A highly stable electron emitter of surface-processed NbC[110] tips has been developed as a cold field emission source.The surface-processing consists of heating the tip at about 1000-degrees-C in ethylene atmosphere and the subsequent continuous emission of 10-20 muA for more than 30 min. Emission current fluctuations reduce to less than 0.2% under optimum surface-processing. It is concluded that monolayer graphite formed on the tip after surface-processing is greatly related to stabilization of the emission currents.