What did the romans use for sword, armor, shield and helmet? (bronze, iron, steel)

I try to find an answer for this question on the net but there are several answers which contradict themselves.

The main thing I'd like to know: Did they used steel? They knew the 'secrets' of steel making but a few source say it was a very expensive technology, but in other source I read they made their swords from steel.

So I don't know which is true and I didn't even touch the Greeks.

You could have just googled Iron Age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Age#Europe

JEELEN said:

You could have just googled Iron Age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Age#Europe

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Like I didn't cheek wikipedia. I know that's the iron age, but that doesn't mean they just used iron for everything. Especially when all the other sources say something difference.

What era? The Kingdom and early Republic did have some bronze armor, but the late Republic and Empire used iron armor like lorica segmentata and mail. The best-known Roman shield, the scutum, was made of three layers of wooden planks glued together and covered in canvas or linen. They never used bronze swords to my knowledge, and I don't know enough about metallurgy to say if swords like the gladius and spatha were iron or steel.

Phrossack said:

What era? The Kingdom and early Republic did have some bronze armor, but the late Republic and Empire used iron armor like lorica segmentata and mail. The best-known Roman shield, the scutum, was made of three layers of wooden planks glued together and covered in canvas or linen. They never used bronze swords to my knowledge, and I don't know enough about metallurgy to say if swords like the gladius and spatha were iron or steel.

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Basicly I would like to know when did they (or anyone else) started to use steel for weapons or armor in big quantity.

Wikipedia suggests that steel from Noricum in Austria was used from at least 300 BC and was sufficiently well-known by the beginning of the Common Era to be used proverbially in elevated civilian poetry.

JeszKar said:

Basicly I would like to know when did they (or anyone else) started to use steel for weapons or armor in big quantity.

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Having in mind that the material we known as steel is only iron with a percentage of carbon within a certain range (with less it is called wrought iron which is too ductile and with too much it is called cast iron which is too brittle), it surely was discovered and used practically since iron ore was melted. In ancient days they got iron in a furnace feed with charcoal, so a wide range of iron/carbon alloys were obtained even accidentally, among them steel. The smith only had to select the bits with the adequate carbon percentage and forge them together to make a steel sword. It was a lot of work and steel things were much more expensive for that reason, but it was a pretty straightforward process.

JeszKar said:

Like I didn't cheek wikipedia. I know that's the iron age, but that doesn't mean they just used iron for everything. Especially when all the other sources say something difference.

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Well, iron was already known during the Bronze Age. The reason it wasn't used instead of bronze was that the metallurgic process to forge steel had yet to be discovered: voilá, Iron Age.

For the rest, see comments below.

Also "Iron Age" doesn't meant that bronze was completely replaced by iron.

Bronze tools and weapons were for a long time used together with iron ones.