Abstract: An intermediate weight drill stem member having a tool joint or end with at least one reduced diameter surface for hoisting and handling protected by an enlarged diameter wear protecting length on either side thereof and providing at its junction end with the tubular body a straight-wall surface, a length having a diameter less than the maximum diameter of the adjacent enlarged length, for welding to a straight-wall length of the contiguous externally upset end of the tubular body. The tubular body is preferably about twenty feet long compared to a combined length of ten feet for the two tool joints, thereby eliminating a need for an intermediate wear protector length along the tubular body length.