'Old Copper' culture knife -- myArmoury.com

Scott Roush · Industry Professional

This knife was made from native float copper..copper that was scoured by glaciers and deposited in various places in Northern Wisconsin. This copper was used extensively by the 'Old Copper' culture some 3,000 to 5,000 years ago for weapons, tools and jewelry in the Great Lakes region. It somehow got traded great distances and has even showed in up in Northern Africa. The copper was heated, annealed, pounded flat, chiseled and forged to shape. It was hardened by 'work hardening'.. a process of physical hardening achieved by very careful forging at very thin thicknesses. This blade shape is a common type found among Copper Culture archaeological sitesand the handles were known to be bone, antler or wood with leather wrappings. I added a touch of red here and there to reflect the use of red ochre on various objects of the time period.

P. Frank · Posted: Fri 04 Oct, 2013 6:08 am Post subject:

Oh wow, this is lovely!
*Siiigh* Why are there so many things to pay for this month?

Kai Lawson · Posted: Fri 04 Oct, 2013 7:21 am Post subject:

Cool--not only does this display your prodigious talent, but you're using native (yay Wisconsin!) copper to do it, and tying it to a regional historic context. Great job all around

Josh MacNeil · Posted: Fri 04 Oct, 2013 9:47 am Post subject:

Been on my own adventure into the wonderful world of copper. Such a great medium to work with. This is an absolutely stunning project. Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing, Scott!

Harry Marinakis · Posted: Fri 04 Oct, 2013 11:31 am Post subject:

An interesting side note - the Tlingit natives of the Northwest Coast used copper daggers until they were able to get iron and steel from western and Russian explorers and fur trappers in historic times.

Metallurgical analysis of the Tlingit copper blades revealed that the blades were not hammered or forged - in other words, they used sharpened native copper crystals for their blades. See the article below.

http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications...llurgy.pdf

Scott Roush · Industry Professional

Thanks to everybody for the kind comments.

Wow.. thanks for sharing that Harry. I will take more time to read it..but just a cursory glance revealed really cool stuff. Eskimos harvested native iron directly from the basalt without smelting and work hardened it like copper! I've never heard of iron being used that wasn't smelted.. other than meteoric.

Great... I can see that I will now be scouring the arctic wastes for this stuff.

Mark Moore · Posted: Fri 04 Oct, 2013 4:17 pm Post subject:

That is freakin' sweet, Scott! My native-Wisconsin wife applauds you, as do I. I love 'relic' pieces, and this is a jewel ! ........McM