Tungsten carbide, explained in plain English by people who buy it
This handbook covers what tungsten carbide is made of, how it behaves, how to tell it from steel and from tungsten, where it is used and what moves its price. We buy tungsten carbide in any form: ship it to us from any state and we pay the shipping, or we pick it up in every city in California, Arizona and Nevada, so ask for a quote when you have some.
- Density of tungsten carbide (WC)
- 15.6 g/cm³ source
- Hardness, Mohs scale
- approximately 9 source
- Vickers hardness across grades
- about 800 HV10 to 2800 HV10 source
- Melting point of WC
- 2,785°C source
- Cobalt in commercial grades
- generally 3% to 16% source
- US tungsten used in cemented carbide
- an estimated 60% (USGS MCS 2026, 2025 data) source
Used inserts, end mills, a broken rod and drill bits on grey linen
- Family owned and operatedWe buy carbide in any form
- Ship it from any stateWe pay the shipping
- Pickup in CA, AZ and NVEvery city in all three
- Paid in cashWhere state law allows it
Tungsten carbide properties, uses and value, page by page
What it is made of
How it behaves
Hardness
How hard it is, how it is measured, and the toughness it trades for it
Density and the weight check
Weigh and measure a piece, and see whether it reads like carbide
Is it conductive?
Electricity and heat: how carbide carries both
Melting point and heat
Where it melts, where it starts to oxidize, and what that means at the tool edge
How it compares
Where it is used
What tungsten carbide is
Tungsten carbide (WC) is a compound of tungsten and carbon, and the carbide in cutting tools and wear parts is a cemented carbide: very hard WC grains held together by a tougher metal binder, usually cobalt. In the two grades the International Tungsten Industry Association (ITIA) pictures, one with 6% and one with 20% cobalt, WC particles 1 to 2 microns across sit in a tough cobalt alloy matrix.
The trade uses three names for the same material: hardmetal, cemented carbide, or just carbide. A US government report notes that sintered carbide is used as well.
Each half of the mix has a job. The tungsten carbide gives the hardness, and the cobalt binder gives the toughness, the resistance to chipping and cracking.
ITIA's typical example is 90% WC with 10% cobalt, a mix called a straight grade. A National Toxicology Program (NTP) report says commercial grades generally run from 3% to 16% cobalt.
A grade is a particular carbide mix, and its two main settings are cobalt content and grain size, the size of the WC grains. More binder makes a grade tougher and less hard; in general, finer grains and less cobalt make it harder and better at resisting abrasion.
So carbide has no single hardness number. ITIA gives a span from about 800 HV10 (Vickers hardness), near a high-strength steel, to 2800 HV10, near a hard ceramic. NTP puts tungsten carbide at about 9 on the Mohs scale, slightly less hard than diamond. The hardness and grades pages go further.
It is made by powder metallurgy. The WC, cobalt and any other powders are milled into a mix and pressed or shaped, then sintered: heated to 1,350 to 1,550°C (2,462 to 2,822°F), which increases diffusion between binder and carbide and eliminates voids and pores.
ITIA puts the lateral shrinkage during sintering at 17 to 24%, yet the part keeps its shape. Tungsten carbide itself melts at 2,785°C (5,045°F) in NTP's table, far above the 1,495°C (2,723°F) of its cobalt binder. The steps are on how tungsten carbide is made.
Sources: ITIA: Cemented carbides, a success story (newsletter, June 2010); ITIA: Applications and markets; ITIA: Properties and intermediates; NTP Report on Carcinogens background document: cobalt-tungsten carbide (2010); NTP Report on Carcinogens profile: cobalt-tungsten carbide; LLNL via OSTI: cobalt binder in cemented WC (2018).
How to tell whether a piece is carbide
Weigh it against its size. The cobalt grades in the table weigh about 1.7 to 1.9 times as much as pure iron of the same volume, so density is the first thing to check.
Pure WC comes to about 15.6 to 15.7 g/cm³: NTP lists 15.6, and NIST gives 15.68 at 298 K (about 25°C). Real grades read lower, because cobalt is lighter, at 8.900 g/cm³ in NIST's table.
| Material | Density, g/cm³ | Times pure iron |
|---|---|---|
| Tungsten metal (ITIA, NIST) | 19.25 to 19.30 | 2.44 to 2.45 |
| Tungsten carbide, WC (NTP, NIST at 298 K) | 15.6 to 15.68 | 1.98 to 1.99 |
| WC with 3.7% cobalt by weight, commercial grade | 15.17 | 1.93 |
| WC with 6.0% cobalt by weight, commercial grade | 14.91 | 1.89 |
| WC with about 19% cobalt by weight, part at 96.2% of theoretical density (ORNL) | 13.1 | 1.66 |
| P grades for machining steel, representative values (NTP) | 8.5 to 13.4 | 1.08 to 1.70 |
| Cobalt (NIST) | 8.900 | 1.13 |
| Pure iron (NIST) | 7.874 | 1.00 |
The last column is each density divided by iron's 7.874. Tungsten metal sits above every carbide figure in the table; tungsten vs tungsten carbide covers that difference.
Two cautions. Steel-cutting P grades add mixed carbides of titanium, tantalum or niobium to the WC, ITIA says, and NTP's representative P grades are much lighter, so a light reading does not rule carbide out. And ASTM warns that density alone cannot evaluate a cemented carbide grade, since two or more ingredients can offset each other and land on the expected number with the wrong composition.
Shape alone does not settle it. High-speed steel (HSS) is a tool steel holding 1.5 to 20% tungsten, and ITIA says about 95% of it goes into machining tools such as drills, taps, milling cutters and saw blades, so a drill or a cutter in your hand could be either one.
The density and weight check works the number out for you from a measured rod, a block, or a weighing in water, and carbide vs HSS sets the two materials side by side.
Sources: NTP Report on Carcinogens profile: cobalt-tungsten carbide (density table); NIST ceramics data portal: tungsten carbide density; OSTI: commercial WC-Co grade densities (2023); ORNL via OSTI: WC-Co part with about 19% cobalt (2019); NIST X-ray attenuation table: element densities; ITIA: Properties and intermediates; NTP Report on Carcinogens background document (2010); ASTM B311-22: density of cemented carbides; ITIA: Tungsten in steel (newsletter, December 2008); ITIA: Cemented carbides, a success story (newsletter, June 2010).
Why used carbide is worth selling
A worn or broken carbide tool still holds its tungsten and cobalt, and recycling can turn that scrap back into raw material. Indexable inserts, the small replaceable cutting tips of insert tooling, are typically above 80% tungsten, ITIA says.
Carbide is where most US tungsten goes, and scrap is an important source of it. USGS estimates that in 2025 about 60% of the tungsten consumed in the United States went into cemented carbide parts for cutting and wear-resistant uses (Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026), and tungsten has not been mined commercially in the country since 2015. The 2025 edition of the same report calls scrap an important source of raw material for the tungsten industry.
The cobalt counts as well. About 9% of US cobalt goes into cemented carbides, and in 2025 purchased scrap supplied 25% of estimated US cobalt consumption (USGS, MCS 2026).
Tungsten and cobalt are both on the final 2025 US List of Critical Minerals, published in November 2025. An earlier USGS study notes that higher cobalt prices encourage the recycling of cemented carbides, which contain both cobalt and tungsten.
Clean, sorted hard scrap such as used inserts can go through the zinc process, which dissolves the binder without changing the carbide's composition, so it can be reused in a new batch that needs the same or a similar composition. The chemical route can reuse almost any type of carbide scrap and converts it into virgin APT (ammonium paratungstate), the major high-purity intermediate for most tungsten products.
ITIA says most soft scrap, such as grinding sludge and powders, and most unsorted hard scrap is recycled the chemical way.
Worn, chipped or broken, it is still carbide. We buy tungsten carbide in any form, from inserts and end mills to rods, dies and mining bits: read how selling to us works, or send the form with what it is, about how much it weighs and a few photos.
Sources: ITIA: Recycling of tungsten, part 1 (newsletter, May 2018); USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Tungsten; USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025: Tungsten; USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Cobalt; USGS: final 2025 List of Critical Minerals; USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028: tungsten recycling; USGS Open-File Report 01-349: carbide recycling routes; ITIA: Recycling of tungsten, part 2 (newsletter, August 2019).
Two ways to sell us your carbide
Ship it
- Send the form with a weight and a few photos.
- Get our quote.
- Ship it to us. We pay the shipping.
We pick it up
- Send the form with a weight and a few photos.
- Get our quote.
- We come to you, in any city in the three states, and pay you in cash where state law allows.
Where we buy
- California, Arizona and Nevada: we come to you, in every city.
- Every other state: ship it to us and we pay the shipping.
Questions people ask
Is tungsten carbide the same as tungsten?
No. Tungsten is a metal element. Tungsten carbide is a compound of tungsten and carbon, and the carbide in tools is that compound held in a metal binder, usually cobalt. Tungsten metal is the heavier of the two and the softer one. Tungsten vs tungsten carbide sets them side by side.
Is tungsten carbide conductive?
Yes. It conducts electricity well enough to be cut by EDM (electrical discharge machining), which shapes a part with sparks instead of a cutting edge, and it carries heat well too. The details are on is tungsten carbide conductive.
Why do machinists pick carbide over high-speed steel?
Carbide stays hard over a wide range of temperatures, so its edge holds up in the heat of a fast cut. High-speed steel is the tougher of the two, but it loses hardness when it gets hot. Carbide vs HSS compares them.
Is tungsten carbide toxic?
The concern is dust. The US National Toxicology Program lists cobalt-tungsten carbide powders and hard metals as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen, and it says dusts containing both can come from making, finishing or maintaining hard-metal parts, such as sharpening or grinding. There is no need to grind, crush or cut parts before you sell them; send them as they are. More on carbide dust and cobalt.
What forms of tungsten carbide do you buy?
Any form: inserts, end mills, drills, rods, saw tips, dies, wear parts and mining or road bits, worn or unused, sorted or mixed. We also buy exotic metals and alloys. Ship it from any state and we pay the shipping, or we pick it up in every city in California, Arizona and Nevada.
How do I get a quote, and how am I paid?
Send the quote form with what form the carbide is in, about how much it weighs and a few photos, email help@carbidebuyerus.com, or call us. We pay cash where state law allows it. Arizona and Nevada limit cash for scrap metal sales at or above set dollar amounts, and selling tungsten carbide explains those rules.
Have tungsten carbide to sell?
Tell us what form it is in and about how much it weighs, and add a few photos. Ship it from any state and we pay the shipping, or we pick up anywhere in California, Arizona and Nevada.