Comparison
Tungsten vs steel
Steel is the density everyone has calibrated against, because it is what most heavy metal objects in ordinary life are made of. At 7.85 grams per cubic centimetre it is the baseline.
Tungsten is about 2.5 times denser. A 1.5-inch steel cube weighs 434 grams. The same cube in tungsten weighs 1.07 kilograms.
- 19.3
- Tungsten g/cm³
- 7.85
- Steel g/cm³
- 2.46×
- Tungsten is denser
Cube weight, tungsten vs steel
| Cube size | Tungsten | Steel | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1″ | 316 g | 129 g | +188 g |
| 1.5″ | 1.07 kg | 434 g | +633 g |
| 2″ | 2.53 kg | 1.03 kg | +1.50 kg |
| 3″ | 8.54 kg | 3.47 kg | +5.07 kg |
Why this is the comparison that matters
Almost nobody has handled osmium, and most people have not knowingly handled lead. Everyone has handled steel: tools, cookware, hardware, machine parts.
That makes steel the reference your intuition is actually running on when you pick up a tungsten cube, and a 2.5x error is more than large enough to register as wrong.
Cost and machining
Steel is cheap and pleasant to machine. Tungsten is neither, which is most of why a tungsten cube costs what it does.
Its hardness and 3,422°C melting point mean the feeds and speeds that work for steel destroy tooling, and achieving a clean surface finish takes time that scales badly with size.
Common questions
How much heavier is tungsten than steel?
About 2.5 times. Tungsten is 19.3 g/cm³ and steel is around 7.85. A 1.5-inch cube is 1.07 kg in tungsten and 434 g in steel.
Is tungsten harder than steel?
Yes, considerably. Tungsten and its carbide are used to cut steel, not the other way around. Pure tungsten is also more brittle than most structural steels.
Why is a tungsten cube so much more expensive than a steel one?
Material cost plus machining difficulty. Tungsten's hardness and 3,422°C melting point require specialised tooling and slow feed rates that would be uneconomic for steel.
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