Fig. 579. (S. about 1–2.) Copper chisels; the left and central ones were found near Clintonville, Waupaca County, Wisconsin. The right-hand one, near Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.
Fabrication
Fig. 580. (S. about 1–4.) Three copper punches and seven chisels. H. P. Hamilton’s collection, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
Our native copper implements were fashioned by being hammered into shape while the metal was in a cold or heated state with such rude implements as were at the command of the natives, the finishing touches being given by cutting and trimming the uneven edges with sharp flints and smoothing the surfaces by rubbing or grinding with stones. Successful experiments in reproducing the various forms of implements from the native or nodular copper by these primitive processes have been made by the late Frank H. Cushing, and by other archæologists. Mr. Gerard Fowke is authority for the following statement:—
“So far as its working qualities are concerned, copper at ordinary temperature is much more malleable than pure soft iron; and it is much more easily worked into shape when at a red heat than when cold. If hammered cold it must be annealed occasionally, otherwise it becomes brittle. It is somewhat hardened by pounding, which will account for the harder edge of celts and other aboriginal specimens beaten out thin.”[[26]]
Fig. 581. (S. 1–5.) Collection of J. T. Reeder, Houghton, Michigan. 13 copper spuds, 4 pick-pointed knives, 4 knives. All except one from Michigan.
The theory that any of these implements may have been cast is now discarded by archæologists. There is no evidence to show that our local aborigines possessed any knowledge of the working of this metal in the broad sense.