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Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon with improved strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, steel is one of the most commonly manufactured materials in the world.
Steel is made from iron and carbon. Cast iron is a hard, brittle material that is difficult to work, whereas steel is malleable, relatively easily formed and versatile. On its own, iron is not strong, but a low concentration of carbon – less than 1 percent, depending on the kind of steel – gives steel strength and other important properties.
The slack tub is principally used to cool parts of the work during forging (to protect them, or keep the metal in one area from "spreading" for example, nearby hammer blows); to harden the steel; to tend a coal or charcoal forge; and simply to cool the work quickly for easy inspection.
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The properties of steel depend on its microstructure: the arrangement of different phases, some harder, some with greater ductility. At the atomic level, the four phases of auto steel include martensite (the hardest yet most brittle), bainite (less hard), ferrite (more ductile), and austenite (the most ductile). The phases are arranged by ...
A metalsmith or simply smith is a craftsperson fashioning useful items (for example, tools, kitchenware, tableware, jewelry, armor and weapons) out of various metals. [1] Smithing is one of the oldest metalworking occupations. Shaping metal with a hammer is the archetypical component of smithing.
A spinning steel wheel provided a good stream of sparks when it engaged the flint, and a tinderbox designed to do this was known as a mill. [10] In a modern lighter or firesteel, iron is mixed with cerium and other rare earths to form the alloy ferrocerium. This readily produces sparks when scraped and burns hotter than steel would.
The final result of exactly how hard the steel becomes depends on the amount of carbon present in the metal. Only steel that is high in carbon can be hardened and tempered. If a metal does not contain the necessary quantity of carbon, then its crystalline structure cannot be broken, and therefore the physical makeup of the steel cannot be altered.