were iron age weapons made of steel?
Even in very early iron, a small amount of steel was produced by carburization, where the iron picks up carbon by laying in hot coals before quenching. This produces a thin layer of steel on the surface of the iron. By about 300 BC Damascus steel was being produced by the crucible method on the Indian subcontinent, and the Romans used steel from Noricum. In the first century BC the Chinese were melting cast iron and wrought iron together to make steel.
No, the iron age was just iron. It was smelted down in open fires where temperatures can vary. There was a problem of not always being able to cook out all the impurities from the ore, which led to inconsistent strengths in finished products. People first discovered the properties and advantages of steel when charcoal (carbon) was added to smelted iron. I don't know when the first steel was made. But it must have been a more expensive process because it didn't appear in household products until around 1800. But I'm not sure on that.
