Bronze (alloy)

Bronze is copper worked with tin, cast or beaten into thin plate. It resists corrosion, which made it the metal of choice for jewellery and for ship's fittings, and armour and weapons could be forged from it far more cheaply than from iron or steel, if with less hard wear in them. Tolkien never says where the alloy came from, treating it, like most familiar substances, as simply present in the world. Its use varies widely between peoples. Rohan leans on it heavily, in plates worn over and under mail, in breastplates, helms and horse armour, and in sword, spear and arrowhead alike, while Gondor generally prefers steel and iron and keeps bronze to mail shirts and cavalry plate.