And you would be correct. Google results (unchecked for context): "steel hand..." 258 "steel fist..." 136 "iron hand..." 508 "iron fist..." 2440 But does anyone know anything about the origins of the phrase? -doug -dsb Douglas S. Bigham Department of Linguistics University of Texas - Austin http://hometown.aol.com/capn002/myhomepage/index.html