Comment by dmbche
2 days ago
I'm not sure if I'm dense, but we don't use steel to make steel (whether crucibles or "feed material").
The first person to make steel made it without steel didn't they?
Did I miss something?
Edit0: fun tidbit - Wootz steel was made with crucibles of clay with rice husks mixed in (husks would carbonize quickly and introduce air layers to better isolate) and many seemingly random objects (fruits, vegetation) were added to the crucible to control carbon content.
I higly recommend A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry's series on steel (it's a blog, just search "ACOUP steel".
Second fun tidbit : Bamboo was used as the fuel source in some furnaces - they did indeed use bamboo like the parent comment mentionned.