The applications of titanium alloys are increasingly common at marine, aerospace, bio-medical and precision engineering due to its high strength to weight ratio and high temperature-withstanding properties. However, whilst machining the titanium alloys using the solid carbide tools, even with application of high pressure coolant, reduced tool life was widely reported. The generation of high temperatures at the tool–work interface causes adhesion of work material on the cutting edges, and hence, shorter tool life was reported. In order to reduce the high tool–work interface temperature-positive rake angle, higher primary relief and higher secondary relief were configured on the ball nose endmill cutting edges. Despite of careful consideration of tool geometry, after an initial working period, the growth of flank wear accelerates the high cutting forces followed by work material adhesion on the cutting edges. Hence, it is important to blend the strength, sharpness, geometry and surface integrity on the cutting edges so that the ball nose endmill would exhibit an extended tool life. This paper illustrates the effect of ball nose endmill geometry on high speed machining of Ti6Al4V. Three different ball nose endmill geometries were configured, and high speed machining experiments were conducted to study the influence of cutting tool geometry on the metal cutting mechanism of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The high speed machining results predominantly emphasize the significance of cutting edge features such as K-land, rake angle and cutting edge radius. The ball nose endmills featured with a short negative rake angle of value −5° for 0.05∼0.06 mm, i.e. K-land followed by positive rake angle of value 8°, has produced lower cutting forces signatures for Ti-6Al-4V alloy.