22 cm Userfriendly "TNT666"

The cutting edge of this 22 cm Userfriendly 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 ability, but at the same time offers enough power reserves for worry-free work. The profile is suitable for all cutting techniques; the more curved cutting edge facilitates "rolling" in the rocking motion.

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 special 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 desert ironwood with a bronze cover plate and 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.