At the Iron Will lab, we tested numerous steels to determine their impact toughness - In other words, we wanted to see what steel holds up the best to hard impacts like those encountered when a broadhead slams into a moose scapula.
Steels that don't exhibit adequate impact toughness will chip or break when slamming into hard surfaces. If a broadhead fails in that way when hitting an animal, odds of recovery lower dramatically.
Impact Toughness
To conduct this test, we set up a Charpy C-Notch test to measure the ft-lbs of energy absorbed upon impact. The higher the rating, the more pressure the steel can withstand before fracturing.
Made to work, A2 Tool Steel is used in manufacturing to cut other steels, for metal stamping dies and punches, and by high end knife makers for their premium blades.
A2 has a unique combination of high hardness for edge retention and sharpness along with high impact toughness for high speed bone impacts.
At Iron Will, we add a proprietary cryogenic treatment and triple temper heat treat process to further bolster our broadhead toughness, so you can rely on your broadheads at the moment of truth.
This test proves that although most steels look similar to the untrained eye, not all blade steels are created equal. When asking a broadhead to be as reliable as science allows, we must choose the steel that's going to hold up the best on hard bone impacts.
When it comes to recovering an animal, there's too much on the line to sacrifice toughness for a cheaper blade steel. It's not only unethical to use a steel that's guaranteed to fail on hard bone impact, but it throws away all the work and effort put in to getting a shot at a once-in-a-lifetime animal.