Editing Steel (section)

====Processes starting from bar iron====
{{Main|Blister steel|Crucible steel}}
In these processes, [[pig iron]] made from raw iron ore was refined (fined) in a [[finery forge]] to produce [[bar iron]], which was then used in steel-making.<ref name="Tylecote" />

The production of steel by the [[cementation process]] was described in a treatise published in Prague in 1574 and was in use in [[Nuremberg]] from 1601. A similar process for [[case hardening]] armour and files was described in a book published in [[Naples]] in 1589. The process was introduced to England in about 1614 and used to produce such steel by Sir [[Basil Brooke (metallurgist)|Basil Brooke]] at [[Coalbrookdale]] during the 1610s.{{sfnp|Barraclough|1984a|pp=48–52}}

The raw material for this process were bars of iron. During the 17th century, it was realized that the best steel came from [[oregrounds iron]] of a region north of [[Stockholm]], Sweden. This was still the usual raw material source in the 19th century, almost as long as the process was used.<ref>{{cite journal |last=King |first=P. W. |title=The Cartel in Oregrounds Iron: trading in the raw material for steel during the eighteenth century |journal=Journal of Industrial History |volume=6 |issue=1 |date=2003 |pages=25–49}}</ref><ref name="britannicaironandsteel">{{cite book |chapter=Iron and steel industry |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=2007}}</ref>

Crucible steel is steel that has been melted in a [[crucible]] rather than having been [[forging|forged]], with the result that it is more homogeneous. Most previous furnaces could not reach high enough temperatures to melt the steel. The early modern crucible steel industry resulted from the invention of [[Benjamin Huntsman]] in the 1740s. Blister steel (made as above) was melted in a crucible or in a furnace, and cast (usually) into ingots.<ref name="britannicaironandsteel" />{{sfnp|Barraclough|1984b}}{{page needed|date=April 2024}}