I should have read the article more closely because it said "ceremonial sword." But your point about iron being a rare commodity was certainly true for the ancient Egyptians, but the Hittites were making iron weapons nearly a thousand years before Rome existed. The Assyrians were doing the same thing for their armies several hundred years before Rome. The Romans didn't have any difficulty equipping their legions with steel weapons and armor.
Iron is not steel and was in no way rare. Steel is carbonized iron (coking process) and the technique wasn't perfected until the middle ages.
Iron is not steel and was in no way rare. Steel is carbonized iron (coking process) and the technique wasn't perfected until after the middle ages.
The Romans didn't have any difficulty equipping their legions with steel weapons and armor.
The armor was iron not steel.
Steel was produced in bloomery furnaces for thousands of years, but its large-scale, industrial use began only after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century, with the production of blister steel and then crucible steel. With the invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, a new era of mass-produced steel began. This was followed by the Siemens-Martin process and then the Gilchrist-Thomas process that refined the quality of steel. With their introductions, mild steel replaced wrought iron.