Surface coated cermet blade member

A surface coated cermet blade member comprising:

• a substrate of cermet which consists, apart from unavoidable impurities, of a binder phase of 5 to 30% by weight of at least one element selected from the group consisting of cobalt, nickel, iron and aluminum, and a hard dispersed phase of a balance carbo-nitride of metals, said metals being titanium, tungsten and at least one additional metal selected from the group consisting of tantalum, niobium, vanadium, zirconium, molybdenum and chromium, said substrate including a surface portion and an interior portion, said surface portion having a depth of less than 1 mm from a surface thereof, said surface portion further consisting of a binder phase enriched layer of less than 10 .mu.m depth from said surface and a hard dispersed phase enriched layer;
• said binder phase enriched layer including said binder phase at higher concentration than that of said interior portion, said hard dispersed phase enriched layer including said binder phase in lower concentration than that of said interior portion, said hard dispersed phase enriched layer having greater hardness than said interior portion;
• and
• a hard coating of an average thickness of 0.5 to 10 .mu.m deposited on said substrate, said hard coating being composed of at least one coating layer formed of a coating compound selected from the group consisting of TiX and Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, where X denotes at least one element selected from the group consisting of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and boron.