[TheForge] Re: Early metal history

[Mike Spencer]

> One of the main reasons that they used the meteorite iron was that it
> was a gift from the gods.There are too many sources of iron bog iron
> ect.. The main draw back was maintaining the heat and air blast long
> enough to smelt .

Er, um, "bog iron" is iron ore -- oxide -- and has to be smelted, in
chemical terms, "reduced", before it becomes metal.

Meteoric nickel-iron is metallic.  Some is, AIUI, "rocky", that is,
mixed with a lot of non-ferrous stony stuff.  But some is nice clean
metal.  Don't have to smelt that.  It's already iron.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^