PRODUCTION OF REFRACTORY METAL OR ALLOY OBJECTS CONTAINING OXYGEN

Disclosed is a method of producing an object, the object being made of metal or an alloy, having a desired shape and being non-porous, the method comprising: providing some metal or alloy having a first average solute level; using the provided metal or alloy, performing a net-shape or near-net shape manufacturing process to produce an intermediate object, the intermediate object having the desired shape, being non-porous, and having a second average solute level, the second average solute level being greater than or equal to the first average solute level; and performing a solute level changing process on the intermediate object to change the solute level of at least the bulk of the intermediate object such as to provide the intermediate object with a third average solute level, thereby providing the object, the third average solute level being different to the second.