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Abstract Tool wear in machining is generally observed as early and late stage tool wear. During early stage tool wear, the tool is rapidly worn during a break-in period, followed by a stable region of tool wear. After machining more material, the tool reaches late stage tool wear. At this point, tool wear becomes unstable; tool failure occurs quickly or it may take some time. Therefore, late stage tool wear represents a bifurcation point, making it difficult to predict tool wear past this point. Tool wear is well known to be stochastically influenced. Due to this effect, it is difficult to perform studies on late stage tool wear since machining tools will be affected differently up to this point, introducing unknown variables. A novel method is presented in this research which utilized artificial wear to reach late stage tool wear. This method, termed contrived tool wear, may be capable of reducing the stochastic tool wear that occurs during early stage tool wear. As an initial investigation, machining tool inserts were worn by taking several passes over a grinding wheel with the tool rotating in reverse. Several parameters were tested in an attempt to match the natural worn state as close as possible. Subsequent to artificial wear, the inserts were used to machine IN718. The presented method of contrived wear was found to be a good approach, but could not sufficiently replicate the tool wear typically produced in IN718 machining. Future work should aim at implementing a multi-axis approach to enable grinding at various angles to the rake face of the insert.