The hard turning process has been attracting interest in different industrial sectors for finishing operations of hard materials. In this paper, the effects of cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut on surface roughness, cutting force, specific cutting force, and power in the hard turning were experimentally investigated. An experimental investigation was carried out using ceramic cutting tools, composed approximately with (70 %) of Al₂O₃ and (30 %) of TiC, in surface finish operations on cold work tool steel AISI D3 heat-treated to a hardness of 60 HRC. Based on 3³ full factorial designs, a total of 27 tests were carried out. The range of each parameter is set at three different levels, namely, low, medium, and high. Analysis of variance is used to check the validity of the model. Experimental observations show that higher cutting forces are required for machining harder work material. This cutting force gets affected mostly by feed rate followed by depth of cut. Feed rate is the most influencing factor on surface roughness. Feed rate followed by depth of cut become the most influencing factors on power; especially in case of harder workpiece. Optimum cutting conditions are determined using response surface methodology (RSM) and the desirability function approach. It was found that, the use of lower depth of cut value, higher cutting speed, and by limiting the feed rate to 0.12 and 0.13 mm/rev, while hard turning of AISI D3 hardened steel, respectively, ensures minimum cutting forces and better surface roughness. Higher values of depth of cut are necessary to minimize the specific cutting force.