this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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What is this thing?
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And how do you make steel?
I don't. I have people to do that for me.
(But to answer your question, with a small amount of carbon, sure, but in my opinion that doesn't mean that steel is "made out of carbon" any more than we would say humans are made out of iron)
Well, you take iron ore, heat it up, and add, uh...
As iron, unlike gold isn't a noble metal, an important aspect is, you need carbon to make ~~pure~~ iron from the iron oxides in the iron ore: The carbon will react with the oxygen and ~~pure~~ elementary iron and carbon oxides are left.
Pure iron is somewhat soft. To make steel, you typically add extra carbon to the iron, which results in a harder (though more brittle) metal.
Essentially, you reduce the carbon content of the raw iron by blowing in oxygen until you have the desired amount of carbon left. I should have written 'elementary' iron instead of pure.