In the present work, an attempt has been made to develop the indigenous formulation for metalworking lubricants by replacing mineral oils partially with non-edible industrial oils like rapeseed and karanja oil. Metalworking formulations consist of vegetable oil, mineral oil, an emulsifi er and commercial additives for better performance. Non-edible vegetable oils such as karanja and rapeseeds are renewable, biodegradable and cheaper than synthetic fl uids. The constituent vegetable oils and mineral oils were evaluated for physico-chemical characteristics and blended as per the saponifi cation value and viscosity requirements of the reference oils. The so formulated oils are taken as 5% oil-in-water emulsion and tested for lubricity, load bearing capacity, particle size distribution, wear test, weld load test and plate-out test. Performance of all formulated oils was compared with that of the reference oils, and optimized to meet the market requirements.