Hey, all,

I've always used spray-on oven cleaner containing lye (sodium hydroxide) to remove pitch/gum from my saw blades, and it works darn well.

However yesterday I watched this video that came with my Freud router and they said NOT to use lye or oven cleaner on their router cutters, suggesting that the lye could harm the carbide. Instead, they said to soak router bits in kerosene to remove pitch.

I've never heard of lye harming carbide before, and although I once wondered whether lye might harm the brazed joints, I haven't seen any signs of that either...what gives?