In hobbing, cemented carbide hobs and cermet hobs are used because of their high productivity and high precision of grears. It is a problem, however, that chipping occurs at the cutting edges of these materials. In order to develop a hob material which decreases wear and chipping, the influence of composition, hardness, and transverse rupture strength (TRS) of the hob on flank wear, crater wear and surface roughness was investigated in this paper. Experiments were carried out with a single fly tool. A cemented carbide tool containing 72%WC and 18% (TiC+TaC), and having 91 HRA in hardness and 2300 N/mm2 in TRS performed best with respect to flank wear and crater wear. A cermet tool containing 43%TiC, and 91 HRA hardness and 1700 N/mm2 TRS is effective in decreasing flank wear and finished surface roughness.