The invention relates to a crystal whisker toughening cermet cutter and a method for the production thereof, belonging to metal ceramic materials. The cutter is made by taking TiC, TiN, Ni, WC, Mo, Cr3C2 and graphite powder as matrix materials for mixing and ball milling and then adding nickel plating SiC crystal whiskers through ball milling and material mixing, compression molding, degreasing and sintering, finally the produced phases are: a medium hard phase of Ti(C, N), a binder phase of Ni and a toughening phase of SiC. The method for the production thereof comprises steps of: SiC crystal whisker surface nickel plating, material mixing, compression molding, degreasing and vacuum sintering. The cermet phases of the cutter have Ti(C, N), Ni and SiC. The hardness is 90.5 to 92.8HRA, the bending strength is equal to or higher than 1800MPa, and the fracture toughness KIC is equal to or higher than 10.0MPa.m<1/2>. The cutter and the method have advantages of good high temperature red hardness, wear resistance, chemical stability and impact toughness resistance, and high cutting temperature, and are suitable for high-speed and high-efficient cutting processing.