The origins of smelting Iron.

The exact area where smelting of iron first took place is uncertain as the archaeological remains of smelted iron is hard to distinguish from meteoritic iron which was used before smelting was first invented. Meteoritic iron was often cold hammered into tools and weapons before wrought iron was invented. Meteoritic iron was extremely expensive and was bartered and trade at extremely high costs. Iron smelting, extracting iron metal oxides from ore, is much harder to do then smelting copper and tin as it requires much higher temperatures which are hard to achieve with a solid fuel furnace or kiln. It was first practiced in the Middle East and sub Saharan Africa through to India.

One of the best known types of steel first used that was used around the 6th century BC and onwards, this type of crucible steel is called Wootz steel and originated in southern India. It was renowned all over the world for its edge retention abilities and strength. It was mainly used for sword blades, knives and daggers. Its pattern is iconic and is known as the familiar pattern of Damascus steel. Wootz steel was introduced to Damascus by people from Arabia, Damascus then developed a large trade in making weapons from this steel. That is the reason that the steel is commonly known nowadays as Damascus steel. However most blades made nowadays claiming to be Damascus steel are simply pattern welded steel made of layers of high and low carbon steel, these blades are not real Damascus steel as they do not use real Wootz steel or true Damascus steel however, the properties of modern pattern welded steel are very good for blades of all sorts.