John Deere is widely credited with inventing the steel plow, adopting a polished steel share fitted to a curved moldboard and a wrought-iron frame to create the first commercially successful self-scouring steel plow in 1837. Deere, a Blacksmith by training, reportedly reworked a steel saw blade into the plowshare and paired it with an iron moldboard, leading to a plow that could cut through the tough prairie soils more effectively than earlier cast- iron designs. This innovation helped drive the expansion into midwestern and western lands in the United States and laid the foundation for Deere & Company, one of the world's largest agricultural equipment manufacturers.