[TheForge] Re: Sword Smith

[theforge@mailman.qth.net]

He starts out with Iron sand, 'Magnitite' which is Fe3O4. (72.4 percent iron, 
the purest iron available in nature) In a charcoal forge as the raw material 
is reduced (oxygen stripped off the iron), carbon is picked up from the 
charcoal. Iron oxide goes to nearly pure iron (not wrought iron as the 
magnitite has very little fibrous slag) to low carbon steel to high carbon 
steel to cast iron if you keep going long enough. The trick of smithing down 
through the ages was knowing when to stop.