MSC Edge Carbide Endmills

I’ll admit, I was pretty sceptical when the new MSC Edge cutter range showed up. It feels like every other week someone’s releasing “the ultimate cutter” that’s supposed to outperform everything else on the market. So, I wasn’t in any rush to test them. They sat on the shelf for a while, waiting for the right job — or the right excuse — to really put them through hell.

That chance came when I had a batch of steel extrusion to machine — 12mm and 3mm thick sections — involving bore machining, hole work, and profiling, all constantly hitting the same part of the cutting edge. I ran the 8mm, 10mm, and 12mm cutters, all held in ER32 collets on a Bridgeport VMC800. For anyone who knows that setup, you’ll understand it’s a fair test — not the gentlest environment, and certainly not a “demo cut.”

I genuinely wasn’t sure how the edge retention would hold up under that kind of workload. But after a solid run, I’ve got to say MSC might actually be onto something here. The 10mm and 12mm cutters are still going strong — barely showing any signs of wear. They’ve been through some heavy steel, dry cuts, and coolant-assisted runs, and the performance has stayed consistent throughout.

Then came a last-minute stainless job I had to get out the door fast. Normally, I’d switch to a higher-spec coated cutter for that kind of work, but since the MSCs were already in the spindle, I gave them a shot. They handled it brilliantly — clean, smooth finish on the side walls, no chatter, and no need to swap cutters mid-job.

The only casualty was the 8mm carbide, which eventually gave up the ghost — but to be fair, it took a real beating. That failure says more about my abuse than the tool’s design.