Cutter with positive seated round blade sticks for bevel gear cutting

A bevel and hypoid gear cutting tool comprising a disk-shaped cutter head having a plurality of cutting blade mounting slots and a cutting blade positioned in at least one of said cutting blade mounting slots wherein said at least one cutting blade projects from a face of said cutter head, said at least one cutting blade having a length and including shank portion and a cutting end portion wherein said shank portion has a cross-sectional shape defined with respect to a plane oriented perpendicular to said length, wherein said gear cutting tool further comprises:

• said cutting blade shank cross-section having a circumference wherein more than half of the cross-sectional circumference is circular in shape,
• the cutting blade shank portion further including at least one flat surface extending along the entire length of the shank whereby said cross-section further includes at least one straight line portion,
• said plurality of cutting blade mounting slots each comprising at least four sides with each side having a plane surface and with said at least one flat surface of said cutting blade shank being seated against at least one of said plane surface sides of the mounting slot, said seated plane surface side of the mounting slot being the mounting slot surface with the highest reaction force component when cutting forces are present.