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High-speed steel scrap: HSS and cobalt drills, taps and cutters
The high speed steel scrap price for a lot comes down to its grade and how cleanly it is sorted, because M7 drills, cobalt M42 end mills, T-grade tool bits and loose turnings each hold different amounts of tungsten, molybdenum and cobalt. We buy HSS in all of those forms, quote each lot from photos and weight, and pay cash where state law allows. Ask for a quote or call (877) 838-9920.
What high-speed steel is
High-speed steel (HSS) is a tool steel made to hold its edge while cutting heats it. ITIA defines it as tool steel with more than 7% tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium combined and over 0.6% carbon. It can be hardened to HRC 63 to 68, and it keeps most of that hardness up to about 550°C.
The letter in the grade names the main alloy. T grades are tungsten types: ITIA notes that T1 holds 18% tungsten and has kept the composition it had in 1910. M grades lean on molybdenum, and ITIA's grade table puts M2 at about 6% tungsten, 5% molybdenum, 4% chromium and 2% vanadium, and M42 at about 9.2% molybdenum, 1.4% tungsten and 7.8% cobalt.
Cobalt grades are the premium end of the family. A 2005 Department of Energy plant report on end mill coatings explains that "to make M42, cobalt was added to M7," and it files T15 under "premium cobalt high speed steel." The T15 it tested was a tungsten type made from atomized powder.
Sources: ITIA, Tungsten in Steel (newsletter, December 2008); US DOE / OSTI, Evaluation of End Mill Coatings (Kansas City Plant report, 2005).
High speed steel vs carbide
Both make drills, taps and end mills, but they are different materials from the inside out:
| High-speed steel | Tungsten carbide | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An iron-based steel alloyed with tungsten, molybdenum, chromium, vanadium and in some grades cobalt | Tungsten carbide grains, 1 to 2 microns in a typical grade, held in a cobalt binder |
| Tungsten | 1.5% to 20% (ITIA) | Most grades are 50% to 97% tungsten carbide, with 3% to 16% cobalt (NTP) |
| Hardness | HRC 63 to 68 once hardened (ITIA) | About 800 to 2800 HV10 across grades (ITIA) |
| Weight | Mostly iron, and NIST lists iron at 7.874 g/cm3 | Two measured grades: 14.91 and 15.17 g/cm3 (OSTI) |
| Where the scrap goes | Back into a steel melt, sorted by composition (ITIA) | Zinc process, or chemical conversion to APT (ITIA) |
ITIA says about 95% of HSS ends up as machining tools, so the shape of a tool settles nothing. Use these checks at the bench:
- Read the shank. HSS, M2, M7, M42 or the word cobalt etched on it all mean steel.
- Weigh it in your hand. Carbide runs close to twice the weight of iron for its size and HSS is mostly iron, so a carbide drill feels plainly heavier than an HSS drill of the same size.
- Look past the coating. Gold TiN and TiCN go on HSS as well as on carbide (the DOE report tested HSS end mills with both), so judge the bare shank.
- Do not grind it to find out. USGS names the spark pattern off an abrasive wheel as one way sorters identify alloys, but grinding carbide raises cobalt-tungsten carbide dust, and NTP lists those powders and hard metals as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen. Send photos instead.
Sources: ITIA, Tungsten in Steel (December 2008); ITIA, Cemented carbides: a success story (June 2010); ITIA, Recycling of tungsten, part 2 (August 2019); NTP, Report on Carcinogens background document for hard metals (2009); NTP, Report on Carcinogens profile: cobalt-tungsten carbide; OSTI, WC-Co grade densities (2023 manuscript); NIST, X-ray mass attenuation coefficients, Table 1 (element densities); US DOE / OSTI, Evaluation of End Mill Coatings (2005); USGS Circular 1196-M (2004).
Why HSS stays out of the carbide bag
The two metals are recycled in different plants. ITIA says high-speed steel blanks and turnings are collected by their specific composition and can be added directly to a new steel charge. Hard carbide scrap goes another way: about a third of it in Europe and the US through the zinc process, ITIA reports, and about two thirds through chemical recycling to APT.
The zinc route turns carbide into a powder with the same composition as the scrap that went in, and USGS stresses that it is not a purification process and that careful sorting is essential. A steel drill in that batch contaminates the powder. On the chemical route, every HSS tool mixed in still lowers the lot's tungsten per pound, since HSS holds 20% tungsten at the very most.
Plain steel scrap is the wrong home too: ITIA warns that once HSS goes into an ordinary steel recycling container, its tungsten is lost to the tungsten recycling loop. One bag per grade keeps it usable.
Sources: ITIA, Recycling of tungsten, part 2 (August 2019); ITIA, Recycling of tungsten, part 1 (May 2018); USGS Open-File Report 01-349, Tantalum recycling in the United States in 1998; ITIA, Tungsten in Steel (December 2008).
The HSS tools, stock and turnings we take
Most of it is worn, broken and obsolete tooling. USGS counts drills, taps, reamers, broaches, milling cutters, punches, blanking dies and saw blades among tool steel components, and ITIA adds hobs and gear cutters. Toolmakers and machine shops also produce blanks and turnings, which ITIA treats as new scrap.
- Drills and taps: jobber, stub and cobalt drills, hand and spiral taps.
- Cutters: HSS end mills, side mills, hobs, broaches, reamers and countersinks.
- Tool bits and stock: lathe bits, cutoff blades, rounds, flats and unused blanks.
- Saws: HSS circular and slitting saws, and bimetal band saw blades with M42 teeth, coiled in their own bundle.
- Turnings and chips: drained of coolant and kept apart from mild steel and carbide sludge.
Sources: USGS Circular 1196-R, Tungsten recycling in the United States in 2000 (2011); ITIA, Tungsten in Steel (December 2008); ITIA, Recycling of tungsten, part 1 (May 2018).
What moves the high speed steel scrap price
We keep no posted rate for HSS, because the alloy inside changes from one lot to the next: by ITIA's table, M7 holds 1.8% tungsten with 8.7% molybdenum, while T1 holds 18% tungsten. Grade, sorting and cleanliness decide most of the rest.
- Grade: tungsten runs from 1.5% to 20% across HSS, and cobalt grades such as M42 carry about 7.8% cobalt on top (ITIA).
- Sorting: one grade to a bag, labeled, is what a steel melt can use as it comes.
- Nothing attached: pull holders, collets, plastic cases and any carbide-tipped tools.
- Dry metal: coolant on turnings is weight that is not steel.
- The markets: tungsten prices rose sharply through 2025 after China's February 2025 export controls, per USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, which also notes new Chinese controls on molybdenum powders that month.
Sources: ITIA, Tungsten in Steel (December 2008); USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Tungsten (February 2026); USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Molybdenum (February 2026).
Selling your HSS scrap
Put the grades you know, a rough weight and a few photos on the quote form, email help@carbidebuyerusa.com, or call (877) 838-9920. Sellers anywhere in the US can box their HSS and send it to us, and we pay the shipping. Sellers in California, Arizona and Nevada can skip the boxes: we pick up in every city of those states.
Steel tooling packs dense. USPS refuses any mailpiece over 70 pounds and requires dense items of 20 to 45 pounds to travel in a box of at least 200-pound test board; our shipping page covers boxes and pallets.
We pay cash where state law allows; Arizona and Nevada restrict how larger scrap metal sales are paid, as the state rules guide explains. Carbide is our main line, so HSS and carbide end mills and drills can share one shipment in separate bags, and so can tungsten, molybdenum and cobalt alloy scrap.
Sources: USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201; USPS Domestic Mail Manual 601.
Questions sellers ask
What is the high speed steel scrap price today?
We quote each lot instead of posting a rate, because the answer depends on the grades in the bucket and on the tungsten, molybdenum and cobalt markets. Send photos and an approximate weight through the quote form and we will price that lot.
Is a cobalt drill bit carbide?
No. A cobalt drill is high-speed steel with cobalt alloyed in, often marked M42 or with the word cobalt. Carbide carries cobalt only as the binder between its grains. We buy both, in separate bags.
Do you buy HSS turnings and chips?
Yes. Drain the coolant, keep them apart from mild steel chips and carbide sludge, and tell us the grade of the stock if you know it.
Can HSS and carbide ship in the same box?
Yes, as long as each one is bagged and labeled on its own inside the box. Poured in loose together, the whole lot has to be sorted again by hand.
Keep reading
End mills and drills
Solid carbide end mills, drills, reamers and burs
Learn more
Tungsten scrap
Tungsten heavy alloy, rod, wire and pure tungsten
Learn more
Cobalt and Stellite
Cobalt alloys, Stellite and hardfacing
Learn more
How to sort carbide scrap
Keep it clean and separated to get the most for it
Learn moreGet a quote for your carbide
Tell us what form it is in, about how much it weighs, and send a few photos. Ship it to us from anywhere in the US and we pay the shipping, or we pick up in California, Arizona and Nevada.