According to Hugh Nibley, it should be noted that when Nephi mentions his "bow, which was made of fine steel" (1 Nephi 16:18), he did not necessarily imply that the whole bow was made of steel. Anciently, a steel bow was not necessarily a solid piece of metal, any more than the Canaanites' "chariots of iron" (Joshua 17:16-18; Judges 1:19; 4:3) were solid iron, or than various implements mentioned in the Old Testament as being "of iron," e.g., carpenter's tools, pens, threshing instruments, were iron and only iron. It was in all probability a steel-ribbed bow, since it broke at about the same time that the wooden bows of his brothers "lost their springs" (1 Nephi 16:21). Only composite bows were used in Palestine, that is, bows of more than one piece, and a steel-backed bow would be called a steel bow just as an iron-trimmed chariot was called a "chariot of iron." [Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, F.A.R.M.S., p. 59]