On face milling operation a new optimal cutter, which can minimize the resultant cutting forces, was designed from the cutting force model. Cutting experiments were carried out and the cutting forces of the new and conventional cutters were analyed in time and frequency domains. The resultant cutting forces were used as the objective function and cutter angles as the variables. A new optimal cutter design model which can minimize the resultant cutting forces under the constraints of variables was developed and its usefulness was proven. The cutting forces in feed direction of the newly designed cutter are reduced in comparison with those from the conventional cutter. The magnitudes of an insert frequency component of cutting force from the newly designed cutter are reduced than those from conventional cutter and the fluctuations of cutting force are also reduced.