> and never you mind that common iron is worse than bronze; unless you have truly outstanding Damascus steel, you're using sponge iron at best. Not really. Per

> and never you mind that common iron is worse than bronze; unless you have truly outstanding Damascus steel, you're using sponge iron at best. Not really. Perhaps pure iron is worse than bronze, but metallurgical studies of ancient iron artefacts show that even weapons from bloomery ('sponge') iron often has some nontrivial carbon content (e.g. ~0.5 %, highly variable) making it quenchable steel. Definitely softer than crucible steel (wootz, 'damascus') with 1-2 % carbon content, but still harder than bronze.