According to John Tvedtnes, "there is evidence to show that Lehi and his family were craftsmen and artisans--probably metalworkers. . . . Evidence for Nephi's metal-working skills came after the group's arrival in the New World. It was he who prepared the plates of ore from which the Book of Mormon ultimately developed (1 Nephi 19:1), smelting the ore and forming the plates themselves. He also manufactured "many swords" based on the pattern of the weapon he had taken from Laban in Jerusalem (2 Nephi 5:14). But the full range of his talents is explained in the verses of 2 Nephi 5:15-17: "And I did teach my people . . . to work in all manner . . . of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores. . . . " If Lehi and his family were metal-workers (living on a plot of land sufficiently large to grow crops as well), then the source of their wealth is readily explained. From biblical passages (2 Kings 24:11-15; Jeremiah 24:1; 29:2) as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian documents of that era, we learn that craftsmen and smiths were considered in Lehi's day to belong to the upper class. [John Tvedtnes, "Was Lehi a Caravaneer?," F.A.R.M.S., p. 13]