Steel wool, also known as wire wool, is a bundle of strands of very fine soft steel filaments, used in finishing and repairing work to polish wood or metal objects, for cleaning household cookware and light painting.
Steel wool is made from low-carbon steel (low enough to be close to plain iron). It is not made by drawing "steel wool wire" through a tapered die, but rather by a process more like broaching where a heavy steel wire is pulled through a toothed die that removes a thin wire shaving.
Famous quotes containing the words steel and/or wool:
“The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“After all, the wool of a black sheep is just as warm.”
—Ernest Lehman (b. 1920)