Which country can extract the best steel?
As we all know, the industrial revolution kicked off in the British midlands because the area had iron ore, coal to smelt it, and the demand!
Now the trouble is, that while pure iron might be the same everywhere, iron ore is most definitely not! British ore, in particular, has a lot of impurities (silica, phosphorous and sulphur if memory serves) and by the early 1800’s better steel was being demanded then could be easily smelted!
The Swedes on the other hand, had particularly good iron ore, with relatively few impurities, so simple smelting produced really good steel. This is where the reputation for Swedish steel started, and yes, it was 200 years ago! Unfortunately for the Swedes though, they didn’t have much coal for smelting, which gave Swedish steel an added rarity!
The solution was simple – British steel makers simply imported Swedish ore! It’s not widely known, but the high quality British Steel of the early 1800’s all originated with Swedish ore!
From the 1850’s the Bessamer furnace was introduced, specifically for making decent steel from crappy ore. It used a blast of air to remove impurities and is now the way most steel is produced worldwide!
The big producers of steel in Europe, aside from the U.K, are now the French and Germans. Most modern steels are made to standard formulae, and within a certain specification there isn’t much variation.
The Bessamer furnace didn’t finish Swedish steel though. The Swedes specialised in producing small quantities of the highly specialised steels (such as bearing steels) and continue to do so up to the present day! Hence also, the reputation for Swedish tools. Try a pair of Swedish made Lindstrom cutters made from bearing steel and you will see! The modern Spanish made ones are nothing close!
The same applies, to a certain extent, in the U.K. where I can easily pick up domestically produced steel of almost any spec! The U.K. tends to specialise in the higher quality steels, wheras the European manufacturers tend to go for higher quantities, but less choice!
All the European steel manufacturers have been hit hard by (heavily subsidised) Chinese steel imports. Although it is considerably cheaper at present, only the terminally naive would assume it would continue to be so if we were stupid enough to cut our own manufacturing capabilities! It’s pretty ropey stuff too!
