Bronze age copper smelting

Bronze age copper smelting during the "Iron smelting days" & ancient metalworkers weekend in Archeon (Alphen a/d Rijn, Netherlands), 17 October 2010. I performed my first demonstrations on how copper smelting could have taken place during the bronze age 2000-800B.C. The smelts were succesful, and yielded 3-4kg copper from 10kg malachite ore in two runs of the furnace. Each run took about 2-3hours, and used up about 4kg of charcoal. At the end of the video you can see a big lump of copper stuck to the bottom, weighing about 2kg. I also smelted some tin in the smaller furnace to the left. Both the tin and copper will be used to cast into bronze tools or weapons later on.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• bronze
• age
• copper
• smelting
• Archeon
• 2010

[FRXable]

The ore I used is mainly malachite, with some azurite and cuprite mixed in.

[cowofthemonth]

@FRXable have you smelted sulfide ore, other than cuprite? I want to try with some bornite/chalcopyrite, but it seems that malachite is more popular as it requires lower temperatures. cheers, nice vid.

[FRXable]

@cowofthemonth Hello. I've not tried any sulfides yet. The temperatures shouldn't be any different. The only difference is that you need to roast the sulfides first in an oxygen rich open fire, to burn off all off the sulfur. It's important this is done completely, as any sulphur left will make the copper/bronze weak.

[Artexerxes101]

Could you make a video that explained the steps of how copper was smelted during the Bronze Age?

[cowofthemonth]

@FRXable cheers, really helpful. thanks

[Froddofromtheshire]

Smelting copper barefoot = 100% badass

[GIDMOTO]

LIKE IF YOUR WAITING FOR HIM TO BURN HIS FEET....

[wayofthesamurai2]

whatt ore do you use?

[vtgandalf1]

This is truly amazing! Looks so simple! Do you have more videos about it? Could you show us?

[112Klaasje]

het is toch altijd weer indrukwekkend zo iets