Roy- I asked the same question as you during a discussion of steel. This was on this board. My point was that since iron is an element it can contain nothing but iron and still be iron. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Steel without carbon is iron. Another poster (from memory it was Chuck H.) cleared this up for me. Pig iron used in the ingots melted to make steel contained impurities. If the ingot contains carbon the amount of carbon introduced to create a specific steel alloy is unknown. By burning out the carbon, and introducing a specific amount of carbon the proper alloy can be made; the hardness of the steel controled. Sounds good to me.
1917 Enfields from the Eddystone Arsenal were often overheated, burning out the carbon and leaving the action brittle. This seems to be why the Eddystone in seen cracked more often than Winchester or Remington.
Sure hope I got this right.
Cary
