No.
and Yes,
as previously mentioned.

There is a a huge difference, though between wresting iron from iron ore and
converting high carbon iron compounds (think cast iron) into "steel".

Folks that I hang around with are messing with these things on a regular
basis. We have used processes, mostly, that were around as long as about
150 BCE, and well before. The largest bloom from one of these events that I
have ever seen personally weighed in at under 100 pounds.
Anything bigger than that is well out of the scope of the home shop, I'd
say.
These are always batch mode processes that no self respecting steel mill
would put up with for 10 seconds.

Took at least 4 or 5 people, at lot of preparation, and then at least 4
hours in the furnace, but often 10 hours or more. And that's before forging
the bloom into something you could actually call steel.

Tried to go continuous in 1992. Ran for 10 days X 24 hours. Burned 8 tons
of charcoal and got maybe 800 pounds of questionable bloom.

They'll be doing this at the biannual ABANA conference in Rapid City, SD in
mid July if you want to see it for yourself. (www.abana.org)

Pete Stanaitis
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