Steel N690Co Böhler for tactical knives.

N690Co steel: a cobalt stainless steel dedicated to the manufacture of tactical and outdoor knives.

With a very high carbon content and the addition of cobalt, the stainless steel N690Co has earned itself a good reputation in the world cutlery for the manufacture of very demanding blades, subjected to these extreme conditions (tactical knives, bushcraft, hunting, survival, etc.).

An ultimate steel created by the Austrian steelmaker Böhler.

Manufactured by the Austrian steelmaker Böhler, N690Co steel is a must in the world of tactical and outdoor cutlery designers and manufacturers.

The biggest names in the cutlery industry use it for the manufacture of their fixed and folding knife blades: Muela, Fox Knives, Extrema Ratio, Spyderco, Benchmade or the French Wildsteer.

N690Co steel can reach hardness above 60Hrc after heat treatment and the addition of cobalt, a very hard and heat-resistant metal, allows this grade to obtain excellent qualities of wear resistance.

Steel plate Böhler N690co are obtained by "hot cross rolling".

They are rolled alternately in the direction of length and width. This reduces the differences in mechanical properties between lateral and longitudinal directions.

For cutting your parts, it is no longer mandatory to know the sense of fibrage.

Stainless steel for military applications.

Steel N690Co Böhler was retained for the manufacture of a field knife equipping the french army according to a very demanding and precise specifications.

Extracts:

- Resistance to a load of 80 kg applied at the end of the cheek while the blade is fixed up to a third of its length (The blade must not undergo permanent deformation in a temperature range of -20° to +50°).

- Cut 200 times of 6 mm diameter mountain climbing rope without back and forth movement and without re-sharpening.

- Cut the 35 mm width strap 200 times without moving back and forth and without reshaping.

- Cut 150 times 18 mm diameter beech wood in machete use.

- Drill 10 times 18 mm (Triply) with specified energy.

- Drill 10 times 10 thicknesses of kevlar with specified energy.

- Cut more than 100 times the barbed wire of the "Concertina" type.

(Source: "Choose his knife", Edouard de Buyer-Mimeure, Editions de Montbel 2018).

1000 mm bars of different widths and 3 to 7 mm thick.

The N690Co steel is available in a bar of 1 meter long 50 and 80 mm wide.

Depending on the knife to be made, several thicknesses are also available from 3 to 7 mm.

The bars are delivered in the annealed, hot-rolled and sanded state.

To obtain better surface conditions and good corrosion resistance characteristics, hot-rolled steels must be rectified by approximately 0.15 mm on each side.

In order to help you in the heat treatment phase, which is essential for the production of faultless quality blades, Eurotechni has published for you a technical sheet of N690Co stainless cobalt steel detailing each step of the process to be followed.

Trempe under papillot or protected atmosphere strongly recommended.

Standards (Approximate Correspondences): W-nr 1.4528, DIN X105CrCoMo18-2

Main qualities: High cut hold and high hardness after soaking (about 59 to 61 HRC.

If you are not equipped with a quench furnace, or if you misunderstand these operations, Eurotechni can perform all the heat treatment steps for you in the "Art Rules".