<P> When historical records resume after the 1200 BC upheavals and the ensuing Greek Dark Age, iron work (and presumably blacksmiths) seem to have sprung like Athena, fully - grown from the head of Zeus . Very few artifacts remain, due to loss from corrosion, and re-use of iron as a valuable commodity . What information exists indicates that all of the basic operations of blacksmithing were in use as soon as the Iron Age reached a particular locality . The scarcity of records and artifacts, and the rapidity of the switch from Bronze Age to Iron Age, is a reason to use evidence of bronze smithing to infer about the early development of blacksmithing . </P> <P> It is uncertain when Iron weapons replaced Bronze weapons because the earliest Iron swords did not significantly improve on the qualities of existing bronze artifacts . Unalloyed iron is soft, does not hold an edge as well as a properly constructed bronze blade and needs more maintenance . Iron ores are more widely available than the necessary materials to create bronze however, which made iron weapons more economical than comparable bronze weapons . Small amounts of steel are often formed during several of the earliest refining practices, and when the properties of this alloy were discovered and exploited, steel edged weapons greatly outclassed bronze . </P> <P> Iron is different from most other materials (including bronze), in that it does not immediately go from a solid to a liquid at its melting point . H O is a solid (ice) at - 1 C (31 F), and a liquid (water) at + 1 C (33 F). Iron, by contrast, is definitely a solid at 800 ° F (427 ° C), but over the next 1,500 ° F (820 ° C) it becomes increasingly plastic and more "taffy - like" as its temperature increases . This extreme temperature range of variable solidity is the fundamental material property upon which blacksmithing practice depends . </P> <P> Another major difference between bronze and iron fabrication techniques is that bronze can be melted . The melting point of iron is much higher than that of bronze . In the western (Europe & the Mideast) tradition, the technology to make fires hot enough to melt iron did not arise until the 16th century, when smelting operations grew large enough to require overly large bellows . These produced blast - furnace temperatures high enough to melt partially refined ores, resulting in cast iron . Thus cast iron frying pans and cookware did not become possible in Europe until 3000 years after the introduction of iron smelting . China, in a separate developmental tradition, was producing cast iron at least 1000 years before this . </P>

Why is the head of a hammer made from iron not aluminum
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