Glossary & Reference
Nonferrous simply means "no significant iron." That one difference — aluminum, copper, brass, and titanium don't behave like steel under a cutting edge — drives almost every decision about speed, tooling, and coating you'll make on this material family.
Nonferrous metals and alloys are simply the ones that don't contain iron (Fe) as a primary constituent. Aluminum, copper, brass, bronze, magnesium, titanium, zinc, nickel-based alloys, and precious metals like gold and silver all fall into this family. In cutting-tool selection, the whole group is bundled under ISO application group N — one of the six standard ISO material groups (P, M, K, N, S, H) used to match carbide grades and cutting data to the workpiece.
Most nonferrous metals have lower melting points and lower hardness than ferrous metals, which is a big part of why noticeably higher cutting speeds are often possible without overheating the tool. Many of them — aluminum and copper especially — are also far more thermally and electrically conductive than steel, so heat generated at the cutting edge moves out into the chip and workpiece faster instead of building up right at the tip.
That same softness and ductility has a downside: gummy nonferrous metals like aluminum and copper love to stick to the tool rather than shear away cleanly, which is a leading cause of built-up edge. The usual fix is a sharp, highly polished, high-positive-rake edge that shears the material instead of pushing it. It's also why coated carbide isn't automatically the right call here — standard coatings like TiN and TiAlN are engineered around ferrous wear mechanisms, and on some nonferrous work they add little benefit or can even react chemically with aluminum at cutting temperatures. Uncoated, polished carbide or a polycrystalline diamond (PCD) insert frequently outperforms a coated one, particularly on aluminum and other abrasive, gummy alloys.
Sorting unmarked stock or mixed scrap doesn't require a lab. Ferrous metals like steel and cast iron are strongly attracted to a magnet; nonferrous metals generally are not (nickel is a partial exception). It won't replace a material certification, but it's a fast, reliable first check at the bench or the bin.