Interesting but slightly irrelevant to focus on what tool has cut off the point, it's clearly been cut off, you can see the burr along the edge, presumably some very sharp knife or tool. It also looks to me from the photos as if the same cut appears to have taken off a sliver off the side tip of another spike when it was done, in the same alignment. Copper is very soft especially with this amount of porosity, you could probably cut through it with a kitchen knife. You can also see the wear marks on the surface go up to and beyond the cut so this has tidied up after it's life usage,maybe by the same hooligan who soaked it in vinegar or something to remove the green patination. It's interesting to see the cross section of one of these actually and how porous it was, hammering and working the surface would have the double effect of creating a solid surface and also work-hardening the copper to make it harder, an effect utilised by man on tools and weapons since the copper/bronze age. Also looks like once it had been cleaned it was varnished, this was commonly done to ancient bronze stuff by museums and collectors in the 19th century, at least in the UK, so I'm guessing that was when it was done
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Originally Posted by stekemest
I will try to make better pictures of the broken part.
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