How do you answer the steel objection?

Yes, the technology fits. Iron Age objects in the region show carburized iron. That gives us a way to test the date of the technology.

You answer the anachronism claim using the region and era. Identifying the individual weapon would require separate evidence.

The iron sword in the Israel Museum is Laban’s sword.

The museum dates a sword from the Jericho Valley. Its date and location supply a comparison. They leave its owner unidentified.

The King James Bible uses “bow of steel” in a verse translated “bow of bronze” in the NABRE. That leaves us with a translation question about Nephi’s bow.

The comparison shows how English can name the bow differently. The Book of Mormon passage leaves the actual material uncertain.

Psalm 18 proves Nephi used a solid bronze bow.

The psalm is a separate text. It illustrates how an English phrase can work and leaves Nephi’s bow material and design open.

An imported blade would explain one object. Ether places Shule at a hill and describes him making swords for his followers.

You separate having an imported weapon from producing weapons after migration.

An imported sword accounts for every Book of Mormon steel reference.

That would leave Shule’s production and the Nephite references to working steel unexplained.

The beads show that artisans worked meteorite iron. To test manufacture in Ether I’d look for a dated weapon with material analysis and evidence of production in context.

You grant the genuine find. The form, source material, date, and location tell you what further claim it can support.

Any early object containing iron establishes a steel industry.

A meteorite already contains metal. Working it into beads and producing steel weapons from ore are different processes.