Bronze

This article is about the metal and its manufacture. For the dragon, see Dragon, Bronze (Creature)

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Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper with some tin. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. For most uses, a metal worker uses available materials, and many items include both tin and zinc. There is no clear boundary between bronze and brass.
Bronze was the first metal to be used by humans on a large scale. As a material for weapons and armor, its era has long past, though plenty of open game materials include rules for bronze age equipment. However, as a good material for many day-to-day objects, bronze and brass remain excellent materials. Bronze is less subject to corrosion and makes better metals for ships and nautical uses. Its easier to manufacture. It can be cast and does not require forging as iron does. Common materials made of bronze include jewelery such as buckles, dress pins, brooches, and rings, in part because it can look a lot like gold. Bells are often made of bronze because of the unique tones that can be achieved. Candle holders, censers, thuribles, holy symbols, and other kinds of ecclesiastical bronze are quite common. Even the fighter might find bronze fittings on his sword, on his stirrups and bridle, or the wizard might find his spellbooks bound with bronze of the kind so often depicted on the D&D 3.5 books.
The standard approach to hardness is to group all metals as "iron or steel" with a hardness of 10, and 30 hit points per inch of thickness, but a more accurate approach might be:
Wrought Iron: hardness of 8 and 20 hit points per inch of thickness

Bronze: hardness of 9, and 25 hit points per inch of thickness

Steel: hardness of 10, and 30 hit points per inch of thickness

Of course this data is more to explain the uses of materials than to suggest new rules. Of course D20 Modern does include hardness data because there are so many materials in a modern setting.