If, in theory, I was somehow magically transported to 30,000 B.C. and was living with a group of cro-magnons, how would I, to make iron for tools and such, recognize iron ore, and what would be the best way to smelt it? I would have help, remember.
It is possible to do it. In the Great Leap Forward (Mao Zedong's disastrous Communist plan, phase 1) he commanded every household to smelt pig iron. Vast amounts of wood were used, including furniture, to smelt crude ore into even cruder iron. It rarely worked and households resorted to melting the utensils they had to meet the requirement. Ultimately almost none of the iron was usable. The Bronze Age lasted so long because although it is not impossible to smelt iron it is very difficult to make it suitable for tools or weapons. Bronze is about as strong as iron (not as strong as steel) and much easier to make and work with.
