High-pressure coolant (HPC) delivery is an emerging technology that delivers a high-pressure fluid to the tool and machined material. The high fluid pressure allows a better penetration of the fluid into the tool-workpiece and tool-chip contact regions, thus providing a better cooling effect and decreasing tool wear through lubrication of the contact areas. The main objective of this work is to understand how the tool wear mechanisms are influenced by fluid pressure, flow rate and direction of application in finish turning of AISI 1045 steel using coated carbide tools. The main finding was that when cutting fluid was applied to the tool rake face, the adhesion between chip and tool was very strong, causing the removal of tool particles and large crater wear when the adhered chip material was removed from the tool by the chip flow. When cutting fluid was not applied to the rake face, adhesion of chip material to the face did occur, but was not strong enough to remove tool particles as it moved across the face, and therefore crater wear did not increase. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.472247254