Depends on where you start. Bronze is much easier to work with if you think of
time used in building the oven for smelting, the amount of coal used and so on.
I participated in building a bronze oven and using it a couple of years ago, as
part of my archaeology studies. That was quite fun, and it did not take too
long, I guess that building all you need, i.e. oven, bellows, moulds, could be
done in a couple of days.
The coaling (is that the English word?) and mining of bronze is another thing
though.
In short, bronzeworking is relatively easy and requires far less resources than ironworking. It is, as you say, harder to produce larger and more durable items. Bronze can, however, be very flexible (bronze has, in fact, often been used in springs), but requires more controlled alloys than you normally can get using simpler techniques. I think this is one point where the Gloranthan smiths' songs come in.
Bronze in the real world is the name not for one alloy, but for a whole group of copper based alloys, with various different other components, the most common being tin, with perhaps lead as a good second (red bronze), zink or even arsenic. I doubt this is the case in Glorantha, though.
-- Henrix
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