A cutting tool comprises a substrate and a coating that coats the substrate, the coating including an α-alumina layer provided on the substrate, the α-alumina layer including crystal grains of α-alumina, the α-alumina layer including a lower portion and an upper portion, the upper portion being occupied in area at a ratio of 50% or more by crystal grains of α-alumina having a (006) plane with a normal thereto having a direction within ±15° with respect to a direction of the normal to the second interface, the lower portion being occupied in area at a ratio of 50% or more by crystal grains of α-alumina having a (110) plane with a normal thereto having a direction within ±15° with respect to the direction of the normal to the second interface, the α-alumina layer having a thickness of 3 μm or more and 20 μm or less.

A surface-coated cutting tool with a hard coating layer exhibits excellent chipping resistance and wear resistance in a high-speed cutting process. The surface-coated cutting tool comprises a lower layer consisting of a titanium compound layer and an upper layer consisting of an aluminum oxide layer deposited on a surface of a tool substrate constituted of a tungsten carbide-based cemented carbide as a hard coating layer. In the upper layer, a (006) plane texture coefficient TC(006) is 1.8 or more, a ratio I(104)/I(110) of a peak intensity I(104) of an (104) plane to a peak intensity I(110) of an (110) plane is in a range of 0.5 to 2.0, and furthermore, an absolute value of a residual stress in the aluminum oxide layer is 100 MPa or less.

A surface-coated cutting tool includes a base material and a coating formed on the base material. The coating includes an α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer. The α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer contains a plurality of α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains and a plurality of κ-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains, and has a TC(006) of more than 5 in a texture coefficient TC(hkl). A ratio of C.sub.κ to a sum of C.sub.α and C.sub.κ: [C.sub.κ/(C.sub.α+C.sub.κ)×100](%) is 0.05 to 7%, where C.sub.α is a total number of peak counts of the α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains obtained from measurement data of x-ray diffraction for the coating, and C.sub.κ is a total number of peak counts of the κ-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains obtained from the measurement data of the x-ray diffraction for the coating.

A surface-coated cutting tool includes a base material and a coating formed on the base material. The coating includes an α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer containing a plurality of α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains. The α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer includes a lower layer portion disposed at a side of the base material, an intermediate portion disposed on the lower layer portion, and an upper layer portion disposed on the intermediate portion. In a crystal orientation mapping performed on a polished cross-sectional surface of the α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer using an EBSD, an area ratio of α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains with (001) orientation in the lower layer portion is less than 35%, an area ratio of α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains with (001) orientation in the intermediate portion is 35% or more, and an area ratio of α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains with (001) orientation in the upper layer portion is less than 35%.

A surface-coated cutting tool includes a base material and a coating formed on the base material. The coating includes an α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer containing a plurality of α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains. The α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer includes: a first region made up of an edge ridgeline, a region A of a rake face, and a region B of a flank face; a second region which is a region of the rake face except for the region A and covered with the coating; and a third region which is a region of the flank face except for the region B. The α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer satisfies a relation b−a>0.5, where a is an average value of a TC(006) in the first region in texture coefficient TC(hkl) and b is an average value of the TC(006) in the second region or the third region in texture coefficient TC(hkl).

A hard coating for cutting tools according to the present invention is a hard coating for cutting tools which is formed on and adjacent to a hard base material by a PVD method, and is characterized in that the thickness of the entire hard coating is 0.5 to 10 μm, and the hard coating includes one or more nitride layers and one or more oxide layers. Each of the one or more nitride layers has a thickness of 0.1 to 5.0 μm and is composed of Al.sub.aTi.sub.bMe.sub.cN (wherein Me is at least one selected from Si, W, Nb, Mo, Ta, Hf, Zr, and Y, and 0.55≤a≤0.7, 0.2<b≤0.45, and 0≤c<0.1) or Al.sub.aCr.sub.bMe.sub.cN (wherein Me is at least one selected from Si, W, Nb, Mo, Ta, Hf, Zr, and Y, and 0.55≤a≤0.7, 0.2<b≤0.45, and 0≤c<0.1) in a cubic phase, and each of the one or more oxide layers has a thickness of 0.1 to 3.0 μm and is composed of γ-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 in a cubic phase. When the number of compositionally discontinuous interfaces throughout the hard coating including the hard base material is n, the n satisfies 4≤n≤9, and the ratio of the microhardness (H1) of the nitride layer to the microhardness (H2) of the oxide layer satisfies 1.03<H1/H2<1.3, and the ratio of the elastic modulus of the nitride layer (E1) to the elastic modulus of the oxide layer (E2) satisfies 1.1<E1/E2<1.3. Each of the nitride layers and each of the oxide layers have an elastic deformation resistance index (H/E) of 0.07 to 0.09 and a plastic deformation resistance index (H.sup.3/E.sup.2) of 0.13 to 0.29, and the elastic deformation resistance index (H/E) of the entire hard coating is 0.09 to 0.12, and the plastic deformation resistance index (H.sup.3/E.sup.2) of the entire hard coating is 0.29 to 0.32.

A cutting tool includes: a substrate; a hard layer provided on the substrate; and a titanium carbonitride layer provided on the hard layer, wherein a thickness of the titanium carbonitride layer is more than or equal to 2 μm, a hardness of the titanium carbonitride layer at a room temperature is more than or equal to 35 GPa, and a Young's modulus of the titanium carbonitride layer at the room temperature is more than or equal to 800 GPa.

A sintered material includes a first phase and a second phase, wherein the first phase is composed of cubic boron nitride particles, and the following relational expressions are satisfied when more than or equal to two cubic boron nitride particles adjacent to and in direct contact with each other among the cubic boron nitride particles are defined as a contact body, Di represents a length of an entire perimeter of the contact body, n represents the number of contact locations at which the cubic boron nitride particles are in direct contact with each other, d.sub.k represents a length of each of the contact locations, and Σd.sub.k (where k=1 to n) represents a total length of the contact locations: Dii=Di+(2×Σd.sub.k (where k=1 to n)); and [(Dii−Di)/Dii]×100≤50.

A cutting tool including a rake face and a flank face includes: a substrate; and a coating film disposed on the substrate, wherein the coating film includes an Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer, residual stress of the Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer has a minimum value R.sub.min at at least a portion of a region d1 of the rake face, the minimum value R.sub.min is more than −0.27 GPa and less than or equal to −0.1 GPa.

A cutting tool including a rake face and a flank face includes: a substrate; and a coating film disposed on the substrate, wherein the coating film includes an Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer, residual stress of the Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer has a minimum value R.sub.min at at least a portion of a region f1 in the flank face, the minimum value R.sub.min is more than or equal to −0.25 GPa and less than or equal to −0.1 GPa.