Steel Ingots.

How do you get them.

iirc head towards ashford (pre-sear), turn right at the top of the hill, there's a merchant next to what was the field full of worms, who will change 10 iron ingots + 1 charcol for 1(?) steel ingot, also does some other rare crafting material stuff.

Also expert salvage pretty much anything that regular salvages into iron.

how do i 'expert salvage' ? I'm not that far into post-searing.
There was spome guy who said he can make better crafting materials out of ones i give him to the west of town but now i cant find him.

For one steel ingot it's 10 Iron ingots, 1 charcoal, and 200 gold. Go to the Sanitarium (outpost SSW of Ascelon), and exit the outpost. Go directly across the path and there's the guy.

How do you get charcoal?

Hhaha oh my god this crafting shit is wayyyyyyyy too complicated!
I wish i could just BUY ARMOR.

Heh, someone else who's new to crafting. Whenever I play games I usually buy my armor from shops or other players if there aren't any shops.
But I've been doing so far on my brand new warrior (my 5th character now..). I crafted a shiny new sword and customized it.

Charcoal? Eh, well, I've seen it drop before. I don't remember what from, but the rest of my party and I immediately recognized it has gray, dirty gold. Your best bet is to find someone to buy it from...Unless someone else here knows a place where you can buy it from, or maybe salvage it from. I honestly don't know.

Oh wonderful a guy is selling charcoal for 500g...

where to get the expert salvage kit?

South of Fort Ranik (right outside the gate) is the guy you need to see. He makes steel and coal. Coal costs 10 wood each.

You will find expert salvage kits from merchants as you go farther into the game.

That guy outside Ranik also wants like 200 gold along with the 10 wood to make the charcoal. So taken along with the 10 iron ingots and 200 to make the steel, it gets pretty steep for someone hanging around the old ascalon area.

I saw someone selling steel for 450 apiece in Ascalon and thought it was outrageous until I saw how much time and gold it takes to actually get one made.

Best bet is to try and buy it that early on if you can get a decent price or wait til you get to Yak's Bend and get an expert salvage kit and try salvaging for it before crafting anything needing steel.

I was lucky enough to get a lump of charcoal from a hulking element

(the big stone dudes just outside ascalon)

Ya, I got one from them too, rare drop though. I've killed maybe 100 of those total with all 4 of my chars, and only one dropped.