Cemented carbide metal alloy containing auxiliary metal, and process for its manufacture

A process for making a sintered carbide-metal alloy containing submicronic carbide particles comprising the steps of:

• forming a mixture of a carbide-forming charge selected from the group consisting of the dimetallic carbides, hydrides, eta carbides and elemental metals of groups 4a, 5a and 6a of the periodic table and their mixtures and a binding metal powder selected from the group consisting of iron, cobalt, nickel and their mixtures;
• converting said carbide-forming charge to a carbide or carbides having a crystal structure different than the crystal structure of the carbide-forming charge by subjecting the carbide-forming charge-binder metal mixture to a gaseous carbon containing carburizing atmosphere at a temperature of 700 to 1100.degree. C;
• and
• liquid-phase sintering the thus formed carbide-binder metal to wet and split the carbide to form submicronic carbide particles.