D2 and N690Co for hawk heads?

[Street Samurai1978]

The Hardcore Hardware hawks are made of D2, while the Fox Commanche is made of N690Co. Not sure if either of these are the best steel for hawks. D2 is kind of chippy and I'm not familiar with the capabilities of N690Co. Both hawks are pricey as hell but they do score points in the style department. I've seen the HH hawk demos on youtube, but that doesn't mean much, just that the hawk being shown held up. Any thoughts on either of these steels being used for tomahawks?

 

[killa_concept]

Really don't know much about hawks or either of those companies, but I do know D2. The stuff is hard as dickens. I have a knife made out of it @ 61hrc and sharpening it with waterstones is a joke.. I have to use diamond plates to get anywhere. It is prone to chipping if the angle is too low though, and I'd say that in itself would make me not want it for anything that's going to suffer impacts - it trades out toughness for the hardness and wear resistance. You also have to learn to be satisfied with a "toothier" edge... while D2 can polish up nicely, the carbides in it can be a bit larger and less uniform than other steels, so it will chip at a very, very fine level leaving your previously polished edge more toothy. But it will keep that edge for ages.