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Copper knife: Archaic period nod
swamp monkey:
Last winter I did a couple of pours of molten copper to get some blanks to make copper tools in line with what the mound builders might have used. http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,56581.0.html
This spring, summer and fall it took me months just find a few spare minutes to do the steps in making a copper knife. I found out the mound builders didn't make much in the way of copper knives. Oh they made a few but not like they did celts. So I did some digging and discovered the the Archiac period people (predecessors to the mound builders) did make a number of copper knives.
One of the copper casts last winter was incomplete so I decided to hammer it out and heat treat it to get a knife blade. Please understand this process is different than blacksmithing iron. With copper you hammer the soft copper into shape until it is tool hardened. Then you stop hammering so you don't create fractures. Place the blank in a fire to heat it to cherry red. Pull it out and let it cool; then you can hammer some more. Back and forth hammer/heat cycles occur until you get the rough shape you want.
I did some shaping this fall with lots of sanding. Last week I mounted the blade in an antler handle. I will do a sinew wrap and repost pics this weekend.
swamp monkey:
I sanded to 320 grit for these pix. The cast had a few bubbles that I will never be able to get out. So i will just have to consider them character marks. Most of sanding scratches are coming out. I have progressed up to 400 grit and may go with 600. It would be nice to get access to a buffing wheel but that wouldn't be very Archaic now would it. ;)
thanks for looking.
YosemiteBen:
OOOOHHHH!!!!!
chamookman:
Kewl ! Bob
Pappy:
O I like that, very nice work. :)
Pappy
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