On Monday, April 30, 2018 at 10:40:37 AM UTC-7, Terry Coombs wrote:

molten glass . There's a glass bead maker here that wants me to make
some rods for making the beads . The "working end" of these , that is in
actual contact with the glass , is carbideÂ* , the "handle" is steel ..

If you don't want to burn your hand, a section of stainless tube has
less heat conductivity than solid steel...

So, what carbide is it? SiC, B4C, WC are all carbides, one would hope
that it's a bit of tungsten carbide composite (cobalt metal is what the
braze sticks to), but it doesn't hurt to ask. Even C2/C4 could make a
difference.