N690Co ??

bladeprince

bladeprince

Joined
Jun 12, 2006
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I don't own any knives made from N690Co so I have no experience with the steel. Spyderco has a new model (Dayhiker) that I like the looks of and it's made from N690Co. Can one of you steel experts enlighten me? Comparing it to one or more of the more common steels would help. To what other steel is it similar? The knife is expensive so it I assume it to be high quality. I'm also curious about the Rc rating if anyone happen to what it is. That gives me an idea about edge holding and the level of sharpening difficulty.

Many thanks
 
N690 is an Austrian steel used by Italian knife manufacturers. Extrema Ratio uses it and Fox has been making knives for Ontario and Spyderco from it.

Based on my experience with the ER Nemesis, it takes a nice edge and holds it well. I have an Ontario Retribution II, but it hasn't seen any real work, to say how well it performs.
 
Here's some info from the following website: http://ajh-knives.com/metals.html

"N690 is manufactured by Bohler Uddeholm (German company) and is their trade name for 440C.
It is a common steel used for knife making in South Africa
Have not found the supplier yet, only snippets of unofficial information.

This steel also called Austrian Cobalt steel - alloy containing 17% Chromium, Molybdenumm, Vanadium, and Cobalt.
Hi percetage of free Chromium makes it very stain resistent - if true at 17%, it would actually have the second highest Cr content - 440-C has the most at 18%.
Hardness 60 HRC

Extrema Ratio knives are made in a Extrema Ratio custom shop in Italy and is not nearly as well know in the United States as other companies. Started in 1997, they have taken the tactical world by storm. Many of the soldiers and armed men and women of the world carry Extrema Ratio. The result is a blade with a very hard edge (hardened and tempered to 60° HRC) that is very sharp, very long lasting with an elastic and tough body.

The Red line of Benchmade will be made in Taiwan - uses N690 Cobalt SS"


My Benchmade Pika has it and seems to take and hold a nice edge.

Regards,

Jim
 
I haven't seen the results any real testing. The concensus from users on bladeforums is that it performs somewhere between 440C and VG10.
 
I have made many knives in N690Co. This steel have a good resistance to the corrosion like 440C, the cobalt renders the steel a lot polishes. N690c tempered to 60 HRc has a very hard edge a little more that ATS34 but it is more difficult to sharpen.

Riccardo Mainolfi
Positano - Italy
www.mainolfiknife.com
 
You can't look at the Cr percentage alone. ZDP-189 has a very high Cr percentage for example but the corrosion resistance is relatively low because most of it is in carbide.

In general, for any steel, a host of manufacturers will make that steel and give it their own name or some small variant of it which is marketed as a direct substitute. This is the case here for the named steel and 440C.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
In general, for any steel, a host of manufacturers will make that steel and give it their own name or some small variant of it which is marketed as a direct substitute. This is the case here for the named steel and 440C.

-Cliff
Click to expand...
Hi Cliff,
what you write is truest!!
But in this case the Bohler Uddeholm has an equal one of the 440C that it is called N695.
You can see corresponding standards in http://www.440c.co.uk/

Riccardo
Positano - Italy
www.mainolfiknife.com
 
longbeachguy said:
My Benchmade Pika has it and seems to take and hold a nice edge.
Click to expand...
My Mini Pika also has N690, supposedly the early runs used it and Benchmade then switched to 440C. I ordered it last month expecting 440C and was pleasantly surprised that it came with the N690. Some online retailers still have the N690 version in stock.

The new Pika 2 (10402) and Mini Pika 2 (10412) switched to the 9Cr13C0MoV Chinese blade material, which I personally find rather disappointing. According to BM, it has a lower Rockwell hardness of 57-58 while the N690 had 58-60. The new Pikas do have steel liners now but I think the handles look like absolute crap.

It's funny the different reactions you get when you say your blade material originates from Austria vs China.
 
i have got a small Extrema Ratio BF1 (yes, they do some small knives !:rolleyes: ), blade is N690Co



I had to use a diamond stone Fallkniven t4, but i managed to optain a quite sharp blade, that seems to hold an edge long time (i should say, long enought for my taste !;) )
 
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