| M. Eversberg II wrote: |
| In period, would wrought with phosphorous still get used as-is (assuming the phosphorous didn't make it too hard to even work with), or would it have gone to a secondary market? Is there a way to remove the impurity using their technology? How common was this contaminated iron?
M. |
In non-quench hardened steel, phosphorous does roughly the same in increasing the hardness both before and after workhardening as carbon does. So in the parts of swords or knives that are not hardened, using phosphorous iron does the same as steel. As steel was expensive and hard to come by, it makes sense to use phosporous iron instead in thick parts that don't get hardened in quenching, so you get the same bending strength.
Phosporous can be removed by roasting ore before it's being smelted. This basically means burning everything off that can be burned off in an oxydizing fire. After you already have iron, I suppose the only way to remove it is through the Bessemer process, by melting it and blasting oxygen through the liquid iron.