[LT] No-steel-pocalypse! Lifespan of iron & steel equipment?

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Iron is going to be cheap in this setting (until the gift goes away). It will melt in the smelting furnace and form a puddle under the slag, so the fuel and labour of forging the slag out of the refinery bloom, all the work that gave wrought iron its name, will be saved. Also, it will be far easier and cheaper to shape: nails could be made by thousands in a cheap, reusable open mould rather than by tediously hand-making each one.

And all theories posted about ships and such are based on what happens AFTER iron stops being cheap, and giving time for iron-clad ships to rust into oblivion ;)