel knives do. LOL And those bronze knives will get a patina, but will never rust like steel will. Which goes to show, we didn't switch from bronze to steel because iron is inherently better. (I mean it is, but only at the top end of craftsmanship.) Bronze works! We ditched bronze for steel because copper and tin are both rare metals, but iron is plentiful everywhere. Once we figured out how to heat and treat cheap plentiful iron, there was no reason to use expensive bronze.
Alot of great comments, beautiful knife, any body use a knife knows that you didn't push hard when you slice. Nice knife and video great job again thank you for your service.
another great video. I've read about bronze, but it was helpful seeing a video done of it's performance. thank you.
"Something tells me I'm gonna have to work for it... Nope!" FANTASTIC!
Well done! I was impressed at how well it functioned.
I'm a metal artist and bronze is a wonderful metal to work with. Excellent video!
Wow. This is pretty darn cool! Better than I would have imagined.
Amazing video! I love observing earth, explore and calm down...
wow. you can use a stone or wood wedge for battoning. this was very cool. I watch all your newer stuff forever now but this came up recomended. very cool.
Looks really good. Perhaps I will make one someday, thanks for the video.
being able to cast is one step closer to becoming truly self reliant. I a thoroughly enjoying this series as I have alot of interest in this subject as well. So much versatility and simple.
Thank you, please share this channel with others so It can grow and influence others
Beat you to it shared this video on Google as soon as I watched it.
It's nice that you gave it the best chance to perform well by having them professionally sharpened and polished. They look very pretty and I like the blade geometry too.
I guess harder woodwork is reserved for axes in the bronze age. We're asking a lot from our modern steel blades.
quite impressive , , ,,,, and easy enough too be remelted and remake a new knife, even in a bush setting
Really, really great videos! Love 'em all! Hoorah!!!
Fun video. Someone might have already said it, but just to be sure it's mentioned. Bronzeage knives were often hammered along the edge to harden it. This makes the edge a bit tougher, and last for longer.
Awesome video, excellent instruction. it looked to me the edge wasnt chipped or broken, so may be easy to repair. overall fantastic job in this series. 👍👍🇺🇸
Don't know how the bronze for me but it is PRETTY! Thanks. J. Q.
Now I don't have any excuse to make one bronze knife, awesome!
Loving this whole series. Thanks for all your efforts.
Very cool. I have often wondered if I could make a decent knife out of some broken drum cymbals.
Nice and shiny! It held up better than I thought it would.
Thank you for this very informational video.I was really interested in how well it would perform.
This was indeed different. Thanks for sharing.
I was wondering how well bronze tools would work.
works great,egyptian use them a lot
Robert Brunston compared to today's stuff, is like jelly.
They work fine, and all you need to repair them are a hammer and a file just like steel and iron. Unless you really mess them up, then you can just recast em.
Those knives look very beautiful, love bronze knives.
That was excellent. For general task and food prepping, it looks like it would work fine.
This was an outstanding video. I learned a lot, and really appreciate your time & effort sharing this experience. Carry on...
That performed pretty good. Much better than i expected.
I think the one advantage of bronze is the quick ability to sharpen it. Because the material is softer, you can put an edge on quicker. It will also go dull quicker, but you can't have everything. Something like skinning an animal or what-not, a bronze knife would be superb.
Great video as always. Keep up the good work with the channel.
Slamming a bronze edge into wood with huge percussive force tends to result in dinging and splitting, who woulda thought? Besides that, this thing seems to perform pretty well.
Cool experiment. Going from stone to bronze, our ancestor must have thought "I have it made in the shade". Nowadays a knife has to have CPM S30V or 154 CM steel or it is no good. I do not know what that says about us in general, but it says something. Finally, I think fatwood should be incorporated into every video (even video's about guns). LOL Thanks for taking the time to show us your cool blades.
great video tnx,this question interested me too to some larger time. Only minus to bronze, when sharpness will be not so long like to iron , but bronze is look more yellow similar like gold :))) For decorative use and practically use if is not iron knife its ideal..
The MRE test is my favorite. And my Ka-Bar Big Brother performs like the brothers in Force Recon. Semper Gumby.
Okay you had me at scraping the wood to make hay for fire 🔥. Totally subscribe and will play catch up on your videos. Love that you helped me with new ideas 💡 for camping or survival.
it's all been said in the comments already but I just had to chime in: that really was excellent from start to finish, very well done for seeing it through, and thanks for sharing! :0)
The bronze isn't as durable as modern steel alloys but the modern steel will never look as good as the bronze. I like your heirloom idea.
A light duty knife. Also, a great spear point. Nice video.
Beautiful knife; better. video!!!!! Thanks for sharing. Me and mine wish you and yours all things great and good; take care, be safe, all my best and God bless!!! Chuck Knight from Buffalo, Texas, USA. 🤠🐩🖖✝️👍
It seems to me that a bronze knife is best suited to a heavier bevel, like 40 rather than the 15 i usualy do
Excellent and interesting review. I for one was surprised that the bronze blade would throw sparks from a ferro rod. Bronze is not as hard as iron or steel, that's a given, but I bet it was very easily sharpened and that blade damage was easy to repair.
I really can't wait to make something like this.
I am willing to bet that blade wasn't work hardened on the edge, thats how you make a bronze cutting edge worth a damn
A tip of edge sharpness testing is turn the blade edge up and place the pommel on your belt buckle and stand under a light and look down at the edge, If you see a white line you will know the blade is dull and needs to be strapped. You can see the light reflecting off the parts of the edge that is bent over by use and when used on a steel the edge is restored without the lost of metal that using a stone would cost you.
That made better feather sticks than many 1095 knives lol
Many Ancient battles were fought with bronze tools man, many people met their end at the edge of a bronze blade. And some of those blades survived all the way through history and are still on display at museums.
Our old ancestors knew a thing or two, they got right what we still get wrong sometimes. Hell look at Roman concrete lol.
The only issue I see using a campfire is over heating the zinc and burning it off. Along with other medals with lower melting temps. Without using something like borax to stop it from happening. Amazing and fun content! Keep up the great job.
But either way, just add it last after the copper has melted completely, and move quickly. Zinc or tin will melt and blend right away at that point and you're pretty much ready to go.
Zinc is used in brass, not bronze. And borax will kill your crucible.
Great stuff! Impressive performance!
I'm shocked at the performance, did better than I thought as well even batoning, yes it messed up the edge,but the spine didn't break on you or bend,grest review, thanks corpral
Very cool, thanks for sharing this!
Great thought provoking series. For those of us who have good steel available to us for whatever we wish to make, this was an interesting train of thought. At least it was for me. If I were going to fix that blade, I'd make a hammer head out of a piece of tree limb. Not the mass of iron or steel, also not as hard, good for initial straitening. Then You could harden the bent blade by heating it red hot and letting it cool naturally in air. After that you could hammer harden (work harden) the blade with a ball peen. Good job, keep up the good work. Happy Independence Day.
Learn something new everyday. I was about to correct you on the melting point of copper. Then I double checked myself and learned I was the one that was wrong.
Beautiful pieces i may make ones myself
So incredible this video! Ii like your channel!!!
Love the knife and not surprised at all they used them centrys as survial knifes
Really awesome... our bronze age buddies would have either put up with the edge damage or they would have fixed it in the field and sharpened on the spot. As you well know bronze age life was very different to ours .. If you had a knife like yours between 2300 BC and 1300 BC you had a real prize. Soldiers with a bronze sword that took care of the blade had a formidable weapon with the only danger to the edge would be hitting bone. A soldier on horse back with one of those swords was a force to be reckoned with. GREAT JOB ON THE KNIFE.. This was better than myth busters.
Very interesting test. I enjoyed
Can't baton with flint knifes! From one vet to another thanks you for your service
Good looking blade!
So I could use bronze for woods knife and small kindling. And craft a sturdier hatched for small splitting.
Those are sweet blades!
Hey Corporal Kelly you should sell those man those are great quality
these knifes look beautiful, I am going to make one
Interesting experiment. As you mentioned, Bronze will not replace today's high strength steel knives. But still, it's something one can make for themselves from raw materials, and keep as a decorative item. Much like decorative swords or decorative firearms. A definite item to proudly hang on the wall of any "Man Cave", especially if you made it yourself from scratch. Good video!
Very cool. Looks great!
A perfectly decent tool if used according to it's capability.
new to the channel, so forgive me if you've covered it already - can you show us how to cover the tine with anchor line - thanks in advance
That was an awesome video man thanks!
even with minor damage, it would still clean fish or game. great video
Great videos, thanks for sharing!
Amazing videos!!! Im a heli pilot and have started documenting my travel videos too. I like the way you make and present your videos. Any tips from you would be appreciated