Copper Tools- how to keep sharp

In order to cut anything with my copper knife I must keep
resharpening it. Hammering might make the edge last longer but resharpening will be frequent.

So we might estimate how long the worn copper knive found in graves could have been in use

or at least how many sharpenings they had received. The margin for error will be very large

but we can identify with the problem that also faced our copper dagger carrying forebears.

This problem is how to maintain a sharp and impressive bit of shiny kit while it diminishes.

Two things could have helped our Amesbury Archer and others.

One is that flint users must have been accustomed to the demise of their knives through

breakage so the longevity of the copper could still have impressed. Secondly there

was the magic that any used stub of a knive could be thrown in the melting pot with
other metal and a new knife be reborn.

Speculation? but a valid query that comes from the practical use of a replica artefact.

A small justification for Living History if any were needed. (Copied from our Yahoo Group)

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Coracles and their covering

Can a cloth covered coracle or currach be authentic for the Bronze and Iron Ages?

Before cloth came into use in the nineteenth-century for covering coracles and currach

we are told that skin was used and I am sure that it was. However, linen and fine wool

cloth was being woven and either could have been used as a boat covering if coated with

something like pine pitch or tar.

Advantages of cloth are weight, durability and repairability The only two objections

I can see would have been that nobody had thought of it, expense and the comparative rarity of cloth.

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