Carving Blade

CNC carving blades are cutting – edge components adapted to CNC carving equipment, which perform carving operations on materials in accordance with programmed instructions.

Products Provided by Kedel

We offer the following types of blades. Whether you need standard sizes or customized sizes, we can precisely meet your unique requirements.

Tapered End Mill

Flat - Bottom End Mill

Ball - Nose End Mill

Corner - Radius End Mill

V - Groove End Mill

Custom - Made End Mill

Need custom blades? We design and make them

Application Scenarios

As a core tool, carving blades, through the precise adaptation of edge shapes, materials, and manufacturing processes, provide efficient cutting and precise shaping capabilities for scenarios such as metal lettering and wood relief carving, and serve as a crucial support for achieving machining precision and realizing creative concepts.

Metal Engraving

Wood Engraving

Stone Engraving

Acrylic Engraving

Mold Machining

Uncover Your Needs with Us!

If you have customization needs for engraving tools, please feel free to contact us! Please provide information such as the brand and model of the CNC engraving machine, the installation dimensions of the tool holder, the performance requirements of the engraving tool (e.g., cutting edge geometry, hardness), and the actual working environment (e.g., material to be engraved, processing precision). Our engineers will customize an exclusive solution for you and communicate with you within 72 hours after receiving the information to help you improve the efficiency and quality of engraving processing!

What is a Carving Blade?

CNC engraving tools are precision cutting heads designed for CNC engraving machines, driven by machine programs to perform engraving and milling on materials such as metal, stone, and plastic. Classified by edge shape into ball-nose (for curved surfaces), flat-end (for contour cutting), and tapered (for fine line engraving) tools, they are primarily made of cemented carbide (balancing wear resistance and toughness). Their function is to leverage different edge geometries to enable the machine to achieve fine texture engraving, curved surface forming, contour cutting, etc., covering applications in advertising signage, mold texturing, handicrafts, and other engraving scenarios.

What are the common tool types used in Carving Blade?

The significance of using different types of CNC engraving tools lies in precisely adapting to engraving processes (detailing, curving, cutting, etc.) and material properties through edge geometry and performance differences, so as to achieve the optimal matching of efficiency, precision, and modeling requirements.

Tapered Mill

Structural Features: Conical body with an extremely fine tip (down to 0.05mm), where the edge tapers from the tip to the shank, compatible with CNC engraving machine collets.
Functional Advantages: The tip precisely engraves fine lines and text; the tapered design enables side-angle cutting (e.g., “draft angle” processing for mold textures), meeting high-precision detailed engraving needs.
Typical Applications: Engraving on metal nameplates, fine texture carving for molds (e.g., automotive interior mold textures), and delicate line engraving on jade.

Flat-End Mill

Structural Features: Straight edge with a rectangular cross-section (or spiral flutes for chip evacuation), standardized shank sizes (e.g., 3.175mm/6mm for collets).
Functional Advantages: Large edge contact area ensures high efficiency in rough processing, enabling rapid planar milling and contour cutting for batch processing of wood, plastic, metal, etc.
Typical Applications: Contour cutting of acrylic sheets, rough carving for wood reliefs, and planar slotting on metal plates.

Ball-Nose Mill

Structural Features: Spherical tip with a curved cutting surface wrapping around the ball, featuring a smooth transition between the shank and ball to reduce cutting resistance.
Functional Advantages: The spherical edge naturally transitions curved surfaces, avoiding sharp corners during engraving to achieve “step-free” smooth processing for relief curves and 3D modeling, minimizing tool mark risks.
Typical Applications: Curved surface finishing for portrait sculptures, arc surface machining for mold cavities, and rounded texture engraving for handicrafts (e.g., dragon-phoenix patterns in woodcarving).

Bull-Nose Mill (Round-Nose Mill)

Structural Features: Edge with a rounded corner (resembling a “bull nose”), combining the planar cutting capability of flat-end mills with the curved surface adaptability of ball-nose mills, offering higher body strength.
Functional Advantages: Rounded edges reduce chipping risks, suitable for “planar+curved continuous processing” of molds and metal parts, balancing efficiency and durability (especially for hard materials).
Typical Applications: Processing mold parting surfaces (rounded transitions to avoid stress concentration), contour milling of metal parts (chamfer/round edges), and curved surface connection machining for automotive parts.

Customized Tool

Structural Features: Edge shape (e.g., V-shaped, special profiles), dimensions, and angles customized as needed; shanks adapted to specific machines; materials (e.g., cemented carbide, diamond).
Functional Advantages: Enables “unique processing” for special textures and contours (e.g., exclusive patterns, special grooves), breaking through the limitations of standard tools.
Typical Applications: V-groove engraving for floor parquet, exclusive textures for luxury leather molds, and special groove machining for industrial parts (e.g., heat sink).

What are the common working methods?

CNC engraving works through processes like contour cutting, relief carving, and hollowing to meet diverse material modeling needs, precisely handling from outlines to details and 2D to 3D machining, supporting both personalized and industrial engraving production.

Contour Cutting

Principle: Driven by the CNC system, the tool follows a preset contour path, using milling or slicing to separate the material’s outer shape.
Scenario: Cutting edges of acrylic advertising boards, contour trimming of wood panels, and shaping metal nameplates.
Advantage: Precise path control enables quick outline formation, suitable for flat or simple curved contours.

Relief Carving

Principle: Creates 3D relief effects through layered milling (rough carving for the base, fine carving for details).
Scenario: Texturing mold surfaces (e.g., automotive interior molds), wood/stone reliefs, and 3D decorative patterns.
Advantage: Achieves layered 3D effects; paired with ball – nose cutters, it refines smooth transitions on curved surfaces.

Hollow Carving

Principle: Cuts through the material along hollow – pattern paths to form voids, with controlled cutting depth and chip removal.
Scenario: Hollow metal decorations, lamp shades/screens, and translucent artistic shapes.
Advantage: Creates translucent visual effects; tests tool rigidity and path planning (to avoid tool breakage).

Texture Etching

Principle: Repeats textures (e.g., leather, antique patterns) using custom tools or programmed paths.
Scenario: Texturing mold surfaces (e.g., phone case molds), antique – finish stone, and decorative metal patterns.
Advantage: High – consistency textures for mass production; custom tools allow for unique patterns.

3D Carving

Principle: Multi – axis CNC linkage drives ball – nose cutters along complex curved paths to shape 3D forms.
Scenario: 3D figure sculptures, automotive mold cavities, and curved artistic shapes.
Advantage: Enables precise forming of complex curves, relying on high – precision path planning and tool matching.

Marking & Lettering

Principle: Uses sharp/tapered cutters to inscribe texts/marks with high – precision path control for fine cutting.
Scenario: Numbering metal nameplates, marking electronic product logos, and labeling plastic part parameters.
Advantage: Ultra – fine lines (down to 0.01mm) with sharp edges, suitable for small – size markings.

What materials can be used to make cutting blades?

CNC engraving tools adopt different materials to match the characteristics of workpieces (such as hardness and material type), ensuring cutting sharpness, wear resistance, and durability, while balancing processing efficiency and usage costs.

1. Cemented Carbide (Tungsten Carbide)

Core Advantage: High hardness and toughness (outperforming HSS), reusable via regrinding/coating; cost – effective for over 80% of engraving tasks.
Suited Materials: Wood, plastic, aluminum, copper, carbon steel (general – purpose materials).
Application: Ranging from rough contour cutting (using flat – end mills) to fine detailing (with tapered bits and small ball – nose cutters).

2. Diamond (PCD)

Core Advantage: Ultra – high hardness and excellent thermal conductivity; minimal wear during precision non – ferrous and non – metal processing.
Suited Materials: Acrylic, aluminum, copper, stone, carbon fiber, plastic (ferrous metals should be avoided as they are prone to chemical reactions).
Application: Engraving of optical components and luxury texture carving (such as fine detailing of leather molds).

3. Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN)

Core Advantage: Second only to diamond in hardness; stable at temperatures above 1200℃, ideal for engraving superhard metals.
Suited Materials: Quenched steel (molds), cast iron, high – temperature alloys (hardened metals).
Application: Texturing the hard surfaces of molds and fine metal engraving on tough substrates.

4. Ceramic

Core Advantage: Extremely high hardness (91–95HRA), heat resistance, and low friction; provides smooth finishes under stable conditions.
Suited Materials: Hardened steels and alloy molds (requiring continuous, vibration – free cutting).
Application: High – speed finishing of quenched steel molds and precision engraving on brittle – hard materials (intermittent cuts like hollowing should be avoided).

5. High – Speed Steel (HSS)

Core Advantage: Good toughness and low cost; economical for basic tasks although its hardness is relatively low.
Suited Materials: Soft materials (foam, rubber) and low – precision projects.
Application: Rough processing in educational equipment, small – batch trials, or budget – conscious engraving.

What parameters do we need to understand?

Understanding these parameters aims to precisely match processing materials, technological requirements, and equipment specifications, so as to achieve the optimal balance of cutting efficiency, precision, and tool durability. Meanwhile, it helps avoid risks like tool breakage and wear, and control costs.

1. Tool Types — Matched to Processing Technology

Determine Application:

Flat-end / bull-nose mills: Rough engraving of planes, contour cutting (efficiency-first);
Ball-nose mills: Curved surface finishing (e.g., relief carvings, arc surfaces);
Tapered / pointed mills: Fine text/texture engraving (precision-first, taper angle affects slope);
Hollowing / slotting mills: Deep cutting and hollowing (special edge design to prevent chipping).

2. Dimensional Parameters — Adapt to Machine & Precision

Shank diameter (e.g., 3.175mm/4mm/6mm): Must match machine collet specifications (3.175mm for common advertising machines, 6mm for industrial equipment); incompatible shanks cause clamping failure.
Cutting edge diameter:
- Large diameters (e.g., 6mm flat-end) for rough engraving: high efficiency;
- Small diameters (e.g., 0.1mm pointed) for fine engraving: detailed precision.
Flute length: Must be ≥ processing depth (e.g., 4mm flute for 3mm deep grooves to avoid shank collision).
Taper angle (tapered mills only): Smaller angles (e.g., 5°) for sharper edges (suitable for fine lines); larger angles (e.g., 60°) for rapid slotting.

3. Material — Matched to Workpiece Hardness

Cemented carbide (tungsten carbide): Universal for wood, plastic, aluminum, copper, carbon steel; cost-effective.
Diamond (PCD): For acrylic, stone, non-ferrous metals (Al/Cu); avoid ferrous materials (reacts with iron).
CBN (cubic boron nitride): For superhard metals like quenched steel and cast iron.
High-speed steel (HSS): For soft materials (foam, rubber) or economical scenarios; low cost but poor wear resistance.

4. Coatings — Enhance Durability & Efficiency

Common coatings: TiN (gold, wear-resistant), TiAlN (blue-black, high-temp resistant), DLC (diamond-like carbon, low friction).
Function: Reduce tool wear (e.g., TiAlN suits high-speed hard metal cutting), extend life, and lower costs.

5. Flute Count & Edge Geometry — Impact Cutting Effect

Flute count:
- Single-flute: Fast chip evacuation for soft materials (plastic, acrylic);
- Multi-flute (2/4-flute): Smoother cutting for hard materials (metal, stone), better surface finish.
Edge details:
- Helix angle (chip evacuation): Larger angles (30°–45°) for metal engraving to ensure smooth chip removal;
- Edge treatment (blunt vs. sharp): Blunt edges for hard materials to prevent chipping; sharp edges for soft materials to improve cut quality.

6. Brand & Compatibility — Avoid Equipment Issues

Machine compatibility: Some branded tools (e.g., Japan NS, Germany Horn) require specific machine systems (FANUC, Siemens); unbranded tools may cause vibration due to precision issues.
After-sales support: Brands provide wear test data and parameter recommendations; unbranded tools lack technical support, complicating fault diagnosis.

7. Additional Parameters for Processing Scenarios

Chipbreaker needed: For rough metal engraving, chipbreakers prevent swarf entanglement and chipping.
Anti-sticking requirement: Plastic/acrylic engraving prone to sticking; choose coated or oil-repellent tools.
Regrindability: Cemented carbide can be reground 2–3 times; diamond tools are mostly disposable (factor cost into consideration).

Core Selection Logic: Deduce Parameters via “Material→Process→Equipment”

Identify workpiece material (metal/non-metal, hardness) → lock material type;
Define processing goals (rough/fine engraving, text/cutting) → select tool type and edge diameter;
Match machine specifications (shank diameter, max speed) → confirm dimensions and compatibility.

This parameter screening minimizes errors in tool selection, balancing efficiency and cost.

How to maintain and service cutting blades?

The core significance of maintaining CNC engraving tools lies in prolonging their service life, ensuring machining precision, reducing loss costs, and avoiding cutting failures through scientific and standardized operation and maintenance.

I. During Operation: Standardized Handling to Prevent Damage

Parameter Adaptation

Set reasonable spindle speed (e.g., ≤20,000rpm for cemented carbide engraving aluminum) and feed rate (≤500mm/min for fine engraving) based on tool material and workpiece, avoiding edge chipping from overspeed/overload.

Effective Cooling

Activate water/air cooling when engraving metal/stone to prevent tool annealing from high temperature (cemented carbide hardness drops sharply above 600℃).

Precise Installation

Thoroughly clean the shank and collet to ensure concentricity (deviation >0.02mm causes vibration and wear). Clamp length should be ≥2× shank diameter to prevent detachment.

Avoid Idle Friction

Keep the tool away from the workpiece during non-cutting strokes to prevent edge collision with fixtures or debris-induced wear.

II. After Operation: Immediate Cleaning to Eliminate Risks

Debris Removal

Use compressed air to blow away metal/non-metal debris from edges and flutes (wire brushes prohibited to avoid coating scratches).

Oil/Grease Cleaning

After engraving plastic/acrylic, wipe adhesive residues with alcohol or specialized cleaners (resin buildup causes sticking in subsequent operations).

Rust Prevention

For tools exposed to cutting fluid after metal processing, dry with a cloth and apply thin anti-rust oil (especially for HSS tools).

Edge Inspection

Check edges with a magnifier for chipping or micro-cracks (replace or regrind if >0.1mm). Mark areas with coating peeling for recording.

III. Storage: Dual Protection of Environment & Packaging

Isolated Storage

Place tools in dedicated cases or magnetic racks to avoid collision (edge protectors required; tapered/pointed tools need separate slots).

Humidity/Temperature Control

Store in <60% humidity to prevent shank rust (use desiccants in humid seasons).

Categorized Labeling

Label tools by material (carbide/diamond), edge diameter, and application to avoid misusage or reuse of worn tools.

IV. Regular Maintenance: Targeted Life Extension

Grinding

Regrind cemented carbide tools professionally (≤3 times, removal ≤0.1mm per grind); replace diamond tools entirely when worn.

Coating Repair

For TiN/TiAlN coated tools with local peeling, return to manufacturer for recoating (cost 30%–50% of new tools).

Dynamic Balance Testing

Test tools >10mm diameter annually for dynamic balance (unbalance >5g・mm at high speeds accelerates spindle wear).

Core Principle: Maintenance Targets the “Three Wear Factors”

Thermal wear: Control temperature via cooling to prevent exceeding material heat resistance.
Mechanical wear: Use appropriate parameters to reduce edge impact; clean away abrasive particles (e.g., metal swarf, stone dust).
Chemical wear: Keep diamond tools away from ferrous materials (chemical corrosion); protect coated tools from acid-base cutting fluids.

Standardized maintenance extends tool life by 30%–50%, ensures processing precision (e.g., fine engraving error ≤±0.01mm), and reduces tool replacement costs and downtime losses.