Today's research activities in improving the properties of curling tools are concentrated on optimizing manufacturing technologies and tool geometry, on alloying of special cutting materials and on coating of tools. As a result of the poor machinability of new cutting tool materials, the surface properties are influenced by the grinding process used during tool manufacturing. In spite of optimized coating parameters, deposited PVD-coatings fail because of insufficient surface properties of the substrates. In this contribution, influences of residual stress distribution in subsurface layers on interface strength of PVD-coated cemented carbides were investigated. Considered topics are the influence of grinding, micro blasting, and water peening of carbides on surface topography and surface integrity. Dependencies between stress distribution in subsurface layers and interface strength of (Ti,(Al)N-coatings as well as effects on wear behavior in dry machining are highlighted. Surface properties of the tools are characterized by SEM and X-ray residual stress measurements (XRD). The Xray measurement of the depth profile of the residual stress distribution is done by using different lattice planes which correspond to different penetration depths. Due to increased interface strength of micro blasted tools a superior wear behavior in dry machining is observed.