Bronze Price

Investing in bronze

It could therefore be interesting to invest in bronze. The supply of copper are getting slimmer faster while copper is still the most used metal in the industry. The biggest threat that this could form is recycling bronze will get more priority and applying other raw materials can cause the yields to be lower for bronze.

How to use the bronze price

By using the price of bronze, you can choose to invest in copper, which you can do in different ways.

• Through a broker. In this case you can invest through a broker. This usually goes through contracts. In this case you do not own any bronze or copper.
• Physical copper. There is also the ability to buy bronze and copper physically. It is important to know that this will bring costs for storage, but the advantage is that you physically own the copper or bronze that you buy. There are possibilities to buy coins or other bronze or copper wares. A disadvantages for this strategy is that usually you pay too much for those coins. This could lead to a smaller margin.

Bronze figures

A bronze statue of figure can vary in size. There are relatively small and very detailed bronze statues and figures. But you can also find lifesize replicas of giant animals and other historical figures. In almost all cases the rule of thumb is: The larger the piece, the higher the value. Larger statues require more material, labor and a higher volume of bronze.

What is bronze

Is is generally known that in championships in sports, the numbers 1, 2 and 3 get a medal of metal. There are of course gold, silver and bronze. What people don’t know is that bronze is actually completely different from silver and g old. You cannot dig bronze from a mine. So what is bronze? Bronze is made of 12% tin and mostly copper. Often other metals like zinc or nickel, mangane and silicium of fosphor and arsenica are blended in. Such a mixture is called an alloy. The existence of such alloys dates back all the way to about 3500 B.C. Creating bronze is because of this one of the oldest crafts in the world. This also makes bronze of the oldest known alloy metals that are used to this day. This is because bronze is so strong, many times over than for example powerful raw materials like stone or marble. Also the fact that the alloy bronze is cast, makes it an ideal product to make strong, robust, but also flexibly detailed figures. Bronze has an extraordinary powerful, rich and timeless aura about it. This makes bronze of the most popular raw materials used by artists.

Features of bronze

• Bronze has a rich, warm and yellow color;
• Bronze is not magnetic, unlike other metals;
• After a while, bronze can oxidize, which makes it green because of corrosion;
• Bronze copper or tin? No, copper and tin are raw materials for bronze;

Where does bronze come from

Bronze can be found in many places, but not everywhere. You can find copper in a lot of places in Europe for example in Bulgaria, France, Spain, Nothern Italy, England, Austria, Scotland and Wales. But the other part needed for copper, tin, can be found in even less places. Tin can be found in the north of France and Cornwall, England. Decades ago, bronze mostly came to other countries in Europe as scrap metal, for trading or as a gift. The bronze value became much more important because of these trades. Pretty quickly people learned to melt down bronze statues to be able to reshape this bronze. This made the alloy bronze even more rarer and increased the price of bronze.

Applications of bronze

Objects that are made of bronze are always cast through a certain bronze casting techinque, weather they are small or absurdly huge. The technique of casting bronze and smelting bronze is therefore a true craft. The metling point of bronze is around 900 degrees Celcius. Nowadays it is pretty simple to order a bronze plate at a hardware store. But back in ancient times, requiring bronze was a lot less simple. Bronze figures in those times still serve their purpose well. Examples of these historical majestic objects are church bells and statues. In the ancient times, the Romans, Etrusks and Greeks used bronze in sculptures. This resulted in massive bronze sculptures that unfortunately were often melted again in times of scarcity of bronze. Besides these large objects, bronze is also used in many smaller objects. Think of bronze jewelry or bronze statues. The alloy also gets used a lot in coins. This is because bronze is much stronger and erodes less than copper.

Bronze casting

After the raw copper and tin quarts are dug up, they are made proper as much as possible and crushed into the smallest elements. The quartz is heated to get the metal from the quartz. This melting, which is often repeated to get the highest purity. During the last melting round of copper and tin, these two are mixed to create a bronze alloy. This mixture can be cast through a variety of techniques. The most simple technique is mostly used for the production of accessories and weapons. For this a heatproof mold is made that has the exact shape of the desired end product. Because of the fast cooling process this technique uses, these specific bronze figures are filled with bubbles and feels rough. This is when there is a need for more shaping of the bronze alloy. Thsi can be done with hammers and files. Another technique that is used when using two seperate heatproof molds. After pouring it in , the bronze object is cut out. It is very important with this technique that both halves fit onto each other perfectly and have openings where the bronze can be cast into. When the process of cooling down has been reached and the bronze has hardened, the molds will be taken apart and the seems will be corrected to be invisible. This technique of shaping bronze is mostly used for small bronze figures or statues. The advantage of this technique, is that the molds can be used endlessly. Important to realize is, that the shaping of bronze is also used without pouring it. Also called driven bronze. This means that bronze will be hammered from the large bronze plates. Hammering is also used to detail cast bronze figures though. In almost all applications, this has a decorative function.

Application of bronze in the ancient times

In the notes and literature of the Romans and Greeks, there are a lot of hints to artifacts. The trade of bronze and the mastery of casting it used to be higher valued than sculpting in any other raw material, like marble. Bronze figures had more opportunity to create very high quality details than any other raw material. After casting the alloy, the bronze figures and statues were detailed using a scalpel and a file. This way the lips and eyes could be created in red copper. Trademen could use ivory and glass paste to create the eyes of the statues perfectly. It is therefore not really surprising that that many of the excavations done, twist this view very much. Marble and glass paste have gone through the times very well, while the bronze figures from that time often we melted down again because of the price of bronze. In that period in squares and parks, huge monumental statues were places and crafted in honor of the great Roman emperors. This waythe huge bronze colossal of Nero thanks its name to the Colosseum that was only a stone’s throw away.

Marcus Aurelius

As mentioned before, these bronze figures were melted down and got lost in time to only be reused somewhere else. One exceptionto this rule is the majestic bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius. This bronze statues still shows the value of brozne in those times. When you see it, you will be impressed by the craftmanship and the techniques that the Roman craftsmen made an art decades ago. The findings in Pompeii show the refined skills that these people reached in their creation of bronze figures and jewelry. There are several of these bronze jewelry found again. Also a lot of furniture was decorated with bronze plates, there were bronze jewelery and drinks were served in bronze alloy china. The bronze price and the value of bronze are thanks to the Romans that introduced it many years ago, as they controlled the lands.