bit 10 as a whole the bit 10 is imbibed with a hardenable infiltrant 18 the infiltrant 18 is typically copper or copper based with tin and or nickel such as those infiltrants commercially available from belmont metals inc of brooklyn n y or may comprise other metallic or non metallic materials known in the art including silver nickel tin zinc iron cobalt lead wood 39 s metal solders and alloys thereof as shown in fig1 for steel and tungsten carbide components a metallic infiltrant 18 in pellet form is typically placed adjacent an exposed portion 20 of the crown 12 for infiltration to occur the bit 10 is loaded into a furnace or other heating device such as an induction coil as known in the art and heated to about 950 u00b0 to 1200 u00b0 c at which temperature the infiltrant 18 has liquified and will imbibe into the various parts of the drill bit 10 during infiltration the infiltrant 18 melts and is capillary fed past the blank 14 and through the crown 12 the infiltrant 18 effectively binds the particles comprising the crown 12 together as well as the crown 12 to the blank 14 resulting in a single structure in addition the infiltrant 18 fills voids or vugs present between the particles of the crown 12 because of the substantial mass and thus the weight of the crown 12 and the blank 14 it may be necessary to provide support for the layered manufactured crown 12 of the drill bit 10 in particular because the particles forming the crown 12 may be held together by a polymer or epoxy resin the structural integrity that such a component may have at room temperature may not be maintained.