The Uniqueness of Laban’s Sword

While smelting copper dates back to the earliest age of man, the period where man began working with metals, called the Bronze Age, began much later. This age, of actually mixing metals and alloy8ing them into a single, stronger and more valuable product, began in the Middle East, among the Ancient Sumerians. Many technological advances were made during the Bronze Age, including the first writing systems and the invention of the wheel. In the Middle East and parts of Asia, the era lasted to about 1200 B.C., ending abruptly with the near-simultaneous collapse of several prominent Bronze Age civilizations.

The Bronze Age spread over time into various sections of the Middle East (where it began) and Europe. The darker areas are the oldest

Of course, the Bronze Age was not a sudden, overwhelming spread of technology around the world—different societies entered at different times. Civilizations in Greece began working with bronze around 3000 B.C., while the British Isles and China entered the Age much later—around 1900 B.C. and 1700 B.C., respectively. It is believed that Ancient Sumer, in Mesopotamia, may have been the first civilization to start adding tin to copper to make bronze. Bronze was harder and more durable than copper, which made bronze a better metal for tools and weapons, bringing an end to the Stone Age, and stone-age weapons.
    Archaeological evidence suggests the transition from copper to bronze took place around 3000 B.C. The Age was marked by the rise of states or kingdoms—large-scale societies joined under a central government by a powerful ruler. Bronze Age states interacted with each other through trade, warfare, migration and the spread of ideas, with prominent kingdoms including Sumer and Babylonia in Mesopotamia, and Athens in Ancient Greece.
    During this time, Sumer established about a dozen city-states throughout ancient Mesopotamia, including Eridu and Uruk in what is now southern Iraq. Sumerians called themselves the Sag-giga, the “black-headed ones,” and pioneered the use of levees and canals for irrigation. Sumerians invented cuneiform script, one of the earliest forms of writing, and built large stepped pyramid temples called ziggurats.
    Traditional stone weapons were quickly replaced as methods for metal-working developed. Bronze significantly contributed to the ancient world and helped cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Indus, and China flourish. Bronze replaced stone in weapons, with bronze maces in high demand. While native Americans, particularly in North America, used flint spears and knives, preferring bronze for ceremonies and intricate decorations, bronze swords, knives and javelin points showed up early in South America.
    However, it wasn’t long before Ancient artisans soon discovered the drawbacks of bronze for producing armaments, as while weapons made of bronze could be sharpened easily, they were not able to hold their edge, and dulled quickly. Yet, the level of skill Bronze age sword makers achieved with clay casting technology is stunning, and the fact that no one can match them today, is even more humbling. The tin content varied from 8% to 12%, and in later swords, the lead content varied from 1% to 5%; however, the hardness of the alloys could not exceed the hardness of the tools used in the process of edge hardening, otherwise, no worthwhile sharpness could be achieved.

In an ancient sword, three things were most critical: weight, balance and alloy. Length was also important, but secondarily to these three. As an example, bronze swords rarely exceeded 800 grams (28.2 ounces), though some were as heavy as 35.7 ounces (2.2 pounds), and unwieldy in battle. Though the blade tapered evenly toward the point, the balance was unexpectedly toward the handle, and provided a well-balanced sword.
    It is interesting that bronze-bladed swords were small, mostly because long swords would have broken if used for cutting—but the short sword could be so used, as well as for thrusting, a technique the Roman legionnaire made most popular, gaining versatility at the expense of range. It was not until toward the end of the Bronze Age that swords were getting near the length of the sword we see today. Consequently, a 26.3-inch sword would have been considered a very big sword, and would probably weigh about 24.7 ounces. However, by the mid to late first century BC, sword length was nearly 40 inches.
    While the Bronze Age ended around 1200 BC when people began to forge even the stronger metal of iron., this did not end bronze swords. By about 700 BC, the art of the bronze caster was at its height and iron working was in its infancy, thus the hardness of the iron was offset by the ability of the bronze sword smith to cast and hammer his bronze into an equal blade. In reality, the iron sword did not really replace the bronze sword until sometime after 700 BC, but before the AD period.
    Perhaps the biggest or, at least, the most important achievement in sword-fighting (thrusting) as opposed to in-fighting (Roman style), was the lengthening of the sword from the earlier 17.7 to 23.6 inch sword, often called a short sword or even a long knife, was its extended length to about 40 inches before the end of the BC period, some of which were referred to as the "type A" swords of the Aegean Bronze Age (a “type” system, or “Sandars typology”). This lengthening of the sword allowed mounted soldiers to use the sword from horseback, making their close-quarter fighting for more lethal against infantry.
    It was during this period that the Laban sword was made. Nephi referred to it as “the hilt was pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and the blade thereof was of the most precious steel” (1 Nephi 4:9). Based on the foregoing, it seems obvious that Laban’s sword was unusual and no doubt, especially made for him, or his predecessor, with the “steel” being nothing more than iron with carbon added. As an example, iron ore and a carbonaceous material were added together in a crucible, this was called the charge. The charge was placed at the top of the furnace and the blast applied to the bottom.
     If held at a sufficiently high temperature for a long time the bloom would absorb enough carbon to reduce the melting point of the iron. This would result in the mass being melted and cast iron buttons would form in the crucibles. These would have a high carbon content which would need to be reduced (decarburisation) which was the second step in this process. It was very time-consuming, because the iron had to be heated to add carbon and then reduce it by hitting it with a hammer:
    About 1000 BC, iron was considered a precious metal; however, today Iron is no longer considered a precious metal but its production and application in modern industry ranks it as the single most important metal in modern engineering. In its modern applications, iron is alloyed with carbon and other metals to produce a wide variety of alloys we call steel—it being an alloy of primarily iron and carbon, and was probably first discovered in copper and bronze smelters, where iron in some of their melts from iron ores getting mixed with copper ores.

The iron-carbon phase diagram relevant to steels has an eutectoid (Minimum Transformation Temperature) point of 0.76% carbon. The difference is that a hypoeutectoid steel (less than 0.8%) will have a carbon content less than this whereas a hypereutectoid steel (greater than 0.8%) will have a carbon content greater than this

Whatever the actual origin of iron smelting, it was a well-known process by the end of the second millennium BC. (1000BC). Numerous quotations are found in the Homeric poems (circa 880 BC) referencing implements of iron. Herodotus makes reference to it in his "History" (446 BC) and Aristotle (350BC) attributes the sources of iron to mines in Elba and the Chalybian mines near Ambus in Anatolia. Of course, professionals will debate the meaning of “steel,” since at least three classifications exist today: 1)  Low Carbon Steel (0.06% - 0.25% carbon); 2) Medium Carbon Steel (0.25% - 0.5% carbon); and 3) High Carbon Steel (0.5% - 1.6% carbon). Today, any iron with more than 2% carbon is not considered a steel, but “cast iron.”
    Thus, experts today will claim that the ancients did not really have steel; however, poor the quality of the steel produced by the ancients must have been, they surely strived to achieve a formula for steel. The fact they did not yet understand what provided steel its desirable properties is no reason to discredit the infant steel industry.
    Unforftunately, when discussing Laban’s sword, so-called experts, historians, and critics, make absurd claims about Nephi’s description of that sword. In reality, Nephi said: “the blade thereof was of the most precious steel,“ he is not saying it was the  finest steel. In fact, the word “precious” in 1828 meant: “Of great price; costly; as a precious stone; of great value or worth; very valuable; highly valued; much esteemed.” Certainly, this would have been the correct term to describe the outstanding worth of such a sword in a day when swords were not that common in Jerusalem—and any kind of steel sword would have been far more unusual, and was in the possession of the highest military leader in the city, who could command 50 within the city (1 Nephi 3:31), and tens of thousands in the land (1 Nephi 4:1).
Obviously, steel was not used that much in the Jerusalem area, and the sword was most precious, not only from its steel, but also because of its function, as the ceremonial sword of the military leader of the city. Thus, Nephi's comment was correct and there is no need to see more than what was actually said in his remarks.