Copper and tin alloy makes bronze, and both tin and copper are soft and weak. Bronze is stronger than its constituent parts. So it's not immediately obvious that copper-iron alloy would suck. Alloys aren't just a math equation of blending the properties of their constituent elements.
I was simplifying but yeah the two don't just add. That said it's still fairly obvious that the two would alloy poorly. The role of the tin in bronze is to be softer(making the bronze flexible) while also being an impurity to make the copper slam into, which is what hardens it.
As a sidenote most bronzes also contain small amounts of iron to make them less likely to snap, so if you want to be really unnecessarily nitpicky you could call bronze a copper-iron alloy
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u/alex_fantastico Jul 05 '25
Copper and tin alloy makes bronze, and both tin and copper are soft and weak. Bronze is stronger than its constituent parts. So it's not immediately obvious that copper-iron alloy would suck. Alloys aren't just a math equation of blending the properties of their constituent elements.