Tool wear is one of the major factors that contribute to surface quality, productivity and accuracy in machining. It also determines production flow by increasing the number of shutdowns for tools reshaping. Tool wear is related to cutting process parameters (depth of cut, spindle speed and feed rate), the surface nature of the metal (scaly or smooth), the cutting forces and thermal condition at cutting zone. This paper present review of various works on optimizing the tool wear rate during turning operation. Also, it presents techniques used in monitoring the processes and methods of determining the rate of tool wear with their results in an orthogonal machining operation on different type of materials.