Do a web search for "Wootz steel", "Damascus blades" and "Iron pillars India". The ancient world certainly had expertise in advanced metallurgy. Wootz steel was actually nanotech.
But that doesn't mean the average person will produce all that stuff from a standing start within 12 months just because they would like to drill a hole.
It took many years, but modern scientists have finally reverse engineered Wootz steel to understand its incredible secrets, and identified that Wootz steel was the result of extraordinary metallurgical processes with scientific acumen and excellence based on multiple millenia of research, experimentation and practice in ancient India.
"Modern analysis of surviving Wootz ingots has revealed the critical presence of these impurities. Silicon, for instance, is thought to have aided in the complete removal of sulfur during the smelting process, a common contaminant that can lead to brittle steel. Phosphorus, on the other hand, while often considered detrimental in steelmaking, appears to have been essential in the formation of specific microstructures within the Wootz. The exact ratios and interactions of these elements were likely a result of empirical knowledge, painstakingly acquired through trial and error over centuries."
https://www.realloreandorder.com/the-ancient-nanotechnology-...
Carbon nanotechnology in an 17th century Damascus sword
Discover the secret behind the legendary Damascus blades and how carbon nanotubes shaped sword-making techniques of ancient blacksmiths:
https://www.discovermagazine.com/carbon-nanotechnology-in-an...
Or it was just the vanadium and molybdenum traces in the ores combined with the high carbon content that created a proto carbide steel. The moment those ores ran out they couldn't create it any more.
