Patent ID: 7785700

Claim:
A surface-coated cutting tool comprising: a coating layer on a substrate surface having: an inner layer formed on a substrate; and an outermost layer formed over said inner layer; wherein said inner layer is formed from a compound formed from a first element and a second element, said first element being at least one element selected from a group consisting of a periodic table group IVa, Va, VIa metal, Al, Si, and B, and said second element being at least one element selected from a group consisting of B, C, N, and 0, except, in said inner layer, a film formed solely from B is excluded; wherein said outermost layer is formed from aluminum nitride or aluminum carbonitride, said outermost layer containing more than 0 and no more than 0.5 atomic percent chlorine, and said outermost layer is formed by thermal CVD using hydrogen chloride as a reaction gas; and wherein said outermost layer is formed with a film thickness that is no more than ½ a total film thickness of said inner layer.