Cutting fluids are widely used in metal cutting to perform two major functions namely cooling and lubrication. The most common method of application of cutting fluid is flood or deluge cooling which involves bulk application of cutting fluid in the cutting zone. The copious usage of cutting fluid not only increases the production cost but also creates serious environmental and health hazards. In this present study, an effort was made to reduce the quantity of usage of cutting fluid and to optimize the cutting parameters and fluid application parameters while turning of Oil Hardened Non shrinkable steel (OHNS) with minimal cutting fluid application using Taguchi technique. The optimized results were compared with dry turning and conventional wet turning under similar cutting conditions. The results clearly indicated that minimal cutting fluid application enhanced the cutting performance by improving surface finish compared to dry and wet turning.