Iron is actually less durable than bronze. The only reason it overtook bronze as the dominant weapon material is because it was far more abundant. A thousand dudes with iron spears are going to beat a hundred dudes with bronze spears.
Just to be clear as well, it's not a big gap. Iron is harder than bronze, but more brittle. Bronze weapons/tools will bend with use, and then you bend them back into shape over your knee. Iron is harder to bend, but easier to break. Bronze has to be pushed pretty hard to break.
Steel is springy and very difficult to bend out of shape, and also much harder. So it just completely outclasses both.
Iron is actually less durable than bronze. The only reason it overtook bronze as the dominant weapon material is because it was far more abundant. A thousand dudes with iron spears are going to beat a hundred dudes with bronze spears.
copper and tin both also form under completely different geological conditions don't they? so they are never near each other
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I love being wrong in a way that informs me, thanks for the correction that is really interesting!
Just to be clear as well, it's not a big gap. Iron is harder than bronze, but more brittle. Bronze weapons/tools will bend with use, and then you bend them back into shape over your knee. Iron is harder to bend, but easier to break. Bronze has to be pushed pretty hard to break.
Steel is springy and very difficult to bend out of shape, and also much harder. So it just completely outclasses both.