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

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Seneschal

I was wondering about that. How early did alternative ways of smelting iron or making steel exist? Like, crucibles for example. Would they be plausible for a TL1-2 society? Would some crackpot inventor still be able to make small amounts of steel that way?

Crucible steel likely goes back to the Third Century BC in Sri Lanka and southern India. Note well that you need iron, already smelted from its ore, to make crucible steel.