"Good iron is not hammered into nails, and good men should not be made into soldiers"
Chinese proverb
When people talk about iron, they generally mean wrought iron. This is one of three major materials whose base is iron ore—a common element that has the ability to combine with other elements and therefore occurs in many forms. In order to produce its wrought, or worked, variety, charcoal and ore are heated sufficiently to reduce iron oxide to iron without melting it. The final product contains slag and other impurities that keep it from corroding.
First produced in around 2500 B.C.E, wrought iron is the oldest form of iron and gave the Iron Age its name. Its availability increased when blast furnaces proliferated throughout Western Europe in the fifteenth century, before its slightly younger relative, cast iron (the malleable form of which is nowadays used in pipes as well as machine and car parts), became more popular.
Today, wrought iron is most commonly used in the restoration of historic ironwork and the construction of high-quality commissions. Steel, the third type of iron, has a higher carbon content and greater hardness. The mild steel developed by Henry Bessemer in the nineteenth century was not only stronger but cheaper to make. The introduction of steel initiated the gradual demise of what was once an indispensable material.
