Carbon steel

Carbon steel is a type of metal that is made by mixing carbon (which is a chemical element) with iron (which is another type of metal).

Imagine you have a bag of marbles, but some of the marbles are made of iron and some of the marbles are made of carbon. If you mix them all up really well, you'll end up with a type of metal that has both iron and carbon in it – that's carbon steel!

When we make things out of carbon steel, we often heat it up really hot and then shape it into the thing we want, like a knife or a frying pan or even a car part. Because carbon steel is made of both iron and carbon, it's really strong and durable, which means it can last a really long time.

Carbon steel comes in different grades, which means that some types of carbon steel have more carbon in them than others. The more carbon there is in the steel, the harder and stronger it will be. But too much carbon can make the steel too brittle (which is like being too easy to break), so it's important to use the right grade of carbon steel for each job.

Some other cool things about carbon steel are that it's usually a shiny silver color, it can be polished to be super smooth, and it's often used in things that need to be really tough and strong, like construction equipment or airplane parts.