Abstract: A melt is produced composed of iron, manganese and carbon in known ratios for free-cutting carbon steel with sulfur being included at roughly 0.15%. Aluminum and silicon are added to kill the steel fully and silica and alumina are added to the slag as conditioners in the ladle in sufficient amounts to provide a low ladle slag V-ratio (ratio of weight percent CaO to weight percent SiO.sub.2) of approximately two to one to retard desulfurization during a subsequent ladle treatment process wherein sulfur modifying powders such as calcium carbide, calcium silicon or, alternatively, magnesium-bearing materials are injected into the meld in an argon stream at a rate of about two pounds of contained calcium (or one pound of contained magnesium) per ton of liquid steel over a period of six to seven minutes. The low V-ratio slag holds desulfurization to about 30% while permitting effective calcium treatment of the molten steel.