The surface roughness and cutting forces are the important factors for the machine-part quality during the hard-turning process. The aim of this paper is to optimize hard-cutting conditions via implementation of response surface methodology (RSM). The experiments were conducted for the hard-turning process with the Box-Behnken design. The validation of the surface roughness and cutting forces was performed with the obtained 2nd order polynomial regression model. The results showed that the surface roughness was strongly dependent upon the RPM. The diminution of the cutting force was attributed to the low feed rate and the depth of cut. On the basis of the RSM, optimized cutting conditions of RPM, feed rate, and depth of cut are 3440, 0.0352 [mm/rev], and 0.03 [mm]. In this optimal cutting condition, the surface roughness can be around Ra= 0.202 μm.