Thank you for your visiting our site. Kensal Carbide is a world leader in recycling scrap, junk, and used drill bits from the mining, energy, construction, and HDD industries.  We recycle a variety of drill bits and carbide products: tricones, DTH hammer bits, raise boring bits, matrix PDC bits, and a variety of other drilling tools that contain tungsten carbide.  We buy drill bits from around the world – from one ton to 100 tons.

History:

Our company traces it’s origins to Shamrock Bit, a small company founded in Ina, Illinois by Andy Hutchens.  Andy Hutchens processed carbide for many years in his Ina facility and recycled thousands of tons of drill bits.  Andy retired in the early 2000s, but could not stay retired long. Andy came out of retirement and started a new company with Ken Sentel in 2006. They named the company Rend Lake Carbide and built a new facility in Benton, Illinois near Interstate 57.

In 2012 Andrew Salmo, our current President, joined the company. Andrew spent eight years on Active Duty in the Army and Rend Lake Carbide was his first “real job.” Andy Hutchens retired in 2014 and Andrew bought into the company. In February 2015 the company suffered a fire that destroyed our original building in Benton, Illinois. The company quickly rebuilt and was fully capable again in less than 90 days. In late 2015 Rend Lake Carbide became Kensal Carbide. The name is a combination of the names of our two shareholders – KEN Sentel and Andrew SALmo. The brand identity is designed to connote professionalism, durability, and large scope. We hope you like our new brand identity and logo as much as we do.

Scope:

Kensal Carbide recycles over a thousand tons of drill bits a year and maintains substantial capacity. We are one of the world’s largest recyclers of scrap and junk tricone bits, DTH bits, raise boring bits, and top hammer bits. Our carbide is sorted and cleaned to customer specification, and our scrap steel is sorted by type before being shipped to a mill. Our logistics are world class and we have bought bits from the Arctic Circle to Antofagasta, Chile.

Contact:

If you have scrap bits or are interested in purchasing scrap carbide please contact us at. We can be reached at our offfice Phone: 618-438-5069 Monday-Friday, 8AM-5PM. We can be reached via email at: sales@kensalcarbide.com or andrew@kensalcarbide.com