<P> In many parts of the world, large hoards of bronze artifacts are found, suggesting that bronze also represented a store of value and an indicator of social status . In Europe, large hoards of bronze tools, typically socketed axes (illustrated above), are found, which mostly show no signs of wear . With Chinese ritual bronzes, which are documented in the inscriptions they carry and from other sources, the case is very clear . These were made in enormous quantities for elite burials, and also used by the living for ritual offerings . </P> <P> Though bronze is generally harder than wrought iron, with Vickers hardness of 60--258 vs. 30--80, the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age after a serious disruption of the tin trade: the population migrations of around 1200--1100 BC reduced the shipping of tin around the Mediterranean and from Britain, limiting supplies and raising prices . As the art of working in iron improved, iron became cheaper and improved in quality . As cultures advanced from hand - wrought iron to machine - forged iron (typically made with trip hammers powered by water), blacksmiths learned how to make steel . Steel is stronger than bronze and holds a sharper edge longer . </P> <P> Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, and has continued in use for many purposes to the modern day . </P> <P> There are many different bronze alloys, but typically modern bronze is 88% copper and 12% tin . Alpha bronze consists of the alpha solid solution of tin in copper . Alpha bronze alloys of 4--5% tin are used to make coins, springs, turbines and blades . Historical "bronzes" are highly variable in composition, as most metalworkers probably used whatever scrap was on hand; the metal of the 12th - century English Gloucester Candlestick is bronze containing a mixture of copper, zinc, tin, lead, nickel, iron, antimony, arsenic with an unusually large amount of silver--between 22.5% in the base and 5.76% in the pan below the candle . The proportions of this mixture suggests that the candlestick was made from a hoard of old coins . The Benin Bronzes are in fact brass, and the Romanesque Baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège is described as both bronze and brass . </P>

Is melting copper with tin to form a bronze