Iron and steel appear in tools, locks, keys, blades, armor, helmets, spearheads, scissors, surgical instruments, and architectural fittings. Steel can be forged, quenched, tempered, polished, etched, engraved, overlaid, or inlaid. The term Damascus steel can refer to different historical and modern ideas; the site should explain patterns, forging, trade, and terminology carefully.

On steel and iron, gold or silver can be inlaid or overlaid into roughened or cut surfaces. Koftgari, often associated with South Asian and Persianate arms and armor, uses fine gold or silver wire worked into a prepared steel ground. The contrast between darkened steel and bright metal creates a surface related visually to inlaid brass but technically different.

Bidriware, associated especially with Bidar in the Deccan, uses a zinc-rich base that is chemically darkened after engraving and inlay. The body itself becomes the dark ground. This makes bidriware an ideal teaching comparison with Mamluk brass inlaid with silver and black compound: both use contrast, but the chemistry and base metal differ.