What is tungsten carbide, and why is it so widely used for cutting tools? Its combination of hardness, wear resistance and ability to retain a sharp cutting edge makes it suitable for machining everything from timber and MDF to plastics, composites and metals.
There are many different chemical compounds described as carbides, but in the cutting-tool industry the word carbide normally refers to cemented tungsten carbide.
At Prima Tooling, we manufacture and service cutting tools in solid carbide, tungsten carbide tipped (TCT), PCD and HSS, selecting the material and cutting geometry according to the machining application.
What Is Tungsten Carbide?
In chemistry, a carbide is a compound containing carbon combined with another element.
Examples include:
- tungsten carbide
- titanium carbide
- silicon carbide
- chromium carbide
- calcium carbide
These materials have very different properties and applications.
However, when a cutting-tool manufacturer refers simply to carbide, they will normally mean tungsten carbide, or more accurately cemented tungsten carbide.
What Is Tungsten Carbide?
Tungsten carbide is a compound of tungsten and carbon.
For cutting tools, very hard tungsten-carbide particles are combined with a metallic binder, most commonly cobalt. The binder holds — or “cements” — the carbide grains together, which is why the finished material is known as cemented carbide.
The proportion of carbide, binder content and carbide grain size can all be altered to produce different grades.
A grade designed for maximum wear resistance may not be the best choice where a cutting edge is subjected to shock or interrupted cutting. Likewise, a tougher grade may sacrifice some hardness in order to resist chipping.
This is why there is no single universal grade of tungsten carbide suitable for every cutting tool.
Commercial cemented-carbide grades can use different binder percentages and grain structures depending on the application.
How Tungsten Carbide Is Made
Cutting-tool carbide is manufactured using a powder-metallurgy process.
Tungsten-carbide powder is blended with the required binder and other constituents before being compacted into a shape or blank.
The compacted material is then sintered at high temperature. During sintering, the binder helps bond the tungsten-carbide grains together into an extremely dense material.
The resulting carbide blank can then be processed into cutting tools using specialist manufacturing methods such as precision diamond grinding and, depending on the tool, EDM or other machining processes.
This produces a material very different from ordinary tool steel.
Why Tungsten Carbide Is Used for Cutting Tools
Its major advantage is the combination of high hardness and excellent wear resistance.
That allows a correctly designed carbide cutting edge to remain sharp for considerably longer than many conventional tool steels.
Important properties include:
- very high hardness
- excellent abrasive wear resistance
- good compressive strength
- ability to maintain a sharp cutting edge
- high rigidity
- good performance at elevated cutting temperatures
Kennametal’s cutting-tool carbide grades, for example, include grades with hardness values above 90 HRA and densities around 14–15 g/cm³.
The trade-off is that carbide is less tolerant of shock and bending than HSS. Poor machine rigidity, excessive vibration, incorrect cutting conditions or inappropriate tool geometry can cause a carbide edge to chip.
Selecting the correct carbide grade and tool geometry is therefore just as important as choosing carbide itself.
Carbide and Tungsten Carbide – Are They the Same?
In general engineering terminology, carbide can describe many different carbide compounds.
In cutting tooling, however:
“Carbide” usually means tungsten carbide.
More precisely, most solid-carbide cutting tools are made from cemented tungsten carbide rather than a completely pure block of tungsten carbide.
This distinction becomes particularly important when comparing solid-carbide and carbide-tipped tools.
Solid Tools vs Tungsten Carbide Tipped (TCT)
These are not the same tool construction.
Solid Carbide Tools
A solid tool is manufactured predominantly from a cemented tungsten-carbide blank.
Common examples include:
- CNC router cutters
- end mills
- drills
- ball-nose cutters
- compression cutters
- finishing and roughing cutters
Solid carbide is particularly suited to smaller-diameter rotating tools where rigidity, precision and wear resistance are important.
See our Solid Carbide Tooling range for examples.
TCT Tools
TCT stands for Tungsten Carbide Tipped.
A TCT cutter normally uses a steel tool body with separate tungsten-carbide cutting tips brazed onto it.
This construction is particularly useful for:
- larger-diameter cutters
- profiled tooling
- spindle tooling
- groovers
- woodworking cutters
- specialist production tooling
The steel body provides toughness and allows larger or more complex tooling to be manufactured without producing the entire tool from expensive carbide.
See our TCT Cutting Tools page for more information.
What Materials Can It Machine?
The answer depends on the carbide grade, tool geometry and cutting conditions.
These cutting tools are used for machining materials including:
- solid timber
- MDF and HDF
- chipboard and particle board
- plywood
- laminated panels
- plastics
- composites
- aluminium and other non-ferrous materials
- steels and other ferrous materials where an appropriate grade and geometry are used
There is therefore no single “carbide cutter” suitable for every material.
A cutter intended for machining MDF can require very different geometry from one intended for aluminium or steel.
End Mills and CNC Router Cutters
Solid carbide is particularly common in end mills and CNC router tooling.
Its rigidity allows precise cutting geometries to be ground into relatively small tools, including:
- upcut spirals
- downcut spirals
- compression cutters
- ball-nose cutters
- roughing cutters
- finishing cutters
- chipbreaker geometries
- bespoke profile cutters
Prima Tooling manufactures and supplies solid-carbide tooling for CNC and production-machining applications, including bespoke tooling where a standard catalogue cutter is not suitable.
Link this section to your Solid Carbide Tooling page rather than relying only on the old Carbide End Mills page.
Comparison with High-Speed Steel (HSS)
Carbide and high-speed steel (HSS) are both important cutting-tool materials, but they have different strengths.
| Property | Carbide | HSS |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness | Very high | Lower |
| Wear resistance | Excellent | Lower |
| Rigidity | Very high | Lower |
| Toughness | Lower | Higher |
| Resistance to shock | Lower | Better |
| Typical cutting speeds | Generally higher | Generally lower |
| Edge failure | Can chip | More likely to wear/dull |
HSS remains useful where toughness is particularly important, while carbide is often preferred where longer tool life, rigidity and wear resistance are required.
Link carbide vs high-speed steel to the article we have just upgraded.
Choosing Between Solid Tools, TCT and PCD
For many applications the decision is not simply between carbide and HSS.
Prima Tooling manufactures tooling in solid carbide, TCT and PCD, each of which has a different role.
Solid carbide is particularly useful for smaller-diameter precision cutters and router tooling.
TCT allows tungsten-carbide cutting edges to be combined with a strong steel body, making it suitable for larger cutters and complex profiles.
PCD — polycrystalline diamond — offers considerably greater wear resistance and can be particularly effective when machining highly abrasive materials or where extremely long production runs justify the additional tool cost.
The most appropriate material depends on the workpiece, machine, production volume, required finish, cutter dimensions and machining conditions.
Can These Cutting Tools Be Sharpened?
Yes.
A worn carbide tool does not necessarily need to be discarded.
Provided sufficient material remains and the tool has not suffered excessive damage, many carbide cutters can be precision reground and sharpened.
TCT tools can also be serviced, and where technically suitable damaged carbide tips may sometimes be replaced.
Correct sharpening is important because the original hook angles, clearance angles, cutting geometry and concentricity all affect tool performance.
Prima Tooling provides cutting tool sharpening, retipping and repair for both standard and bespoke tooling.
Why Does the Grade Matter?
Two pieces of tungsten carbide that appear identical can perform very differently.
Changing the:
- carbide grain size
- binder percentage
- binder composition
- additional carbide content
changes the balance between hardness, toughness and wear resistance.
For example, increasing toughness may improve resistance to impact but can reduce maximum wear resistance.
Choosing the carbide grade therefore forms part of the tool-design process.
This is particularly important for bespoke cutting tools, where the material should be selected around the actual application rather than simply specifying “carbide”.
Choosing the Right Cutting Tool
The correct cutting tool depends on much more than the material from which it is made.
When specifying tooling, we consider factors including:
- workpiece material
- machine type
- spindle speed
- feed rate
- cutter diameter
- depth of cut
- machining direction
- required surface finish
- production volume
- machine and workholding rigidity
A correctly selected carbide grade combined with suitable cutting geometry can provide excellent tool life and consistent machining performance.
Need Advice on Your Tooling Application?
Prima Tooling manufactures and supplies standard and bespoke carbide cutting tools from our facility in Essex.
Whether you require a replacement cutter, a special profile, a solid-carbide router tool or advice on whether carbide, TCT or PCD is best suited to an application, send us your drawing, existing tool or machining requirements.
Our team can review the application and recommend an appropriate tooling solution.