As a side note the Swedes "imported" some Walloons from the South of Belgian in the 17th century which jump started their iron and steel technology.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
There were three main things that resulted in some of Swedish steels being of very high quality, previous to development of Bessemer process for removing impurities.
The most fundamental one is result of a "geological accident" that produced iron ores containing exceedingly low amounts of the degrading elements S and P. This is iron ore from Dannemore Mine and others of same geological origin.
The second is also gelogical, that is, Sweden has very few coal deposits, resulting in need to process iron ore using charcoal instead of koke. If koke, made from coal, as in Germany, had been used to process Dannemore iron ore, enough S would have been present in koke to seriously degrade quality of steel made from Dannemore iron ore. Instead, Sweden's vast forest were used to make charcoal, which has nearly zero S and P.
The third is a critical business arrangement Swedish King made with some large iron and steel producers from the Vallonia area of what is today Belgium. Thanks to decades-long religeous wars, these large iron and steel producers were looking for a stable business environment. The Valloner produced primarily from Dannemora-type iron ores. In addition, the Vallonisk method of twice-purefying iron resulted in even less impurities. As export market evolved, most of this high quality iron went to Schefield, England as raw material for surgical instruments and watch springs.
Niklas
