Check out Wikipedia for "backyard furnace", which were used in the
great Leap Forward in China.

i
On 2012-03-12, Tim Wescott wrote:
I was just Wiki-walking instead of working, and while reading the
Wikipedia page on steel, came across the statement:

"Though steel had been produced by various inefficient methods long
before the Renaissance, its use became more common after more-efficient
production methods were devised in the 17th century. "

And it made me wonder -- do any of these _efficient_ methods apply to the
small-scale workshop (i.e., one or two people, or at most a dozen), or if
one were inclined to do a spot of home steel-making would one be reduced
to using methods from the 1600s?

Not that I'm going to go digging for iron ore on my property or anything;
I'm just curious.