High-speed steel vs Tungsten carbide
High-speed steel and Tungsten carbide are genuine alternatives to one another — a choice somebody actually makes — and differ on 1 measured property, density most clearly.
High-speed steel vs Tungsten carbide
These are different kinds of thing (alloy, compound). Fewer properties mean the same thing across both, so a like-for-like reading may not be available.
High-speed steel
Tool steel that stays hard when it is red hot — which is what let machine tools run fast enough to change manufacturing.
Tungsten carbide
WC
Tungsten and carbon in a structure almost as hard as diamond and far tougher — the material nearly every cutting tool has an edge of.
| Property | High-speed steel | Tungsten carbide |
|---|---|---|
| Density | 8–8.7 g/cm³ | 15.6–15.8 g/cm³ higher |
| Melting point Only one of the two has a figure we can stand behind, so there is nothing to compare. | Not known | 2870 °C |
| Mohs hardness Only one of the two has a figure we can stand behind, so there is nothing to compare. | Not known | 9–9.5 |
| Vickers hardness Only one of the two has a figure we can stand behind, so there is nothing to compare. | 800–950 HV | Not known |
Choosing between them
High-speed steel is recorded as a substitute for Tungsten carbide — cheaper, easier to work.
What it gives up: Softens above about 600 °C where carbide does not, so it cuts perhaps a third as fast.
In this application, on the evidence cited above.