WURKKOS HD02 MINI EDC Flashlight. Why this is not only a cool looking EDC flashlight but why it's actually a good one.

 WURKKOS HD02 MINI

Main features:

1300LM

204m Beam

90+CRI

Plus a really useful

"Wing Light" (Flood light) for reading etc.

WURKKOS.com flashlights are made by WOKESIDA Technology Co.Ltd. (you guessed it!) in Shenzhen City. 

Wurkkos has been around since 2019. Specialising in the R and D and manufacturing of Flashlights for: EDC, Tactical,  Diving and Camping activities. Most of their flashlights are manufactured using aero space grade 6061 Aluminium alloy and engineered with durability in mind. 

The Wurkkos HD O2 Mini is simply a smaller EDC version of their very cool Wurkkos HD 02 PRO which won the prestigious IF Design award in 2026! The Wurkkos HD 02 Mini is the cut down version but not cut down in functions. To be able to fit comfortably into the pants pocket, one wing flood light is present, we have lost the UV and LASER features of the HD 02 PRO but have retained the magnetic tail cap sporting the 1/4" 20 tripod mount, a super sturdy pocket clip with an all rounded, zero acute pocket damaging design. 

Packed full of features with dimmable lighting solutions, such as red LED to preserve night vision, long run time "Moon light mode", flood and spotlight modes, USB C rechargeable removable 3.7V 900 mAh AA Lithium ion battery. The unit can also be powered via a regular AA and a NiMh AA. (Note the NiMh battery if used can not be charged via the USB C port!). The unit is made from machined 6061 aero space Aluminium alloy. 

Functionally, the HD 02 Mini uses a magnetic Hall effect switch to change modes between flood light, spot and red (660nm) LED light sources. Speaking of LEDs, Wurkkos utilise LED's from leading LED manufacturers such as Luminus, Cree and Nichia (for example the Nichia 519A).

Ok so there are plenty of reviews out there showing the operation of this EDC flashlight and I'm going to say after fully reading the manual (It is also available online too in case you were to lose the included paper copy), it IS easily understood and the light operates exactly as described. However, rather than repeat their reviews showing how this thing operated, I want to focus upon the actual usability of this small pocket sized flashlight. 

This is the stuff I really liked:

Firstly, on the design. So the big brother to this EDC version won an IF design award, so that in itself says something! 

Since this is really just a smaller version of the bigger HD 02 PRO, then one can easily see, at a quick glance it embodies a modern, feel good in the hand look. The geometric design focusing upon a basic rectangular prism gives this small EDC flashlight a look of "Tactical" appearance with a solid feel for such a small light but not a feel of being too heavy. Also despite it's prismatic appearance it is not rough feeling or has any surface which would appear to damage one's pants pocket.

PLUS because of it's design, it won't "roll off a table", since it just doesn't roll!

The magnetic battery cover has a very good thread of generous length. Why do I mention this? Because the biggest beef I have with flashlight manufacturers of EDC lights is that many produce battery covers with almost NO thread length and or of flimsy, extremely fine thread pitch which will be a definitely site of equipment failure. The threads of this small EDC light are however, not flimsy but look like miniature versions of a tungsten carbide core drill I have sitting on my desk LOL!

This EDC light uses a AA battery size, NOT a AAA. OK AAA battery powered EDC lights are ok because you can make the actual light smaller but with lower run time trade offs. One will never get the burn time from a AAA battery, fact. 

Run time for me is paramount, more so than how powerful the light is because ALL modern LED flashlights are powerful when it comes to lumen output. This light is able to produce up to 1300 LM, this is blindingly bright but seriously for EDC, I want a light to run for a long time. 

Say I get caught in the subway (yeah it has happened and the train stops somewhere between stations, all lights out, you can be the guy or gal with the mobile phone, and sure, almost everyone these days is carrying a mobile phone but their capacity for lighting is NOT their virtue, plus phones are definitely easy to drop, one can not grip it like a proper flashlight design. Ok so speaking of run times, they are pretty good.

OK, here are some pertinent specifications:

Spotlight mode Maximum setting

2, 32 and 24 minutes respectively  for the following lighting intensities: 1300 LM,510 LM and170 LM.

Floodlight mode maximum brightness: 30 and 35 minutes for: 400 and 220 LM

Minimum brightness in Floodlight mode 18 LM, 17hr and 6 minutes! Let me tell you right now that at 10 lumens one can easily follow a pathway in complete darkness, just to set the record straight. So 18 LM is more than enough and a continuous run time of 17hours is very good (this is of course with the included Lithium ion battery installed and fully charged).

Moonlight mode at 0.5 lumens is over 60 hours- you can just read a book in total darkness at 0.5 lumens-maybe if you life depended upon it and you had luck on your side 0.5 lumens might get you out of a cave if it was a simple straight line out of there LOL!

The side light The longest run time for minimum mode which is 12 lumens and this is 17 hours and 26 minutes! and the shortest on max and minimum respectively is: 320 &210 LM is 3 minutes and 1hr 28 minutes.

Transport safety

In order to safely lock out this light from accidental switching on during transport, whether that is in the pocket or in a piece of luggage, a safety switch is seen here. I note that when the light is withdrawn from the pocket the safety switch is only directed towards the OFF position if it were to encounter any fabric resistance. That's smart. For the not so attentive, there is of course a small but obvious "pictogram" of how the battery must be inserted into the unit. This of course covers the manufacturer from all those who insert the battery the wrong way, although I would imagine like many modern LED lights reverse polarity protection would be operating. Of course if you are like me travelling all the time through airports, you may actually disable the batteries like me by placing some insulating tape over the  terminals for extra safety for lights carried ONBOARD, as it is of course illegal to transport any lithium ion batteries in the cargo.

Weather Resistance

 It's only splash proof and for me, I wish it were truly IPX68  instead of just IPX6 but this is OK, it's not a light for caving  right? They do state in the manual NOT to submerge this particular model. Noting WURKKOS make many waterproof lights including some kick butt dive lights (Hopefully I will get to review some of these in the future and truly take them UW.). 

The HD 02 is drop resistant to 1.5 m and i think it might damage the concrete should I drop it LOL. 

You can tell I like the design right?

What else do I like? Well that if one chooses to use a regular AA battery, the charge light is a different colour other than green 

Showing 50-100% charge at "solid green"

Time to fully charge included battery is approximately 1.25hr if charged at 5V 0.9A

Power of this unit 13W. 112 grams.

(not that it can be charged, which it can't by the flashlight) but it signals a different battery type is in use.

The unit itself ships with 2 spare tail cap O-rings!

Lastly, this EDC flashlight other than a strobe and SOS does not feature any gimmicky RGB lights or fake cop flashing lights- sure it's probably easy for manufacturers to produce such lights but seriously, those kinds of things are total BS for an EDC light.

Stay tuned for my video discussion about this Wurkkos HD 02 EDC flashlight coming to @BushCampingTools

BCT

You Need to know this before purchasing a water filter for Trekking, hiking and or camping

Different Kinds of Water Filters for Hiking and Why Does It Matter?

Just take a look at this super clear water! Wow! Looks great eh? Super clean, great for swimming etc etc. Well this is what I thought after discovering this area in pristine jungle about 15 years ago. 

Not a person to be found because it's really off any track of any kind and we enjoyed it like this for over the past 15 years, and as the Sierra Club motto goes, we took nothing but photographs and left nothing but foot prints!

Well all that has changed because if you think you have truly found some amazing wilderness, someone else will also discover it eventually. Maybe they see a car parked in the middle of nowhere dirt track/road and start wondering; "what are these guys parked here for"? I know I do LOL! You continue upon your ritual once a year foray into this supposedly "private" region only to find one year there are other cars parked close by to where you left your car but no problems because there is no way they can possibly know what you know! 

Wrong! 

About 4 years ago, not 2-3 km further up river from where the above shot was taken, I remarked to my kid one day how amazing this place truly is and that we have it to ourselves. By the time I had finished the "...selves" I heard noises that were not of the jungle but that of what I couldn't believe and that was the female voice, in fact 2 of them rounding a bend in the river, clad in nothing but bikinis like we were on some cheesy movie set about teenagers surviving after being stranded in the bush! 

Of course I had at the time in my paw a rather large knife, about to cut out a large palm heart from a fallen palm and decided I should cease all such activity lest it startle them. Well, were we surprised, because they certainly weren't surprised to see us and even less surprised by the chopper in my hands as it retreated into it's scabbard! So what were they doing here? Two high school leavers, simply in their words "going for a walk". Seriously, in bikinis 7km up a trackless river? Yes seriously! Well how adventurous and great that was and we exchanged stories and wished them luck in their future endeavours etc etc. before they went their way. 

My point of this little story was that our pristine (it was still pristine then) bit of paradise was now on the list somehow of things to do for school leavers LOL. Fast forward to just 3 years ago back in 2023 we were again in this area only to find two drunken guys (yes drunk as evidenced by the plethora of empty beer bottles)  brandishing machetes, busily chopping down palm trees like no tomorrow (as only an inebriated person could) to make some sort of platform out across the river to lay upon. They greeted us (a little surprised) waving machetes in a friendly way as we passed them as they chuckled to themselves stumbling over river rocks at the same time still gripping their machetes! 

With the exception now of the beer bottles from our previous years friends, still scattered about in 2026 (we brought them back with us) the place looked still in good nick with the exception of the now looking very much worse for wear, their jungle platform was all but rotted and in disarray from no doubt some serious river action as in flooding over the past 3 years since we have travelled this way. At least that's what we thought.

 What were we doing there anyway? Certainly not celebrating leaving school or on a drunken binge playing survival of the fittest! No, we were doing some fossicking for semi precious stones. This is still an undocumented area for such things and our previous encounters with others, clearly demonstrated they were only there for "a good time" and certainly not competition.

However, it was shockingly clear that upon turning over some harmless looking stones (looking for gems) by the once pristine river that these actions revealed some sinister threat to the "clean river concept in the middle of nowhere". My son yelled not in excitement of finding some huge semi precious stone but rather finding a huge and not entirely old, stinking human turd! 

Disgusting! as he came within inches of accidentally actually touching it! So no longer could we imbibe directly from this seemingly pristine river originating from the middle of nowhere and travelling through the middle of nowhere!  Obviously, we were not the only ones coming here.

So what about water filters?

So this brings me to my point about water filters. They are useful if you don't want to get sick and while you may think you are truly in the middle of nowhere, this at best will only be a matter of time, trust me. Now what harm could come about from drinking such water polluted with human excrement? Well, you could easily ingest someone else's E. coli (Escherichia coli) 

False coloured SEM micrograph of E.coli bacteria.

and  this could prove to be very serious, the scope of which is beyond this article (go check it out if you're interested). 

However, let me say this: you could contract Hepatitis A, as it's easily transmitted via a fecal route from water and or food etc.

Presumptive hepatitis-like particles (the round looking things!) as seen with negative staining in a TEM micrograph.

 and then you may end up with liver damage at the end of the day (ok, not the end of the day literally, but after several weeks-the virus needs time to multiply (replicate) inside of you).

 The rule is generally to boil water for at least ten minutes to kill all viruses and other microbial pathogens, whether free swimming and or cysts or eggs of those same pathogens. Boiling water at sea level ie 100C is a great idea if you firstly have the time to do so and secondly, something to boil water in which is going to be a useful volume for everyone to drink. You must have time up your sleeve, as unless you are drinking tea or coffee, both not very good to rehydrate with as they are both strong diuretics (ie they will probably make you piss more than you retain) you will have to wait around to imbibe from that precious boiled water. 

In with the water filter. Hold on, which water filter? As nowadays there are literally dozens of different water filters for hikers, trekkers and campers. The type of water filter you choose should: 

1)  Reflect the region to which you are planning to travel through, ie the level of expected contamination* 

2) How much time to you have on your journey? The shorter the time the bigger the necessity for quickly filtering water and especially if the travel party is large, ie more than 2, and being able to move on, yes, twenty minutes standing around filtering water can make a difference between navigating to a campsite in the pitch dark or a comfortable stroll into the campsite during daylight hours. Sure one can do the trek in the dark to campsites, We've done it countless times but this was not as a result of hanging around to filter water.

3) What you can afford, because the sky is the limit when it comes to portable water filters. (to include spare parts, user serviceable parts etc.)

4) How often will you use it? (tied into point 3 ) and this point introduces, disposable and long term usage.

Hand pumped units

Hand pumped units have been, for a very long time, the favourite amongst the trekking fraternity. Generally small in size, replaceable long term filter inserts and able to filter out both viruses and bacteria along with protozoans and their respective cysts. Prices were/are dictated by the sturdiness of construction, ie all plastic versus metal and plastic, plus ease of use. In my experience with water filter usage over the past thirty odd years (nothing has changed) hand pumped units are great BUT they do require one has some stamina and at least one working arm in order to extricate your clean drinking water, since there is definitely some effort required especially for systems which use ceramic filters. The positives for such filters are that they are relatively easily serviceable (especially in the field-without special tools) and they are usually very sturdily constructed and are of course self priming. They are generally unaffected by the head pressure and thus one can pump water from easily 2m below oneself (possibly more provided you have a long enough hose). 

Water bottle type filters

Only good for one person (pushing it for two, if water access is easy), all plastic construction, usually good ones the filter is replaceable as it will have limited capacities. One must be able to easily access the water in order to fill it. Ok you could lower a container to the water (if possible) and bring it to the filter unit.

Pros: relatively cheap to own and operate

Downsides: Low volume produced and slow to actually drink from. Short duration day hiking.

"Life straws"

- Emergency use only

Pros: Easy to carry

Cons: Limited for emergency use only and short duration use. Single person usage only (especially if contamination/ infection is a high risk situation) No capacity for filtering viruses!

Featured Product

Battery powered water filters 

Battery powered water filters have an advantage over manually operated ones, in that they are able to filter water at a considerably faster rate, since it is an electric pump doing the work. Since this is the case, such water filters can capitalise upon different filter media, such as but not limited to, Ahlstrom Disruptor water filter material. This material was developed approx back in 2002 under two successive NASA  research grants via a NASA spin off company Argonide Corporation.

(You can read all about it here)

Argonide Corporation developed a technology called Nano Ceram and it is this which they licensed to Ahlstrom in Finland to mass produce these filters which are essentially nano alumina fibres, marketed under the brand name of "Disruptor". This type of filter works on a completely different manner than a physical removal via tortuous pathway through a ceramic filter with pore size much less than disease causing viruses. The "Disruptor" filter media when in contact with water, develops a positive charge and this positive charge attracts microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria, along with spores, cysts and other small particles, due to the fact that such small things naturally carry a negative charge. It's that simple, despite the technology behind it. 

For example: this unit seen below

is basically an electric, rechargeable lithium ion battery powering a small pump, which enables it to draw water (no priming necessary), firstly through a pre filter (not shown in this image) based upon the hollow fibre filtration technology, then passing this pre-filtered water through an Ahlstrom Disruptor filter, which can remove up to 99.9999% bacteria and 99.999% viruses along with other small particulate matter. The Ahlstrom filter also incorporates a carbon element as well as to remove many heavy metals and or coloured impurities/odours. The biggest advantage of such a filter is one of speed. For example: the unit we review from ITEHIL, can produce 700ml/minute for up to 4-5 hours (on one charge) dependent upon how contaminated the source water is! 

All filters are replaceable and the unit is of course easily recharged via a USB C port which can also double as a power bank, along with a built in solar panel, the unit can be recharged (dependent upon the available sunlight and strength) via this solar array. Typically for Chinese manufacturers, always wanting to please as many people as possible, this unit also features a built in flashlight (2 power settings and one Morse code setting). Don't laugh about the power bank feature either. As someone who is regularly going away from the grid, have power is mandatory for comms and (not so critical) cameras etc. Having a light on the unit can also enable one to actually use it independent of a headlamp or other such light source.

Anyway, check out my video field review of this water filter system (I call it a system because it actually incorporates two types of water filter technology) coming out tomorrow Friday 23rd October @BushCampingTools

BCT

* We are only talking about contamination from microbes and not heavy metals and or industrial pollution.

 

Extrema Ratio Tuscan Revisited Why this TANTO is great, an in depth appraisal

 Extrema Ratio TUSCAN

The Extrema Ratio TUSCAN is one big kahuna of a TANTO!

Made from a 1/4" slab of Böhler's N690** cobalt high Chromium stainless steel, sporting an ergonomic non slip grip of G10. This was/is Extrema Ratio's answer to all of those who insist upon a "full tang" knife where we see for the first time a tang which is the full width of the handle. Make no mistake though, their tapering tangs seen in all of their current military offerings are more than robust enough to take an extreme beating in the military arena and for all those who push their blades from them (LOL, like me!).

The Tuscan also comes in a full satin finish (shown below) for those who want the above kick butt features but who also insist upon a blade which is totally food safe. Of course, this satin blade would NOT be appropriate for covert operations unless you wanted to signal your adversaries your position.

Image courtesy of Extrema Ratio S.R.L.

Just look at the spine thickness. But don't be misled, this isn't some overweight tank which is slow to move. The handle of course has been carefully milled 

in order to produce a blade which is NOT handle heavy, otherwise a knife (ANY knife for that matter) becomes uncomfortable to use for any length of time as the weight isn't correctly distributed, FACT.

As a production knife the TUSCAN looks and feels like a custom build with the funky milling of the G10 scales and the expertly stitched scabbard.

It's no good having a good knife and the carry system is just ma ma, because this will be the thing which fails first and you will be left in a crappy situation of how to carry a blade.

The serviceability of such a knife design is easy as, as there is simply one large straight edge and only a small curvature at the tip, hence even a beginner at sharpening will be able to keep such a tool sharp.

haven't seen it in action yet? Still undecided?

Then check this out here: 

** Also available in Böhler's S600 kick butt tungsten industrial proven and field proven tool steel!

Why this Industrial Tool Steel IS the BEST All Round Knife Steel

 We have to get over this thing about super steels because there has been one around for ages but no one wants to know about it.

When it comes to marketing, the knife world could win hands down. Well maybe a close competitor would be  marketing connected to car sales or the mobile phone industry. However, the world of knife marketing has something which neither of the aforementioned has, and that is it is driven mostly by the consumers who are all that is needed to market the brands they quest after. In other words they convince themselves they must have it and what they are buying is the best because it is the hardest toughest meanest (just joking) knife steel out there. forget applications, just worry about the edge and how to sharpen it LOL!

Ok all jokes aside!

Let me explain.

There are 2 basic categories when it comes to cutting blades: 1) Industrial Purposes,  and 2) non industrial.

 Let's talk about food.

Cutting implements produced for sole purpose of cutting food to be directly consumed.

A) Non Industrial usage, for which many of us are familiar with, for example domestic home usage. 

Domestic Usage , ie cutting tools for the purpose of direct eating, for example one's knives (of the knife and fork routine) for those who use a knife and fork-remember many do not). As far as latest and greatest knife steels for this sector, it's a done deal as pretty much 18/8 stainless steel has been the choice for countless years due to ease of manufacture and the relatively cheapness of the raw materials, plus the longevity and durability over generations. There is simply no need to introduce anything more complicated, it works, as it satisfies all of the consumers requirements including final finish and yes, dishwasher safe!

There is a slight cross over between home usage use in  the Commercial Kitchen/Restaurant/Cafe. In the latter case, slightly higher grades of high carbon stainless steels and or carbon blades start to appear, however basically the dominant knife steel grades are those of high chromium and ease of resharpening. The important thing to remember is that these are areas of high product abuse. 

Also note here it's not just about steel compositions and hardness it's more about being made "food safe" in terms of design and that means dishwasher proof against harsh corrosive high alkaline detergents.

B) Industrial (2 categories)

(i) Cutting blades for the food processing industry.

 This is an industry where blades must perform vast numbers of repetitive actions without failure and where the steel must also satisfy the requirements of food safety. These steels must have a good balance between high corrosion resistance (often the environment is "wet" and be able to maintain an almost service free cutting edge. Here we start to see higher grades of steels being used such as but not limited to: the 200, 300 and 400 grade stainless steels, with the 400 series producing longer lasting cutting edges. All of these grades must make the food grade standards ie not to leach any contaminants into the food being processed. There are of course international standards in place that need to be satisfied in order to allow one to manufacture cutting implements that can be used with food. For example: EC 1935/2004 for European standards. ISO 22000 Food safety management, this is a global food safety management standard. GB 4806 is the Chinese standard for within China. These are but several standards in regards to standards for food cutting implements.

(ii)  Steels developed for industrial cutting and high hardness wear resistance applications. (no food stuffs involved).

These are steels used to cut any material other than food items. The properties of these steels (hence the cutting edge) are the following: resistance to: impact; corrosion resistance, high hardness, high hardness at high temperature operation without loss of temper; high durability, ie high toughness; relatively cost effective dependent upon the tooling applications and the end products.

High hardness applications which do not involve cutting implements such a bearing production.

It is the above industry which has driven the development of new knife steels as we know it and it is this same industry where the majority of metallurgical research and development has and is occurring. 

I purposefully include the above table because a certain knife steel notably 440C which had it's origins in industry especially in the bearing world, made it's way into the general public as this super knife steel, highly resistant to corrosion and able to maintain a very good edge. It made a huge appearance in the scuba  diving world with countless dive knives being manufactured with it.  A high carbon, high chromium "new" knife steel was introduced which had been around for ages in the industrial world. 

Today 440C is still around in the knife world and despite what many would tell you, 440C is still an excellent knife steel for many reasons, those reasons proven countless times within industry. Of course there has been a plethora of other knife steels developed since the 1960's. I can remember as a kid in Australia 440C being touted a great knife steel back in the mid 70's! 

Since then, as mentioned above, there have been many "new" knife steels introduced with probably the next "great knife steel" was ATS 34 developed by Hitachi in Japan, 

ATS 34 still (in 2026) a great knife steel make no mistake about that!

High tech heat treatment with ATS-34 yields excellent results, eg Linder's "super Edge series of knives for outdoor usage.

which featured approximately X5 the amount of Mo compared with that of 440C and hence making the steel tougher and hence knives being able to be made harder than HRC 59 eg ATS-34 and retain good toughness of which can be reliably hardened up to 60-61 HRC. 

Two other knife steels in common usage throughout the general public, have both "migrated", you guessed it, from industry, they are of course D2 (12% C, sometimes erroneously referred to as a "semi stainless steel") 

A military grade knife made with D2

Air hardening D2, a proven knife steel

[and variations such as K340 (8%Cr)- actually 8%Cr is WAYless than 12% Cr] and N690 (stainless high Cobalt, high Chromium). 

Now D2 needs no introduction other than to say it is a commonly used steel for the production of dies and cutting tools and despite it's "common" ranking amongst knife aficionados, also makes for an excellent outdoor knife steel. The same is for K340 with a relatively recent introduction to the outdoor knife world (circa 2016 where Russian companies were pioneering the use of this steel outside of industrial processing). Today, we see companies such as Halfbreed Blades using the same premium ISO DUR version of K340

K340 ISO DUR is manufactured using  an electro slag process

(Halfbreed Blades- if you ever read this please please make some models uncoated, K340 is ok not coated!)

as their "GEN 2" versions of their military and outdoor knife production. In fact for this company the majority of their products are manufactured with K340 ISO DUR.

Some other tool steels

Another popular tools steel today is Japanese made SK 85, a tools steel with exceptional edge holding capacity and can be tempered as flexible as a sword (check products by Work Tuff Gear!)

Tools steels rock, don't be a snob, they are industry proven!

N690 stainless tool steel, is also in common usage in the knife world, especially from the main players in the Italian knife manufacturing scene; a steel which as mentioned made it's debut in industrial milling tools where milling tools needed to be developed with high hardness retention under high temperature without the loss of temper.

N690 also at home in the woods (when it's wet LOL).

 N690 also has superior corrosion resistance to the chloride ion and excellent edge retention and can be easily sharpened. It is a stainless steel perfectly suited to harsh wet/humid environments which can be commonly encountered in out of doors applications. 

N690, a very good resistance to the chloride ion. Great choice for coconut bashing on the beach!

We must remember it IS the Operating Environment which should dictate the knife steel choice for the consumer and not hardness alone, the latter which seems to be obsessed over in a fanatical way by many. 

Fast forward to today for another example of specialist treatment and innovations in metallurgical processes we have Nitro X7, 

New technologies, new ways of making steels with ESR and  above atmospheric ESR are changing the way we look at Nitrogen as an alloying element in knife steels.

a steel which although not produced by the super precise methods of powder metallurgical steel production, yet shows a microstructure comparable if not better than some PM steels!

3V a classic "early" (almost 30 years ago) Powder steel formulation

 Classic V3 Powder metallurgical Steel Do I really see a difference in sharpness retention compared with non Powder steels? Answer: No not really and BTW Benchmade were heat treating (to a far greater HRC) way above what Crucible were recommending for 3V!

Nitro X7 (a stainless steel)which can be reliably heat treated to HRC 63! 

Nitro X7 builds upon much metallurgical research into the controlled introduction of the element Nitrogen into the steel alloy and retention during and after ingot production.

Nitro X7 the new (proven) kid on the block

Now if we are still not satisfied with a HRC of 63, let us now turn to yet another industry standard high speed milling steel, and that is S600 or M2 and similar. S600 has been a "go to" choice in industry for many years.

(BTW I own some original Gerbers made with M2 steel)

S600 has the following properties:

Exceptional wear resistance

High hardness (possible for >HRC 64!)

High thermal stability (ok not so important for outdoor knives)

Ability to withstand high mechanical loads

High resistance to abrasion

High resistance to pressure, deformation and fatigue.

What is S600?

 It is a W-Mo-V high speed tool steel commonly used throughout the oil and gas industry.

Let's see what the product manufacturer has to say:

                                 Dirty bark a test for all knife steels

                                        

          Some basic data regarding S600

In the above applications table, pay particular attention to the applications of:

"industrial knives", "machine knife","special cutting tools" "twist drills and taps".

Where am I heading here? Well it's clear that certainly based upon industry usage and what's on paper, S600 appears to be a rather excellent choice for those seeking a long lasting (as in super sharp) high Rockwell hardness steel without a brittle edge. 

Serious outdoor knives also need a good geometry

Ok so now to meat of this article!

Here's the deal, just the facts. I think I'm probably the ONLY guy who regularly tests knives and outdoor products across the globe. 

Extra abrasion and sea salt, the enemy of the knife blade

YES, that's right, across the globe, because my real daytime job (which has about zero to do with outdoor products) allows me to do so, ie travel across both hemispheres and this is clearly (at least to my mind and my astute followers-if there are still any left LOL) shown in the varying environments seen in my videos on https://www.youtube.com/@BushCampingTools

So that being said, I can test products on all sorts of vegetation (dead or alive) under varying different environments to see how do they really hold up. What is comfortable at minus 10C and what is comfortable at plus 30C?; Is it corrosion proof in super high humidity of the jungle or salt spray? 

Where freshwater meets the sea

Does it hold an edge after working both northern hemisphere hardwoods and then later southern hemisphere hardwoods? Both northern and Southern hemisphere species are challenge for any knife edge. How long does a knife edge last when working in such natural environments?

It's going to get wet, it is the coast

Salt spray  (back of beach)

Salt spray no problem for N690

Humid jungle environment also no problem for N690

Knife testers (on youtube as apposed to "entertainers" for example the Dutch Bushcraft "boys" -their words not mine) solely performing tests indoors do so (I would hope so) to attempt to mitigate the vast variability of the wilds and provide some sort of semi pseudo scientific evidence of the stability of a knife edge. 

However, no one is cutting reams of A4 paper, nor kilometres of hemp ropes etc. etc. in the wilds. Nor is ANYONE smashing through a car chassis either.

During real usage knife edges are contacting dirt, rocks, and countless hard objects in the super variable wilds. The thin edges are exposed to chloride ions from sweat and salt spray to food acids and blood and guts, bone, skin, fish scales, dirt impregnated bark et. etc. Knife edges are dragged sideways etc. etc.

Knife users too, during real usage, are not standing by an ergonomic bench or table but could be in any position (or with wet greasy hands), so that handle comfort and ergonomics will definitely play key roles in how useful that knife is to them regardless of the steel but more about geometry of the entire construction.

  So in all of these real world adventures with knives, certainly a steel which I have still yet to seriously* sharpen is that on my S600  ONTOS II from the Italian company Extrema Ratio. 

Now let's be clear here,  it is NOT my go to knife for working in very humid or wet conditions despite the excellent blade coating however all of that being said I personally find little rusting if any along the actual knife edge (the only exposed raw steel surface). 

Despite S600 not being recommended for corrosive environments it is used in the oil and gas industry for mining tools and also no problems with food acids (Note: the above knife is NOT listed as food safe due to the knife coating see my blog on food safe blade coatings).

An S600 knife is one you can bash away with, chop away with, hack away with and cut like no tomorrow, simply without the need to resharpen the blade for very long periods in the field. But an S600 knife is not for you if you are lazy and let your knives go blunt before resharpening, because at HRC 64 you will be really putting in the time.

I would choose a blade with more Chromium in solid solution for higher corrosive environments. That being said, wet environments doesn't stop S600 being used in the oil and gas industries. Besides that, one is supposed to clean off their blades after use in the field LOL!

BCT

* I mean sit down with gear probably not intended for field use and spend at least one hour at the job- or even with non bench sharpening tools spend at least 30 minutes on the knife edge.