Manufacturing of wires, where metal rods and/or wire are drawn through a series of dies to produce the final dimensions, generates heat in the tool. The cemented carbide tool is enclosed in a tool holder of steel that also serves as a cooling body. Earlier work have shown that reducing the temperature of the tool through the tool holder may lead to increased life time for the tool. In this work, the additive manufacturing technique (AM) selective laser melting was used to produce a steel tool holder with conformal cooling channels, without having to take into account the restrictions of machining processes for the placement of these channels. The cooling capacity of the tool holder, was studied by experiments measuring temperature of the tool holder and of the cooling liquid as well as flow. A heating-probe having the shape of the tool, mimicking the thermal conditions of a wire drawing process, was used. The increased cooling was also compared to FEM modelling results.