Magazines like American Machinist and Manufacturing Engineering, have explained the Bill Mundy theory about the effective rake angle of cutting tools. These articles show the effective rake angle of cutting tools for carbon steel, steel , alloys, cast iron, aluminium and stainless steel. In the present work the theory is applied to cutting tools used in brass and bronze. The effective rake angle for these materials was obtained with the tensile stress test. The rake angles in the cutting tools were made in a Universal Grinding Machine Heiler. Finally, the power consumption was measured in a CNC Lathe. Tools with commercial rake angles from bibliography were compared with tools with the experimental effective rake angle obtained from the Bill Mundy Theory. The results show that the power consumption is about 10% lower for tools with the experimental effective rake angle.