The Production of High Carbon Steel Directly in Bloomery Process: Theoretical Bases and Metallographic Analyses of the Experiments Results

Abstract

The series of experiment on iron smelting conducted by author in 2012 resulted in very good quality high carbon steel produced directly in the bloomery furnace. Bearing in mind the unusual mechanism of carburization in a 'Aristotle furnace', a question arose concerning possibility of occurrence the same phenomenon during the smelting process. This paper discusses the results of the metallographic studies of produced iron as well as the description of the conducted experiments.

Keywords

• iron
• smelting
• furnace
• kiln or oven
• iron age
• roman era
• early middle ages
• poland