The mechanical and thermal load, and thermal softening occuring by the rush temperature of die, in warm and hot forging, cause wear, heat cracking and plastic deformation, etc. This paper describes the effects of solid lubricants and surface treatments for warm forging die. Because cooling effect and low friction are essential to the long life of dies, optimal surface treatments and lubricants are very important to hot and warm forging process. The main factors affecting die hardness and heat transfer, are surface treatments and lubricants, which are related to heat transfer coefficient, etc. To verify the effects, experiments are performed for heat transfer coefficient in various conditions - different initial billet temperatures and different loads. Carbonitriding and ionitriding are used as surface treatments, and oil-base and water-base graphite lubricants are used. The effects of lubricant and surface treatment for warm and hot forging die life are explained by their thermal characteristics, and the new developed technique in this study for predicting tool life can give more feasible means to improve the tool life in hot forging process.