Yeah I'm looking at a few options at the moment. 01 tool steel, other tool steels, hardox 500, and various alloy steels. The shape is crucial too.

I'll be testing an SDS point chisel, a chrome-vanadium steel centre punch and a diamond pen dresser tool (for truing grinding wheels). If I have a tooth point area of even 4mm squared, followed by a cylindrical shaft, it'll be in the region of 1.2 Giga Pascals of pressure (at 2000kg) and 4.9 Giga Pascals (at 8000kg). Something will deform, I need to make sure it's whatever is in the jaw.

These are all pretty inexpensive (less than 5 quid each). These are to test the current (amp) load and the minimum speed (winch slow down) against 5mm aluminium and 3mm stainless steel. I should see what is working efficiently and what tooth materials are beginning to deform at their contact point.

The whole weapon is powered by a small 14.4V 1800mAh Turnigy Nanotech battery. It gives around 35 to 40 seconds of constant maximum weapon power (130 amps).

Apologies, I'm new to this site and should have made this thread in build diaries. I'll move it across.