Tungsten, Honestly

What's happening to bead prices, and what we're doing about it.

If you've been tying for any length of time, you've probably noticed bead prices creeping up across the industry over the last several months. We want to talk about that openly, because we'd rather you hear it from us than guess at it.

What we're seeing at the bench

Tungsten, the raw metal behind every slotted and round bead we ship, is up substantially this year. Not five percent. Not ten. Multiples of where it sat eighteen months ago, depending on the form and where you're buying. Trade publications have reported record APT benchmarks in early 2026, with some prices more than doubling year-over-year. That number is the number behind the number on every bead pack in fly tying right now.

Every brand in this space is currently working through what to do about it. We are too.

The short version of why

Most of the world's tungsten, and most of its refining capacity, lives inside one country. Late last year and into 2026, export licensing tightened, available supply dropped, and the industries that move tungsten in real volume started competing harder for what was left: aerospace, defense, electronics, hard-metal tooling.

Fly tying uses an almost invisible slice of that pie. But we buy from the same metal, on the same market, at the same prices everyone else does. The ground shifted underneath all of us at once.

What this actually means for tyers

Tungsten beads aren't getting cheaper anytime soon. Anyone selling them like they are is selling through old inventory, and that inventory is finite.

Here's how this is likely to show up over the next year or two:

·       Pack counts may shrink before sticker prices move.

·       Some smaller bead programs will quietly disappear from shelves.

·       Cheap "tungsten" beads will get more aggressively cheap, usually by reducing tungsten content, loosening fit tolerance, or both.

That last one is the one to watch. If a 3.5mm bead suddenly costs half what it used to, something has been removed: density, slot precision, finish durability. And you'll feel that on the water before you feel it in your wallet.

What we're not doing

We're not chasing the bottom. We're not thinning out the metal to hold an old price point. We're not changing what's in the bag without telling you.

If our beads cost more this year, it's because the metal cost more. That's the whole story.

What we are doing: a full brass bead line, this fall

Here's the part we're genuinely excited to share.

Starting this fall, Firehole is rolling out a complete (round) brass bead line, in the color and size range tyers already expect from us, built to the same fit standards as our tungsten Stones.

Brass is not a tungsten replacement, and we're not going to pretend it is. Tungsten still rules when you need maximum density in a small profile. But brass is the right answer for a lot of patterns, a lot of water, and a lot of fly boxes. And right now, it's also a meaningful way to give tyers an option that doesn't ride the tungsten market.

A few things we're committing to with the brass line:

·       Same fit standards as our existing beads. Hooks fit beads, beads fit hooks.

·       Same color depth and finish quality you've come to expect from Firehole.

·       Honest pricing. Brass genuinely costs less to make than tungsten, and that savings is going to show up at the counter, not in our margin.

More details will land later this summer, with the first colors and sizes available before the fall tying season.

A steady hand

There's a temptation in moments like this to either panic or pretend nothing is happening. We're trying to do neither.

Tungsten is going to keep doing what tungsten does. We'll keep sourcing it carefully, packing it cleanly, and not cutting corners on it. Brass will give you another tool. And the work, the part that actually matters, the fly on the end of your tippet, keeps moving forward, one well-built bead at a time.

Thanks for sticking with us while the industry sorts itself out. We'll keep being straight with you on what we know, what's changing, and what we're building next.

Best,

John
Firehole Outdoors