I have always had the yearning to make steel. It comes, I think, from a need to round out my knowledge, but also there is a mystery around the creation of steel that appeals to me. We have the advantage of being able to select from an array of steels already alloyed, rolled and milled into bar stock, but taking that stock for granted and not looking past it, limits our appreciate and understanding of the material.
There are advantages to making your own steel especially if you are attempting to recreate the qualities of ancient blades or develop properties in the steel that is not currently available. Making Damascus or laminated steel is a step in the direction of making new steel, but when you start with bar stock, you only touch the surface of what could be done.
The interest in steel making is growing and there are several makers who are currently making there own steel for their blades using different approaches. I recently visited with Louis Mills and he demonstrated his method for making steel right in his charcoal forge.
Louis built a side draft, box bellows forge designed after the Japanese style push/pull bellows. This forge is detailed in Yoshindo Yoshihara's book, The Craft of the Japanese Sword
The air comes through the tuyere located on the right side of the firewall. On the opposite side, Louis build up the wall using hard firebrick to give an area with a deep bed. He then charges forge with charcoal and gets a fire going. After the fire is established, Louis builds up the fire by adding more charcoal and between each layer he sprinkles pure iron in powder or granular form. He has, through experience, figured out how much iron to add to his size fire that will yield a known quantity of useable steel at the end of the process.
Rick Barrett , who is an excellent swordsmith in his own right, observes the process.