To ensure accuracy and improve the processing efficiency of Ti–6Al–4V alloys, dry turning experiment of Ti–6Al–4V was carried out using a novel TiB2–ZrC cermet tool. The tool was reinforced by nanoscale VC additive and exhibited excellent hardness and fracture toughness. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used in the experiment to verify and evaluate the cutting performance of TiB2–ZrC cermet tool. The cutting forces and surface roughness (Ra) were selected as the optimization objective. Then the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to ascertain the effective cutting parameters on response factors and demonstrate accuracy of the models. It was found that the effective cutting parameters on surface roughness was feed rate, while cutting depth significantly affected cutting forces. And the confirmation experiments showed that the predicted values coincide with experimental values nearly. Based on the optimized cutting parameters, the tool life and tool wear mechanism were investigated. When the vc, ap and f were 100 mm/min, 0.16 mm, 0.1 mm/rev, respectively, the cutting length and tool life could reach to 3233 m and 29.4 min, respectively, due to the excellent wear resistance and stability of TiB2–ZrC cermet tool at high cutting temperature. In this case, the main wear mechanism was adhesive wear and diffusion wear.