I would have thought that with bronze being an alloy it would have been more difficult to work with than iron, so why was it the first to become widely used?
In: 2489
**First, Availability**
Copper is easier to find as a metal, while natural metallic iron is only found in one or two places on earth or falls from the sky. In those places you find the occasional group that skipped the bronze age entirely and use/used knapped iron tools. Iron tends to be found only in compounds in rocks or sand, not as metal, and the entire rock or loads of sand need to be melted down to only produce a small amount of bad iron.
**Second, Ease of Use**
Copper based metals are easier to work with in general.
If you melt and cast bronze, you can get a workable tool out of it. It’s also fairly corrosion resistant and can be recast as needed.
If you melt and cast iron, you get cast iron which is not suitable for a lot of tasks. It’s brittle, it rusts, and it’s not very strong.
If you melt and cast good bronze, you get good bronze. if you melt and cast good iron, you get crap iron.
Iron has to be worked and have more of the inclusions removed via higher temperatures and physical working of the hot metal. Once you’ve got the process for it though, you get a stronger and tougher metal than bronze.
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