Product Review
August 2018


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Carbide Cutters

Made by AZ Carbide

Review by Kurt Hertzog

With replaceable cutter tools continuing to make in-roads into the woodturning community, there is the growing need for replacement cutters. All of the manufacturers offer replacement cutters for their own products but few, if any, offer the entire spectrum of cutters to the end user. AZ Carbide prides themselves on covering virtually every insert cutter need in the current woodturning marketplace. With 31 cutters in their product line with more always being added, they probably have all of your carbide replacement cutter needs in stock.


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AZ Carbide was founded in Chandler, Arizona in 2010. This past April, Ron and Lana Campbell purchased the company and relocated it to Cedar Springs, MI. The AZ Carbide pricing is very attractive since they buy from the manufacturer and then sell directly to you. The absence of retail packaging, shipping to distribution, additional warehousing/shipping, and ultimately to retail outlets saves you those costs and the additional tiers of markup.

My tests with the AZ Carbide cutters proved them to be functional and long lasting. I tried them in a variety of tools from many of the manufacturers and had no issues with fit or nesting. My technique for all of my replaceable cutter tools is to mark the cutter with magic marker and rotate the cutter depending on use. I will do the heavy lifting in one portion of the cutter and then make the money cut with a fresh face. The fresh face is then rotated back out of the way for future use and the workhorse portion of the cutter is used until it is spent. Ultimately, the fresh face replaces the workhorse area with a new virgin fresh face appropriately marked. I found the AZ Carbide cutters worked well in all of my applications and exhibited good tool life. I certainly recommend that you try them.


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You can find out more at azcarbide.com or by phoning (616) 460-7005. When you phone, you are quite likely to speak to Ron or Lana directly. They ship worldwide and offer volume and woodturning club pricing.


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