Roman iron and steel: A review

ABSTRACT

The production of ferrous metal increased during the Roman Late Republican period, Principate and Empire. The direct bloomery process was used to extract the metal from its ores using slag-tapping and slag-pit furnaces. The fuel was charcoal and an air blast was introduced by bellows-operated tuyères. Iron formed as a bloom, often as a spongy mass of metal, which contained impurities from the smelting process, including unreacted ore, fuel, slag and fragments from the furnace walls, while the metal was often inhomogeneous with varied carbon contents. Blooms were either smithed directly into bars or ingots or they were broken up, which also allowed the removal of gross impurities and a selection of pieces with similar properties to be made. These could then be forge-welded together and formed into characteristically shaped ingots. Making steel in the furnace seems to have been achieved: it depended on the ore and the furnace and conditions within it. Surface carburization was also carried out. Iron and steel were used extensively in construction and for tools and weapons. Fire welding was often used to add pieces of steel to make the edges of tools and weapons, which could be heat-treated by quenching to harden them.