An analysis of the orthogonal metal cutting process is made which enables the shear angle to be calculated from certain fundamental properties of the work material and the specified cutting conditions. Shear angles are calculated for a range of cutting conditions and good agreement is shown between theory and experiment. In particular, such trends as the decrease in shear angle with decrease in cutting speed and the tendency for the chip to become discontinuous at slow cutting speeds which are found experimentally and cannot be explained in terms of previous shear angle analyses, are shown to be consistent with the present analysis.