When a broadhead impacts bone at high speed, blade steel plays a critical role in determining whether the edge stays sharp and continues penetrating, or dulls and loses its ability to drive deeper. In this video, Iron Will Founder and Chief Engineer Bill Vanderheyden draws on decades of experience in metallurgy and tooling engineering to explain why Iron Will broadheads use cryogenically treated A2 Tool Steel rather than stainless blade steels. Learn how A2's unique combination of hardness, toughness, and impact resistance makes it the ideal premium broadhead steel, delivering deeper penetration and dependable performance on the toughest big game animals.

In this article, Iron Will's Owner and Chief Engineer Bill Vanderheyden details why A2 Tool Steel is better than stainless blade steels for broadheads. 

Early in his career, Bill Vanderheyden worked as a tooling engineer for a large corporation. With his strong background in material sciences and metallurgy, he was in charge of tooling technology development for the corporation to optimize the steels and heat treatment processes used for the most demanding applications.

From his experience during this time, he learned that stainless steels are rarely used in heavy duty cutting applications because the high chromium content makes them more brittle and reduces the impact toughness. Stainless blade steels work really well for general purpose hunting knives where the blades are thicker and minimal hard impacts. Broadhead blades are less than half the thickness of typical hunting knives and they have very high speed impacts when hitting medium or heavy bones.

A2 Tool Steel is used in the most demanding cutting applications like metal stamping and cutting dies. It has the unique ability to be made very hard and very sharp, yet having excellent impact toughness. We cryogenically treat and triple temper our A2 steel blades to achieve a hardness of 60 Rockwell C. This gives us unmatched penetration through an animal when medium to heavy bone is encountered. 

One of the reasons A2 Tool Steel performs so well in broadheads is its balanced alloy composition. With roughly 5% chromium (about half that of typical stainless blade steels), A2 provides useful corrosion resistance without sacrificing the toughness and impact resistance required for high-speed bone impacts. Combined with vanadium and our proprietary heat treatment process, A2 delivers an exceptional combination of hardness, edge retention, and durability, making it an ideal premium steel for broadhead blades.

Through years of development and testing many blade steels, A2 steel with our heat treat process has exceeded expectations. Put our A2 Tool Steel broadheads to the test on the toughest big game, and we know you'll be impressed with their performance and penetration through bone.