What if they had a lot of iron?

[Slim_Ghost]

How would the Japanese military evolve to if they had plenty of iron to begin with?

[teh.frickin.pope]

Probably with much more metal armor .

[Taneda Santôka]

Aren't japanese armours and weapons made of iron? :hmmm: Laquered and laced, ok, but it's still iron.
Excellent Website!

One thing that needs to be addressed first is probably my biggest button: Japanese armour was never made of wood or bamboo. It was either leather, steel, or a combination of the two. Don’t even ask me.

[LennStar]

Don't forget: To make steel out of iron, you need coal. Its impossible to make a fire hot enough for todays quality with wood.
This is one reason why England - full of coal - was the first "steel land".

So I don't think that an increased amount of iron would change anything.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Don't forget: To make steel out of iron, you need coal. Its impossible to make a fire hot enough for todays quality with wood.
This is one reason why England - full of coal - was the first "steel land".

So I don't think that an increased amount of iron would change anything.

actually- http://www.techtp.com/charcoal/waste%20wood.htm

According to a recent coal analysis, the as-received heating value of the coal (with approximately 14% moisture content) is 10,917 Btu/lb. Charcoal has a heating value of approximately 13,000 Btu/lb. therefore one ton of charcoal would replace approximately 1.2 tons of coal.

So charcoal which every society used for smelting, is a much better fuel than many coals. Coal was just easier to produce for the making of large quantities of steel.

[LennStar]

actually- http://www.techtp.com/charcoal/waste%20wood.htm

So charcoal which every society used for smelting, is a much better fuel than many coals. Coal was just easier to produce for the making of large quantities of steel.

Wood recently harvested...heating value of about 5,500 Btu

So wood isn't good enough.
If my english doesn't fool me, than charcoal is the wood you make a big heap and burn it for a day or longer.

The question would be: Can you make enough?
I would say it is a bit more needed to fire a steel-smith then to heat a room.
How long would you need the fire to make steel for only 1 armor?

For daimyos, yes but for the normal soldier I think it would definitely to expensive. It would at least double the man-power needed.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

So wood isn't good enough.
If my english doesn't fool me, than charcoal is the wood you make a big heap and burn it for a day or longer.

The question would be: Can you make enough?
I would say it is a bit more needed to fire a steel-smith then to heat a room.
How long would you need the fire to make steel for only 1 armor?

For daimyos, yes but for the normal soldier I think it would definitely to expensive. It would at least double the man-power needed.

Feudal Japan produced a lot of wood charcoal with many many different grades (heating/smelting etc). More than enough was produded for the cottage level industry of pre-industrial armour contruction. I don't have my source handy, but the book "The Green Archipelago"
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/2339.html goes into great detail about this. But you are correct, that wood on its own is insufficient to produce the heat required for smelting.

[Juggernaut]

As far as I know, tatara method always produce steel(Tama-hagane), and any high quality Katana would be made out from Tama-hagane.

[LennStar]

You never now enough...
How many % of the population worked in that charcoal field? You need awful lots of wood as far as I know. (but I don't now much about any coal )