Talk:Puddle iron

I disagree with the statement that the material has an increased carbon content and therefore a higher strength.

The problem with puddle steel is the amount of impurities especially Phosphorous and the LOW amount of carbon due to the fact that the puddle process in the past was an open melt of liquid iron, exposed a long time to air thereby combusting the Carbon and oxidising the iron.

Well known are ancors and shackles from puddle steel found in (sunk) ancient ships.

read this one for example: http://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/def_en/articles/very_british/body_part1_damascene.html[1]

I read many uncontrolled documents where the name of "puddle steel" or "puddle iron" is introduced where in fact the improvement of the ancient "puddle" process needs to be mentioned: the Bessemer process which in fact could be considered as a puddle but with improvements to the handling and chemistry of the molten iron.

The original "puddle" only on very small scale, more an art of blacksmiths. The "new puddle" proces since there are claims that the large charge (up to 1 ton) of cast iron is stirred for up to 45 minutes "puddled" to remove the excess of carbon so this is a two step process, the original "puddle iron" is a one step proces, only melting the steel from ore with limited resources. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.146.0.41 (talk) 09:18, 11 June 2008 (UTC)