Method of making a shaped tool component

A method of making a shaped tool component comprising polycrystalline diamond (PCD), comprising the steps:

• a. Adding a diamond feed stock to a refractory cup;
• b. Adding a pre-shaped cemented carbide body to the refractory cup adjacent the diamond feed stock;
• c. Compacting the diamond feed stock and cemented carbide body to form a green body, wherein the compacting occurs at a temperature in the range of 1300° C. and 1500° C. and a pressure in the range of 5 GPa to 8 GPa and wherein a quantity of catalyst present during compacting is insufficient for complete sintering;
• d. Outgassing the green body;
• e. Sintering, subsequent to and separate from the compacting, the green body at a temperature between 1400° C. to 2100° C. and at a pressure of at least 7 GPa, for at least 30 seconds to form a sintered PCD precursor body that comprises a PCD table sinter-joined to the cemented carbide substrate at an interface;
• f. Slicing longitudinally into the sintered PCD precursor body to produce one or more sliced portions of the sintered PCD precursor body, each sliced portion being a tool blank;
• g. Removing one of said tool blanks from the remainder of the sintered PCD precursor body;
• and
• h. Shaping said tool blank into a shaped tool component, in which the thickness of the PCD table in the shaped tool component varies at two or more locations spaced apart laterally on the cemented carbide substrate.