This paper is concerned with experimentally obtained full field temperature distributions at the interface between chip and tool - the tool rake face - for the machining of Ti6Al4V and Inconel 718. As part of the work presented herein, temperature distributions at the chip-tool interface were obtained using a novel technique, near infrared thermography, which provides high accuracy for the target temperature range above 1250 K. During the study, transparent yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) tools were used to provide an optical path to the chip-tool interface.