a process of making an article of a tungsten - carbide - cobalt alloy with or without an additive of one or more of tantalum , cobalt - nickel , nickel - tantalum , tantalum - carbide , titanium - carbide , niobium - carbide , chromium - carbide , titanium - nitride and diamond dust . the method includes forming a homogeneous mixture of polygonal - shaped powder tungsten - carbide - cobalt and a polygonal - shaped powder additive and a binder including wax and a high molecular weight polyolefin polymer and injecting the mixture under heat and pressure into a metal injection mold to form a green preform of the article . the green preform is immersed in a linear hydrocarbon or a halogenated hydrocarbon or mixtures to dissolve and remove the wax and convert the green preform into a brown preform which is sintered to remove the remainder of the binder and to densify the brown preform into an article having a density not less than 98 %. various tungsten - carbide articles are disclosed .