Mormon,Mormonism Steel

The Book of Mormon has been criticized because of its claims that Nephi, who lived in 600 BC, used a bow made of steel.

And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, which was made of fine steel; and after I did break my bow, behold, my brethren were angry with me because of the loss of my bow, for we did obtain no food. (1 Nephi 16:18) 

Critics claim that smelting of iron into steel didn't happen until later. However,  according to  Wikipedia, the smelting of iron occurred prior to 600 BC, and the making of steel was common by 650 BC.

Steel was known in antiquity, and may have been produced by managing bloomeries, or iron-smelting facilities, in which the bloom contained carbon.  
The earliest known production of steel is a piece of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk) and is about 4,000 years old. Other ancient steel comes from East Africa, dating back to 1400 BC. In the 4th century BC steel weapons like the Falcata were produced in the Iberian Peninsula, while Noric steel was used by the Roman military.
Steel was produced in large quantities in Sparta around 650BC.
The Chinese of the Warring States (403–221 BC) had quench-hardened steel, while Chinese of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) created steel by melting together wrought iron with cast iron, gaining an ultimate product of a carbon-intermediate steel by the 1st century AD. The Haya people of East Africa invented a type of furnace they used to make carbon steel at 1,802 °C (3,276 °F) nearly 2,000 years ago.

A recent science article about the use of meteorite iron in the making of jewelery mentioned that iron smelting was introduced around 2000 BC. Thus, we see that the information given above shows that the addition of carbon to iron was used by ancient peoples prior to the time Lehi left Jerusalem and immigrated to the Americas.

As a result metalworkers had already nearly two millennia of experience of working with meteoritic iron when iron smelting was introduced in the mid-second millennium BC. This knowledge was essential for the development of iron smelting and the production of iron from iron ore, enabling iron to replace copper and bronze as the main metals used.

When Joseph Smith used the word "steel" in his translation that led to the Book of Mormon, he wasn't necessarily referring to the word "steel" as used today. The 1828 Webster's Dictionary gives the following definition of the word "steel".

1. Iron combined with a small portion of carbon; iron refined and hardened, used in making instruments, and particularly useful as the material of edged tools. It is called in chemistry, carburet of iron; but this is more usually the denomination of plumbago.

This definition of the word "steel" is important, because it is likely that it describes the word "steel" as used by Joseph Smith, since the Book of Mormon was published in 1830. The definition indicates, in a general way, that the word "steel" refers to iron containing a small amount of carbon, with nothing implied about the process used to impregnate the iron with carbon. Today, the word "steel" refers to iron containing carbon and other elements impregnated by a particular process. Wikipedia gives the following about steel made in recent times.

Though steel had been produced in a bloomery furnace for thousands of years, its use became more extensive after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century. With the invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, steel became an inexpensive mass-produced material. Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), lowered the cost of production while increasing the quality of the metal. Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world, with more than 1.3 billion tons produced annually. It is a major component in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons. Modern steel is generally identified by various grades defined by assorted standards organizations.