Tungsten carbide being much harder and more wear resistant than tool steel would seem the obvious choice as a scraper burnisher blade. Lie-Nielsen certainly considers TC to be the material of choice for their version. Their trademark curly maple handle has a flared brass ferrule to protect your fingers. The solid carbide rod itself is 100mm long and 6.35mm diameter. The rod is polished to give you smooth effortless controlled burnishing. As with all Lie-Nielsen tools it looks good and feels great, which is just as well as you are going to be using it for many years to come.