Comment by kees99

> Primitive iron was (...) malleable

> primitive steel [made] by adding charcoal.

Isn't that backwards? Surely "primitive iron" was closer to what we call pig iron nowadays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_iron

That stuff is choke-full of carbon and silica, and is brittle as hell. To get it malleable (which is actually desirable in a weapon, so it wouldn't just snap in use), there is a separate process to decrease carbon content:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrought_iron#Terminology