21 cm Workhorse "TNT666"

The cutting edge of this 21 cm workhorse is made of the special alloy TNT666 with a hardness of 65 hrc. The side layers consist of additionally refined historical puddle iron. The blade was ground slightly convex. The knife has good cutting properties. There is a strong wedge effect in the choil area, while the grind becomes increasingly pointed and more performant towards the tip. The blade has a clear taper, but is not laser-thin towards the tip. The higher weight of the blade in combination with the light handle wood supports the cut. A real workhorse. The profile is suitable for all cutting techniques. 

The cutting layer consists of a special melt that was produced exclusively for Achim Wirtz (steel dealer and producer). Several years ago, Achim Wirtz had a small amount (approx. 80 kg) of this steel produced as a test melt as part of a university project. Since then, a few blades made of this material have appeared sporadically. Now there is a new edition of the previous test melt, but this time too only 400kg of steel were produced. So it remains a highly exclusive material. 

The TNT666 is an extremely wear-resistant medium-alloy tool steel with a high achievable hardness, whose wear resistance can easily keep up with that of 1.2562. The steel forms extremely hard titanium-niobium and tungsten-chromium mixed carbides. At the same time, the total content of carbides is still low enough so that fine cutting edges are also possible. A rare material with very good properties. 

The western handle is made of medieval oak with a nickel silver pin. 

A quick note: Apart from PM steels, all of the cutting steels I use are additionally refined during the forging process to ensure the most homogeneous distribution of alloying elements possible. The flat material is precisely ground flat and stacked into packages with a height of at least 60mm. These packages are then fire-welded and forged in the absence of air. The resulting flat steel forms the starting material for San-Mai constructions or mono-steel blades.