A new multiple chemical pre-treatment including microwave oxidation, reaction in alkaline solution and cleaning by ultrasonic treatment in acid solution has been performed for free shape cemented WC-Co tools in order to increase the diamond nucleation and to enhance the coating adhesion. High quality diamond films were deposited on such pre-treated substrates by a hot filament chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method using a mixture of acetone and hydrogen gases. After pre-treatment, the surface of the WC-Co substrate becomes slightly rough, but its composition or structure shows no changes identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicates a distribution of uniform micro-roughness WC grains on substrate surface. The results show that the multiple chemical pre-treatment effectively increases the diamond nucleation as well as greatly enhancing the coating adhesion. Especially, it is suitable for free-shape substrates, which may open the way to the use of diamond coatings for coated tool applications. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.