4,000 year old Egyptian model tools - images

[mklotz]

I should like to know the materials in the cutting pieces.

Most metal tools in ancient Egypt were made of bronze...

https://www.epiceras-ancientegypt.co...nze_tools.html

although a richly decorated iron dagger was found on Tut's body - an obvious sign that he valued it highly. The blade was made from meteoric iron indicating that they recognized its utility and understood how to work it. The absence of iron in everyday tools is probably due to the lack of iron deposits in that area of the world.

[Big Sexy]

Bronze? I thought all they had was copper tools.

[mklotz]

Bronze? I thought all they had was copper tools.

We normally think of bronze as an alloy of copper and tin. Tin wasn't easily available to the ancient Egyptians though. They alloyed the locally available copper with arsenic which hardened it into a form of bronze. It was probably somewhat inferior to tin based bronze but still tough enough to use for major stone work.

Partially quarried obelisks have provided evidence that metal tools weren't used for some major stone working tasks. Super hard, river bed, diorite balls were used as hammers to laboriously chip channels in the native rock after which fire heating and water quenching cracked the desired form loose from the parent rock.