[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

“Swords of the finest steel...”

Is how I recollect it. (Open to correction on this point.)
It rather stood out as anachonistic. I don’t know the dating on the peoples mentioned in the book of Mormon. But steel did not exist in any quantity during the bronze or iron age. I believe some was made in India. Mass production happened after the introducation of the Bessemer process.

[sevenbak]

Actually, the “finest steel” reference only occurs once, the other refers to ‘precious’ steel. These were referring to artifacts in Jerusalem about 600 B.C. One was a bow, made of steel, and one was a sword, with a hilt of gold, belonging to a member of the ruling class. This was called the ‘sword of Laban’ and future swords were patterned after it, but they aren’t referred to as fine steel.

Here are the references to these 2 artifacts.

http://scriptures.lds.org/1_ne/16/18#18

http://scriptures.lds.org/1_ne/4/9#9

Further, you may find this interesting. Steel was indeed manufactured at this period of time, and the term precious steel tells me that it was indeed rare, but possible.

"It seems evident that by the beginning of the tenth century B.C. blacksmiths were intentionally steeling iron” [Robert Maddin, James D. Muhly, and Tamara S. Wheeler, “How the Iron Age Began,” Scientific American 237/4 (October 1977): 127]. A carburized iron knife dating to the twelfth century B.C. is known from Cyprus [Ibid. The knife shows evidence of quenching. See Tamara S. Wheeler and Robert Maddin, “Metallurgy and Ancient Man,” in The Coming Age of Iron (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980), 121]. In addition to this,
A site on Mt. Adir in northern Israel has yielded an iron pick in association with 12th-century pottery. One would hesitate to remove a sample from the pick for analysis, but it has been possible to test the tip of it for hardness. The readings averaged 38 on the Rockwell “C” scale of hardness. This is a reading characteristic of modern hardened steel [Maddin, Muhly, and Wheeler, “How the Iron Age Began,” p. 127].
The importance of this find is echoed by Amihai Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000 - 586 B.C.E., New York: Doubleday, 1990, p. 361:
A pick found in the eleventh century B.C.E. fortress at Har Adir in the Upper Galilee is the earliest known iron implement made of real steel produced by carbonizing, quenching, and tempering. This technological revolution opened the way for the widespread use of iron.
Quenching, another method of steeling iron, was also known to Mediterranean blacksmiths during this period. “By the beginning of the seventh century B.C. at the latest the blacksmiths of the eastern Mediterranean had mastered the processes that make iron a useful material for tools and weapons: carburizing and quenching” [Maddin, Muhly, and Wheeler, 131]. Archaeologists recently discovered a carburized iron sword near Jericho. The sword, which had a bronze haft, was one meter long and dates to the time of King Josiah, about 600 B.C. [Hershel Shanks, “Antiquities Director Confronts Problems and Controversies,” Biblical Archaeology Review 12/4 (July-August 1986): 33,35]. Hershel Shanks recently described the find as “spectacular” since it is the only complete sword of its size and type from this period yet discovered in Israel [Ibid., 33].
The ability to carburize iron, however, does not mean that iron or steel was widely used and commonly available.

Incidentally, a photo of a gold-hilted sword with a blade made of meteoric iron is available in Volume 3 of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism under the article, “Sword of Laban.” The sword comes from the tomb of Tutankhamun, who died in 1325 B.C., over 700 years before Nephi saw the sword of Laban.

For more information on the ancient use of iron and steel prior to Nephi’s time, see Oleg D. Sherby and Jeffrey Wadsworth, “Damascus Steels,” Scientific American 252 (February 1985): 112-20; J. P. Lepre, The Egyptian Pyramids: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1990), 245; Immanuel Velikovsky, Ramses II and His Time (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978), 222-37.

While most ancient works of iron or steel are not likely to survive because of corrosion, one recent well-preserved find of an ancient iron sword from the Middle East is reported by Avraham Eitan, “BAR Interviews Avraham Eitan: Antiquities Director Confronts Problems and Controversies,” interview by Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review 12/4 (1986):

A large iron sword, three feet long and about three inches wide was excavated at Vered Jericho (a place near Jericho in Israel). It has a bronze haft with a wooden grip. The strata from which the sword was excavated dates to the late seventh century BC. This sword is unlike the shorter daggers that are normally depicted in art from this part of the world.