Production of wootz steel required a highly specialised technique of refining iron. But iron smelting in india was extremely common till the end of the nineteenth century. In bihar and cental india in particular. Every district has smelters that used local deposits of ore to produce iŕon which was widely used for the manufacture of implements  and  tools of daily  use. The furnaces were smelting was done by men while women worked the bellows. Pumping air that kept the charcoal burning.