of high-speed steel (HSS) (early years of the 20th century), sintered carbide (1930s), ceramic and diamond cutters, those materials have gradually replaced the earlier kinds of tool steel in almost all cutting applications. Most tool bits today are made of HSS, cobalt steel, or carbide. Carbides and ceramics Carbide, ceramics (such as cubic boron nitride) and diamond, having higher hardness than HSS, all allow faster material removal than HSS in most cases. Because these materials are more expensive and brittler than steel, typically the body of the cutting tool is made of steel, and a small cutting edge made of the harder material is attached. The cutting edge is usually either screwed or clamped on (in this case it is called an insert), or brazed on to a steel shank (this is usually only done for carbide). Inserts Almost all high-performance cutting tools use indexable inserts. There are several reasons for this. First of all, at the very high cutting speeds and feeds supported by these materials, the cutting tip can reach temperatures high enough to melt the brazing material holding it to the shank. Economics are also important; inserts are made symmetrically so that when the first cutting edge is dull they can be rotated, presenting a fresh cutting edge. Some inserts are even made so that they can be flipped over, giving as many as 16 cutting edges per insert. There are many types of inserts: some for roughing, some for finishing. Others are made for specialized jobs like cutting threads or grooves. The industry employs standardized nomenclature to describe inserts by shape, material, coating material, and size. Form tools A form tool is precision-ground into a pattern that resembles the part to be formed. The form tool can be used as a single operation and therefore eliminate many other operations from the slides (front, rear and/or vertical) and the turret, such as box tools. A form tool turns one or more diameters while feeding into the work. Before the use of form tools, diameters were turned by multiple slide and turret operations, and thus took more work to make the part. For example, a form tool can turn many diameters and in addition can also cut off the part in a single operation and eliminate the need to index the turret. For single-spindle machines, bypassing the need to index the turret can dramatically increase hourly part production