bronze and brass in arms manufacture

Sword typology and Edge Weapons forms of the Chinese Empire and related cultures with an emphasis on their relationship to Swordsmanship.

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Philip Tom
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bronze and brass in arms manufacture

Post by Philip Tom » Sun Sep 09, 2007 1:06 am

Several weeks back I joined in on a thread dealing with handle materials, there were comments on bronze and brass from other contributors. I was out of town and not able to consult my references. Having done some "brushing up" on my return, I thought I'd start an whole new thread due to the number of questions asked on the topic over the years, and the fact that the materials were used for more than just hilt and scabbard hardware.

BRONZE is an alloy of copper and tin, and was known to the ancients (as early as 3000 BC in the Middle East and Mediterranean world, and by the second millennium BC in China and SE Asia). The reason for the early and widespread appearance of bronze may be due to the wide distribution of natural deposits of tin or its ore (mostly cassiterite), and the ease of smelting the latter into metallic form using simple technology.

In China as elsewhere, bronze was used for blades until the later development of iron and steel technologies. Because its major constituent is copper, bronze work-hardens. In other words, the metal gets harder under impact and pressure. Bronze sword blades were made by CASTING molten metal in molds. When solidified and cooled, armorers could harden the edges by tapping on them with hammers; the blades were then sharpened and ground smooth on whetstones. Research has shown that a properly-designed bronze blade of good alloy, with edges work-hardened and well-sharpened, is a remarkably effective weapon with almost as good edge-holding capacity as wrought iron or very mild steel.

After iron and steel replaced bronze for blades and body armor, it continued to be used for sword-fittings, and later, for cannon barrels. In China, bronze appeared to be the most popular non-ferrous metal for sword mounts and other artistic objects well past the Song Dynasty. The earliest cannons dating from the Ming Dynasty were made either of cast iron or bronze, and finely cast bronze ordnance was made well into the Qing.

BRASS is an alloy of copper and zinc with a much shorter history. Some of the oldest brass objects found date only to ca. 700 BC; they are small objects from the tomb of King Midas (of the "golden touch") of Phrygia. Brass production was extremely limited in the West during ancient and medieval times because metallic zinc is rare in nature. Early brass smelting was dependent on the roundabout and somewhat inefficient method of "roasting" copper and calamine (zinc ore) with charcoal in a furnace. The copper absorbed the zinc vapor from the burning calamine, and thus became alloyed to make brass. The earliest mention of brass-making using metallic zinc in Europe dates only to the mid-17th cent. This would be dependent on the development of an efficient method of smelting zinc ore to produce large enough quantities in metallic form

I haven't found any verification of the earliest industrial-scale use of brass in China, but the 17th cent. Ming industrial encyclopedia Tiangong Kaiwu mentions brass (distinct from bronze) being useful for some types of cannon. From the examination of many sets of antique sword-fittings, it appears that by the Qing, most non-ferrous mounts were made of brass as opposed to bronze.

WHY THE SWITCH FROM BRONZE TO BRASS for sword fittings?
Some plausible reasons --
1. LOWER COST. Once techniques were devised to smelt zinc ore with ease, metallic zinc became cheaper than tin, and thus brass was more cost-effective.
2. DUCTILITY AND STRENGTH. Commonly-used brass alloys tend to be somewhat less brittle than most bronze,* especially for thinner objects (ever wonder why cartridge casings are still made of brass?), and smiths have an easier time forming sheets or plates of it to make parts such as scabbard fittings.
3. LOWER MELTING TEMPERATURE, therefore greater ease of casting.
4. APPEARANCE. Brass polishes up to a brigher, more golden color than most bronze alloys.
*note: being alloys, the compositions of brasses and bronzes can be varied for various industrial applications by adjusting the relative proportions of copper and zinc / tin (respectively). Thus, the ratio of copper to tin will be different in a Ming cannon from that in a Tang mirror. I'm speaking of the norm, of general usage, in the above listing.


Bronze continued to be the metal of choice for other types of objects such as cannon barrels, statues, and bells due to its greater surface hardness (better to endure the erosion by stone or iron cannonballs, or the constant pounding of clappers) and resistance to corrosion (important for things exposed to the elements).

Note: Interested readers can find more about Chinese metallurgy in Joseph Needham's many books on Chinese technology and science; I've relied on a number of his works for the info in this post. Also I highly recommend Art Gogan's FIGHTING IRON: A METALS HANDBOOK FOR ARMS COLLECTORS (Lincoln, RI: Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 1999. This book was also an invaluable source of much of the info above.
Phil

Chris Fields
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Post by Chris Fields » Sun Sep 09, 2007 10:28 am

Thanks for that, it strenghts what I was already researching.

Now a days, it's personal preference, and I prefer the darker tint of bronze. =)
www.royalkungfu.com

Stage combat weapons and Martial Arts Training weapons:
www.sterlingarmory.com

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