Through the years critics of the Book of Mormon have constantly called attention to the mention of steel in that book as a gross anachronism. But now we are being reminded that one cannot be dogmatic in dating the appearance of steel since there is more than one kind of steel with ‘a whole series of variants in the combination of iron and steel components’ in ancient times; and when a particularly fine combination was hit upon it would be kept secret in ‘individual workshops’ and ‘passed on from father to son for many generations.’ Hence it is not too surprising to learn that ‘even in early European times’ there is evidence for the production of steel ‘of very high quality’ and extreme hardness. Further east steel is attested even earlier.
(Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah: The Book of Mormon in the Modern World, p. 254)