It is now well-established that cemented carbides exhibit outstanding mechanical properties, combining the hardness of the ceramic phase with the toughness of the binder phase, as compared to other materials used for engineering and tooling applications. It has been extensively documented on the basis of indentation hardness and bending strength tests, mostly conducted on WC-Co grades. On the other hand, knowledge on the mechanical properties of cemented carbides with different binder, such as Ni, which are receiving increased attention, are scarce. In doing so, particular emphasis is placed on assessing microstructural characteristics, mechanical features such as hardness, transverse rupture strength, fracture toughness, fatigue limit and fatigue crack growth rate, and the corresponding fractographic analysis. The use of nickel, in a fine microstructure, appears to provide results as good as those found for cobalt bound ones in terms of toughness and fatigue resistance.

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