The riddle of steel: How people made it by accident for millennia 

Yes, the archaeological record from the beginning of the Iron Age through to the introduction of crucible steels shows this clearly. It is particularly evident in the production of nails, digs have produced finds where nails were clearly made by one person but showed variation between relatively soft iron through to quite good carbon steel.

Interesting side note on "whatever word they used for steel": Apparently in germany they just called "good iron"

"Steel isn't strong, boy! Flesh is stronger! [...] What is Steel compared to the hand that wields it?" _Thulsa Doom, Conan the Barbarian._

People talk of magical swords but think about it. Back then if someone knew the secret and made a sword like no other, people might just attribute it's properties as being magic.

Put in your RPGs this "magical smith" who makes a "magical weapons", who acctually just makes steel stuff insted of regular iron stuff :D

"When I die, Crom will ask me the riddle of steel. And if I cannot answer him, he will throw me out of Valhalla." From "Conan the Barbarian"

Shad Fact: Skallgarim and Shad once sparred for 3 days straight without rest food or water, this is how Kings Canyon was formed.

This isn't just applicable to steel - this is the formation of humanity. Early agriculture would have worked with the same guesswork, as would textile production, leather production, gathering foodstuffs - the list is endless. Everything must have begun with a leap of faith, of sorts. Cleary there have been great leaps in thought, where a process of understanding would lead to greater developments, but the 'magic of steel' is the 'magic of humanity'. IMHO (or at least in my limited understanding). Edit: I forgot to say - great video Shad - excellent content.

SHAD! My dad opened the dictionary to look up "Magpie," and as he was skimming through to get there, I saw a picture and definition of a Machicolation. I officially declare this day: not wasted.

If I ever finish developing my Medieval game, I will add Shad Explanations, and Mashicoolations!!!

The first guy who accidentally discovered steel actually made loads of money, leading to the phrase ‘whoever smelt it dealt it.’

I suspect that it is conditions such as this that helped the popularity of myths and legends of magic swords.

Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky, but Crom is your god. Crom, and he lives in the earth. Once giants lived in the earth, Conan, and in the darkness of chaos they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered, and the earth shook, and fire and wind struck down these giants, and threw their bodies into the waters. But in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel, and left it on the battlefield. We, who found it, are just men: not gods, not giants, just men. And the secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan, you must learn its discipline. For no one, no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts... This you can trust. [points to his sword]

The real riddle of steel. Your flesh many grow weak, Your steel may grow brittle, But your will is indomitable.

I actually have been working on an iron/ bronze/ stone age fantasy universe for rpg purposes for a couple of weeks now. Where steel is an ancient secret of the long gone dwarven folk. This was a very informative video on the riddle of steel. Thank you!

Whoever discovered the process could have made a fortune with a patent, since everyone tried to STEEL his idea.

Shad, to find more inspiration for the magic steel trope, you should definitely research superstitions regarding smiths by looking into ethnology and folklore studies. My favorite source probably wouldn't help you that much as "Das Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens" is only available in a bit outdated German, but I guess comparable tomes exist in English and with regards to anglosaxon folklore. It is sometimes just amazing to browse subjects. The subjects "smith" "metalworking" and "iron" each fill up several pages, showing how early metalworkers were regarded as powerful, dangerous and highly suspicious people, practicing a hermetic art, possibly in collusion with demons from the underworld, from where they dug up their source materials. It also seems that early smiths tended to be a nomadic bunch, as little mining technology was available, so they wandered off once they cleared an area from surface finds.

It would be great if you could ralley your fan base to get man at arms to make the Vared Jericho sword. I've tried requesting it every time since you brought it up but never get enough support. I think they could do a great job and it would be awesome to see what it looked like for real.

Good video, something I think would be useful to point out in a future video is that the difficulty in making steel is finding the sweet spot of carbon content. Too little you’re left with wrought iron and too much you actually get cast iron. So the difficulty may not have been figuring out how to make something hard by adding carbon, but being able to identify the sweet spot between soft and hard so it could still be tough but not brittle like cast iron.

"the riddle of steel" sounds like a power metal song.🤘

Always love getting my historic misconceotions shattered and going "wow that actually makes much sense"...

This just shows how much of a "blackbox" much of medieval tech was. You see this with an awful lot of things, primarily in medicine and metalurgy, where they only really figured it out with an insane amount of experimentation. And even then, they may know that X+Y=Z, but they don't know the why of it.

Well, learn something new every day. I did not know they used steel in Jewelry. You, sir, as a scholar and a gentleman. glad to be subbed to you.

On the fiction front, I remembered an old Hong Kong period piece about an king in the warring state period (300BC) absolutely obsessed with swords would collect and hire smith to forge the best bronze and iron swords. He eventually became a tyrant (I think is GoJian the same dude in one of Metatron's video). One day he stopped a traveling smith holding a metal rod and demand to examine it. The smith's rod which look like a cheeto cut right through his awesome sword and manage to get away in the confusion. He then become obsessed with the XuanTie(Mystery Iron) which is prob steel. Movie wasn't that good, but it was pretty interesting on that front.

Excellent introductory video! You, of course, do realize that now you must continue further in the whole topic of metallurgy, or at least steel metallurgy through history? ;)

My fiancé and I were literally talking about this last night. That's a bit odd, the timing of the upload and the conversation that is. Still awesome.

I always assumed Europeans were already making steel with a crucible when Japan was still doing bloomery steel. and this made me interested and started doing some of my own research. India and the middle east might have been using crucibles as early as 900 A.D (most likely for copper, bronze and iron). some of the earliest Blast furnaces were in Switzerland and Germany 1100 I believe. Its all so interesting. based on this I would still assumed Europe had better quality steel then other areas of the world. its still so impressive how much Japan improved their steel by folding, it might not be quite the same but damn impressive.

The add placement gave me a second to think about why a red haired something would be used to make steel. Did not expect boys urinating on it.

Goodness. Where were you when I needed to do historical social studies school work in the 90's and early 2000's? lol.

Just wanna post early so I can say thanks again Shad, it legit makes my day better to learn something new from you. Keep up the good work dude, you make good work!

Riddle me this,riddle me that Who would thought steel can be made flat? Thanks to you,Shad, My hat's off for you,mi lad!

Fascinating video, Shad! I always learn something.

I've heard that a lot of discoveries were first made by accident. About the jewellery thing... that's something I wouldn't have thought of before; but now it does make some sense. I'm far from an expert or historian but here are some thoughts that occur to me: We use gold and silver because they're rare; but back then steel was also rare. We use gold and silver because they are easy to work and detail; steel would be much more difficult; but, back then, they may have valued it for jewelry for just that reason. Because it was so hard and took more and longer work, it might bring more prestige to the jeweler - and to the rare person who could afford the price of something so hard to make, simply for decoration. Might I be right, or am I completely wrong? I'd like to know your own opinion on this line of thought.

I always suspected this but you offered a very clear and in-depth explanation. Thanks mate! P.S. I really like how you frame your pictures!

Well, there is a little problem in your explanation. Steel varies from 0 to 2.08% of carbon, but below 0.2-0.3 you can't heat-treat the steel. It will remain soft, no matter what you do. Of course, if you heat it in a coal fire it will absorb some carbon into the outer layers and will therefore will become harder if you quench it. Below 0.2% your steel will mostly be softer then your cast-iron with much more carbon, but the steel is a lot tougher and more flexible. Greetings from a student of an European university for mining and metallurgy

Awesome video as always, Shad! But I'm disappointed by the lack of Conan the Barbarian reference.

Thanks, I made this point on your oldest steel sword video.

The first iron weapons were made during the bronze age out of meteorite iron. Even during the iron age, it could give you the edge (pun not intended) over your competitors to have access to meteorite iron, as the Romans did. AFAIK, the ferrum norricum came all from a giant meteor that devastated a huge area at a time where Rome was still small.

Great vid. I love your metallurgy videos.

Iron Age fantasy with steel as adamantine? Sounds potentially interesting. The question is, would it be a low fantasy setting (not much blatant magic, largely historical), or would it be a high fantasy setting (lots of magic, potentially-interesting societal divergences)?

Hi Shad! First, I'd like to thank you for making this video. It's very interesting getting to learn about these tidbits of history. And second, I am TOTALLY going to use this mystery of steel in the fantasy story I'm writing. Simple overview: an average chemistry major student from our world gets sucked into a medevial world that has magic in it and tries to find a way back while learning magic and trying to stop a civil war from breaking out. And one of the main ideas I want to explore in this world is how his knowledge of science and technology affects it. I'd actually love to get your feedback on it when I get more of it flushed out, if you'd be open to that. But in the mean time, thank you for the information and inspiration.

I just wanted to say thank you :) I found you in a time where I was really struggling with my history studies at university. I was almost at the point of giving it up but your passion for the subjects in your videos managed to remind me why I studied in the first place. Thank you ❤

honestly, i wish this video was called "the secret of steel" as a reference to the Conan movies, but great work nonetheless Shad

Never really thought about that... interesting, I might have to keep that in mind when I try to write...

I assume we can thank the Dragons for melting the iron for the early people. Also Shad there’s a channel call Primitive Technology that I think you’d find very interesting.

This video needed more Conan soundtrack

Wow wow wow, excellent topic and excellent discussion! You could probably make a whole series just on this topic.

Riddles are cool BUT WHAT ABOUT DRAGONS??!

The history of steel is interesting, but WHAT ABOUT THE DRAGON MACHICOLATIONS MADE OF STEEL????

wow shad that was very interesting, having looked into steel production I had though a bloom was a bloom and that was steel but to realise that it was only a small random portion of the bloom that was steel makes the iron age allot more interesting.

Informative and explained in a way easy to understand. Pretty interesting vid. Thanks for the post.

Cruicible steel was indeed developed later... EXCEPT for wootz steel (later called Damascus, where it was imported from India and then exported to Europe and middle east), which was actual cruicible steel (molten to full liquid) even before Christ. Another problem is how you define steel and iron. Chemically pure iron is pretty much impossible to find in nature. Then metalurgically, steel is any iron alloy with carbon content between 0.002% and 2.14%. Above that, to make things even more confusing, it's called cast iron :P Pretty much all of what was called iron in the past (wrought iron for example), would be considered steel by today's standards. And then archaeology has an even more obscure and different definition, calling most objects from before 13th Century iron, and after that - steel. Yet another important fact - the discovery of steel and its difference from iron was done pretty early. But it wasn't a jump from iron to steel tools and weapons. For centuries, pretty much from 0 AD to the industrial revolution the most common way of making tools was to make the tool out of softer iron (that is much easier to forge, and forge weld) and use hard steel for the working surface or the blade. They quickly found out that you can make steel out of iron by forging charcoal dust into it, and then folding and welding until it's evenly distributed. But since it was laborous carbon steel was much more valuable, so only as late as 13th Century (when spanish steel, made from purer iron ore from mines took the place of bog ore used before) they started producing weapons, particularly good quality swords out of monosteel.

Great video, very enjoyable and thought provoking. I've always been fascinated by smelting and forging.

Very interesting shad.

Entertaining as always. Keep doing your great job!

Thanks for the video Shad, I actually made a comment on your tempering video at how it amazed me at the trial and error it would have taken to figure out with thier level and understanding of science.

Great video, Shad. This was actually something that I was thinking about the other day. I always wonder about how we, as humans, came about to creating certain things, I especially wonder about this when it comes to food. I've always wondered how early humans learned that some things were worth the effort of figuring that they were good to eat. Certain things like cows, pigs, goats, etc. are obvious but I always wonder about things like lobsters, shrimps, crabs and the like (basically giant bugs in the ocean), what prompted someone to go through the effort of not only figuring if they were edible but how to cook them.

Perhaps we should quench steel blades in the urine of red heads? When in Rome, after all...

Loving the facial hair shad! Keep up the great videos

The lengths an Australian will go to say "bloom" as many times as possible continue to impress

Never disappointed with your videos Shad. Keep it up!

Very exciting! I always pondered on that question! Thanks in advance! :)

Always wondered who thought what happens if I heat this rock up... And as always a very thought inducing video

*Is a red-head* Darn you, Shad... I just got in trouble for urinating into the iron pots and pans... :/ Oh well... I was gonna do it anyway, I suppose.

That answer so many questions that I've always had. Well done Pof. Shad. Thank you.

You don't melt ore in a crucible. To get the metal out of ore it has to be reduced, which was done with carbon like charcoal or coke. What can be done is producing high carbon iron (which is easier to smelt), and then burning the carbon out of it in a crucible.

While the game doesn’t go into much detail on just how the various factions developed the use of certain metals, Tyranny is an excellent example in a video game of an ancient “arms race”. There is one faction that use iron quite regularly for their armor and weapons while keeping everyone else, who still uses bronze, in the dark about it. It’s a pleasant change of pace compared to the usual RPGs.

I would imagine recycling makes it fairly tough for archaeologists to pin down dates on metallurgical advancements. Since most things made with metals will eventually be smelted back down to be reforged into something new. We basically have to hope for things to be buried with people, passed down as cherished heirlooms, or become lost/misplaced to avoid the phoenix cycle that most metals eventually undergo.

Legend has it that a famous smith made a sword and wasn't happy with it (too bendy/soft) and ground it up and mixed it into his food for the chicken. Then he collected the chicken poop and used it instead of iron ore and made a legendary sword out of it...

I really enjoy all your videos, and this was an interesting topic. But i really want you to cover more writing novels/manuscripts

Thats one of your best videos shad! Like it when you make travels back in time in your mind

allways fun to see someone, who havent done it, talk about getting iron out of a bog

A quenching hypothesis: Customer pays extra for a good quality blade with a bonus for quickness of crafting. The smith, knowing that water cools things, holds the hot steel blade in a horse or livestock water trough (were they using troughs that far back?) to cool it quicker and during working/sharpening it after cooling the smith notices that it has gotten more resistant to his strikes than if he'd just let it cool normally.

You've given me an excellent idea. I have this idea for a DnD campaign that involves a tribe of one of the standard barbarian mook species (goblinoids/orcs/etc) finding a way to significantly improve their technology level making them suddenly a much more dangerous threat. I had the vague idea of them capturing a dwarf smith or something, who would then be compelled to teach them the secrets of his craft, whatever those might be. Now, if I have the primatives largely using basic iron technology, with steel being reserved for the blades of their greatest champions and the like, and suddenly they're taught how to turn iron into steel in such quantities that they can outfit themselves entirely in steel equipment, they'll be a much bigger threat while actually maintaining realism.

Excellent video! Loved listening to you talk about this.

Shad: “What do you make precious materials out of?” Me: “What about dragons?”

Awesome video Shad!

I adore this video. It delivers a masters level lesson in the history of steel and does such a good job of capturing the mystery behind the discovery of steel through the ages. It’s a RU-vid gem!

steel is strong flesh is stronger!.

Thanks Shad, I believe history instructors should use your research and videos for their classes. Maybe the kids would learn something worthwhile.

Very cool topic that I knew little about. This is why i love this channel!!

Early steel sword coresponds briliantly with those epics like King Arthur, Nibelungs aor Roland. Where kings and heroes have these almost magical swords. It's simply insanly expensive steel sword in times where all the others used iron ones.

Doom! Doom! Thulsa Doom! Seeks the secret of steel. Now that is off my chest, I vaguely recall reading of a type of Chinese foundry where they built the stack going up a hill, with multiple furnaces positioned along it. Apparently the top of the stack was quite warm because of this construction. This may have enabled them to melt iron and make crucible steel.

Amazing work as always Shad!!

Swear I subbed to you a year ago!?!? Love ya work. This topic is my jam as they say lol

Impurities in coal also strengthen or weaken the making of steel. German goblin silver, " Cobalt " added strength and a blueish hue to steel. Other than glass making, cobalt was a wast metal in mining . In a few mini series on the life of Attila the Hun, it is mention that the Hun tribes would war with each other over the control of tree copes that they made their bows from. You can make a good bow in under a week, but it takes 12 to 20 years for a tree to grow strong enough to make a proper bow. So in a campaign setting you can have baronies warring over forests for bow wood and ship building, also for coal mines to make the best steel from.

very interesting

ITS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF A CASTLE! ITS VERY IMPORTANT FOR DEFENSE!! IT STARTS WITH AN M!!! *_MERRRLLOOOOOOOOOONS_*

Watching this 4 years later it's amazing how much weight Shad has lost, amazing work good sir!

If I could go back in time this is the mystery I would like to see.

This is fascinating, thank you!

Riddles of Steel sounds like a great name for a fantasy book series!

Awesome video shad !but what about Dragons?maybe we could make them steel armour ...hmm

I love the idea of steel being a mysterious and powerful substance in a story. Its almost like magic, except better because its real, and it would be very special to receive a weapon made from it while everyone else is using iron or bronze.

this kind of vid are very usefull to learn thing form the past. knowing this, it might help to improve the future

This is fascinating, that idea that superior materials could be manufactured by accident, but not being able to control it, or mass produce it. This reminds me of electrical components. Back in the 50s and 60s, transistor manufacturing was not 100% nailed down yet. They rated every part they produced, as some had better properties than others. Most transistors went to consumer electronics, radios, TVs. One out of a hundred was suitable enough for industrial applications. One in a thousand was so great that those went straight to the military. And one is a million came out absolutely perfect, those went to the space program. They had no idea how to produce those perfect components, it just happened by accident. To a much lesser degree, this is still happening today.

Woot for the fantasy universe, I got one like that... It's more complicated than just that one detail, but hey, hopefully it'll be good. THanks for putting this stuff into words Shad, your university classes are not going to waste!

vikings had a very very very good way to get really shiny pure iron, and they got their iron from something that was like swampish dirt, but it had a lot of iron in it. but with all the dirt they had get it out, and I can't remember the process, but it was really really effective

That was a cool little journey of thought to travel on. Thank you.

Well the answer to the riddle of steel is will. Great video on the actual discovery and usage of steel, just two different concepts. I can appreciate that the answer to the riddle of steel can be used to shape the steel itself, hence both parts of the title can be combined.