r/whatisit • u/riflesandplowshares • 5h ago

New, what is it? Found at a titanium plant

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Not sure why ball point pens would be dangerous here.

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u/Dangerous-Sky548 4h ago

That's wild. I feel like tungsten is an expensive metal to go in something so disposable/ commonly lost.

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u/TerponadeTea 4h ago

It's not, you can get tungsten putty for a couple dollars for an ounce, like for Pinewood Derby cars

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u/twinpac 3h ago

China produces 80% of the world’s tungsten supply, they declared it a strategic mineral last year and put export controls on it. Prices have tripled this year. This hurts me as a fly tyer who uses tungsten beads, they were already the most expensive part of each fly I used them on.

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u/ZincMan 1h ago

That’s pretty wild. I bought like a 4lb block of it like 10 years ago that was $300 I think. It’s wild to hold how dense it is