Introduction

Abstract

From about 12,000 to 50,000 years ago, human beings could already adapt stone tools with intentionally produced edges to specific machining tasks by varying the geometry of the cutting edge, as is shown in early tool findings from the Palaeolithic Age. The discovery of how to extract metals such as copper, tin and iron was a huge milestone in the history of material and manufacturing technology. Since about 700 B.C., tools were almost exclusively made of iron. At the beginning of the 17th century, constant improvements in iron smelting led to the preferred use of iron and steel as construction materials instead of other metals known then and in place of wood, which had predominated until then.