It drills fairly easily. I have had some segmented blanks crack on me while drilling. Now I drench them with CA and then wrap with duck tape. I also pour water into the hole while drilling to keep it from over heating.
It is one of the hardest materials to turn. Trustone is about the only thing harder that I can think of. A very sharp tool is important to get nice curls while turning. I find it dulls a tool very fast and I need to resharpen several times with each blank.