High carbon steel in iron age Britain, 400 BC

[richsc]

East Lothian's Broxmouth fort reveals edge of steel
Broxmouth Broxmouth was a settlement for nearly 1,000 years, from the Iron Age until the Roman occupation
Archaeologists have identified the earliest use of steel in the British Isles from a site in East Lothian.
They now believe artifacts recovered from the site of the Broxmouth Iron Age hill fort were made from high-carbon steel.
This would have been deliberately heated and quenched in water, indicating "sophisticated blacksmithing skills".
The steel objects were manufactured in the years 490-375BC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-ed...e-25734877

[dave74]

My question,how high? Cast iron is VERY high carbon,and usless for blades. Also,what are the sizes of the specific artifacts and,how much does the amount of carbon vary from one inch to the next?

The trick never was to get relatively high carbon steel rather,to get a sword sized bar with the same amount of carbon the entire length

[Eleatic Guest]

Read also A Germanic Ultrahigh Carbon Steel Punch of the Late Roman-Iron Age

[Ariovistus]

Read also A Germanic Ultrahigh Carbon Steel Punch of the Late Roman-Iron Age

Gotta love them Germans! That is a great article, thank you.

[Robert]

They now believe artifacts recovered from the site of the Broxmouth Iron Age hill fort were made from high-carbon steel. This would have been deliberately heated and quenched in water, indicating "sophisticated blacksmithing skills".
The steel objects were manufactured in the years 490-375BC.

Hmm, someone has got their wires crossed but good! Quenching does not add carbon. I can heat and quench a piece of low carbon iron all day long and produce nothing more the a lot of steam. Carbon is introduced into iron by adding it in its molten state or allowing the iron to soak red hot in a carbon saturated environment (smouldering charcoal fire with just enough oxygen to keep it burning hot enough). This is called case hardening. Then, you can work the carbon into the iron by reforging it, folding and welding in the fire, repeating the proces of soaking and reworking over and over to produce higher carbon mono steel. Without carbon, a blade will not harden when quenched at its critical (non-magnetic) temperature. So yes, high carbon iron would certainly indicate sophisticated blacksmithing skills, but quenching a piece of heated iron as is in the hope of improving its properties does not.

[dave74]

And,if it has enough carbon if it is heated above critical then,quenched in water we get,what I like to call a cracked or shattered piece of steel :-x