Not all smiths used the same concentration of tin, which means not all bronze was equal. Iron is more universal in a way. Bronze was shifted out of the way the same age steel was slowly being produced for the same people; nobles and ancient clans. As long as logistic lines were intact, bronze was used, but tin being always in Britannia and some in Spain led to a demand of maintaining the supply lines well preserved.
Roman steel was perfected the same rough age bronze was completely phased out. Only brass remained as it required less tin and isnt as strong. In Britannia however, whitesmithing remained an art.
Correct. Hence my statement originally that it was a preferred metal until the Roman era. In fact, China used Bronze far longer than any other empire (If I remember correct, been years since I studied) and their weapons that are found are still scary sharp even to this day. Not all smiths also goes back to what I said about being smith dependent. The rough ratio is 9 parts copper to 1 part tin, but some empires fiddled with this, especially when the supplies became scarce or during prolonged wars. Iron is for sure more universal. Drag a lode stone along the bottom of a lake and you'll find enough iron (even today) to arm an entire company of soldiers. Base iron's biggest weakness is it's inconsistency. A good example of this was Mao's policy of China during the reformation. They took farmers tools to build new structures, only to find out that basic pig iron is shit for holding a load. if you have copper and tin on hand, you can make a strong base line bronze. if you have a stash of iron, it's a total crap shoot of what kind of imperfections are in the metal that will fuck with the end product. This issue was worse back then when they lacked the metal knowledge to know how to slag and cook out the bad shit. The invention of steel was literally a fluke accident because some iron from some deposits had the correct carbon ratios by default.
(post is archived)