Abstract: A wire for a wire saw apparatus for slicing a material includes an element wire, a binder coated on an outside circumferential surface of the element wire, and abrasive grains dispersed in the binder. The element wire is a high tensile strength metal wire, the binder is a material such as an organic or inorganic material other than a metal, and the abrasive grains are held on a surface of the element wire by the binder. The element wire is also made by either a natural quartz glass or a high purity synthesis quartz glass.

Abstract: A cutting system by which a material to be worked is cut off by the use of each of abrasive grain-bonded saw wires contained in a saw wire assembly prepared by arranging the abrasive grain-bonded saw wires on a long tape base material along the longitudinal direction thereof in such a way that they are disposed side by side in the direction perpendicular to the above described longitudinal direction, and bonding tentatively these abrasive grain-bonded saw wires onto the tape base material through an adhesive in a releasable manner, comprises means for releasing the tape base material from the saw wire assembly before it reaches the material to be worked; and means for applying a tension to the saw wire assembly and each of the abrasive grain-bonded saw wires.