As the demand for better cutting tools increase, cutting tool suppliers also continuously develop products that can pass manufacturers’ demands.

Through the years, a lot of materials for the manufacture of cutting tools have been experimented upon; some have passed the standards while others were simply dropped.

Today, there are only two types of cutting tools heavily favored in the machining industry: high speed steel (HSS) cutting tools and carbide cutting tools; and it seems that carbide cutting tools have slightly overtaken the other in popularity. So, what advantages do carbide cutting tools have over their HSS counterparts? Considering their lead in popularity, it is clear that the benefits of carbide cutting tools outnumber that of HSS cutting tools. And we’ll understand these benefits better if we know what carbide really is.