This Celtic Sword has a blade cast from bronze. It is secured to cast bronze hilt with three bronze rivets in the guard. Steel is certainly a superior metal for a bladed weapon, but bronze has a few enviable properties. For one, bronze will usually bend instead of breaking – historically many bronze weapons lasted so long that that the act of re-sharpening them over time altered their entire shape – some swords even became acutely pointed daggers due to repeated sharpenings. Also – a cast bronze weapon has a much more durable hilt than later steel weapons – the hilt can be cast from a single solid piece, making a loosening of hilt fittings impossible. Bronze is also far less prone to corrosion – the archaeological record is full of well-preserved bronze age weapons – their successor generations of iron weapons are far more scarce and far less well preserved.