Hi Terry
Well, yes , and no (imho).
Rubbing is seriously bad of course, but having intercepted a few cases just before the cutter broke (really), I don't think it is that simple.

What I have seen ias a build-up of aluminium at the tip of the cutter - little chips sticking to the carbide. It is known that some carbides have a slightly rough, almost porous surface, and the aluminium can get wedged into the pores. That's at the microscopic level. Then the built-up aluminium starts to rub on the stock, and that does create a LOT of heat and a run-away situation.

Yeah, I kid you not: there was this slightly melted blob of aluminium wrapped around the tip of the carbide cutter! Getting it off was hard: it was really stuck on in a conformal manner. I switched to a polished HSS-Co cutter for the rest of that job - with some pulsed kero/oil mist to keep the cutter wet.

I agree that the sharper edge on a cutter meant for Aluminium works better - a polished flute also seems to help. Some of those 'aluminium' cutters break down quickly when used on steel. The edge is too thin.

It all gets expensive. Now I have cutters labelled 'steel', 'titanium', 'aluminium' and 'plastic', and have to keep them separate. But it seems to work.

Cheers
Roger

YEs cutter FORM can be specific to teh material. Here I use a cutter specifically for aluminum. Very sharp and very polished, most of the time they are colbalt or HSS. Carbide as a last resort.  BUT the root cause is always heat. I have seen some instances where even flood coolant could not cool teh actual cutting surface. It created a steam pocket and the actual tip was not cooled. Most GOOD coolants have a surfactant to break down the surface tension of the liquid to help in those areas.

Yes brass tools, aluminum tools, Titanium tools steel, tools Low carbon steel , and tools Hi carbon steels.  I think I have more money in tools than Machine (;-)TP