Tomahawk blade material:4140 vs. 80CRV2

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Sep 11, 2018
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please pardon my newbie question. I've searched high and low and could not get a satisfactory answer.

Moving on from my fixed blade addiction, I've been looking at tomahawks. Specifically the RMJ ones. I notice a change from using 4140 to 80CRV2 sometimes around late 2017.

My question is why? Is this considered an improvement or is this merely a cost saving measure? I'm looking at either a Shrike or the Kestrel.

Thank you in advance.
 
80CRV2 is most definitely a step up from 4140. I don’t think it’s a cost saving measure, although I’m not entirely sure what they cost to begin with. I know I would personally rather have 80CRV2 in a tomahawk over 4140. 4140 would be seriously tough, but it’s not much of a blade steel to begin with. I imagine it was chosen because of it’s toughness, while 80CRV2 offers a more rounded steel.
 
80crv2 is a great steel for tools made for chopping. It would be interesting to know whether they also changed the hardness of their tools when switching to 80crv2.
 
I doubt at the thickness the tomahawks are run one would see a lot of difference in edge retention...the blunting is going to be by impact (not abrasion generally speaking) so a combo of toughness and hardness is what you want. 80CrV gets harder, but the thickness should give plenty of strength on it's own.
 
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