Earning trust among high strength material industrialists for its sophistication, thin protective coating has gained its own maturity to date. As a result of active development in the industries, working tool has the capability of fabricating high strength materials with remarkable durability. For example, unwanted tool wear due to thermally softening problems can be avoided. Therefore, the solution for that is protecting the tool with a thin protective coating that can be coated by various coating deposition methods. With the thin protective coating itself possessing remarkable degree of chemical and mechanical properties, the combination of both makes the thin protective coating lead to a useful extend. This paper provides a review of various research activities and various developments in the wear prone industries. Researchers have explored a number of thin protective coatings for the last century to provide a valuable guide for a most practical option. With the state of the art development of the coating methods such as electrodepositing, radio frequency ion source implantation, electron beam implantation, plasma-sprayed coating deposition, flame-sprayed coating deposition, chemical catalytic reduction deposition, vacuum-diffused deposition, vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, plasma arc deposition, and some others, this paper presents the continuous development on the enhancement of the capability of the working tool chronologically since the last century. Such development was studied in connection with the ability to outlast the performance of working tool, which elevates expectations that thin protective coatings are no longer extended far beyond. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.