Copper culture Artifact Hammer or float copper?

[Wayupnorth66]

ound this 6 oz. copper piece in the woods where I have found copper culture items knife, fishooks etc., does anyone think it looks like a hammer?..or am i wishful thinking ....or is it just a chunk of float copper? Thanks

[Yoop]

Wayupnorth66,

Although it could be a work-in-progress, with the intention of being made into a hammer, my gut feel is that it is a piece of float copper. The layering of the copper oxides (mainly cuprite) and the copper carbonates (the blues and greens) suggest to me an unworked piece of float copper.

The fact that you found it in an area where you have found tools in the past would indicate that there are good odds that it was a piece of float that had been picked up, possibly transported with the intention of it being made into a tool, but was never actually *worked*.

I have seen thousands of pieces of float, and your find looks like unworked float.

Regards,

Yoop