In article , benwoodward.com
says...

Thank you for your replies. TC is a ceramic then.

Umm, I would say not a ceramic. There are many
different definitions of ceramic but I think the
best description of things like WC or TC would
be a "cemented carbide."

Cemented because it's the binder (typically
cobalt) that cements the harder particles
together.

The notion of sintering is actually pretty
complicated - why does the density go up,
and the porosity down, when a bunch of powder
is heated?

Turns out that as the temperature goes up, the
free energy for the boundaries is such that
the minimum energy state of a powder like that
has the maximum contact between grains. I
hesitate to point this out, but that's another
thermodynamic thing.

Jim

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