Abstract The increased service life of cutting tools used in material removal processes results in significant savings in terms of production time and costs. Machining downtimes, especially those related to tool changes, represent a significant percentage of machine downtimes, which reduces efficiency. A proposed methodology is presented for the analysis of the behavior of the cutting tool through the application of the ISO standard, for which roughness and wear were determined and micrographs were used as indicators for the verification of the condition of the tool. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology that can be used in manufacturing processes to avoid failures in the workpiece due to improper use of the cutting tool was tested.