Panic or Plan?

Is it time to consider recycling our used bits?

By LaTisha Shipman

Panic buying is a thing again, not that I’m promoting it. I think it behooves us all to plan as much as possible. I prefer prepping to panicking.

If you haven’t noticed, the cost of bits has increased significantly over the last six months. Do you remember the good old days when a 6-inch bit cost $395? That was back in the early 2000s when I first started peddling bits. Now, a 6-inch bit cost upwards of $700 to $1100 depending on the manufacturer, bit design, and carbide grade.

I mentioned in my September 2025 column the tungsten crisis we are experiencing due to the availability of mining the raw material (“Multi-Faceted Issue“). Tungsten is primarily sourced from China, which holds 80% of the global market share. Due to trade wars or perhaps supply and demand or even the inflation we are currently experiencing, tungsten has increased more than 200% since late 2025 with no end in sight.

Well, sit tight because it gets worse. There are warning signs of a tungsten shortage coming down the pike. Some carbide manufacturers are essentially rationing the amount of carbide that our bit manufacturers are currently able to order. This is happening right now.

Our bit manufacturers are experts at planning ahead. Most of them place orders six months to a year in advance. It’s hard to imagine the kind of planning that goes into these large-scale manufacturing operations. If only we all planned that far ahead!

I know it seems like I’m preaching doom and gloom, but I think I must present the problem so we can come up with a solution. So, how do we solve this?

Mining in the United States

Tungsten is a beautiful metal, unmatched in its high melting point and tensile strength—making it our best option to use in DTH bits. Tungsten is also used in medical-grade equipment, tooling, electronics, munitions for defense and aerospace, and even electric cars.

Tungsten requires extensive mining and sophisticated processing, and in my research for this column, I learned via the U.S. Geological Survey that there was no commercial mining of tungsten inside the United States between 2015-2019.

So, we could pick back up with mining what little tungsten we have in this country. We are currently importing more than 50% of the supply. But realistically that’s not a quick fix. It can take several years to either reopen an existing mine or to start a new one through exploration.

The mining sector is intricately tied to groundwater. Without the mining industry, we don’t have the raw materials we need to manufacture the products needed to drill the holes, hammers and bits, drill pipe, and rigs which are the same exact products the mining industry uses to farm the raw materials to make the things to drill the holes. It’s a vicious cycle.

Heading to the Bone Piles

I think the easiest, quickest, and most cost-effective fix is a reclamation project. I’ve seen some of your bone piles laying around. For those not in the know, bone piles are the discarded bits or where bits go to die after their jobs are done.

Carbide can be easily removed, but could it be recycled to be used again? It appears there are two common methods to recycling tungsten carbide: the electrolytic method and the zinc method. Both are fairly inexpensive, and doing so would result in sustainable manufacturing and should result in lower cost of goods over time.

I can easily identify one hurdle: not all tungsten carbide is created equal. There are different grades of carbide, so what would happen if we took a pile of bits that had mixed carbide and they got thrown in the furnace together? What would the result look like? Would we be sacrificing the quality of the buttons?

I don’t pretend to have the answers to these questions, but I think it would be beneficial for the carbide manufacturers, bit manufacturers, distributors, and end users to come together to address the problem. After all, the drillers have recyclable materials on hand.

There are warning signs of a tungsten shortage coming down the pike.

Starting a Recycling Program

I know at least one bit manufacturer is actively working to start a reclamation program, and it’s not just the tungsten. The bit bodies can be recycled as well. Bit bodies can be sent back to the forge house to be melted down again, remove the impurities, and re-forged.

Think about how many bits are just dropped off at a local scrap yard or picked up by strangers that show up on your property nosing around. Think about if those were being recycled.

So, why can’t we reverse the process of buying bits and recycle them through the same supply chain? The drillers could turn the bits back into the distributors, who return them to the bit manufacturer, who returns them to the forge house or carbide manufacturer?

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but if properly managed, perhaps recyclable materials could be picked up whenever deliveries are made.

For such a reclamation program to work, everyone involved should be compensated for their participation, whether it be priced per pound or via discounts towards future purchases.

It wouldn’t be fair for drillers or distributors to bear the burden of getting bits gathered for manufacturers to receive materials for recycling, though I realize there is work to be done in refining the products to become usable again.

Recycling carbide could mitigate price volatility due to international conflicts or other large-scale disruptions to the supply chain like what we saw happen during the COVID pandemic in 2020-2021.

One driller can make a big difference. One distributor who has hundreds of drillers as customers can make a bigger difference. And one bit manufacturer who has hundreds of distributors as customers can make a huge difference! The volume compounds as it moves back up the chain of supply.

Ultimately, our carbide manufacturers, forging manufacturers, and bit manufacturers are the experts in what it takes to make this happen.

LaTisha Shipman is in sales for Petra Drilling Supply in Texas. She has more than 20 years of experience in the drilling industry with most of that time spent working in manufacturing with DTH hammers and bits. She can be reached at (817) 517-1308 or tisha@petradrillingsupply.com.