If early humans crafted a hammer or an axe from metal for example. How on earth did they craft the first tool that was used to create that hammer or axe. I know you can create a hammer from natural material like stone and an axe from a sharp piece of stone but how did they forge the first metal tools and even weapons?
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They would have used stone and wood tools, combined with casting in stone or sand and even wood moulds.
The first metals used were made of copper. Copper veins literally just have reasonably concentrated copper sitting there. You pick it up, heat it with whatever fire you’ve got, and use any hammer you have to shape it, because copper is soft.
And then you can get fancy and add a bit of tin, heat it up, and it melts into bronze
Bronze age tools and weapons were sometimes melted and cast in sand or other mold materials, copper and bronze could both be worked that way, and metals could be forged with stone tools on stone anvils or cold worked with grinding stones.
The process of human technology can be described loosely as crude tools making rough tools and rough tools making progressively finer or more complex tools.
Thanks guys. Perfectly clear I don’t know why I didn’t think of casting and pouring the heated metal. I just had a random thought pop in my head and thought I’d ask here haha. Thanks!
Casting molds in sand. Molten metal fills the mold and cools until solid. Then boom add a wood handle.