There is disclosed a surface coated cermet blade member which includes a cermet substrate and a hard coating of an average thickness of 0.5 to 20 .mu.m formed thereon. The substrate contains, apart from unavoidable impurities, a binder phase of 5 to 30% by weight of at least one of cobalt, nickel, iron and aluminum, and a hard dispersed phase of a balance carbo-nitride of metals. The metals are titanium, tungsten and at least one of tantalum, niobium, vanadium, zirconium, molybdenum and chromium. The substrate includes a surface portion having a hardness greater than an interior portion. The hard coating may be composed of one or more coating layers. Each coating layer is formed of TiX or Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, where X denotes at least one element of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and boron.