I assume you are referring to "M4" compared to D2 (?????)


If so, yeah, but D2 is not really looked at as a high impact steel for choppers these days. Sure, someone like Busse can give it a good heat treat to make it "pretty tough", but considering how many cheap and reasonable GREAT options there are for choppers, D2 and M4 are not typically viewed to have high toughness.

A2 is about where chopper toughness "starts" these days.

So, yeah, I think I indicated that M4 might be sufficient in certain applications for chopping. But, it looks like it might be borderline - at least based on what we are used to.

A2 is pretty tough, but I am pretty sure 52100, 5160, 1095, 0170-6 and MANY other simple much cheaper steels are a lot tougher.

So, while M4 might offer amazing edge properties - at the cost of materials and efforts to grind and sharpen, the cost isn't such a great value if primarily looking for toughness - or a larger chopping blade.
While M4 might offer "enough" toughness in most aplications and is pretty tough, it just starts to get more on the gamble side. Especially for a company like Busse that offers a Lifetime Warranty on their knives.
If I were Busse offering such a warranty, I would not be looking to make a "big chopper" that intices people to push it to the limits out of a VERY expensive steel that might not be able to handle certain abuses.

Whereas, for "Competition Use", again, I think those guys would likely gamble on toughness and go with "Just enough" toughness in favor of HIGH edge retention and VERY sharp edges. And they are willing to pay the cost of the materials and hassles to get the extra "edge".

Competition rope and 2x4's are not as tough as cinder blocks and what some people beat on around here.

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