How Long Has Steel Been Around?

Steel has been around in some form or another for about 4,000 years.

Steel is a metal composed mostly of iron alloyed with carbon and several other elements. The carbon acts as a hardening agent. Varying the amount of carbon and other elements in the alloy affects its hardness, malleability and tensile strength. The process of creating steel was discovered in modern-day Turkey around 4,000 years ago, though its use did not become common until the 17th Century, with the development of more efficient methods of production.

Discovery

The oldest known piece of steel was discovered in a Bronze Age archaeological site called Kaman-Kalehoyuk, 60 miles southeast of the city of Ankara, Turkey. It was found by a team of Japanese archaeologists in 1994 and its discovery announced in 2005. Steel fragments dating to 1400 BC have been found in East Africa. The process of creating steel seems to have become fairly widespread by the 1st Century AD and was used in the Mediterranean, China, Spain and India.

Noric Steel

Noric steel was largely used for the weapons of Roman soldiers. Named for its area of origin, Noricum, a Celtic nation in what is now Austria, Noric steel was famous for its hardness. The ore it was made from was quarried from two Austrian mountains, both named Erzberg, which means "ore mountain." Noric steel was believed to have been manufactured near Magdalensberg in south Austria, which is near the hill on which the capital city of Noricum is believed to have once stood.

Quench-hardened Steel

The process of quench-hardening steel was discovered by the Chinese in 400 BC when it replaced bronze as the dominant type of metal used in the manufacture of weapons and armor. Quenching is the process of rapidly cooling heated steel by immersing it in a liquid, resulting in a harder, more durable, metal. Water mixed with varying amounts of oil is commonly used in quenching. Quenching is still used in steel manufacture today.

Damascus Steel

Damascus steel, also known as Wootz steel, was one of the best known types of ancient steel. Legendary for its hardness and ability to hold an edge, the process for creating Damascus steel was lost in the 18th Century. Blades of Damascus steel were said to be hard and sharp enough to cut through blades of weaker metals. These swords were forged in the Middle East from 1100 to around 1700 AD and exported around the known world of the day.

The Bessemer Process

Modern methods of steel manufacture have their origin in the 17th Century when European steel producers began producing pig iron by smelting iron ore with small quantities of limestone and coke, a coal product. The "Bessemer process" is the other major part of modern steel production, which mass-produced steel from pig iron. The Bessemer process was discovered by Henry Bessemer in 1855 and produced high volumes of steel free of impurities. Producing steel using the Bessemer process was roughly 80 percent cheaper than other methods. The Bessemer process was modified in the 1950s when the basic oxygen method was discovered. With this steel-making method, oxygen is blown through molten pig iron in a Bessemer converter, producing steel with very few impurities.

References

• Lucid Cafe: Sir Henry Bessemer
• Christian Albrecht's University of Kiel: History of Steel