"Cliff" wrote in message
...
I never considered it a metal. I know better.

Cliff:

Perhaps an olive branch, here. Tungsten carbide, the compound, is not a
metal, although it manifests many of the properties of metals. Technically
speaking, it's a ceramic, averaging out about 1:1, atom-to-atom, Wolfram to
Carbon.

However, tungsten carbide _tooling_ is an alloy or solution of the compound
and metal (usually cobalt). Just as carbon is not a true metal (yet
manifests a number of metal-like properties), I think we can all accept a
solution of carbon and iron as being one of the more familiar metals.

It may be that pure WxCx is used in tooling, but I cannot remember seeing
that. I believe it's too brittle in that form to be useful.


LLoyd