The wear of cubic boron nitride (CBN) cutters, commonly used now in the finish turning of hardened parts, is an important issue that needs to be addressed for hard turning to be a viable technology due to the high costs of CBN cutters and the down-time for tool change. Chipping and tool breakage, which lead to early tool failure, are both prone to take place under the effect of crater wear. The objective of this study is to develop a methodology to model the CBN tool crater wear rate to both guide the design of CBN tool geometry and optimise cutting parameters in finish hard turning. First, the wear volume losses due to the main wear mechanisms (abrasion, adhesion, and diffusion) are modelled as functions of cutting temperature, stress, and other process attributes respectively. Then, the crater wear rate is predicted in terms of tool/work material properties and cutting configuration. Finally, the proposed model is experimentally validated in finish turning of hardened 52100 bearing steel using a low CBN content insert. The comparison between the prediction and the measurement shows reasonable agreement and the results suggest that adhesion is the main wear mechanism over the investigated range of cutting conditions. D 0 Diffusion coefficient related to the frequency of atomic oscillations (m 2 /s) D Coefficient of diffusion (m 2 /s) f Feed (m) h Contact length (m) K Dimensionless constant K abrasion Process related dimensionless abrasive wear coefficient K adhesion Process related adhesive wear coefficient (m 3 /N) K diff Process related diffusive wear coefficient (ms − 1 2 ) K Q Constant related with activation energy for diffusion (K) l 1 Length within where normal stress in uniform (m) l f Sliding length (m) l s Sticking length (m) n Dimensionless constant P a Hardness of the abrasive particle (N/mm 2 ) P t Tool hardness (N/mm 2 ) Q Activation energy for diffusion (Cal/mole) r Tool nose radius (m) R Gas constant (Cal/mole · K) t max Maximum undeformed chip thickness along the tool cutting edge (m) T(x) Temperature distribution along the interface • C V chip (x) Chip velocity along the tool rake face (m/s) V wear-abrasion Tool volume loss due to abrasion within time interval (m 3 ) V wear-adhesion Tool volume loss due to adhesion within time interval (m 3 ) V wear-diff Tool volume loss due to diffusion within time interval (m 3 ) w Width of cut (m) ∆K T (x) Crater wear depth change along the contact length (µm) ∆t Time interval (s) ∆V wear Tool material removed within time interval ∆t(m 3 ) ∆x Length of an infinitesimal segment AB along the interface (m) σ(x) Normal stress along the tool-chip interface (N/m 2 ) 633