Tungsten carbide question. . .

proud2deviate

proud2deviate

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Apr 5, 2004
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Hello, all! My first post here in Shop Talk. Hope I have the right forum:o

A while back, I saw an ebay auction for a pound of fine tungsten carbide powder. Ever since then, I've had a silly little question niggling around in my head.

If you were to melt down some nice, soft steel, and add a spoonful or so of the aforementioned powder, (I'm being overly simplistic for the sake of brevity,) might you achieve an ingot of a Wootz-ish steel, suitable for forging into a blade?

If so, would said blade be worth a damn?

(Hope this hasn't been covered before. I tried a search.)
 
The melting point of tungsten is 6150 degrees and steel is 2500 i have no idea how it woud turn out.
 
Any chance of a long answer?:p

Isn't wootz just composed of ultra-hard carbides in a steel matrix? If so, why couldn't the above scenario be made to work?

Just wondering. . .
 
You might get something if you took steel powder and mixed it with tungsten carbide powder in a can and forged it.
 
You would be making what is called a "cemented carbide" or "metal matrix composite". Akin to tungsten carbide cutting tools, which use tungsten carbide suspended in a (typically) cobalt matrix. Usually cobalt and tungsten carbide powders are compacted together (with other constituents) in the desired shape and then heated in a vacuum furnace to the melting point of the cobalt, so it flows around the (much higher melting temp) WC and locks it in.

As mete suggests, perhaps it could be done with steel as the binder through compaction under heat. How malleable it would be (for forging) is questionable. It might likely be somewhat brittle. Nonetheless, I find it an interesting idea from a creative thinking standpoint.
 
carbon has the highest melting point of elements, a couple hundred above tungsten. Why would the tungsten need to melt to go into solution?
 
I guess if the Tungsten Carbide didn't settle out during the transition from liquid to solid for the steel you could have an interesting material on your hands.
 
A few years ago I was doing a billet of Frontier Damascus and without thinking stuck a Dremel tool bit that was broke in the mix.It welded in but didnt stretch,It did bust uo into little chuncks the more I folded and welded the billet.Biggest problem was the fact that when grinding the blade the carbide chunks didnt grind with regular belts and left shiny bumps in the blade...I wouldnt mess with it unless you have something that will grind carbide.

Bruce
 
When it comes to metals I am not knowledgeable like Mete, and Fitzo, and some of you "Metal Manglers" ( I use that term with respect).

But based on experience, given that carbide is is the range of Rockwell C 90+
the only grinding tool I have found to actually cut the carbide is diamond...and I would rather not use a pretty expensive diamond wheel even then...... even to repoint a solid carbide tip I have in a scriber that is chipped or something......
I know a bit off topic....but its not the first time:D
 
I worked with Tungsten Carbide and Diamond (industrial polycrystaline diamond for drill bits used in the oil and natural gas drilling industry). If you had silicone carbide grit you could sharpen tungsten carbide impregnated steel. (we used it as a blasting medium to clean the moly cans off of the diamond substrate). Silicone carbide in a sand blaster will eat right through tungsten carbide, so I assume that a belt (ie grinder belt) or even a sheet impregnated like sand paper would work as well. Of course you could just get diamond sharpners as well.

If you put the tungsten power and forge it into steel (I assume you could mix it in with some other steel power in a crucible and heat the steel to high enough temp). The tungsten would not melt, but it you got it right, you could have tungsten carbide impregnated steel. You could possibly take the billet and fold it many times if the carbide banding was not even from the original attempt. ???

I think you should give it a try and show us the results.
 
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